"Verily, verily I say unto thee, Ruth, I am, indeed and in truth, an Old Bachelor. Behold the portrait of my per son. I am upwards of six feet high and as thin as that knight whom Cervantes has immortalised. My locks have been bleached by the snows of sixty winters. My nose and chin have sallied out, like two doughty champions, to meet in mortal combat; and, from the menacing attitude in which they now stand surveying each other, it is obvious that they must soon have a meeting, in spite of my teeth: While my mouth recedes from the field in dismay, and its corners retreat to my ears, as if for the convenience of whispering their terrors, unheard by the formidable champions in front. After this, I believe my friend Tim will not think the pretty Ruth in much danger from me. I call her pretty; because I cannot think of a quaker girl, without associating with her image, the ideas of neatness, sweetness and simplicity, together with those sparkling eyes and blooming cheeks, which health and innocence so constantly bestow. I beg that Ruth will accept my sincere thanks for the honor which she does me in perusing these papers and I promise her, if she continues to do me that honor, that whether I am able to amuse and instruct her or not, no sentiment shall ever fall from my pen to give pain to her heart, or deepen the tint upon her innocent cheek. Her favorite Eponina is certainly a very interesting character. The incidents of her life and of 1 her death, are striking and affecting in a high degree.Her visits to the cave of her rebel and fugitive husband, during nine years after his concealment and dependence on her for bread and life and happiness, shew her in a point of light calculated to win the love of every heart, and would I think, produce a fine effect in dramatic represen- tation. But was tenderness the most shining trait of Eponina's character? We are told, that she and her hus band were at length discovered and carried to Rome in chains; that Vespasian, forgetting his usual clemency, Sabinus (the husband) was condemned to die; that Eponina, determined not to survive him, changed her supplicating tone, and with a spirit unconquered, even in ruin, addressed the tyrant thus-" Death has no terror for me. I have lived happier under ground, than you upon your throne. Bid your assassins strike their blow-with joy I leave a world, in which you can play the tyrant." Here was courage and magnanimity truly Roman. What a pity is it, that Tacitus' account of this affair has perished. It is easy to imagine what a figure this story must have made in the hands of such a master; and how much more interesting, still, Eponiza would have been, if, instead of Sabinus, who is represented in an aspect of ferocity and rashness, “ambitious, bold and enterprising," her love and constancy had been justified by such a husband as Germanicus. Perhaps Aggrippina's principal advantage over Ruth's favorite, consists in this; that besides the intrinsic light of her own character, she reflects, also the additional lustre of her noble lord.-This, however, is merely a question of taste, about which, we are told, there is no disputing; and if there were, I would cheerfully yield a point of much more importance than this, to my fair reader. My friend, Lovetruth, has done justice to my motives, and to the cause. The cause is certainly a great and glorious one, and might well challenge a conspiracy of all the able pens of the state. I have very little doubt that such a co-operation would place the character of the rising generation, on grounds as high as that which their great forefathers, the illustrious statesmen and patriots of the revolution, occupied. My own station in that distinguished crisis, was, indeed, a very humble one; and early in it, as already stated, I was disabled from continuing my exertions. Yet humble as was my station, and short as my race was, I had opportunities enough of observing, that the men of those days, in every great and noble acquirement, in the energy and range of mind, and in disinterestedness, manliness and solidity of character, hold up an example of their posterity, in the rivalship of which, they may exert all their strength, and have occasi on for all the stores of virtuous emulation. As to my own humble efforts to assist this intellectual resurrection, I do not know what their success may be. Nor is it, indeed, my business to enquire. Success is not always to be commanded; but our duty, whatever it may be, is always to be done, and the issues of our actions to be left to him who is best able to direct them. Number IX. Non habeat matrona tibi, que, juncta recumbit O! what a midnight curse has he, whose side I have selected the motto of this number for the sake of my honest fellow-countryman, the writer of the following letter. His case is, indeed, a piteous one; and were it not in a great measure of his own creation, he should have my most sincere and fervent condolence. I shall give his letter, unaltered, to the public; for although he treats me harshly, yet I am so well convinced of my own innocence, that I am perfectly willing to submit to my reader his letter, with all its argument, and asperities, and rest for the present, on the character of my former essays alone for any defence. MR. BACHELOR, It is the privilege of those who are injured to complain-and considering myself in that predicament, I shall, without ceremony, avail myself of the right-Sir, you have stung me to the quick, you have done me vital injury, you have touched me there, where I was most vulnerable; and shall I not complain? Yes! and the world shall hear me too-but I am borne from my purpose by this heat: let me, with temper, tell my story. I am a plain man, a farmer, and what the world calls an old fashioned fellow not like yourself, a Bachelor, though I speak not this in disparagement, for