——Non pronuba Juno,
Non Hymenæus adest, non illi Gratia lecto.
Ovid, Met. vi. 428.
Without connubial Juno's aid they wed;
Nor Hymen nor the Graces bless the bed.
Elphinston.
TO THE RAMBLER.
SIR,
As you have hitherto delayed the performance of the promise, by which you gave us reason to hope for another paper upon matrimony, I imagine you desirous of collecting more materials than your own experience, or observation, can supply; and I shall therefore lay candidly before you an account of my own entrance into the conjugal state.
I was about eight-and-twenty years old, when, having tried the diversions of the town till I began to be weary, and being awakened into attention to more serious business, by the failure of an attorney to whom I had implicitly trusted the conduct of my fortune, I resolved to take my estate into my own care, and methodise my whole life according to the strictest rules of economical prudence.