if a man felect a picture for himself from among all its exhibited competitors, and bring it to his own house, the picture being paffive, he is able to fix it there; while the wife picked up at a public place, and accustomed to inceffant difplay, will not, it is probable, when brought home, stick so quietly to the fpot where he fixes her; but will escape tn the exhibition-room again, and continue to be displayed at every fubfequent exhibition, juft as if he were not become private property, and had never been definitively disposed of. It is the novelty of the thing which aftonishes us, and not its abfurdity: objects may be fo long kept before the eye that it begins no longer to obferve them; or may be brought into fuch close contact with it, that it does not difcern them. Long habit fo reconciles us to almoft any thing, that the groffeft improprieties cease to ftrike us when they are once melted into the common course of action. This, by the way, is a ftrong reafon for 'carefully fifting every opinion and every practice before we let them incorporote into the mass of our habits, after which they will be no more examined.-Would it not be accounted prepofterous for a young man to fay he had fancied fuch a lady would dance a better minuet, because he had feen her behave devoutly at church, and therefore had chosen her for his partner? And yet he is not thought at all abfurd when he intimates that he chose a partner for life, because he was pleafed with her at a ball? Surely the place of choofing and the motive of choice, would be juft as appropriate in one cafe as in the other, and the mistake, if the judgment failed, not quite so fcrious. There is, among the more elevated claffes of fociety, a certain fet of perfons, who are pleased exclufively to call themselves, and whom others by a fort of compelled courtesy, are pleafed to call, the fine world. This fmall detachment confider their fitua tion with refpect to the reft of mankind, juft as the ancient Grecians did theirs; that is, as the Grecians thought there were but two forts of beings, and that all who were not Grecians were barbarians; fo this certain fet confiders society as refolving itself into two claffes, the fine world and the people: to which latt clafs they turn over all who do not belong to their little coterie, however high their rank, or fortune, or merit. Celebrity, in their eftimation, is not bellowed by birth or talents, but by being connected with them. They have laws, immunities, privileges, and almost a language of their own; they form a kind of distinct caf, and with a fort of efprit du corps detach themselves from others, even in general fociety, by an affectation of distance and coldness; and only whisper and fmile in their own little groupes of the initiated; their confines are jealously guarded, and their privileges are incommunicable. In this fociety a young man lofes his natural character, which, whatever it might originally have been, is melted down and caft into the one prevailing mould of fashion: all the ftrong, native, difcriminating qualities of his mind being made to take one fhape, one ftamp, one fuperfcription! However varied and dif tinct might have been the materials, which nature threw into the crucible, plaftic fashion takes care that they fhall all be the fame, or at least appear the fame, when they come out of the mould. A young man in fuch an artificial flate of fociety, accuftomed to the voluptuous cafe, refined luxuries, soft accommodations, obsequious attendance, and all the unreftrained indulgencies of a fashionable club, is not very likely after marriage to take very cordially to a home, unless very extraordinary exertions are made to amuse, to attach, and to intereft intereft him; and he is not likely to Now if a paffion for gratifying vanilend a very helping hand to the hap- ty, and a fpirit of diffipation, is a piness of the union, whose most labo- paffion of the fame kind; and thererious exertions have hitherto been fore, though for a few weeks, a man little more than a selfish stratagem to who has chofen his wife in the haunts reconcile health with pleafure. Ex- of diffipation, and this wife, a wocefs of gratification has only ferved man made up of accomplishments, to make him irritable and exacting; may, from the novelty of the conit will of courfe be no part of his nection and of the fcene, continue project to make facrifices, but to re- domeftic; yet in a little time fhe will ceive them and what would appear find that thofe paffions, to which the incredible to the Paladius of gallant has trufted for making his married times, and the Chevaliers Preux of life pleasant, will long for the more more heroic days, even in the necef- comfortable pleasures of the club; fary bufinefs of eftablishing himself and he will, while they are purfued, for life, he fometimes is more difpofed be configned over to folitary evenings to expect attentions than to make at home, or driven back to the old advances. diffipations. : Thus the indolent fon of fashion, with a thousand fine, but dormant qualities, which a bad tone of manners forbids him to bring into exercife; with real energies which that tone does not allow him to difcover, and an unreal apathy which it commands him to feign; with the heart of a hero, perhaps, if called into the field, he affects at home the manners of a Sybarite; and he who, with a Roman, or what is more, with a British valour, would leap into the gulph at the call of public duty, Yet in the foft and piping time of peace, when fashion had refumed her rights, he would murmur if a rofe leaf lay double under him. The clubs above alluded to, as has been faid, generate and cherish luxurious habits, from their perfect cafe, undrefs, liberty, and equality of diftinction in rank; they promote a fpirit for play, and in fhort, every temper and fpirit which tends to undo. mefticate; and what adds to the