fifted that Sir William fhould give up his Port and water, and drink the bumper in Burgundy.

-Upon this Mifs Roberts drew off her chair as far as fhe could from young Mr. Draper: Lady Roberts bridled up—Mrs. Draper bridled up in return-Sir William drank off the bumper of Burgundy.

To break through the awkward filence which this had occafioned, I suggested that one of the young ladies fhould give us a fong; which propofal was acquiefced in. Mifs Draper sung an Italian air, which the had learned of a celebrated Mafter. Her father took occafion to tell the price of his leffons. "It is now your "turn," faid he to Mifs Roberts.

"She never

"fings," faid her father, fomewhat fternly. His daughter blushed, and was filent. Soon after the ladies withdrew. The remainder of the afternoon was spent in Sir William's drinking his Port and water, and in Mr. Draper and the greatest part of his company getting flustered in Burgundy and Claret. When at last, upon a meffage from Lady Roberts, Sir William joined her and his children in the lobby, and went off in the family-coach drawn by four horses, which had been employed in that fervice for fifteen years, and were driven by poftilions with rich but old-fashioned liveries.

No 72. SATURDAY, June 17, 1786.

Debita.

-Sors ifta Senecta

VIRG.

IN every man's lot there are certain incidents, either regarding himself or those with whom he is closely connected, which, like mile-ftones on a road, mark the journey of life, and call our attention both to that portion of it which we have already paffed, and to that which it is probable we have ftill to go. The death or the marriage of a friend, his departure for a distant country, or his return from it, not only attract our notice to fuch events themselves, but naturally recall to our memories, and anticipate to our imaginations, a chain of other events connected with, or dependent upon them. Thofe little prominent parts of life ftop the even and unheeded course of our ordinary thoughts; and, like him who has gained a height in his walk, we not only look on the objects which lie before us, but naturally turn to compare them with those we have left behind.

Though my days, as my readers may have gathered from the accounts I have formerly

given, pass with as much uniformity as those of moft men; yet there are now and then occurrences in them which give room for this variety of reflection. Some fuch lately croffed me in the way; and I came home, after a folitary walk, disposed to moralize on the general tenor of life, to look into fome of the articles of which it confifts, and to fum up their value and their use. When Peter let me in, methought he looked older than he ufed to do. I opened my memorandum-book for 1775.—I can turn over the leaves between that time and this (faid I to myself) in a moment-thus !—and, cafting my eye on the blank paper that remained, began to meditate on the decline of life, on the enjoy ments, the comforts, the cares, and the forrows

of age.

Of domestic comforts, I could not help reflecting how much celibacy deprives us; how many pleasures are derived from a family, when that family is happy in itself, is dutiful, affec tionate, good-humoured, virtuous. I cannot eafily account for the omiffion of Cicero, who, in his treatise "de Senectute," enumerates the various enjoyments of old age, without once mentioning thofe which arife from the poffef Gion of worthy and promifing children. Perhaps the Roman manners and customs were not very much calculated to promote this: they VOL. IIL

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who could adopt the children of others, were not likely to be fo exclufively attached to their own, or to feel from that attachment a very high degree of pleasure; or, it may be, the father of Marcus felt fomething on the subject of children, of which he was willing to fpare himfelf the recollection. But though a bachelor myself, I look with equal veneration and complacency on the domeftic bleflings of a good old man, furrounded by a virtuous and flourishing race, in whom he lives over the best days of his youth, and from whofe happiness he draws fo much matter for his own. 'Tis at that advanced period of life that most of the enjoyments of a bachelor begin to leave him, that he feels the folitarinefs of his fituation, linked to no furrounding objects, but thofe from which the debility or the seriousness of age must neceffarily divorce him. The club, the coffee-house, and the tavern, will make but a few fhort inquiries after his abfence; and weakness or difeafe may imprison him to his home, without their much feeling the want of his company, or any of their members foothing his uneafinefs with theirs. The endearing fociety, the tender attentions of a man's own children, give to his very wants and weaknefs a fort of enjoyment, when thofe wants are fupplied, and that weaknefs aided, by the hands he loves.

Though

Though the celibacy of the female fex is still more reproached, and is thought more comfortless than that of ours, yet I confess it seems to me to poffefs feveral advantages of which the other is deprived. An old maid has been more accustomed to home and to folitude than an old bachelor, and can employ herself in many little female occupations which render her more independent of fociety for the difpofal of her time. and the amusement of her mind. The comparatively unimportant employments of the female world, which require neither much vigour of body nor much exertion of foul, occupy her hours and her attention, and prevent that impatience of idleness or of inactivity, which fo often preys on men who have been formerly bufy or active. The negative and gentler virtues which characterise female worth, fuit themfelves more easily to the languid and fuffering state of age or infirmity, than those active and fpirit-ftirring qualities which frequently conftitute the excellence of the male character. There are, no doubt, fome females to whom this will not apply; to whom age must be more terrible than to any other being, because it deprives them of more. She whofe only endowment was beauty, must tremble at the approach of those wrinkles which spoil her of her all; fhe to whom youthful amufements and gaieties were the

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