dition makes difference of education, and difference of education produces differences of habits, sentiments, and inclinations: thence arise contrary views and opposite schemes, of which the frequent, though not necessary consequences, are debates, disgust, alienation, and settled hatred.

Strict friendship "is to have the same desires and the same aversions."* Whoever is to choose a friend, is to consider, first, the resemblance or the dissimilitude of tempers. How necessary this caution is to be urged as preparatory to marriage, the misery of those who neglect it sufficiently evinces. To enumerate all the varieties of disposition, to which it may on this occasion be convenient to attend, would be a tedious task; but it is, at least, proper to enforce one precept on this head, a precept which was never yet broken without fatal consequences, "Let the religion of the man and woman be the same." The rancour and hatred, the rage and persecution, with which re ligious disputes have filled the world, need not to be related every history can inform us, that no malice is so fierce, so cruel, and implacable, as that which is excited by religious discord. It is to no purpose that they stipulate for the free enjoyment of their own opinion; for how can he be happy, who sees the person most dear to him in a state of dangerous error, and ignorant of those sacred truths, which are necessary to the approbation of God and to future felicity? How can he engage not to endeavour to propagate truth, and promote the salvation of those he loves? or, if he has been

*An observation of Catiline in Sallust.

betrayed into such engagements by an ungoverned passion, how can he vindicate himself in the observation of them? The education of children will soon make it necessary to determine, which of the two opinions shall be transmitted to their posterity; and how can either consent to train up in error and delusion, those from whom they expect the highest satisfactions, and the only comforts of declining life?

On account of this conformity of notions, it is, that equality of condition is chiefly eligible; for, as friendship, so marriage, either finds or makes an equality. No disadvantage of birth or fortune ought to impede the exaltation of virtue and of wisdom; for with marriage begins union, and union obliterates all distinctions. It may, indeed, become the person who received the benefit, to remember it, that gratitude may heighten affection; but the person that conferred it ought to forget it, because, if it was deserved, it cannot be mentioned without injustice, nor, if undeserved, without imprudence all reproaches of this kind, must be either retractions of a good action, or proclamations of our own weakness.

"Friends," says the proverbial observation, "have every thing in common." This is likewise implied in the marriage covenant. Matrimony admits of no separate possessions, no incommunicable interests. This rule, like all others, has been often broken by low views and sordid stipulations; but, like all other precepts founded on reason and in truth, it has received a new confirmation from almost every branch of it; and those parents, whose brach age has had no better effects upon their under

standing, than to fill them with avarice and stratagem, have brought misery and ruin upon their children, by the means which they weakly imagined conducive to their happiness.

There is yet another precept, equally relating to friendship and to marriage; a precept, which, in either case, can never be too strongly inculcated or too scrupulously observed: "Contract friendship only with the good." Virtue is the first quality to be considered in the choice of a friend, and yet more in a fixed and irrevocable choice. This maxim surely requires no comment, nor any vindication; it is equally clear and certain, obvious to the superficial, and incontestable by the most accurate examiner: to dwell upon it, is, therefore, superfluous; for, though often neglected, it never was denied. Every man will, without hesitation, confess, that it is absurd to trust a known deceiver, or voluntarily to depend for quiet and for happiness upon insolence, cruelty, and oppression. Thus, marriage appears to differ from friendship, chiefly in the degree of its efficacy and the authority of its institution: it was appointed by God himself, as necessary to happiness, even in a state of inno cence; and the relation produced by it was declared more powerful than that of birth: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife." But as, notwithstanding its conformity to human nature, it sometimes fails to produce the effects intended, it is necessary to inquire,

Secondly, by what means the end of marriage is to be attained.

As it appears, by examining the natural system of the universe, that the greatest and smallest bodies are invested with the same properties, and moved by the same laws; so a survey of the moral world will inform us, that greater or less societies are to be made happy by the same means, and that, however relations may be varied or circumstances changed, virtue, and virtue alone, is the parent of felicity. We can only, in whatsoever state we may be placed, secure ourselves from disquiet and from misery, by a resolute attention to truth and reason : without this, it is in vain that a man chooses a friend, or cleaves to a wife. If passion be suffered to prevail over right, and the duties of our state be broken through or neglected, for the sake of gratifying our anger, our pride, or our revenge, the union of hearts will quickly be dissolved, and kindness will give way to resentment and aversion.

The duties, by the practice of which a married life is to be made happy, are the same with those of friendship, but exalted to higher perfection. Love must be more ardent, and confidence without limits. It is, therefore, necessary, on each part, to deserve that confidence, by the most unshaken fidelity, and to preserve their love unextinguished by continual acts of tenderness; not only to detest all real, but seeming offences; and to avoid suspicion and guilt, with almost equal solicitude.

But since the frailty of our nature is such, that we cannot hope from each other an unvaried rectitude of conduct, or an uninterrupted course of wisdom or virtue; as folly will, sometimes, intrude upon an unguarded hour; and temptations, by frequent attacks, will, sometimes, prevail; one of the chief

acts of love is, readily to forgive errors and overlook defects. Neglect is to be reclaimed by kindness, and perverseness softened by complaisance. Sudden starts of passion are patiently to be borne, and the calm moments of recollection silently expected for, if one offence be made a plea for another; if anger be to be opposed with anger, and Teproach retorted for reproach; either the contest must be continued for ever, or one must, at last, be obliged, by violence, to do what might have been at first done, not only more gracefully, but with more advantage.

Marriage, however in general it resembles friendship, differs from it in this; that all its duties are not reciprocal. Friends are equal in every respect; but the relation of marriage produces authority on one side, and exacts obedience on the other; obedience, an unpleasing duty, which yet the nature of the state makes indispensable: for friends may separate when they can no longer reconcile the sentiments, or approve the schemes of each other; but as marriage is indissoluble, either one must be content to submit, when conviction cannot be obtained, or life must be wasted in perpetual disputes.

But though obedience may be justly required, servility is not to be exacted; and though it may be lawful to exert authority, it must be remembered, that to govern and to tyrannize are very different, and that oppression will naturally provoke rebellion.

The great rule, both of authority and obedience, is the law of God; a law which is not to be broken for the promotion of any ends, or in compliance with any commands; and which, indeed, never