Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n
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A53314
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Poems on several occasions, written in imitation of the manner of Anacreon with other poems, letters and translations.; Poems. Selections
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Oldmixon, Mr. (John), 1673-1742.
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1696
(1696)
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Wing O261; ESTC R10672
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27,276
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136
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1695. TO N. B Esq At ENFIELD I Receiv'd from you lately a very Sententious and Grave Epistle suitable indeed to the importance and dignity of the Subject being in Praise of Matrimony but why you should Address such a Discourse to me of all Mankind is what at first I could not easily comprehend You know very well I was never one of those Witty Gentlemen who are always railing at Women and Marriage as some People make Speeches against the Court with a design to get Places there I find the Trick miscarries so often and see so many of these Satirist Live with the scandal of old Batchelors that I am resolv'd to make my Peace with the Fair as soon as possible You were not wholly Ignorant of this disposition of mine when you wrote your Letter and on serious consideration of your proceedings I must tell you plainly that unless you had some further design in it you would have thrown away a great deal of very good Morality abundance of fine Sayings and Quotations to no purpose in the World They had been all lost on me for I was as fully perswaded before of what you say as I believe you to be sincere when you writ it However I am surpris'd at your excellent Temper and Moderation for upon some accounts I should have sooner expected from you a Satire than a Panegirick on a Marri'd Life and when you speak well of it it must be confest you show your self the most impartial and freest from Prejudice of any Man since your own Provocations cannot tempt you to speak against your Conscience This Letter of yours were it to be Publish'd and your Circumstances a little better known were enough to convert some of our most obstinate Marriage-haters they would see here a person who has suffer'd from Marriage the injury of Relations and the inconvenience of a Wife yet offering himself to Vindicate it to the last This would be a stronger Argument for it than any of those you have us'd to me and they would be apt to fancy there are those Secret pleasures in this blessed state perhaps in the disturbances of it which none know but such as are in it My Friend Mr. Oldmixon has seen your Letter and joins with me in admiring the Sagacity of it he is no Marriage-hater I assure you but what he says makes him wonder most is that being sensible how vexatious it must be to have a Wife out of her Wits you should still preserve your own and that being deni'd the priviledg of a Husband you should never take the liberties of a Batchelour in this he thinks you might have some relief if you were not so well contented and so much in Love with your Condition And you must certainly be very well pleas'd with it when you are always tempting others to Conform to the Doctrine of Matrimony unless as we are told in some other cases you design to betray us into the noose that you may have Companions in your Misfortune and laugh at the mischief you have done And you give me Sir some reasons to mistrust your intention at the close of your Letter when you recommend the ill Natur'd Lady to me for a Mistress I cannot help suspecting that you would be very glad to have me as near you own Circumstances as possible when the choice you have made for me so nearly resembles that which you were pleas'd to make for your self Well Sir I agree to your sage Councels and will give you the Honour of making me a Convert since you seem so much to affect it tho I assure you I was far from being in a necessity of your Admonition in this matter and to speak my mind freely if I had not been prepossest before with an ill Opinion of my present state your Reasons would not have had so compleat a Victory as you may now boast of the fine froward Lady you wish me to might have still liv'd without a Servant and have lost a very pretty opportunity to show her Talent at Scolding I wish to God you could change that fault of hers for any other I can never beat it out of my Head but there must be a great deal of plague in Noise Peevishness c. tho you know best indeed how far that is tollerable and I am resolv'd to take the Advice of People of Experience Bring me then to my Mistriss as soon as you please secure me in all her other Fair Endowments give me your promise that I shall clear my self of my Spouse as easily as you got rid of yours and see if I am not her and Lond. Jan. 30. 1696. SIR Your most Humble Servant T. S. TO Mr. Freeman SIR IF I were of all Men the most Extravagant and Whimsical you who were once guilty of the same weaknesses should be the last to Condemn me since the Passion that robs me of my Reason has before had the same effects on your self you have been long enough blest by it to forget its former Injuries and were I to be as happy in my Love as you have been in yours I would give you no more cause to complain of my being troublesome or disturbing your Conversation with Sighs Groans Rants and an Innumerable multitude of Complaints c. I mistrust indeed there are a great many persons in the World who would believe me a very improper Man to make a Husband were they to see me in some of those fits which you Advise me to be Cur'd of But these are persons who never felt the Power of Love 'T is true they are Husbands and we ought to suppose that all in those Circumstances were first in Minâ— We ought to suppose it if we did not see every day that a Man may easily be an Husband without being a Lover or concerning himself any farther about his Mistress than adjusting her Portion and Compounding the Settlement These are your Modern Husbands and your Modern Lovers and this is the reason why the Age is so plentifully Stock'd with a sort of Animals which the Antients us'd to shew for Monsters as we would now a Rhinoceros or an Vnicorn But thanks to our Stars Custom has prevail'd on us to look on them with less Astonishment and even our Children can now play with them without being Frighted I know some Men who if they were to Marry I should suspect they would serve their Wives as a Friend of mine â—â—es his Books lay them on the Shelf 〈◊〉 â—ever touch them but when they 〈◊〉 so much in his way that he cannot â—â—â—pe them who when ever he favours 〈◊〉 Author so far as to bring him into his Closet we know presently he never intends to Read him But we that are his Friends are asham'd to see a good Library grow mouldy for want of use and tumble it over as freely as if it were our own Property The negligence and disrespect of the generality of Husbands would be prevented if People were neâ—â—â— to Marry before