The happiness arising from an union depends chiefly on the character of the persons who are concerned in it. If men and women were as consistent and virtuous as they should be, the connubial bond would be soft and pleasant; but as these effects do not always arise, where is the fault? Which is better, or more worthy, the male or the female sex? This is rather a difficult question; and let the palm of superior merit be awarded to either, the imputation of prejudice would be connected with the decision. But fortunately there is little difference: one varies from the other in particular qualities; but if the aggregate of merit be taken in each, the amount will not differ much. Education forms the principal variation: men are instructed in the more active and laborious employments, women in the more sedentary and domestic. Dr Southey says, that "if women are not formed of finer clay, there has been more of the dew of heaven to temper it." Richard Flecknoe, a contemporary with Dryden, observes of the female sex,--"I have always been conversant with the best and worthiest in all places where I came; and among the rest with ladies, in whose conversation, as in an academy of virtue, I learnt nothing but goodness, and saw nothing but nobleness." It must be granted, that women in general possess more of the sweetness and softness of human nature, while men are endowed with more vigorous virtues; women are gifted with more fortitude, and men with more valor. Jeremy Taylor says,--"Marriage hath in it the labor of love, and the delicacies of friendship; the blessings of society, and the union of hands and hearts." Cowper has also alluded to the advantages of a matrimonial settlement,-- "O friendly to the best pursuits of man, Friendly to thought, to virtue, and to peace, Domestic life in rural pleasure pass'd." Marriage is frequently an union of interest: the happiness of one is made a source of enjoyment to the other. It is for life, because it is most agreeable with the inclination of mankind that friendship, esteem and love should be permanent. In this instance a continuance of the union constitutes no small part of the bliss. The expectation of a durable connection makes men careful, otherwise they would marry and unmarry every week. There is, by the arrangement of the Almighty, a comparative power or influence vested in the man, because, agreeably with all good government,-- "Some are, and must be, greater than the rest;" but then, as Dr Beattie observes, "the superiority vested by law in the man is compensated to the woman by that superior complaisance which is paid them by every man who aspires to elegance of manners." And besides this, the husband has frequently the nominal, while the wife has the actual power:-- "Like as the helme doth rule the shippe,"