s, therefore, in this scarcity of good sense, a general favourite;
and seldom saw a day in which some sober matron did not invite me to her
house, or take me out in her chariot, for the sake of instructing me how
to keep my character in this censorious age, how to conduct myself in
the time of courtship, how to stipulate for a settlement, how to manage
a husband of every character, regulate my family, and educate my
children.

We are all naturally credulous in our own favour. Having been so often
caressed and applauded for docility, I was willing to believe myself
really enlightened by instruction, and completely qualified for the task
of life. I did not doubt but I was entering the world with a mind
furnished against all exigencies, with expedients to extricate myself
from every difficulty, and sagacity to provide against every danger; I
was, therefore, in haste to give some specimen of my prudence, and to
show that this liberality of instruction had not been idly lavished upon
a mind incapable of improvement.

My purpose, for why should I deny it? was like that of other women, to
obtain a husband of rank and fortune superior to my own; and in this I
had the concurrence of all those that had assumed the province of
directing me. That the woman was undone who married below herself, was
universally agreed: and though some ventured to assert, that the richer
man ought invariably to be preferred, and that money was a sufficient
compensation for a defective ancestry; yet the majority declared warmly
for a gentleman, and were of opinion that upstarts should not be
encouraged.

With regard to other qualifications I had an irreconcilable variety of
instructions. I was sometimes told that deformity was no defect in a
man; and that he who was not encouraged to intrigue by an opinion of his
person, was more likely to value the tenderness of his wife: but a
grave-widow directed me to choose a man who might imagine himself
agreeable to me, for that the deformed were always insupportably
vigilant, and apt to sink into sullenness, or burst into rage, if they
found their wife's eye wandering for a moment to a good face or a
handsome shape.

They were, however, all unanimous in warning me, with repeated cautions,
against all thoughts of union with a wit, as a being with whom no
happiness could possibly be enjoyed: men of every other kind I was
taught to govern, but a wit was an animal for whom no arts of taming had
been yet discov