both in the manner you well remember. It hurt me much to find, that my darling propofal for your fpeedy union was thwarted fo long, fhall I fay, by your noblenefs or nature, or by your falfe delicacy? I believe I called it at the time by the latter name, being thoroughly perfuaded, that in your condition I would have aecepted from you the offer which I made. At length, however, the time arrived, in which I was enabled to accomplish, in a manner unknown to you, the darling object of my ambition.

Allow me, my dearest friends, to boaft in this paper, that I have been the invifible architect of the happinefs which we have now enjoyed together for many years. It was the unfeen hand of your Angelica, that made you the happy wife of Eumenes, by placing him in that preferment to which his virtues have given him fo juft a title. How I was fortu nately enabled to make, and to conceal, fo defireable a purchase, you will perfectly comprehend, from the collection of papers which I fhall leave in the cabinet with my will and this letter. As long as the difcovery could wound your honeft pride, by a load of imaginary obligation, 1 determined never to make it; but, fo ftrange is human pride! we are never hurt by the idea of obligation to the dead; and remember, as I faid once before, that I am now fpeaking from the grave. By this conduct I am humouring, at one and the fame time, both your pride and my own; for I will here avow, that I am very ambitious of increafing, after my death, that pure and perfect regard which ye have both fhewn, through the courfe of many focial years, to your living

Angelica. But, while I am thus foliciting an increase of your affec tion, let me guard that very affec tion from one painful exeefs. I know you both fo well, that I am almoft fure you will exclaim together, on first reading thefe papers, Good God, what a generous creature, to make fuch a facrifice of herfelf for our fakes! But, affectionate as these expreffions may be, they will be far from juft. Be affured, my dear friendsand I now speak the language of fober reafon-I have made no facrifice; so far from it, I am convinced, from a long and ferious furvey of human life, that the moft selfish and worldly being could not have purfued any fyftem more conducive to their own private intereft aud advantage than mine has been. You will agree with me in this truth, when I impart to you fome of my own philofophical remarks. I will begin with one of the most important, and it will furprife you; it is this-I am thoroughly convinced, that I fhould not have been happy, had I been, what I once ardently hoped to be, the wife of Eumenes. Hear my reafon, and subscribe to its truth. Amiable as he is, he is a little hafty in his temper; and this circumftance would have been fufficient to make us unhappy; for, even fuppofing I had been able to treat it with the indulgent good fense of his gentle Fauftina, yet all the goodhumour that I could have put, on fuch occafions, into my homely vi fage, would have had but a flow effect in fuppreffing thofe frequent fparks of irritation, which are extinguifhed in a moment by one of her lovely fmiles. Take it, my

dear, as one of my maxims, that every man of hafty fpirit ought to have a very handfome wife; for,

although

although fenfe and good temper in the lady may be the effential remedies for this mafculine foible; yet, believe me, their operation is quickened tenfold by their heart-piercing light of a beautiful countenance. I was led to this remark by a very painful fcene, which once paffed be tween Eumenes and me: he was angry with me for taking the part of his fon Charles, in a little difpute between them; and, though I argued the point with him very calmly, he faid fharply, after the boy had quitted the room, that I fhewed, indeed, much fondnefs to the child, but no true friendship to the father. The expreffion ftung me fo deeply, that I no longer retained a perfect command over my own temper; and, to convince him of the truth and the extent of that friendship, which he arraigned fo unjustly, I fhould certainly have betrayed the darling fecret of my life, which I had refolved to keep inviolate to the end of my days, had not the fudden appearance of my dear Fauftina fuggested to me all the affectionate reafons for my fecrecy, and thus reftored me to myfelf. Her fmiles now fhewed their very great fuperiority over my arguments; for, almoft without the aid of words, but with a sweetnefs of manner peculiar to herself, the reconciled, in a few minutes, the too hafty father, not only to poor Charles, but to the more childish Angelica. This, I believe, was the only time that I was in danger of betraying a fecret, which I had, I think, judicioufly impofed upon myfelf; for my difguife on this point, as it equally confulted our mutual pride and delicacy (whether true or falfe delicacy no matter) has, I conceive, been very favourable to

