for your own sake to choose Strephon; for where the Men are equal, there is no doubt Riches ought to be a Reason for Preference.  After this manner, my dear Child, I would have you abstract them from their Circumstances; for you are to take it for granted, that he who is very humble only because he is poor, is the very same Man in Nature with him who is haughty because he is rich.

When you have gone thus far, as to consider the Figure they make towards you; you will please, my Dear, next to consider the Appearance you make towards them.  If they are Men of Discerning, they can observe the Motives of your Heart; and Florio can see when he is disregarded only upon your Account of Fortune, which makes you to him a mercenary Creature:  and you are still the same thing to Strephon, in taking him for his Wealth only:  You are therefore to consider whether you had rather oblige, than receive an Obligation.

The Marriage-Life is always an insipid, a vexatious, or an happy Condition.  The first is, when two People of no Genius or Taste for themselves meet together, upon such a Settlement as has been thought reasonable by Parents and Conveyancers from an exact Valuation of the Land and Cash of both Parties:  In this Case the young Lady’s Person is no more regarded, than the House and Improvements in Purchase of an Estate:  but she goes with her Fortune, rather than her Fortune with her.  These make up the Crowd or Vulgar of the Rich, and fill up the Lumber of human Race, without Beneficence towards those below them, or Respect towards those above them; and lead a despicable, independent and useless Life, without Sense of the Laws of Kindness, Good-nature, mutual Offices, and the elegant Satisfactions which flow from Reason and Virtue.

The vexatious Life arises from a Conjunction of two People of quick Taste and Resentment, put together for Reasons well known to their Friends, in which especial Care is taken to avoid (what they think the chief of Evils) Poverty, and insure to them Riches, with every Evil besides.  These good People live in a constant Constraint before Company, and too great Familiarity alone; when they are within Observation they fret at each other’s Carriage and Behaviour; when alone they revile each other’s Person and Conduct:  In Company they are in a Purgatory, when only together in an Hell.

The happy Marriage is, where two Persons meet and voluntarily make Choice of each other, without principally regarding or neglecting the Circumstances of Fortune or Beauty.  These may still love in spite of Adversity or Sickness:  The former we may in some measure defend our selves from, the other is the Portion of our very Make.  When you have a true Notion of this sort of Passion, your Humour of living great will vanish out of your Imagination, and you will find Love has nothing to do with State.  Solitude, with the Person beloved, has a Pleasure,