much your friend? Think of all the obliga

CHAPTER VII.

profound learning called the knowledge of the town.

tions you have to him, and then you may In which the author appears to be master of that easily resolve yourself. Do you think, because I refuse to stay behind you in his house, that I have any objection to him?No, my dear, had he done a thousand times MRS. JAMES now came to pay a morning's more than he hath, was he an angel instead visit to Amelia. She entered the room with of a man, I would not quit my Billy.- her usual gayety, and, after a slight preface, There's the sore, my dear: there's the mi- addressing herself to Booth, said, she had sery, to be left by you.' been quarrelling with her husband on his Booth embraced her with the most pas-account. I know not,' said she, 'what he sionate raptures, and looking on her with means by thinking of sending you the Lord inexpressible tenderness, cried-Upon my knows whither. I have insisted on his asksoul, I am not worthy of you.-I am a fool, ing something for you nearer home. And and yet you cannot blame me.-If the stupid it would be the hardest thing in the world, miser hoards, with such care, his worthless if he should not obtain it. Are we resolved treasure; if he watches it with such anxiety; never to encourage merit, but to throw away if every apprehension of another's sharing all our preferments on those who do not the least part fills his soul with such ago- deserve them? What a set of contemptible nies; O, Amelia! what must be my condi- wretches do we see strutting about the tion, what terrors must I feel, while I am town in scarlet!' watching over a jewel, of such real, such inestimable worth?'

'I can, with great truth, return the compliment,' cries Amelia. 'I have my treasure too; and am so much a miser, that no force shall ever tear me from it.'

'I am ashamed of my folly,' cries Booth; and yet it is all from extreme tenderness. Nay, you yourself are the occasion. Why will you ever attempt to keep a secret from me? Do you think I should have resented to my friend his just censure of my conduct?' 'What censure, my dear love?' cries Amelia.

Booth made a very low bow, and modestly spoke in disparagement of himself. To which she answered, 'Indeed, Mr. Booth, you have merit. I have heard it from my brother, who is a judge of those matters; and I am sure cannot be suspected of flattery. He is your friend as well as myself; and we will never let Mr. James rest till he has got you a commission in England.'

Booth bowed again, and was offering to speak, but she interrupted him, saying, 'I will have no thanks, nor no fine speeches. If I can do you any service, I shall think I am only paying the debt of friendship to my dear Mrs. Booth.'

Amelia, who had long since forgot the dislike she had taken to Mrs. James at her first seeing her in town, had attributed it to the right cause, and had begun to resume her former friendship for her, expressed very warm sentiments of gratitude on this occasion. She told Mrs. James, she should be eternally obliged to her if she could succeed in her kind endeavours; for that the thoughts of parting again with her husband had given her the utmost concern. Indeed,'

'Nay, the sergeant hath told me all,' cries Booth.-'Nay, and that he hath told it to you-Poor soul! thou couldst not endure to hear me accused, though never so justly, and by so good a friend. Indeed, my dear, I have discovered the cause of that resentment to the colonel, which you could not hide from me. I love you, I adore you for it. Indeed, I could not forgive a slighting word on you-But why do I compare things so unlike? what the colonel said to me was just and true; every reflection on my Ame-added she, 'I cannot help saying, he hath lia must be false and villanous.'

which very greatly endangered his life; and I am convinced, if his pretensions were backed with any interest, he would not fail of success.'

some merit in the service; for he hath reThe discernment of Amelia was extreme-ceived two dreadful wounds in it, one of ly quick; and she now perceived what had happened, and how much her husband knew of the truth. She resolved, therefore, to humour him, and fell severely on Colonel James, for what he had said to the sergeant, which Booth endeavoured all he could to soften; and thus ended this affair, which had brought Booth to the very brink of a discovery, which must have given him the highest torment, if it had not produced any of those tragical effects which Amelia apprehended.

"They shall be backed with interest,' cries Mrs. James, 'if my husband hath any. He hath no favour to ask for himself, nor for any other friend that I know of; and, indeed, to grant a man his just due, ought hardly to be thought a favour. Resume your old gayety, therefore, my dear Emily. Lord! I remember the time when you was much the gayer creature of the two. But you make an arrant mope of yourself, by confining yourself at home. One never

PP

meets you any where. Come, you shall go | care of Mrs. Atkinson, she and her husband with me to the Lady Betty Castleton's.' Indeed, you must excuse me, my dear,' answered Amelia, 'I do not know Lady Betty.'

'Indeed, my dear,' said Amelia, 'you injure The name of this gentleman, with whom me; for I envy no woman's happiness in the reader will hereafter be better acquaintmarriage.' At these words, such looks passed ed, was Trent. He had formerly been in between Booth and his wife, as, to a sensible the same regiment with Booth, and there bystander, would have made all the airs of was some intimacy between them. Captain Mrs. James appear in the highest degree con-Trent expressed great delight in meeting temptible, and would have rendered herself his brother officer, and both mutually prothe object of compassion. Nor could that lady avoid looking a little silly on the occasion. Amelia, now, at the earnest desire of her husband, accoutred herself to attend her friend; but first she insisted on visiting her children, to whom she gave several hearty kisses, and then recommending them to the

her return home, that the doctor had been | choice will fall; for of all men, next to her to wait upon her, and had expressed some husband, I believe, none can contend with anger at her being gone out, she became Dr. Harrison in her favour.' greatly uneasy, and begged her husband to go to the doctor's lodgings, and make her apology.

