If the vulgar Opinion of the Fatality in Marriage had ever any Sanction, it surely, had such in my Marriage with my Amelia. I knew her in the first Dawn of her Beauty; and, I believe, Madam, she had as much as ever fell to the Share of a Woman; but though I always admired her, it was long without any Spark of Love. Perhaps the general Admiration which at that Time pursued her, the Respect paid her by Persons of the highest Rank, and the numberless Addresses which were made her by Men of great Fortune, prevented my aspiring at the Possession of those Charms, which seemed so absolutely out of my Reach.