it is the purpose of marriage to have the enjoyment of pin-money,
and the expectation of a jointure."

"These, {61} indeed, are the effects of luxury, which is, perhaps,
inseparable from a certain degree of power and grandeur in a nation.
But it is not simply of the progress of luxury that we have to
complain: did its votaries keep in their own sphere of thoughtless
dissipation, we might despise them without emotion; but the
frivolous pursuits of pleasure are mingled with the most important
concerns of the state; and public enterprise shall sleep till he who
should guide its operation has decided his bets at Newmarket, or
fulfilled his engagement with a favourite mistress in the country.
We want some man of acknowledged eminence to point our counsels with
that firmness which the counsels of a great people require. We have
hundreds of ministers, who press forward into office without having
ever learned that art which is necessary for every business: the
art of thinking; and mistake the petulance, which could give
inspiration to smart sarcasms on an obnoxious measure in a popular
assembly, for the ability which is to balance the interest of
kingdoms, and investigate the latent sources of national
superiority. With the administration of such men the people can
never be satisfied; for besides that their confidence is gained only
by the view of superior talents, there needs that depth of
knowledge, which is not only acquainted with the just extent of
power, but can also trace its connection with the expedient, to
preserve its possessors from the contempt which attends
irresolution, or the resentment which follows temerity."

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