Oh! you are fuch a romantic creature (cried the), that we must not confult your judgment in matters of this kind: but I think lord Merioneth, who is without doubt a young man of great underftanding, can never entertain ferious thoughts of uniting his fate with fo obfcure a partner.

Before I could anfwer, the lady in queftion joined us, followed by lord Merioneth.

Our expected guests arrived yefterday, and spent the day with us. The party confifted of lord and lady Derwent, their fon and daughter, Mrs Maynard, and a mifs Rutland, a young lady under the protection of lady Derwent. After the tirefome ceremony of formal introductions was over, we all appeared equally determined to be pleafed with each other. Even the earl, though (I plainly perceived) with fome difficulty, difencumbered himfelf from his ufual weight of digni

May one know (fid Mrs. Maynard, archly) what fubject you were debating on as you came up the walk? (I fhould have ob'erved we were in the garden.) Miis Rutland blufhed.-Lord Merioneth answered, I was endeavouring to convince Mifs Rutland, that this view, beautiful as it is, is nothing to the fcenery of italy. Here is not that

ty, and condefcended to be agree-wild romantic diverfity which characterises the landscapes of that country. But here, faid he, bowing gallantly, I must drop my allufions; for, in the prefence of the Graces, even Siberia's deferts would become a paradise.

the ladies one morning this week. She could not anfwer for the earl, who pays conftant attendance to the duties of parliament. Thus ftands the matter at prefent; and I will not clofe this letter till I fee if Mrs. Maynard makes good her promife.

able. Lady Derwent is a meft pleafing woman :-Lord Merioneth refembles the youthful portrait of my honoured father; and I already feel for him the affection of a fifter. But how fhall I find words which may do juftice to the beauty, elegance, and dignity of Ellen Rutland? It is impoffible to defcribe hét; you muft fce her before you can form any estimate of her numberlefs attractions.

Why I really think, (fhe anfwered) as far as I can judge, that his lordship's late refidence in Italy has much improved him in that science.

land.

Oh! (cried he) you miftake the matter entirely, my charming Rut

proved,-bowing to her.

She blushed exceflively.

I honour his taste-was my reply. He does no credit to his under-land; it is the fubject which is im ftanding by the felection, faid Mrs. Maynard; for I believe mis Rutland is a dependent on his mother's bounty, without family or fortune; and it is not reasonable to think the earl, with his knowledge of the world, will ever confent to fo ftrange an alliance.

It would raife him (faid I) much. in my eftimation, if he confented with a good grace to the happines of his fon..

Mrs. Maynard whispered me, in confidence, that the thought lord Merioneth was fond of mifs Rut

2

Go, you are a trifler, (faid Mrs. Maynard, laughing) though. I must confels, an agreeable one, and flatter with a very good grace.-Does he not, mifs Rutland?

Mrs. Mayna: d exclaimed, I really think, my lord, you would make love in a very pretty manner.--What do you think, mits Rutland ?

I-I do not know, nadam,--hefitatingly.

On his fordip has not tried his abilities then in your hearing.

In pity to mits Rutland's confuGon, I exclaimed, You are too curious

fure.

enough to prefer the greatest plea- | Baffanio, and from precifely the fame run of ill-luck in his fea-adventures,

Superfluity and parade, among the vulgar-rich, pafs for elegance and greatnefs. To the man of true tafte, temperance is luxury, and fimplicity grandeur.

Whatever pleafures are immediately derived from the fenfe, perons of fine internal feelings enjoy, befides their other pleasures; while fuch as place their chief happiness in the former, can have no true tafte for the delicious fenfations of the foul.

They who divide profit and honefty, mistake the nature either of the one or the other. We muft make a difference between appearance and truth: the real profitable and good are the fame.

Falfe appearances of profit are the greatest enemies to true intereft. Future forrows prefent themselves in the difguife of prefent pleasures; and fhort-fighted folly eagerly embraces the deceit.

