bachelors' blessedness. 31 



burst upon him, like a bright sun-beam, gilding with splendour 

 every part of his mental fabric,— by a call to " rock the cradle,'^ or 



' by that still greater torment, the putting things " to rights^ No ; 

 he has never the wretchedness of seeing his " sanctum" besieged by 

 a party of " destructionists " with mop and brush; burning his 

 papers because they don't look " tidy," and letting in such a deluge 

 of water upon the floor, that either he is banished for a week, or 

 contracts rheumatism the next time he sits an hour in his favourite 

 corner. Such delights he wishes not to share; but he goes on 

 quietly and steadily with his pleasing pursuits, enriching his mind 

 with the treasures of science, or enjoying undisturbed the pleasures 

 of imagination. And yet one who has such pre-eminent advantages 

 for improvement in every thing that is goody is represented by this 

 sapient writer, as being such a blockhead as to shrink from con- 

 versation with any woman of comn\on intellect. Perhaps he is not 

 aware that some of the greatest men that ever enriched the world lly 

 their splendid discoveries and invaluable writings, wfre bachelors. 

 Let him learn, however, that his unwarrantable assertions are every 

 day confuted, a thousand times, by facts. In the next sentence he 

 goes yet " deepe r and deeper still " into the quagmire of absurdity 

 and falsehood ; and there let him remain — shame to him ! ! 



But I must tell you that after drawing the delectable picture 

 above, he goes on to give in the following sentences, what I suppose 

 he considers a pleasing "contrast:" — "The felicity of a married 

 "man," he says, "never stands still; it flows perpetually, and 

 " strengthens in its passage ; it is supplied from various channels ; 

 " it depends more on others than himself." [Then he is less inde- 

 pendent than a bachelor, as I stated above.] '^ By an union with 

 "the gentlest, most polished, most beautiful parts of the creation, 

 " his mind is harmonized, his manners softened, his soul animated 

 " by the tenderest, liveliest sensations. The house of a married man 

 " is his paradise : he never leaves it without regret, never returns to 

 '* it but with gladness — the friend of his soul and the wife of his 

 " bosom, welcomes his approach with susceptibility; joy flushes her 

 "cheek — mutual are their transports. Infants climb about his 

 " knees and contend which shall catch the envied kiss of paternal 

 " fondness. To the existence of a married man there is no termina- 

 " tion ; when death overtakes him, he is only translated from one 



" heaven to another ; his glory is immortalized, and his children'? 

 " children represent him." 



Is not this a beautiful fable ? Ought it not to find a place within 



the covers of the "Arabian Nights?" A " contrast," indeed / You 