mif. chief is, all this is attained at a cheap rate compared with home in the fame Яtyle. Thefe indulgencies, and that habit of mind, gratify fo many paffions, that it can never be counteracted fuccefsfully by any thing of its own kind, or which gratifies the fame habits. To conquer the paffion for club gratifications, a woman must not. ftrive to feed it with fufficient aliment in the fame kind in her fociety, either at home or abroad; for this fhe cannot do: but fhe muft fupplant and overcome it by a paffion of a different nature, which Providence has kindly placed within us, the love of fire-fide employments. But to qualify herself for adminiftering thefe, fhe muft cultivate her understanding and her heart; and her temper, acquiring at the fame time that modicum of accomplishments fuited to his tafte, which may qualify her for poffeffing, both for him and for her. felf, greater varieties of fafe recreation. One great caufe of the want of attachment in those modifh couples is, that by living in the world at large, they are not driven to depend on each other as the chief fource of comfort. Now it is pretty clear, in spite of modern theories, that the very frame and being of focieties, whether great or fmall, public or private, is jointed and glued together by dependence. Thofe attachments which arise from, and are compacted by, a sense of mutual wants, mutual affection, mutual benefit, and mutual obligation, are the cement which fecure the nion of the family as well as of the ftate. Unfortunately, when two young perfons of the above description marry, the union is fometimes confidered rather as the end than the beginning of an engagement: the attachment of each to the other, is rather viewed as an object already completed, than as one which marriage is to confirm more clofely. But the companion for life is not always chofen from the purest motive: fhe is felected, perhaps, because he is admired by other men, rather than because the poffeffes in an eminent degree thofe peculiar qualities, which are likely to conftitute the individual happiness of the man who chooses her. Vanity ufurps the place of affection; and indolence fwallows up the judgment. Not happiness, but fome eafy fubftitute for happiness is purfued; and a choice which may Excite envy, rather than produce fatisfaction, is adopted as the means of effecting it. The pair, not matched, but joined, fet out feparately with their independent and individual purfuits; whether it made a part of their original plan or not, that they should be indifpenfably neceffary to each other's comfort, the fenfe of this neceffity, probably not very ftrong at firft, rather diminishes than increases by time; they live fo much in the world, and fo little together, that to ftand well with their own fet continues the favourite project of each; while to ftand well with each other is confidered as an under-part of the plot in the drama of life. Whereas, did they ftart in the conjugal race with the fixed idea, that they were to look to each other for the principal happiness of life, not only principle, but prudence, and even felfishnefs, would convince them of the neceffity of fedulously cultivating each other's esteem and affection, as the grand fpring of promoting that hap pinefs. But vanity, and the defire of flattery and applause, still continue to operate. Even after the husband is brought to feel a perfect indifference for his wife, he ftill likes to fee her decorated in a ftyle, which may ferve to juftify his choice. He encourages her to fet off her perfon, not fo much for his own gratification, as that his felf-love may be flattered, by her continuing to attract the admiration of those whofe opinion is the ftandard by which he measures his fame, and which fame is to stand, him in the ftead of happiness. Thus is fhe neceffarily expofed to the twofold temptation of being at once neglected by her husband, and exhibited as an object of attraction to other men. If the escape this complicated danger, he will be indebted for her prefervation, not to his prudence, but to her own principles. In fome of thofe modifh marriages, instead of the decorous neatness, the pleasant intercouffe, and the mutual warmth of communication of the once focial dinner; the late and uninteresting meal is commonly hurried over by the languid and flovenly pair, that the one may have time to drefs for his club, and the other for her party. And in thefe cold abstracted tétes-àtetes, they often take as little pains to entertain each other, as if the one was precifely the only human being in the world in whose eyes the other did not feel it neceffary to appear agreeable. But if thefe young, and perhaps really amiable perfons, could struggle against the imperious tyranny of. fashion, and contrive to pass a little time together, fo as to get acquainted with each other; and if each would live in the lively and confcientious exercife of thofe talents and attractions, which they fometimes know how to produce on occafions not quite so justifiable; they would, I am perfuaded, often find out each other to be very agreeable people. And both of them, delighted and delight, ing, ing, receiving and beftowing happinefs, would no longer be driven to to the anxious neceffity of perpetually flying from home, as from the only feene which offers no poffible materials for pleasure. It may feem a contradiction to have afferted, that beings of all ages, tempers, and talents, fhould with fuch unremitting industry follow up any way of life if they did not find fome enjoyment in it; yet I appeal to the bofoms of thefe inceffant hunt ers in the chafe of pleasure, whether they are really happy. No.