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Numb. 99. Tuesday, February 26, 1751.

 

Scilicet ingeniis aliqua est concordia junctis, Et servat studii fœdera quisque sui, Rusticus agricolam, miles fera bella gerentem, Rectorem dubiæ navita puppis amat.	Ovid.
Congenial passions souls together bind,  And ev'ry calling mingles with its kind;  Soldier unites with soldier, swain with swain,  The mariner with him that roves the main.	F. Lewis.

 

IT has been ordained by Providence, for the conservation of order in the immense variety of nature, and for the regular propagation of the several classes of life with which the elements are peopled, that every creature should be drawn by some secret attraction to those of his own kind; and that not only the gentle and domestick animals which naturally unite into companies, or co-habit by pairs, should continue faithful to their species; but even those ravenous and ferocious savages which Aristotle observes never to be gregarious, should range mountains and deserts in search of one another, rather than pollute the world with a monstrous birth.

As the perpetuity and distinction of the lower tribes of the creation require that they should be determined to proper mates by some uniform motive of choice, or some cogent principle of instinct; it is necessary likewise, that man, whose wider capacity demands more gratifications, and who feels in himself innumerable wants, which a life of solitude cannot supply, and innumerable powers to which it cannot give employment, should be led to suitable companions by particular influence;