our general happinefs; to my own I am fure it has. In all thofe moments of fpleen or depreffion, to which, I believe, every mortal is in some degree fubject, nothing has relieved me fo much as the animating recollection, that I have been the unknown architect of my friends felicity. There is fomething angelic in the idea, fupremely flattering to the honeft pride of a feeling heart, Yet, pleafed as I have ever been with the review of my own conduct, which the world might deride as romantic, I would by no means recommend it to another female in my fituation; not from an idea that the might not be as difinterefted as myfelf, but left in her friend fhe fhould not find a Fauftina; for it has not been my own virtue, but the virtues of my lovely inimitable friend, which have given the full fuccefs to my project. Had my Fauftina and Eumenes lived, like many other married folks, in fcenes of frequent bickering or debate, I fhould, I doubt not, like many other good fpinfters, who are witneffes of fuch connubial altercation, have entertained the vain idea that I could have managed the temper of the lordly creature much better, and, of courfe, should have been very restless that I was not his wife: but, to do full juftice to the uncommon merits of my incomparable Fauftina, I here most folemn ly declare to her, I never, fince her marriage, beheld or thought of her and Eumenes, without a full perfuafion that Heaven had made them for each other. But it is high time to finish this fingular confeffion, in which, perhaps, I have indulged myfelf too long. I will only add my prayers, that Heaven may continue health and human happinefs

to

to my two friends, beyond the period affigned to my mortal exiftence; and that, whenever I may cease to enjoy their friendship on earth, they will tenderly forget all the foibles, and mutually cherish the memory,

of

their affectionate ANGELICA."

This generous Old Maid difplayed alfo in her will, which the compofed herfelf, many touching marks of her affectionate fpirit.The house in which the refided, fhe left as a little legacy to Fauftina, and requested her friends to remove into it upon her decease, that Fauftina might not be expofed to a more painful removal, if the fhould happen to furvive her husband. As the knew that a compliance with this request would lead her friends into fome depreffive fenfations, she contrived to furnish them with an engaging though melancholy occupation, by requesting them to build a kind of monument to herfelf, under the form of a little temple to Friendship, on a favourite spot in the garden.

Nothing, perhaps, can equal the uncommon generofity of Angelica, but the tender and unaffected forrow with which her lofs has been lamented. The moft trivial of her requests has been religiously obferv. ed, and the whole family of Eumenes feem to think no pleasure equal to that of doing juftice to her merit, and proclaiming their unexampled obligations to their departed friend."

I

follows:-" for Doctor Clarke att his hous near St James' Church.”

Saterday

GIVE you my thanks for the favour of your letter to me, and am glad I ded not hear of the poor Bi. fhop of Bangors illnefs tell the dan ger is over, I have never feen La fun: fence I came out of Town, but I expect him here to day at dinner, I wish I may have any thing to fay from him that is worth troubling either of you with, but you will be gon before my leter can come to you, and therefore I will write to the Bishop, the furgeons affure me that they fee no danger in the Duke of Marlborough's fhoulder however they will not yet confent that hee fhall goe to Woodftock, I fufpect that caution may proceed from their knowing that one of them muft bee always with us when we are at fuch a distance from London, and therefore they will defer our going as long as they can to attend their other business, I do and have told them that I will buy them at their own rates, and I have known but very few minifters or faverits that were not to bee bought, which must be done in this cafe, for when they fhall come and tell me that his fhoulder may be dreffed by any body, I can't fleep fifty mile from London, if one of the beft furgeons does not lye in the hous, by this account I am apt to think at your return upon the 22d of Auguft you will find us here, but where ever I fhall happen to bee you are fure of being always wellcome to your most faithfull

humble fervant and friend
S. Marlborough.

my humble fervifs.

to Mrs Clarke

having

having this opertunity of writing to you by the Surgeon which will come to you before you leave London, I haye a mind to tell you that my Lord Sunderland was here as I expected, I had a great deal of difcourfe with him upon the B. of Bangor and your affaires, tis impoffible for me to write all the particulars, but hee profeffes all the value and eff. teem imaginable for you both, he affures me that the B. of Bangor is to be B. of Bath and Wells when it falls, but he only fix's him there because it is the most probable to bee vacant firft, but if any other should fall before that, except fome of the very great ones hee will bee for the B. of Bangors having it, what he continues to think of for you is a very good thing which Doctor Younger has at St Paul's, which is confiftent with what you have, and when I fpoake of what you wished for your brother hee expreffed as much pleasure in doing that for him, as you could have in it yourself, and said hee knew him

and ownd that he was a very good man and had a grete deal of merritt, hee added that he defign to get a thoufand pound in the winter of the King for the B. of Bangor to help him tell fomthing happend that was better than what he has, hee appeared to me to bee very defirous of ferving you both in any thing that should happen to be in his power, and I do really believe that he thinks himself that men of your abillitys, would be of fo much use to him, that he fin. cerely wifh's that you would help him to ease fom things which makes it more difficult to compass what I defire then perhaps you will beleive, tho I hope you will never doubt of my being with all the truth imagi nable your moft faithful friend and humble fervant

Sunday the 26 of July windfor lodge

S: Marlborough.

I hope you will give the B. of Bangor an account of the fubftance of this letter,

POETRY.