censoriousness or impertinence. Her own faults gave her very little trouble, indeed I never could perceive that she knew she had any. Her mind was very active, and she was exempt from all family cares. Of her patriotism I need not produce a stronger instance than that it prompted her to endure a thousand rebuffs, and to awaken a thousand enmities, rather than she would abandon her resolution of never suffering her acquaintance to commit errors without being told of them. Let not man tenaciously refuse the civic wreath to the exertions of our sisterhood in this department. True, we cannot fight our countries' battles with the hero, nor with the disinterested statesman and dauntless patriot sacrifice health, peace, and reputation to legislative duties and political conflicts; but do we not defy rheumatisms and cramps, palsies and asthmas, by sallying

forth in all sorts of weather to collect, or impart, intelligence, to inform the ignorant what their neighbours say of their conduct, and to lower self gratulation by oblique sneers and emphatical inuendos.

Neither can the great public characters I have presumed to allude to, triumph over our equally painful and indefatigable labours, on the pretence that they are unsuccessful; for I fancy these gentlemen, like ourselves, are often condemned to roll a stone up labour-in-vain hill, with a noted poetical projector, and only find their pains rewarded by its tumbling down upon them. People have now acquired an inveterate habit of believing themselves to be the best judges of their own affairs; and though we call upon them in the name of wisdom, and conjure them to listen to our admonitions, they doubt whether we bring proper

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credentials from the goddess, except when we happen to think exactly as they do. Even the exalted character of Mrs. Prudentia could not guard her entirely from these accusations; and I must ever deplore the effect of her regulating spirit, as it prematurely deprived the world of its invaluable instructor, and one of the most enchanting of companions, and faultless of friends. Poor soul! she never recovered from the illness occasioned by her plunging through the snow to tell Betsey Boldface, that Mr. Stanza had made a madrigal on her purple elbows. A confirmed cough was the consequence, and her knell was rung out the same day that a bridal peal announced, that Miss Boldface had relieved herself from the terrors of Mr. Stanza's pasquinades by making him lord of her person and fortune. This the Danbury wits call, elbowing

himself into easy circumstances; while the happy pair protest that they owe their present felicity to Mrs. Prudentia's kind interference, and Mrs. Stanza came to church more a la mode de Venus than ever: but the honeymoon is not yet over.

Another peculiarity in my friend's character was her dislike of contradiction, which was so rooted that it required some degree of courage to dissent from any of her opinions. In this, as in all her singularities, I am convinced that she only looked to the improvement of the world. What virtue is so estimable as humility, what companionable qualities are more attractive than acquiescence and patience? Can any one hope to rise in the world without these requisites? Could my friend do a greater kindness to her associates than daily to exercise them in those habits which would fit them

for the tables of bashaws of rank and Xantippes of fashion, rich spinster aunts, and testy bachelor uncles? Generously lamenting that the generality of our Danbury beauties were incapacitated from gaining a livelihood by using their hands, she wished to qualify them for that life of dependence to which they seemed partial, by teaching them to hold their tongues. I am sorry to add, that in this instance also her excellent intentions were counteracted by ingratitude. I have seen the chits laugh when she has taken the trouble to harangue for hours on the advantages of silence, and I overheard a pert girl inquire of another tittering flirt, at what age Mrs. Prudentia allowed them to practise talking, preparatory to the very hard service which would be required of them when they must, according to that eloquent line,

"Chatter chatter chatter chatter still?"