of pleasing is said
indeed to be possessed by some women in an eminent degree; but the
artifices of maturity are seldom seen to adorn the innocence of youth:
you have made your choice, and ought to approve it.

Satiety follows quickly upon the heels of possession; and to be happy,
we must always have something in view. The person of your lady is
already all your own, and will not grow more pleasing in your eyes I
doubt, though the rest of your sex will think her handsome for these
dozen of years. Turn therefore all your attention to her mind, which
will daily grow brighter by polishing. Study some easy science together,
and acquire a similarity of tastes while you enjoy a community of
pleasures. You will by this means have many images in common, and be
freed from the necessity of separating to find amusement. Nothing is so
dangerous to wedded love as the possibility of either being happy out of
the company of the other: endeavor therefore, to cement the present
intimacy on every side; let your wife never be kept ignorant of your
income, your expenses, your friendships, or aversions; let her know your
very faults, but make them amiable by your virtues; consider all
concealment as a breach of fidelity; let her never have any thing to
find out in your character; and remember, that from the moment one of
the partners turns spy upon the other, they have commenced a state of
hostility.

Seek not for happiness in singularity; and dread a refinement of wisdom
as a deviation into folly. Listen not to those sages who advise you
always to scorn the counsel of a woman, and if you comply with her
requests pronounce you to be wife-ridden.

I said that the person of your lady would not grow more pleasing to you;
but pray let her never suspect that it grows less so: that a woman will
pardon an affront to her understanding much sooner than one to her
person, is well known; nor will any of us contradict the assertion. All
our attainments, all our arts, are employed to gain and keep the heart
of man: and what mortification can exceed the disappointment, if the end
be not obtained? There is no reproof however pointed, no punishment
however severe, that a woman of spirit will not prefer to neglect; and
if she can endure it without complaint, it only proves that she means to
make herself amends by the attention of others for the slights of her
husband. For this, and for every reason, it behoves a married man not to
let his politeness fail