"The dangerous rocks, Touching his gentle veffel's fide, Had fcattered all his fpices on the ftream,

Every fpecies of vice originates either from infenfibility, from want of judgment, or from both. No maxim can be more true than that all vice is folly. For, either by vice we bring mifery more immédiately on ourselves, or we involve others in mifery. If any one bring evil on himself, it is furely folly; if his prefent pleafure be to make others miferable, were he to efcape every other punishment, he muft fuffer for it by remorfe,-or it is a certain proof he is deprived of that fenfe or fympathy which is the oppofite of dulnefs; in either of which cafes it is evident that all vice is folly.

Enrob'd the roaring waters with his filks,

And not one vessel 'cap'd the dreadful

To thefe mifcarriages abroad were added fimilar calamities at home. Several great houfes broke in his debt; and with the wrecks of his fortune, gathered together, he left the metropolis, and took ref ge in the mountains of Montgomeryfire. A little girl, then only nine years of age, his only furviving child, was the fole companion of his retreat, and fimiled away his misfortunes. The care of her education was his moft certain relief from the corroding reflections of the paft; and the certainty of her poffeffing, at his death, fufficient to prevent a good mind from the horrors of depen dence, foftened his thoughts of the future; the prefent was filled up with the delights of feeing her ambition yet humbler than her fortunes, and literally bounded by the objects that furrounded her. To tend the flowers he had fet with her own hand, to nurfe the fhrubs fhe had planted, to fport with and feed the lamb fhe had domefticated, to fee it follow her in her rambles, and to listen to the melodies of nature, as they murmured in the waters or echoed through the woods, were her chief amutements without doors,

MERCHANT and his DAUGHTER.

HISTORY of the decayed ENGLISH and by a thousand love-taught duties to make a father forget that he had ever been unhappy or unfor tunate, her deareft ftudy within. Of her per.onal attractions I fhall fay little a fingie line of Thompfon's gives the trueft image of them, and

(From Pratt's Gleanings.)
Merchant, of confiderable

A eminence in London, was

reduced to the fituation of poor VOL. XXVII.

D

touch

Of merchant-marring rocks."

and of the unaffected mind by | which it once appeared impoffible which they were illumined.

we should ever país a day, are yielded for others, that it then would have been thought as impoffible even to have endured. Our merchant would have deemed the company of a monarch an intrusion; and the jargon of the Exchange, which had for fo many years been mufic to his ears, could not now have been borne. I have here given you fome of his own expreffions. At length he fell fick. His daughter was then in her eighteenth year; the disorder was of a gradual kind, that threatened to continue life after one has ceased to love it, and to close in death. He lingered eleven weeks; and the old domestic being now fuperannuated and almost blind,-his daughter was at once his nurfe, his cook, his confoler, and might truly be faid to make his bed in his ficknefs. She wanted not the world to teach her the filial duties. Her own pure heart fupplied them all, and her own gentle hands adminiftered them. But now, for the firft time of her existence, fhe added to her father's anguifh. It almost kills me to look on you, my only love, cried he, with an emphafis of forrow, and bursting into tears.

"Artlefs of beauty, fhe was beauty's

felf."

It is not eafy to be wretched in the conftant fociety of perfect inno. cence: the company of a beautiful child, wholly unpolluted by the world, affords one the idea of angelic affociation. Its harmleffnefs appears to guarantee one from harm we reflect, nay we fee and hear, almost every moment it is climbing our knees, playing at our fide, engaging our attentious, or repofing in our arms, the words and acts of an unfpotted being; and we can fearce be perfuaded, any real ill can befal us, while a companion fo like a guardian cherub is near. When the babe is our own-fay, ye parents, how the fenfation is then exalted!-Which of you, having at your option the lofs of the ampleft fortune, or of the feebleft infant, would not cleave to the last, and refign the former ? or, if any of you balanced a moment, would not one lifping word, one cafual look, turn the feale in favour of nature, and make you think it a crime to have hesitated?

