TWO married lovers lead very different lives:  They have the pleasure to pass their time in a successive intercourse of mutual obligations and marks of benevolence; and they have the delight to find, that each forms the entire happiness of the beloved object.  Herein consists perfect felicity.  The most trivial concerns of economy become noble and elegant, when they are exalted by sentiments of affection:  To furnish an apartment, is not barely to furnish an apartment; it is a place where I expect my lover:  To prepare a supper, is not merely giving orders to my cook; it is an amusement to regale the object I dote on.  In this light, a woman considers these necessary occupations, as more lively and affecting pleasures than those gaudy sights which amuse the greater part of the sex, who are incapable of true enjoyment.

A FIXED and affectionate attachment softens every emotion of the soul, and renders every object agreeable which presents itself to the happy lover (I mean one who is married to his mistress).  If he exercises any employment, the fatigues of the camp, the troubles of the court, all become agreeable, when he reflects, that he endures these inconveniences to serve the object of his affections.  If fortune is favourable to him, (for success does not depend on merit) all the advantages it procures, are so many tributes which he thinks due to the charms of the lovely fair; and, in gratifying this ambition, he feels a more lively pleasure, and more worthy of an honest man, than that of raising his fortune, and gaining public applause.  He enjoys glory, titles, and riches, no farther than as they regard her he loves; and when he attracts the approbation of a senate, the applause of an army, or the commendation of his prince, it is her praises which ultimately flatter him.

IN a reverse of fortune, he has the consolation of retiring to one who is affected by his disgrace; and, locked in her embraces, he has the satisfaction of giving utterance to the following tender reflections:  “My happiness does not depend on the caprice of fortune; “I have a constant asylum against inquietude.  Your esteem renders me “insensible of the injustice of a court, or the ingratitude of a “master; and my losses afford me a kind of pleasure, since they “furnish me with fresh proofs of your virtue and affection.  Of what “use is grandeur to those who are already happy?  We have no need of “flatterers, we want no equipages; I reign in your affections, and I “enjoy every delight in the possession of your person.”

IN short, there is no situation in which melancholy may not be assuaged by the company of the beloved object.  Sickness itself is not without its alleviation, when we have the pleasure of being attended by her we love.  I should never conclude, if I attempted to give a detail of all the delights of an attachment, wherein we meet with every thing which can flatter the senses with the most lively and diffusive raptures.