"Bids his gay buxom wife adieu,
"Lies by the old, forc'd from the new :
"They lie both pent up in this tomb,
"For t'other wife there won't be room;
"In death itself he would be loath
"To be tormented by them both."

You that has ever been used to the melting of a woman's tongue, may think perhaps that I have been rather too fevere on the fex, to whom we are indebted for every thing that is amiable in the fentiments of man: that you may never have occasion to think otherwise, is the wish of

Your fincere Friend.

LETTER

LETTER XII.

MY DEAR FRIEND,

I contrived to get a peep at your laft: you fee the curiofity of a woman, and you also see that we cannot keep our own fecrets.-I cannot help faying, that I really think you are too fevere on our fex, if you touch one you touch the whole in fome measure ; our flames and our frailties are pretty much alike; and to tell you the truth, I should be very angry with you, if I did not know that on many occafions you have stood forward as the champion of the weaker veffel; which, to use one of your own expreffions, is fashioned with fo much art, that the flightest flaw is difcernable in an inftant. I have been taught, and experience evinces, that our tongue is our only weapon: to fcold is the privilege of woman alone, and at fit feafons it is but

pro

proper that we fhould keep up the charter.-Mr. Addison profeffes himfelf to be a great admirer of that little inftrument, and if I mistake not he compares it to a mufical one, the piano forte-and at least if he does not he ought, for I think the comparifon will hold good in almoft every cafe, especially in love ;-but I forgot it is with our eyes we fpeak on that occafion, and it is our eyes alone that ought to be confulted:-it is in our eyes that lovers read their fate.

As there are male coquets, there are also male scolds, as well as female; and if Milton is to be trufted, Adam was the first. I am apt to think we would go a great length in reconciling a man to this fpecies of music, and I hope you will not think me too pedantic, if I quote a faying of

Doctor

Doctor Johnfon in fupport of this affertion" If the door creaks a fortnight, the master would not give fixpence to have it oiled."

I am dear Sir,

Your's fincerely,

M. W

LETTER

SIR,

LETTER XIII.

4

MRS. told me, as a great fecret, that you had deferted our ftandard, and that you attempted an apology; that is, in plain English, you ftab with the fharp end of the pen, and then anoint the wound with the feather-is this fair? I knew Mrs. Thompson, and I know it was generally faid, that her tongue was made out of the clapper of a mill: but may remember that her husband was a poor domestic animal. Now, as to fcolding, do you really think, my unhappy fex monopolizes that precious article? Do you never hear of any in St. Stephen's Chapel-at the bar-ay and in the church too? Do you never hear of one nation fcolding another? You do not forget that a Spanish writer

you

paid