I am fure, (replied fhe, falling on her knees at his bed-fide) it has al

Such were the fentiments of the merchant, and under their cheering influence he lived many years, dur-moft killed me to hear you fay fo; ing which, a few mountain peafants, and if it would make my deareft faan old relict of his better days, as ther better, I would kill myfelf this a fervant, who had been nurfe to moment, and trust in God's mercy the young lady, and his daughter, to forgive me. Ah, my child, you were the only objects with whom hemiftake the caufe and motive of my converfed. So powerful is habit, regrets, refumed the parent-the that we affimilate to perfons, places, thoughts of leaving you without and things, that on our first intro- protection,-there is the bitterness. duction to them, we might imagine, I am not going to be left, faid fhe, neither philofophy, cuftom, nor reli-rifing haftly: I have a prefage you will be well foon; and I am a great prophetefs, my beloved father. Be in good fpirits, for I am fure, you will recover.I have fent to Montgomery and Welch Pool; and tomorrow, I am to have the two best doctors in Wales.

gion, could make fapportable. We are furprised to find we attach to them, even to endearment. In time, even our former habits, no lefs ftrong in us, are but flightly remembered; and thofe purfuits, diverfions, and.....focistics, without

Your

but

Your goodness is always a com- vation of his ftyle, which continufort, my darling (replied the de-ally united the boldet images with fponding merchant): but two thou-the most rigorous precifion,-we fand Welch doctors could not fet me are tempted to efteem him the greatagain on my legs. If indeed I was eft, the most univerfal, and the in a condition to procure most eloquent of philofophers. His that's impoffible! works are justly valued,-perhaps more valued than known, and therefore more deferving ftudy than eulogiums. Bacon, born amidst the obfcurity of the moft profound night, perceived that philofophy d d not yet exist, though many had, undoubtedly, flattered themselves they excelled in it; for the more an age is grofs and ignorant, the more it believes itself informed of all that can poffibly be known. He began by taking a general view of the various objects of all natural fciences; he divided thofe fciences into different branches, of which he made the most exact enumeration. He examined what was already known relative to each of those objects; and he drew up an immenfe catalogue of what remained to be difcovered. This was the aim and fubject of his admirable work on the dignity and au,men. tation of natural knowledge. In his New Organ of Sciences, he perfects the views he had pointed out in the firft work: he carries them further, and fhews the neceffity of experimental phyfics, wt.ich was not yet thought of. An enemy to sys tems, he beholds philofophy as only that part of our knowledge which ought to contribute to make us better or more happy. He feems to limit it to the fcience of ufeful things, and every where recommends the ftudy of nature. His other writings are formed on the fame plan. Every thing in them, even their titles, is expreffive of the HEN we attentively confiderman of genius,- of the mind that the juft, intelligent, and fees in great. He there collects tacts, extenfive views of this great man,— he there compares experiments, and the multiplicity of objects his pene-indicates a great number to be trating understanding had compre-made. He invites the learned to hended within its fphere, the ele- ftudy and perfect the arts, which he

W1

i) 2

deems

Procure what -whom -Nothing is impoffible, anfwered his daughter with the most eager hafte. I have an idle and romantic faith in the only man in the whole world that knows my conftitution; and he is as far beyond my reach, as if he were out of existence.

Good heaven! you mean Dr. exclaimed the daughter. I have heard you often speak of his having twice before faved your precious life; for which i have had him in my nightly prayers ever fince, and shall go on bleffing him to the hour of my death. O, that I were a man to fetch him!

The father preffed her tenderly in his feeble arms, in acknowledgment of her affection, but told ber, that, from a multiplicity of other claims, it would be as impofible for the doctor to get down to Wales, as for himself to go out of his fick bed to London. Do not, therefore, let us think of it, my child, continued the father, fince it is only the aggravation of a vain with, to know that it must end in disappointment.-I am refigned.

(To be continued.)

CHARACTER of Sir FRANC16 BA-
Cox, Lord High Chancellor of
England.

(From the French of M. D'Alembert.)