Fitzosbert ?" "I think that you are tolerably happy, but " "But you think if I had not married, I might have been happier; is it not "Exactly-every time I see a man burdened with a wife and family, I congratulate myself on my liberty; and make a vow never to part with it." "Suus cuique mos est-every man to his taste-you to your liberty, I to my family-you, to travelling; I, to home :-if both are contented, it signifies not.” "For a married man, I must confess you are tolerably comfortable :--but your's was a marriage founded on love alone." "Poh! nonsense: Maria was pointed out to me by my friends as a proper person for a wife; my romantic days were over before I was nineteen ;-I was then seven and twenty, old enough to judge for myself, and to be thankful for advice; our estates were contiguous; she was sufficiently handsome to banish the idea that I married for riches alone; -we became man and wife ;-her temI found cheerful in the main; someper times a cloud comes over it; for let lovers say as they please, women are not angels-I am not always serene; sometimes we are disturbed together; then comes a little matrimonial breeze, but the sun shines the brighter for it afterwards: -on the whole, we live as happily as we can, and (no reflection on you, Fitzosbert) our portion of felicity is worth all the comfort of which you Bachelors boast so much." "Tant mieux that you think so, and tant mieux also that I do not ;-but then your children? Do you omit them in your calculation ?" "By no means; but in them lies a source of felicity, of which you can have no conception.-Their pleasures and their sorrows interest me alike; when I am not better employed, I invent amuse ments for them, in which I join; and it would be difficult to say, whether they, or I, am the more gratified party. In short, children afford more delight than you can understand, until you are a father." "I must be contented to remain in ignorance then; for assuredly, my dear Beauclair, I shall never marry.' "I will not dispute with you; time will show." "Time has shown, I think, for when a man once passes his thirtieth birth-day, he is in little danger." 66 Aye, to be sure, thirty is a mighty sage time of life; but you appear to be as romantic now, as you were ten years since; you're searching for happinessperfect happiness-a cel estial possession, and depend upon it, never to be found in this mundane sphere; and let me tell you, the storms of this life are much more easily weathered with a companion than without." "But there are storms that must pelt against a man, if he have a companion of the kind you allude to, which might be avoided if he were alone." "To weigh against that, there are innumerable felicities, which a man possesses with such a companion, and which he could not possibly enjoy alone! No sorrow is so easily endured as that which is divided, and no pleasure so great as that which is participated with a wife." "I do not exactly agree with you; give me an instance in point." 66 By way of illustration, then, suppose you, an amateur in picturesque scenery, which, even in boyhood, I remember, possessed all your soul; suppose that you are walking-where you please, only let there be mountains and vales, forests and plains, cascades and rivulets enough-in this enchanting landscape, some object particularly strikes you; tell me, when delight increases the pulsation your heart, do you never wish for some sylph, who could understand your rap of tures and share them ?" my "Frequently; but only for a sylph, dear Beauclair." "Nonsense! Embody your sylphwhy not ;-Embody her in the person of an enlightened female; and trust me, the substantial form will be as delightful as the aerial." "For the moment, perhaps, but I cannot shake her off, remember; once united, it is for life; there's the rub!"-" But I suppose, you will have such a delight to be shared more than once in |