r of the Play, and assuring his Mistress that it was very useful
in _France_, the Lady tells her that's a Secret in Dress she never knew
before, and that she was so unpolish'd an _English_ Woman, as to resolve
never to learn even to dress before her Husband.

There is something so gross in the Carriage of some Wives, that they
lose their Husbands Hearts for Faults, which, if a Man has either
Good-Nature or Good-Breeding, he knows not how to tell them of. I am
afraid, indeed, the Ladies are generally most faulty in this Particular,
who, at their first giving into Love, find the Way so smooth and
pleasant, that they fancy 'tis scarce possible to be tired in it.

There is so much Nicety and Discretion requir'd to keep Love alive after
Marriage, and make Conversation still new and agreeable after twenty or
thirty years, that I know nothing which seems readily to promise it, but
an earnest endeavour to please on both sides, and superior good Sense on
the part of Man.

By a Man of Sense, I mean one acquainted with Business and Letters.

A Woman very much settles her Esteem for a Man, according to the Figure
he makes in the World, and the Character he bears among his own Sex. As
Learning is the chief Advantage we have over them, it is, methinks, as
scandalous and inexcusable for a Man of Fortune to be illiterate, as for
a Woman not to know how to behave her self on the most ordinary
Occasions. It is this which sets the two Sexes at the greatest Distance;
a Woman is vexed and surpriz'd, to find nothing more in the Conversation
of a Man, than in the common Tattle of her own Sex.

Some small Engagement at least in Business, not only sets a Man's
Talents in the fairest Light, and allots him a Part to act, in which a
Wife cannot well intermeddle; but gives frequent occasions for those
little Absences, which, whatever seeming Uneasiness they may give, are
some of the best Preservatives of Love and Desire.

The Fair Sex are so conscious to themselves, that they have
nothing in them which can deserve entirely to engross the
whole Man, that they heartily despise one, who, to use their
own Expression, is always hanging at their Apron-Strings.

_Laetitia_ is pretty, modest, tender, and has Sense enough; she married
_Erastus_, who is in a Post of some Business, and has a general Taste in
most Parts of polite Learning. _Laetitia_, where ever she visits, has the
pleasure to hear of something which was handsomely said or done by
_Eras