but the other day she told my boy Dick he eat his pudding so voraciously, as almost to make her faint; and remonstrated against my sneezing in the manner I did, which, she said, tore her poor nerves in pieces.

One thing I have observed peculiar to this disorder, which those conversant in the nature of sympathetic affections may be able to explain. It is not always produced by exactly similar causes, if such causes exist in dissimilar situations. I have known my wife squeezed for hours in a side-box, dance a whole night at a ball, have my Lord talking as fast

and as loud to her as was possible there, and her nose assailed by the stink of a whole row of flambeaux, at going in and coming out, without feeling her nerves in the smallest degree affected; yet, the very day after, at home, she could not bear my chair, or the chair of one of the children, to come within several feet of her's; walk

ing up stairs perfectly overcame her; nonc of us durst talk but in whispers; and the smell of my buttered roll made her sick to death.

As I reckon your paper a proper record for singular cases, and intolerable grievances of every sort, I send the above for your insertion; stating it according to its nature, in terms as physically descriptive as my little acquaintance with the healing art can supply.

I am, &c.

JOSEPH MEEKLY.

This correspondent, as far as his wife's case falls within the department of the physician, I must refer to my very learned friends Doctors Cullen and Monro, who, upon being properly attended, will give him, I am persuaded, as sound advice as it is in the power of medical skill to suggest. In point of prudence, to which only my prescriptions apply, I can advise

nothing so proper for Mr Meekly himself, as to imitate the conduct of the husband of that little lady he describes, the mistress of the Dutch Baby-house; between whom and his wife, though there subsists a very intimate connection, there is yet a contract of a particular kind; whenever the gentleman is at home, the lady is abroad, and vice versa. In their house, indeed, I do not observe any children; from which I conclude, that they have all been sent to the academy and the boarding-school.

SIR,

TO THE AUTHOR OF THE MIRROR.

To reconcile man to man, has been one of the great objects of moralists. They tell us, " that men have one common original, and why should relations quarrel ?" but then a petulant wit interposes, and observes, that the original is not near

enough to form a strong connection; and, if the modern theory of volcanoes be true, the original is so very distant as not to form any sensible connection at all. The duke of Aremberg and Sir Thomas Urquhart may count kindred with the antediluvians; for the former has such a pedigree preserved at his castle at Hainault, and the latter has set forth his in print; but there are few genealogies so complete.

We are next told," that all men are engaged in one common journey through life, and why should they quarrel on the road?" The answer is but too obvious— we do not quarrel merely for the sake of quarrelling; but, as we have opportunity, we take the road, and oblige others, for our conveniency, to yield it; while eagerly galloping to the next stage, we bespatter those who are in our way; we send a servant before to bespeak the best beds at the inn, and the choice of the larder; and

we make ourselves as important and as troublesome as we can, merely for our own convenience; nay, we bribe a waiter to give us all his attendance, and to let the other passengers ring till their arms ache; but it is all to render ourselves as easy as possible.

The last consideration is, "that we are all hastening to one common grave, and why should we quarrel now, since our quarrels must be soon at an end?" This proves that our disputes must be short, not that they may not be sharp.

I remember to have read somewhere of a people, I think to the north-west of Hungary, who had a name in their own language, which answers nearly to our word brothers, and who prided themselves, for a while, in that whimsical appellation. Their tenets were simple, and full of benevolence; and, in general, so plain, that those who heard them for the first time, imagined, that they had been previously