crime of adultery, she must be a great fool that will put herself away, when she is guilty of no fault at all.

Sist. 1 put myself away! You mistake me, I retire from an unreasonable burdensome humour.

Sir R. We will talk of that afterwards, sister, if you will; but I would fain convince you, if you will give me leave, of one mistake in your conduct, which perhaps you are not sensible of.

Sist. What is that?

Sir R. Why it is this; that as there is no rule in God's law to direct a woman, upon what occasions she may part from her husband, the law of the man being supposed to stand for both; so there is a manifest difference between the cases; and a woman cannot part with her husband, but with a greater disadvantage to herself, than it is to the man to put her away.

Sist Why so, pray?

Sir R. The case is plain; the woman's parting from her husband is easier to do, but liable to more hazards when done:-1. It is easier to do; if a woman resolves to part with her husband, she has nothing to do but to open the door and go out: he can neither by force nor by law prevent her, nor fetch her home again; but if the man resolves to put his wife from him, he can do it no way but by a formal prosecution; if he bids her be gone, she may answer she won't go; if he forces her out, she may come in again; nay, the law will force him to take her in, till he has made his turning her out legal.

Sist. So then, you think we have the advantage; but you men have ways enough to be even with us.

Sir R. For the second, the turn is on our side: as the difficulty is on the husband's part, the scandal is on the woman's; for as it is very well known she cannot be forced away but for adultery, so it is presently taken for granted she is guilty, if she is gone.

Sist. What' though she goes by her choice, not by his force?

Sir R. Who will know the particulars, compared to the number that will know the general; every body knows in general that they are parted, but not one in fifty will inquire into, or hear of the merits of the cause between the woman and her husband; or ask whether she went away, or he sent her away.

Sist. It is true, the disadvantage is of our side; but what is this to my case?

Sir R. Truly, sister, it applies very aptly thus; viz. that then a wise woman should never part from her husband, but upon the greatest necessity, and with the most justifiable reasons in the world.

Sist. I don't know but you may be in the right in that; but I don't know that it touches my case, for I do not know that this will be called a parting from my husband for good and all.

Sir R. It is not the time will alter the crime; no, nor will it remove the scandal, sister; it is that I am arguing upon.

Sist. Nay, I don't know for what time it may be neither, if he carries it thus.

Sir R. Why, how does he carry it? I don't see he minds you; he leaves you to your own course.

Sist. That is true, I am come away, and he troubles not his head about it, as I see, nor intends to trouble himself; so we are not likely to come together again in haste.

Sir R. Trouble himself! no, indeed; and, as I hear, he resolves never to trouble his head about you again, unless you come home as you ought to do, and as it is your known duty to do; nor can you blame him, for you acknowledge that you gave him the occasion; and I must own, sister, that in all such cases, they who gave the first provocation, ought to make the first submission.

Sist. So you would have me make my submission, would you?

Sir R. Nay, sister, it is nothing to me, I won't take upon me to say what I would have you do.

Sist. Not I, I assure you, I'll submit to nobody.

Sir R. And I can assure you he will never submit to

you.

Sist. Are you sure of that?

Sir R. I understand so by something that I have seen or heard, and I must own I cannot blame him. I think I should do just the same.

Sist. I told you that you were partial; you are so, merely as a man.

Sir R. Well, suppose that; we have the laws of God, on our side; you are commanded to submit.

Sist. I would not have you enter upon that discourse, you will claim more for the man than you will practise as a kind husband.

Sir R. I am not talking of what is your duty as a wife, for there, sister, you must acknowledge you are quite wrong; but am I really concerned for your own sake, your interest, your ease, your reputation; I wish you would think of those things, for they are all going to wreck.

Sist. What can I do in any of them? What can a woman do with a cross husband?

Sir R. If every woman that had a cross husband, or every man that had a cross wife, should come away from them, what think you would become of the world? Besides, my dear sister, shall I ask you a plain question?

you

Sist. You know you may use your freedom.

Sir R. Can you lay your hand upon your heart, and say have a cross husband?

Sist. I think him so to be sure.

Sir R. Did you ever try to mend his wife, and to see if that would not cure him?

Sist. I never told you I was a good wife.

Sir R. But I can tell you, that if you are not a good wife, you ought to be.

Sist. Let him go on his own way, I am good enough for

him.

Sir R. Nay, sister, it is you that go on your own way the man is at home.

Sist. What do you infer from that?

Sir R. I infer, that he is where he ought to be; and you are where you ought not to be.

Sist. Dear brother, be plain with me; are you talking from him, and for him, or is it only an accidental discourse, as I thought it was?

Sir R. Truly, sister, I will be plain; I have seen your husband, and he has so convinced me of your being in the wrong, that I resolved for your sake to persuade you, if possible, to act with more prudence; you know these are things quite out of my way, but I profess I think talking with you, and hearing of your conduct, bas done more to make me serious than all the teaching I had in my life.

Sist. I make you serious! you make me smile to hear you talk of being serious, and especially at my making

you so.

Sir R. In truth, sister, your extreme of atheism is enough to make an infidel religious; why, you act as if you believed there was neither God or devil, hell or heaven, and that we were to reckon for nothing in the next world that we do in this; and though, sister, I am a poor, wicked, profligate, unthinking wretch myself, yet I know I am so, and that I ought to be otherwise. But you are worse than an heathen in this, that you despise being religious, as a thing quite below you; for God's sake, sister, let you and I both think a little what will become of us.

Sist. Bless me, that ever my eldest brother, the well known Sir Richard, should turn parson! Why, I never heard such a sermon in the house in my life; you need not have told me you had seen my husband; why, if I had heard you talk thus before, I would have sworn you had been talking to my husband, and he had been preaching repentance to you; come, come, brother, tell me what

he says.

Sir R. He says, sister, what I never believed before, he tells me you are a despiser of all religion.

Sist. Well, what news is that to you? What have I to do with religion, or you either?

Sir R. It is true, sister, I have heard that women have no souls; but I never thought you believed it till now.

Sist. 1 hate him and all his religious impertinencies; you know those thing never were relished in our family.

Sir R. To our shame be it spoken, sister.

Sist. Not at all; I think it is much to our credit, for then we are sure we have no hypocrites.

Sir R. Sister, upon my word, your way of talking has been the most of a sermon to me that ever I heard in my life; you really make my very blood run chill, and my joints tremble; it is true, I have not been religious, God pardon me! But I never thought myself the better for it, or to be commended for it; there is a great deal of difference, sister, between one that neglects religion, and one that despises it; and I doubt that is just the difference between you and I.

Sist. I don't trouble myself about religion, nor do I intend to trouble myself about it.

Sir R. Why, then, your husband has not slandered you. Sist. But he might have held his tongue, and not endeavoured to blacken his wife.

Sir R. Why really, sister, you do him wrong, he is the backwardest man alive to speak it of you; but did you no own it to me yourself when you and I talked last? Sist. What did I own?

Sir R. Why, truly you owned what I could hardly believe, viz. that all the quarrel between you and your busband, was because he is too religious; that he kept up the worship of God in the house, and prays, and reads the Bible in the family.

Sist. Well, and so it was; I had rather by half hear him sing a song.

Sir R. I vow, sister, you astonish me! 1 thought there