HAVE a Wife that keeps Good I Company. You know that the word Good varies its meaning ac cording to the value fet upon dif ferent qualities in different places. To be a Good Man in a College, is to be learned; in a Camp to be brave; and in the city to be rich. By Good Company in the place which I have the misfortune to inhabit, we underftand not always thofe from whom any good can be learned, whether Wisdom or Virtue; VOL. II. B or or by whom any good can be conferred, whether Profit or Reputation. Good Company is the company of those whose Birth is high, and whose Riches are great, or of those whom the Rich and Noble admit to familiarity. I AM a Gentleman of a fortune by no means exuberant, but more than equal to the wants of my family, and for fome years equal to our defires. My Wife, who had never been accustomed to splendour, joined her endeavours to mine in the fuperintendence of our economy; we lived in decent plenty, and were not excluded from moderate pleasures. BUT flight caufes produce great effects. All my happiness has been destroyed by change of place; Virtue is too often merely local; in fome fituations the air diseases the body, and in others poifons the mind. Being obliged to remove my habitation, I was led by my evil genius to a convenient houfe in a ftreet where many of the Nobility refide. We had scarcely ranged our furniture, and aired our rooms, when my Wife began to grow discontented, and to wonder what the neighbours would think when they faw fo few chairs and chariots at her door. HER |