if your tale be true, it is surely not your fault that you are still single I have a wife and a pretty numerous family-six daughters and two sons-and these children I had thought to have brought up with some credit-that my girls should have made good house wives, for the young farmers of the neighborhood, and my boys be qualified to take my place on the farm, as age, and the evils in its train, should render me unequal to it. The farm which I hold has been in possession of the family ever since the first settlement of this colony-and so long also, family tradition says, has here descended along with the land, from father to son, a set of rules, for the government of the owner's household, which have known no vicissitude or shadow of change. My father, a staid and sober personage, felt for these domestic Canons, the most profound veneration; and with truly parental care, instilled into my infant bosom, the same pious reverence. In his last illness, and but a short time before he expired, the good old man called me to him, and wringing my hand, said, "My son, you are about to enter on an important duty, to assume a station which will devolve on you serious and solemn obligations-yet a little while, and you will be the head and representative of the Square-toes family-you have been carefully and diligently taught the family laws, you have seen how, under my administration of them, we have flourished, and so may heaven bless and prosper you, as you carry them into strict and steady execution." My first care, after I had taken my father's place, was to look out for a help-mate-for it was one of the laws, that the head of the family should use his best endeavors, to perpetuate the name--I chose for my partner the blooming daughter of a neighboring farmer-not one of your delicate, nervous, tea-sipping ladies of the present day; but a robust and active damsel, who would rise with the dawn, milk her father's cows, attend to the hen-house and dairy, and at breakfast, could dispose of as much beefsteak as any lady in the days of goed Queen Bess; no vagaries about the rights of women, or the equality of the sexes, ever disturbed her quiet brain-on the contrary, both precept and example, had taught her that important lesson, to love, honor, and obey her Lord and Master.She made me happy (how could such a wife fail?) and our union has been fruitful as I have told you.-Now in the family statute book, there was no law, so fondly cherished, none considered of such vital importance as this: "That a deep and humbling sense of their inferiority to, and entire dependence on the males, should be, with unceasing care, inculcated on the females." This idea they were to suck in with their mother's milk; it was to be presented to them in a thousand shapes; to grow with their growth and strengthen with their strength; and as a means to this end, the extent and limits of their education were exactly defined-it consisted of reading, writing and arithmetic to the rule of three-The Bible and Testament, the Whole Duty of Man, and the Art of Cookery, by Mrs. Hannah Glass, made up their library-all beyond was forbidden ground. Of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, they might in no wise cat: this was prohibited unH der the severest pains and penalties.-Deeply impressed with the importance of this law, it was the fixed determi nation of myself and wife, to educate our daughters in strict conformity to it-and though I say it that should not, yet I will say, that with our three eldest, we succeeded completely-aye, shew me, who can, three more notable and house-wifely women than Bridget, Winnifred and Dinah-Girls that can turn their hand to any thingMilk a cow, iron a shirt, mend a stocking, or make a pudding-And I defy any one to catch them idling over a book; except on Sundays, and then strictly within the pale of the law; none of your novels, or histories, or such; but one of the pious books above mentioned.-These girls were brought up when we were young and active and had an eye to every thing; and I must be permitted to add, that to me it is wonderful, that women so calculated to make reasonable men happy, should remain still on hand. Of my three younger daughters, would to Heaven, I could say as much; but they have blasted all my hopes, broken the statutes of the family and thrown my household into confusion. This misfortune I owe, partly, to my own impru dence, but more particularly, Mr. Bachelor, to the baleful influence of your essays. I had before heard that these old Bachelors were dangerous fellows, in a family. I now know it to my cost-you have subverted mine-you have introduced anarchy and misrule, where order and good government reigned before-you have divided the house against itself—But let me preserve the order of events: about eighteen months past, a sister of my wife's came to visit us-she had married very early in life a merchant, who settled in a city distant about two days journey from our residence-The steady pursuit of commerce, had made them wealthy-she was a true town-lady, with all the airs and graces, and high flown notions, and delicate sensibilities of the tribe: a reading lady too-but this fact I did not know till sometime afterwards. Towards the conclusion of her visit, I began to suspect, that something was in the wind. I saw frequent consultations, going on among the women; they would get into a knot in a corner, and whisper most earnestly, every now and then casting towards me, a look of apprehension-my daughter Grace too, my fourth girl, was uncommonly assiduous in her attentions to me-she had always been a datiful, good child -but there was something of eagerness and solicitude about her now, which excited my notice-if I called at any time for my favorite beverage, butter-milk, it was sure to be handed by Grace-as soon as I entered the house at my |