_Question._ Messieurs. Pray instruct your Petitioner how he shall
go away for the ensuing Long Vacation, having little liberty, and
less money. Yours, SOLITARY.
_Answer._ Study the virtues of patience and abstinence. A right
judgment in the theory may make the practice more agreeable.
_Ques._ Gentlemen. I desire your resolution of the following
question, and you will oblige your humble servant, Sylvia. Whether
a woman hath not a right to know all her husband's concerns, and in
particular whether she may not demand a sight of all the letters he
receives, which if he denies, whether she may not open them
privately without his consent?
_Ans._ Gently, gently, good nimble-fingered lady, you run us out of
breath and patience to trace your unexampled ambition. What! break
open your husband's letters! no, no; that privilege once granted,
no chain could hold you; you would soon proceed to break in upon
his conjugal affection, and commit a burglary upon the cabinet of
his authority. But to be serious, although a well-bred husband
would hardly deny a wife the satisfaction of perusing his familiar
letters, we can noways think it prudent, much less his duty, to
communicate all to her; since most men, especially such as are
employed in public affairs, are often trusted with important
secrets, and such as no wife can reasonably pretend to claim
knowledge of.
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