The Company we have already mentioned being again assembled, the Lady who had before grieved that the agreeable Mr. Lovelace should not become a Husband, now lamented that Miss Howe should be married to so insipid a Man (that was the Epithet she chose for him) as Mr. Hickman. This passed some little time without any Answer. Miss Gibson was silent; and I saw by her Looks that she thought there was some Weight in her Objection. At last an old Lady, who had three Daughters marriagable, said, she wondered to hear Mr. Hickman called insipid; for she thought there could be no Reason for giving him that Appellation, unless young Women would confess what she should be very sorry to hear them confess, namely, that, in their Opinion, Sobriety intitles a Man to the Character of Insipidity. Pray remember, continued the Lady, that there is no Ridicule cast upon Mr. Hickman throughout the whole Story, but by Lovelace and Miss Howe. The former lov'd Ridicule so well, that he could make Objects of it, by the Help of his gay Imagination, even where he found none: Besides, he hated any Man should have a fine Woman but himself; for, in his Opinion, he alone deserved them. And I think Miss Howe is very censurable for the Liberties she takes with a worthy Man, whom also it is plain she intends to make her Husband.
Miss Gibson agreed in censuring Miss Howe for the Liberties she takes with him; but at the same time said, she thought even his bearing that Usage did lower his Character. Now you see, replied the Lady, how you are taken in; that you can condemn Miss Howe for her Contempt of Mr. Hickman, and yet at the same time let the lively Strokes that fall from her Pen have their full force against the abused worthy Man. Yet Miss Howe herself owns, as early as the second Volume, that Mr. Hickman is humane, benevolent, generous,—No Fox-hunter—No Gamester—That he is sober, modest, and virtuous; and has Qualities that Mothers would be fond of in a Husband for their Daughters; and for which, perhaps, their Daughters would be the happier, could they judge as well for themselves as Experience may teach them to judge for their future Daughters. In other Places he is represented as charitable, considerate to Inferiors, so obliging and respectful to his Mother-in-law, that she leaves him at her Death, in Acknowledgment of it, all that was in her Power: And Miss Howe owns he never disobliged her by Word or Look. What then is the Objection to Mr. Hickman? Why truly, he has not Lovelace's fine Person!—Lovelace's fine Address!—Lovelace's impetuous Spirit; and yet he has shewn even Lovelace, that he wants not Courage. He is plain in his Dress!—His Gait shews him not to be so debonnaire in dancing a Minuit as Lovelace.—But, indeed, I am afraid whoever prefers a Lovelace to a Hickman, will wish all her life-time she could have sooner found out, that tho' Lovelace was the best Partner at a Ball; yet, when a Companion for Life was to be chose, that Mr. Hickman's Goodness of Heart rendered him in all respects more essential to Happiness; much more eligible than all the gay, fluttering, and parading Spirit of a Lovelace could possibly have done. And your Favourite Clarissa, Miss Gibson, says in a Letter to Miss Howe; 'Will you never, my Dear, give the Weight which you, and all our Sex ought to give to the Qualities of Sobriety and Regularity of Life and Manners in that Sex?—Must bold Creatures and forward Spirits for ever, and by the wisest and best of us, as well as by the indiscretest, be the most kindly used?—be best thought of'?
Again, in her posthumous Letter—'Your Choice is fallen upon a sincere, an honest, a virtuous, and what is more than all, a pious Man.—A Man who altho' he admires your Person, is still more in love with the Graces of your Mind; and as those Graces are improvable with every added Year of Life, which will impair the transitory ones of Person, what a firm Basis has Mr. Hickman chosen to build his Love upon.'
The same Man cannot be every thing: A Hickman in Heart, to a Lovelace in Vivacity and Address, perhaps, is almost impossible to be met with; Time, Opportunities, and Inclinations are wanting.
Nay, Madam, says Miss Gibson, I do not dispute Mr. Hickman's being preferable for a Husband to Mr. Lovelace; the Heart is certainly the first thing to be considered in a Man to whose Government a Woman resigns herself; but I should not chuse either Lovelace or Hickman. I must confess I should desire Humour and Spirit in a Man. A married Life, tho' it cannot be said to be miserable with an honest Husband; yet it must be very dull, when a Man has not the Power of diversifying his Ideas enough to display trifling Incidents in various Lights; and 'tis impossible where this is wanting, but that a Man and his Wife must often depend on other Company to keep them from sinking into Insipidity. And for my part, I cannot paint to myself any thing more disagreeable, than to sit with a Husband and wish some-body would come in and relieve us from one another's Dulness. Trifles, Madam, become strong Entertainments to sprightly Minds!—
Ah! Miss Gibson, replied the Lady, in every Word you speak, you prove how necessary the Author's Moral is to be strongly inculcated; when even your serious and thoughtful Turn of Mind will not suffer you to see through the Glare of what you call Humour and Spirit with that Clearness which would enable you to distinguish how very seldom that Humour and Spirit is bestowed on a Wife. Mr. Hickman's whole Mind being at Home, would enliven him into a chearful Companion with his Wife; whilst a Lovelace's Mind, engaged on foreign Objects, would often make him fall into Peevishness and Ill-humour, instead of this so much dreaded Insipidity.
Indeed, Madam, said Miss Gibson, I don't plead for Mr. Lovelace; for I detest him of all the Men I ever read of.
That is true, replied the Lady; but that is because you have read of him, and know the Villanies he was capable of. But yet, I think, you have plainly proved, if a Lovelace and a Hickman contended for your Favour, which would have the best Chance of succeeding.
Miss Gibson blushed, and was silent; when a sprightly Girl, of about Sixteen, said, She loved Mr. Hickman very much; he was a good, and a gentle-hearted Man—But indeed she should not like him for her Husband.
The Gentlemen, during this Debate, had all sat silent; but they often smiled to see how few Advocates Mr. Hickman was likely to have amongst the Ladies.