But domestic occurrences form a very essential part of this folio: thus, a marriage hurts an old maid and mortifies a young one, while it consoles many a poor dejected husband, who is secretly pleased to find another fallen into his case--a death, if of a wife, makes husbands envy the widower, while, perhaps, some one of the women who censure his alleged want of ~213~~decent sorrow, marry him within a month after--in fact, every person is put in motion by a Newspaper.
"Here various news is found, of love and strife; Of peace and war, health, sickness, death, and life; Of loss and gain, of famine and of store; Of storms at sea, and travels on the shore; Of prodigies and portents seen in air; Of fires and plagues, and stars with blazing hair; Of turns of fortune, changes in the state, The falls of favourites, projects of the great." "It is a bill of fare, containing all the luxuries as well as necessaries, of life.

Politics, for instance, are the roast beef of the times; essays, the plum pudding; and poetry the fritters, confections, custards, and all the _et cotera_ of the table, usually denominated trifles.

Yet the four winds are not liable to more mutability than the vehicles of these entertainments; for instance, on Monday, it is whispered--on Tuesday, it is rumoured--on Wednesday, it is conjectured--on Thursday, it is probable--on Friday, it is positively asserted--and, on Saturday, it is premature.

But notwithstanding this, some how or other, all are eventually pleased; for, as the affections of all are divided among wit, anecdote, poetry, prices of stocks, the arrival of ships, &c.

a Newspaper is a repository where every one has his hobby-horse; without it, coffee-houses, &c.