d an instance among our own friends," replied Sir John, "of
this evil being produced, not by any of the faults to which you have
adverted, but by an excess of misapplied sensibility, in two persons of
near equality as to merit, and in both of whom the utmost purity of
mind, and exactness of conduct rendered all concealment superfluous. Our
worthy friends Mr. and Mrs. Hamilton married from motives of affection,
and with a high opinion of each other's merit, which their long and
intimate connection has rather contributed to exalt than to lower; and
yet, now at the end of seven years, they are only beginning to be happy.
They contrived to make each other and themselves as uncomfortable by an
excess of tenderness, as some married pairs are rendered by the want of
it. A mistaken sensibility has intrenched, not only on their comfort,
but on their sincerity. Their resolution never to give each other pain
has led them to live in a constant state of petty concealment. They are
neither of them remarkably healthy, and to hide from each other every
little indisposition, have kept up a continual vigilance to conceal
illness on the one part, and to detect it on the other, till it became a
trial of skill which could make the other most unhappy; each suffering
much more by suspicion when there was no occasion for it, than they
could have done by the acknowledgment of slight complaints when they
actually existed.

"This valuable pair, after seven years' apprenticeship to a petty
martyrdom, have at last found out that it is better to submit to the
inevitable ills of life cheerfully and in concert, and to comfort each
other under them cordially, than alternately to suffer and inflict the
pain of perpetual disingenuousness. They have at last discovered that
uninterrupted prosperity is not the lot of man. Each is happier now
with knowing that the other is sometimes sick, than they used to be with
suspecting they were always so. The physician is now no longer secretly
sent for to one, when the other is known to be from home. The apothecary
is at last allowed to walk boldly up the public staircase fearless of
detection.

"These amiable persons have at length attained all that was wanting to
their felicity, that of each believing the other to be well when they
_say_ they are so. They have found out that unreserved communication is
the lawful commerce of conjugal affection, and that all concealment is
contraband."

"Surely," said I, when Sir