Letter of a Father to a Daughter, relating to Three Persons of different Characters proposed to him, each for her Husband. With his Recommendation of one in Years.

Dear Polly,

I have three several Proposals made me on your Account; and they are so particularly circumstanced, that I cannot approve of one of them.

The first is by Mr. Aldridge, for his Son John, who, you know, is very weak in his Intellects, and so apt to be misled, that he wants a Guardian for him in a Wife and so does you the Reputation to think you a proper Person for that Office. But I think, the worst Weakness in the World in a Husband is, that of Intellect; and I should suffer much to have you linked to a Man who has no Head, and is, for that Reason, highly unworthy to be yours. A foolish Wife is much more tolerable, because she can be kept up; but a foolish Husband will do what he pleases, and go where he pleases; and tho’ he knew nothing else, will think he knows too much to be controuled by his Wife; and will have this Lesson taught him by Rakes and Libertines, when he is capable of no other. So I did not think it necessary so much as to consult you about him.

The second is from Mr. Gough, for his Son Richard, who has run thro’ such a Course of Libertinism, that he has hardly his Fellow, and has neither a sound Head, nor a sound Body; and is so far from being reclaim’d, that his Father proposes a Wife, as the last Hope, for him; and yet knows not whether he will accept of one, if one can be found that would venture upon him. So I could not think of suffering my Daughter to stand either to the Courtesy, or lie at the Mercy, of so profligate a Rake: tho’, it seems, he vouchsafes to like you better, as his Father says, than any one he ever saw; which was the Reason of the old Man's Application to me.