Everyone knows that perfection is not to be expected on this side of the grave; that man therefore must be strangely visionary, who marries with the hope of never being able to find any one thing in his wife which he could wish were otherwise; besides, the very difference of constitution, or the prejudice of education frequently makes those things appear faults or follies, which in themselves do not deserve that name, so ought neither to be wondered at, nor resented by a prudent husband.

            Women, generally speaking, are of a more tractable and gentle disposition than men, and for that reason are called the softer sex; they are also born with less vicious inclinations, and cannot transgress virtue without deviating from nature; yet notwithstanding they have a certain pride, which will not suffer them to be told that anything they do is wrong, without being first self-convinced that it is so.

            When a husband pretends to reprove his wife with a too magisterial air for anything he may think amiss in her, he is perhaps guilty of a mistake himself no less blameable than that which he is condemning in her; because by this method he will never gain his point, and it is much better for him to overlook small errors, and endeavour to reform the greater by such insinuations and laudable artifices as his invention will enable him to put in practice, and the nature of the vexation will admit.

            An immoderate love of gaming, for example, I look upon to be one of the very worst, and also one of the most incorrigible propensities a person can be guilty of; yet still this cankerous, this evil of the mind, if I may so term it, may possibly be cured, on proper remedies being applied and artfully pursued; I could produce several instances of this kind, but shall content myself with mentioning only one, which though it may seem pretty extraordinary, and even desperate, had the desired effect.

            A gentleman had the misfortune to be married to a young lady, whose too modish mother had taken more care to have her well instructed in every game played upon the cards, than in any other accomplishment whatever; having been almost from her childhood habituated to this amusement, it was become as natural to her as her food, and she received the news of a party being formed for that purpose with as much pleasure as the most voracious appetite does an invitation to a well-spread table.

            The late hours she kept, the total neglect of her domestic affairs, the sums she frequently lost, and perhaps some other apprehensions, made her husband extremely uneasy. At first, however, he contented himself with gently complaining how unkind it was in her to deprive him of so much of her company, and endeavouring to convince her how great an injury it did her health to refrain from repose at those hours which nature had ordained for that purpose.

            These remonstrances had not the least effect; she still went on in the same course as before; and though she had in reality a very tender affection for her husband, as will appear by the sequel of what I am going to relate, yet she could not find in her heart to refuse making one in every party proposed to her for this favourite amusement; so intoxicating is gaming to those who once accustom themselves to it.

            Thus obstinately persisting in her former behaviour, he grew extremely discontented, and more severe in his reproofs; and at last plainly told her, that for a wife to lavish away so much of her time and money suited neither with the circumstances of his estate, his character, nor his humour. But this method of proceeding was altogether as fruitless as that which he before had taken. She replied, that she had brought him a handsome fortune, that she had played before she married him, and that she saw no reason why being a wife should debar her from those diversions she had always been allowed when a maid; and, in fine, that she must do as other women of her acquaintance did.

            It was scarce possible for a mind to be involved in greater perplexities than was that of the gentleman I am speaking on; he truly loved his wife, and was grieved no less for her sake than for his own, to see her go on in this wild way; neither persuasion nor argument had the power of reclaiming her, as he had experienced by having tried both, and loth he was to exert the authority of a husband in laying her under any restraint. In this dilemma, however, an expedient suddenly started into his head, which he put in practice; it seemed indeed a pretty odd one, but happened to prove fortunate.

            He forbore for some time making any remonstrances to her, seldom mentioned gaming in her presence, and when he spoke of it at all it was with the utmost indifference, and as a person who had not the least interest in her conduct would have done in common conversation. In fine, he appeared quite easy, and so artfully dissembled the inward discontent of his mind, that she imagined he no longer took any umbrage at her continuing to indulge herself in this favourite amusement, which was indeed the only foible she could be accused of.

