and in which he had given a ftill more enchanting portrait of her mind than her person. "Ah!" faid that good man to me, "I have no daughter to offer you; and if this picture be a faithful one, it will be a difficult matter to find her equal. I will detain you no longer. Go, be happy-think of me, and do not cease to love me."

"Nervin, as he liftened to this narrative, flood wrapt up in thoughtful attention. 'No,' faid he, 'fuddenly breaking filence, I will not defire you to be ungrateful, nor will I fuffer a Dutchman to boaft that he is more generous than I. You have no profeffion here, and you are not formed to lead an idle and ufelefs life. It would be a very great fatisfaction for me, as you must imagine, to have my children about me, but let that bleffing be referved for my old age; and as my business here furnishes me with fufficient occupation to keep away ennui, write to the worthy Odelman, and tell him, that I give you up to him, together with my daughter, for half a score years; after which you will return, I hope, with a little colony of children; and you and I, in the mean while, shall have been labouring for their advantage."

"The Dutchman, overjoyed, returned for anfwer, that his house, his arms, his heart, were

all

all open to receive the new-married pair. He expects them, they are going to fet off, and Oliver will henceforth be in partnership with him. This is the inftance I have promised you," added Watelet, of a fpecies of courage that many unfor tunate people are in want of, that of never for feiting their own efteem, and that of never defpairing fo long as confcious of their own integrity."

ON

ABSENCE.

HERE are certain cares which intrude upon

TH

the mind on all occafions and in all places, nor can we prevent them. The ftrong influence which they exercife over us will not fuffer our attention to be long bestowed on things which have no relation to themfelves. Have we aught to do which remains undone, or have ills of any kind befallen those whom we fincerely regard; our own condition, or that of our friends, will be a fubje&t from which our thoughts cannot, for a long time, be wholly abftracted.

We are not to be furprized, therefore, nor ought we to be offended, if, by those who are under thefe or fimilar circumftances, a becoming

obferv

obfervance of time, place, and perfon, should, without intention, be often neglected.

In these cases the infcientia temporis may admit of excufe: but the wilful difregard of that particular decorum which the prefent occafion may demand, furely deferves fevere reprehenfion; and especially as the practice of it daily becomes more and more frequent.

This inattention to the place in which, and to the perfons with whom we are, and to the occafion on which we are met, is called, whether it be with or without caufe, whether with or without intention, Absence; the chief difcrimination in company, as it is now-a-days thought, between men of fuperior intellectual ftrength, and those who poffefs only common understanding.

No doubt they who have the most knowledge have the greatest employment for their thoughts, and certainly do think the most; moreover, in thofe who have been accuftomed, during the whole of their lives, to spend much of their time in the penfive occupation of folitary study, and have delighted more in books than in men, the habit of thought may be fo powerful, that they may scarcely ever be long and thoroughly free from it; and, therefore,

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therefore, cannot but have in company frequent, though inconscious relapfes into the abfent ftate.

And, because in this manner fome men of learning and genius have been observed to behave, a conclufion has been made, that the behaviour of every one of fuperior parts must be the fame; and therefore, that by this we should at all times. be enabled to diftinguifh in company thofe who have knowledge from those who have none. The error, however, of this conclufion will shortly appear; for now there is hardly a man who wishes to be confidered in any wife learned, that does not affect to be frequently abfent.

If men confeffedly great have ever, and it is to be fufpected that they fometimes have, been guilty of the affectation of absence, fuch their conduct could only proceed from a notion, which muft excite contempt for those by whom it is held, that common converfation has nothing in it worthy their notice, and, therefore, that it would not become them to be attentive to it.

Certainly in this they are fadly deceived; and fuch a mistake cannot but prove, that the greatest weakness will fometimes be fhewn by thofe who are efteemed the wifeft of men,

That

That philofophy, however, which is of a more genuine kind, which has a confideration for others as well as for felf, thinks and acts in a different manner; at all times adapts itself to the fociety in which it may be; and to the mereft trifles. provided the pleasure of others can be promoted thereby, readily gives the most patient attention.

When men, in genius or in knowledge greater than others, are inattentive to the company at which they are prefent, they furely forget the end of their vifit: they forget that we retire to the closet for meditation and ftudy, but that we come into fociety for relaxation and amusement; to be absent, therefore, on these occafions is, as it were, to fall into flumbers when we should keep awake; it is committing a rudeness which finks us at once to the barbarian level; it is giving an offence which cannot but fometimes be of hurt to thofe from whom it proceeds, and which all but the defipient or infane would wish to avoid.