It is address to “The Idler” written by his humble servant “Tim Warner”. The prose opens with the writer describing his life as a woman who lived in a state of celibacy, seeking companionship and amusement in female tenderness and cheerfulness. He decided to keep his passions neutral and marry only in compliance with his reason. He considered wit as sarcastic, magnanimity imperious, avarice economical, and ignorance obsequious, and employed his own diligence and that of his friends to find the lady in whom nature and reason had reached that happy mediocrity.
Miss Gentle was universally allowed to be a good sort of woman, with her fortune being not large but so prudently managed that she wore finer clothes and saw more company than many who were known to be twice as rich. She always left behind a degree of kindness as recommended her to others, and every day extended her acquaintance. The writer foresaw nothing in marriage but a halcyon calm and longed for the happiness found in the inseparable society of a good sort of woman.
The jointure was soon settled by the intervention of friends, and the day came when Miss Gentle was made mine for ever. The first month was easy enough in receiving and repaying the civilities of their friends, and the bride practiced all the niceties of ceremony with great accuracy. However, the writer began to perceive that he was not much delighted by a good sort of woman.
Her great principle is that the orders of a family must not be broken. Every hour of the day has its employment inviolably appropriated, and she allows herself to sit half an hour after breakfast and dinner, keeping her eye on her watch. She never calls him to supper when he was watching an eclipse and summoned him at another time to bed when he was going to give directions at a fire.
Her conversation is habitually cautious, never talking to him but in general terms as to one whom it is dangerous to trust. For discriminations of character she has no names: all whom she mentions are honest men and agreeable women. She smiles not by sensation, but by practice. Her laughter is never excited but by a joke, and the repetition of a good joke does not weaken its effect.
She is an enemy to nothing but ill-nature and pride, but she has frequent reason to lament that they are so frequent in the world. She condemns those who repress impertinence or quell presumption, or expect respect from any other eminence than that of fortune, to which she is always willing to pay homage.
She never openly hates anyone, and she takes all opportunities to tell how easily she can forgive. She loves no one better than others, and when any of her acquaintance declines in the opinion of the world, she always finds it inconvenient to visit them.
She daily exercises her benevolence by pitying every misfortune that happens to every family within her circle of notice. Her charity shows by lamenting that so many poor wretches should languish in the streets and wonders what the great can think on that they do so little good with such large estates.
In conclusion, the writer presents the character of a good sort of woman, which he believes is essential for understanding and fostering relationships.
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