ont feeling his ideas in unifon with theirs, must be very devoid of tafte and of fenfibility, or his heart muft be made of a very ftern mould. He who is accustomed to affociate with young and lovely females, will, by a gradual progreffion, from paying them a polite attention, be very apt to allow certain defires to arife in his breaft, and intrude upon his quiet; he will be equally apt to whifper the wifhes of his foul, and in the bloom of youth, fuch wishes, fuch attentions, will most probably be well receiv

ed.

But should a young man, beginning the world as a member of one of the learned and liberal profeffions, marry; fhould he obey one of the most facred commands of nature, he would be thought already ruined, however amiable and deferving the object of his choice might be, unless the poffeffed a fortune. His friends, who otherwife would have efteemed it their duty to use all their intereft to advance him in his profeffion, would, from that period, conceive themselves to be entirely freed from all concern in his fuccefs, from all intereft in his advancement, and would leave him to pine away his life in indigence, to fink into obfcurity; whereas, did they lend the fame affiftance to him as a married man, which they would have done as a Batchelor, the thoughts of a beloved wife, and probably a rifing family, would be fuch an excitement to industry, as would enable him to overcome difficulties and push improbabilities, which, had he poffeffed no equally great inducement, might have weighed heavy upon his fpirits, and perhaps in the end have turned his perfeverence into defpair. Was fuch a young man to requeft the approbation of his friends to a marriage with a lady who poffeffed every quality requifite to render him happy, their confent would not only be refused, but he would be looked upon as an idle, thoughtless fellow, he would be

regarded ever after with the gangren. ed eye of Sufpicion.

Such conduct in parents, when taken into ferious confideration, muft appear as irrational and abfurd, as it is dangerous and imprudent. The Minifters of religion in a neighbouring country, (France,) (or at least a number of them) who were condemned by their vows to perpetual celibacy, were not able to practife the precepts. which they endeavoured, and which it was their duty to teach; dreadful abufes (many of which, had they been permitted to marry, would have been avoided), crept into their order; and by rendering them objects of jealousy, of hatred, and finally of contempt, fhook the foundation, and at laft pulled the fabric of fuperftition to the ground, (a fabric which it had been the work of ages to rear,) whelming the innocent with the guilty, reason and abfurdity, in the fame promifcuous ruin. And if the teachers of the word of God, if a fociety of men of ability, and of learning, who were placed as an example to a mighty nation, were unable to refift temptation; what confequences are to be expected, when a young man, who has no fuch ties to bind his inclination, to fetter his paffions, is thwarted in a virtuous defire to marry, a defire on which he has founded his deareft wishes and his most ardent hopes of felicity? The natural confequences are thefe:- In order to avoid the ideas of loft happiness, which corrode his breaft and intrude upon his folitude, urged by thofe paffions which at a certain age bear down the comparatively weak barriers of worldly wif dom and of prudence, and feeing the very diftant prospect of making a fortune fufficiently large in the eyes of his friends and of the world, to enable him to attain the fummit of his wishes, he plunges into diffipation, ruins his health, corrupts his morals, fours his temper, becomes difagreeable to himfelf and to all around him; fometimes

is

will be comparable to the children of love. After having thrown away the ftrength of his youth in every fpecies of excefs, after having "wafted his fweetness in the defart air," it cannot be expected that his offspring will be fuch as those which are the produce of an union when two loving hearts do beat in unifon;" Indeed there is too much reason to believe, too much probability to expect, that the fruits of his excess will be entailed upon them, that they will recal to his remembrance with all the bitterness of regret, with all the agony of difappointment, the thoughts of that felicity which he loft; that they will bring to his mind's eye, the

he will risk the chance of embittering the remainder of his life? that he will, by forming a prudent marriage, hazard fuch recollections as I have delineated above, and that he will fport with the only enjoyment left in his power, that of doing as he pleases? I doubt it much. At the time of life to which he must have arrived, the tender attachments are done away, and he will have more inducements to live as a Batchelor than as a married man.

There is another confequence, and that a political one, which I believe is not much attended to, but which certainly is deferving of ferious confideration,-whether or not it is of advantage to the world. A Batchelor, who has no rifing family to train up, no anxious hopes for their future fuccefs to employ his leisure hours, no domeftic bufinefs to fill up any vacuum in his time, will naturally have recourfe to ftudy, to diffipate any uneafinefs rifing in his mind refpecting his folitary fituation; he will mot probably pay attention to political difputes, and the man whofe inclinations have been forced in his young days, who has fuffered by fuch conduct as I have defcribed, will be much attracted by the arguments in favour of liberty, and the diflike which he has conceived from his own experience of arbitrary measures, will be cherished and increased to abhorrence. Although, when he confiders the hiftorical page of the prefent times, he may view, with the eye of commiferation, the fate of the late unfortunate Royal Family of France, yet his mind will recur to the caufes of that fate; he will confider, with indignation, that fyftem of defpotic tyranny which was fo long exercised over a great nation; and while his heart agonizes at the forrows of the injured peasant, while his nerves vibrate with horror at the pangs fuftained by the innocent and the defenceless, and while his eyes moisten at the miferies

of