-In the full tide and torrent of diverfion, in the full blaze of gayety, The heart diftrufting afks if this be joy? But there is an anxious reftleffness excited by the purfuit, which, if not interefting, is bustling. There is the dread and partly the difcredit of being fufpected of having one hour un mortgaged, not only to fucceffive, but contending engagements; this it is, and not the pleafure of the engagement itfelf, which is the object. There is an agitation in the arrangements, which impofes itself on the vacant heart for happiness. There is a tumult kept up in the fpirits, which is a bufy though treacherous fubftitute for comfort. The multiplicity of folicitations fooths vanity. The very regret that they cannot be all accepted has its charms; for dignity is flattered because refufal implies importance, and pre-engage ment intimates celebrity. Then there is the joy of being invited when others are neglected; the triumph of howing one's lefs modifh friend that one is going where the cannot come; and the feigned regret at being oblig ed to go, affumed before her who is half wild at being obliged to ftay a in which pleasure is to be started and purfued on any given night, the ac tual place is never taken into the account of enjoyment: the fcene of which is always fuppofed to lie in any place where her votaries happen not to be. Pleasure has no prefent tenfè: but in the house which her purfuers have just quitted, and in the houfe to which they are just haftening, a ftranger might conclude the flippery goddefs had really fixed her throne, and that her worshippers confidered the exifting fcene, which they feem compelled to fuffer, but from which they are eager to escape, as really detaining them from fome pofitive joy to which they are flying in the next crowd; till, if he meet them there, he will find the component parts of each precisely the fame. He would hear the fame ftated phrases interrupted, not anfwered, by the fame replies; the unfinished fentence driven adverfe to the winds,' by preffing multitudes; the fame warm regret mutually exchanged by two friends (who had been exprefsly denied to each other all the winter) that they had not met before: the fame foft and smiling forrow at being torn away from each other now; the fame anxiety to renew the meeting, with perhaps the fame fecret refolution to avoid it. He would hear defcribed with the fame pathetic earneftnefs the difficulties of getting into this houfe, and the dangers of getting out of the laft! the perilous retreat of former nights, effected amid the fhock of chariots and the clang of contending coachmen! a retreat indeed affected with a skill and peril little inferior to that of the ten thousand, and detailed with far jufter triumph; for that which happened only once in a life to the Grecian hero, occurs to these British heroines every night. There is one point of refemblance, indeed, between them, in which the comparifon fails; for the commander, with a mauvaise honte, at at which a true female veteran would blush, is remarkable for never naming himself. With myfterious reverence,' I for bear to defcant upon these serious and interefting rites, for the most auguft and folemn celebration of which fashion nightly convenes thefe fplen. did myriads to her more fumptuous temples. Rites! which, when engaged in with due devotion, abforb the whole foul, and call every paffion into exercife, except indeed thofe of love, and peace, and kindness, and gentleness. Infpiring rites! which ftimulate fear, roufe hope, kindle zeal, quicken dulnefs, fharpen difcernment, exercise memory, inflame curiofity. Rites! in fhort, in the due performance of which all the energies and attentions, all the powers and abilities, all the abftraction and exertion, all the diligence and devotedness, all the facrifice of time, all the contempt of ease, all the neglect of fleep, all the oblivion of care, all the risks of fortune (half of which if directed to their true objects would change the very face of the world,) all thefe are concentrated to one point; a point in which the wise and the weak, the learned and the ignorant, the fair and the frightful, the fprightly and the dull, the rich and the poor, the Patrician and Plebeian, meet in one common and uniform equality; an equality as religiously refpected in thefe folemnities; in which all diftinctions are levelled at one blow, and of which the very spirit is therefore democratical, as it is combated in all other inftances. Behold four kings in majefty rever'd, Th' expreffive emblem of their fofter band, Caps on their heads, and halberts in their hand; And party-coloured troops, a fhining AN ACCOUNT OF MR MUNGO PARK AND HIS TRAVELS. The been fo much obliged as to this gen. tleman. T no period of time has the fpirit of enterprize been more ac. tive than the prefent, nor at any Mungo Park is a native of North time has the eagernefs for discoveries Britain, and was born about the year been more amply rewarded. 1770. He received a liberal educaknowledge of countries hitherto im- tion, and was brought up a furgeon. perfectly defcribed, and fome entire- In that capacity he made a voyage ly unknown, have been brought to to the East Indies, from whence he the notice of the world greatly to returned in 1793. At that juncture the advantage of fcience, and will hearing that the Society, affociated hereafter produce benefits of much for profecuting difcoveries in the inhigher importance than the gratifi- terior of Africa, were defirous of encation of mere idle curiofity. To the gaging a perfon to explore that confirmnefs of individuals, aided by the tinent by the way of Gambia, he of liberality of a fociety whofe enquiries fered his fervice, and was accepted. have been equally meritorious and "I had," says he, "a paffionate defuccefsful, a confiderable portion of fire to examine into the productions Africa is now known, which hitherto of a country fo little known; and to has been impervious to every travel- become experimentally acquainted ler; and to no one has the world with the modes of life and character El. Mag. July 1799. * E Rape of the Lock, of |