            Having thus prepared the way for the design he had projected, he came home one night with all the tokens of the most terrible despair in his countenance and deportment. She had came in just before him, and surprised and shocked to see him in a condition so different from what he had ever been, threw herself upon his bosom, and asked him with the greatest tenderness if he was not well; to which kind interrogatory he answered nothing, and without suffering his valet to approach him, tore off his clothes and went directly into bed, where he lay tossing and tumbling the whole night. She slept as little, but renewed her entreaties to know the cause of this sudden disorder; all the replies he made were groans and sighs, which seemed to rend his very heart. Very early in the morning he rose and retired to his closet, where she soon after followed him, and with streaming eyes still begged him to make her the partner of his grief, of what kind soever it were. He remained silent for some time; but at last, looking on her with the extremest fondness, he replied, "Yes, my dear, you shall; nay, you must know the mutual misfortune that has fallen on us; though my heart shudders while my tongue pronounces the fatal words, yet I will no longer keep you in suspense; we must part, my love, be divided from each other, perhaps for ever."

            It cannot be difficult to conceive what horror, what amazement, a wife who loved her husband must feel on hearing so unexpected a declaration; I shall only say, it was so great as to render her for some moments incapable of speaking, and when she did, it was only to demand, in wild and incoherent exclamation, some further éclaircissement of this dreadful sentence.

            "You know, my dear," said he, "that for a long time I was continually teasing you about gaming; but alas! since that time I have fallen too deeply into the snare myself; the company I played with staked largely; I was always unfortunate, yet still went on, and lost very great sums; but last night! Oh last night, has completed my undoing!"

            "What have you done!" cried she trembling. "Mortgaged my whole estate," replied he, "except the manor of Redburr, which you know is settled upon you, for a sum beyond what I have any possibility of raising, but by the disposal of it; I am therefore determined to sell my coach and horses and all my plate, and go immediately to Jamaica, and there endeavour, as many others have done, to retrieve by my industry what I have lost by my folly."

            These words threw her into almost mortal agonies; she swooned three several times, and perhaps would never have recovered, if a flood of tears had not come to her relief, and in some measure eased the burden of her heart. He truly loved her, and beheld with inexpressible agitations the condition she was in; but the disease he took in hand to cure was desperate, and desperate remedies could alone work any effect.

            When come a little to herself, "I will go with you," cried she, "to what part of the world soever you go, nothing shall part me from you!" "No, my dear," answered he, "I cannot think of exposing your tender constitution to those unfriendly climates where I must be reduced to get my future sustenance." "Oh, say no more of that," resumed she, "no misery, no hardship can threaten me when together, which I should not doubly feel the weight of when separated from you."

            They had many tender arguments on this score, till he finding she was really in earnest, and resolute to be the companion of his fate, in what shape soever it should present itself, took her fondly by the hand, and spoke in these terms:

            "Well, my love," said he, "since for my sake you can renounce this town and all its pleasures, and quit the society of your friends and kindred, I have a proposal to make you, which I think will be less shocking than living among those wild Americans: I have a distant relation who has a vicarage about an hundred miles from London; he is a very worthy honest man, and has a wife and two daughters, who are accounted women of good understanding; with this family we might board extremely cheap till my estate, or at least great part of it, is redeemed, if you could so content yourself."

            The satisfaction she now expressed was adequate to her late grief, she threw her arms about his neck and cried, "Content did you say! Why you have mentioned an asylum beyond my hopes. How could you think of leaving me and England when you had a resource like this!"

            Having thus gained his point, which was to draw her from the town, he wrote immediately to his cousin, who gladly embraced the proposal made to him. In fine, they went down in a very few days; and everyone endeavouring to make the place as agreeable to her as possible, she soon became so weaned from all the pleasures of the town, that she desired not to return to it.

            He kept her there till he found she was thoroughly established in her aversion not only to that destructive amusement which had given him so much trouble, but also to every other reigning folly of the times.

            At a proper season he acquainted her with the deception he had put upon her, which she was so far from being offended at, that she embraced him a thousand times, thanked him for the pains he had taken to reform her; and said, "If I had been married to a man less tender or less wise, I might have lived and died a thoughtless giddy fool." In a word, there never was a better wife, never a more happy husband.

            Besides this enormous vice of gaming, there are many much lesser foibles a wife may possibly be guilty of, to embitter all the sweets of marriage; but it is my firm opinion that most, if not all of them, may be corrected, if a husband takes proper measures for that purpose, and sure it is well worth his while to attempt it.

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