"Interest or pleasure are the motives of all their actions: those who are
led by the first would sell God Almighty, as Judas sold his Master, and
that for less money. I could relate you a thousand noble instances of
this, if I had time. As for the sectaries of pleasure, or those who
pretend to be such, for they are not all so bad as they endeavour to make
themselves appear, these gentlemen pay no manner of regard either to
promises, oaths, law, or religion; that is to say, they are literally no
respecters of persons; they care neither for God nor man, if they can but
gain their ends. They look upon maids of honour only as amusements,
placed expressly at court for their entertainment; and the more merit any
one has, the more she is exposed to their impertinence, if she gives any
ear to them; and to their malicious calumnies, when she ceases to attend
to them. As for husbands, this is not the place to find them; for unless
money or caprice make up the match, there is but little hopes of being
married: virtue and beauty in this respect here are equally useless.
Lady Falmouth is the only instance of a maid of honour well married
without a portion; and if you were to ask her poor weak husband for what
reason he married her, I am persuaded that he can assign none, unless it
be her great red ears and broad feet. As for the pale Lady Yarborough,
who appeared so proud of her match, she is wife, to be sure, of a great
country bumpkin, who, the very week after their marriage, bid her take
her farewell of the town for ever, in consequence of five or six thousand
pounds a year he enjoys on the borders of Cornwall. Alas! poor Miss
Blague! I saw her go away about this time twelvemonth, in a coach with
four such lean horses, that I cannot believe she is yet half way to her
miserable little castle. What can be the matter! all the girls seem
afflicted with the rage of wedlock, and however small their portion of
charms may be, they think it only necessary to show themselves at court
in order to pick and choose their men: but was this in reality the case,
the being a wife is the most wretched condition imaginable for a person