But lest the reader should be as angry with the doctor as he had declared himself with Amelia, we think proper to explain the matter. Nothing then was farther from the doctor's mind than the conception of any anger towards Amelia. On the contrary, when the girl answered him, that her mistress was not at home, the doctor said with great good humour, How! not at home! then tell your mistress she is a giddy vagabond, and I will come to see her no more til she sends for me.'-This the poor girl, from misunderstanding one word, and half forgetting the rest, had construed into great passion, several very bad words, and a declaration that he would never see Amelia any more.

CHAPTER VIII.

In which two strangers make their appearance. BOOTH went to the doctor's lodgings, and found him engaged with his country friend and his son, a young gentleman who was lately in orders; both whom the doctor had left to keep his appointment with Amelia.

'Since you say so,' cries the doctor,fetch her hither to dinner with us; for I am at least so good a Christian to love those that love me-I will show you my daughter, my old friend; for I am really proud of her -and you may bring my grandchildren with you, if you please.'

Booth made some compliments, and then went on his errand. As soon as he was gone, the old gentleman said to the doctor, Pray, my good friend, what daughter is this of yours? I never so much as heard that you was married.'

'And what then?' cries the doctor, 'did you ever hear that a pope was married? and yet some of them had sons and daughters, I believe; but, however, this young gentleman will absolve me without obliging me to penance.'

'I have not yet that power, answered the young clergyman; for I am only in deacon's orders.'

'Are you not?' cries the doctor; 'why then I will absolve myself. You are to know, then, my good friend, that this young lady was the daughter of a neighbour of mine, who is since dead, and whose sins, I hope, are forgiven; for she had too much to answer for on her child's account. Her father was my intimate acquaintance and After what we mentioned at the end of friend; a worthier man, indeed, I believe, the last chapter, we need take little notice of never lived. He died suddenly, when his the apology made by Booth, or the doctor's children were infants; and, perhaps, to the reception of it, which was in his peculiar suddenness of his death it was owing, that manner. 'Your wife,' said he, 'is a vain he did not recommend any care of them to hussy to think herself worth my anger; but me. However, I, in some measure, took tell her I have the vanity myself to think I that charge upon me; and particularly of cannot be angry without a better cause. her whom I call my daughter. Indeed, as And yet tell her, intend to punish her for her she grew up, she discovered so many good levity for if you go abroad, I have deter-qualities, that she wanted not the rememmined to take her down with me into the country, and make her do penance there till you return.'

'Dear sir,' said Booth, 'I know not how to thank you, if you are in earnest.'

brance of her father's merit to recommend her. I do her no more than justice, when I say, she is one of the best creatures I ever knew. She hath a sweetness of temper, a generosity of spirit, an openness of heartI assure you then I am in earnest,' cries in a word, she hath a true christian dispothe doctor; but you need not thank me,sition. I may call her an Israelite indeed, however, since you know not how.' in whom there is no guile.'

'But would not that, sir,' said Booth, 'be showing a slight to the colonel's invitation? and you know I have so many obligations to him.'

'Don't tell me of the colonel,' cries the doctor; the church is to be first served. Besides, sir, I have priority of right, even to you yourself. You stole my lamb from me: for I was her first love.'

'Well, sir,' cries Booth, if I should be so unhappy to leave her to any one, she must herself determine; and, I believe, it will not be difficult to guess where her

'I wish you joy of your daughter,' cries the old gentleman; for to a man of your disposition, to find out an adequate object of your benevolence, is, I acknowledge, to find a treasure.'

'It is, indeed, a happiness,' cries the doctor.

The greatest difficulty,' added the gentleman, which persons of your turn of mind meet with, is in finding proper objects of their goodness; for nothing sure can be more irksome to a generous mind than to. discover that it hath thrown away all its

'Nor I either,' cries the doctor, 'I will give you my opinion therefore very seriously.Πάντας γὰρ φιλέσκεν. The two verses taken together contain a But Plato, who of the heathens came near- very positive precept, delivered in the plainest to the christian philosophy, condemnedest words, and yet illustrated by the clearthis as impious doctrine; so Eustathius tells us, folio 474.'

The doctor readily agreed to his friend's proposal, and soon after ordered two coaches to be sent for, to carry the whole company. But when the servant was gone for them, Booth acquainted the doctor that it was yet too early. Is it so?' said the doctor; why then, I will carry you first to one of the greatest and highest entertainments in the world.'

The children pricked up their ears at this; nor did any of the company guess what he meant; and Amelia asked what entertainment he could carry them to at that time of day?

'Suppose,' says the doctor, 'I should carry you to court.'

'At five o'clock in the afternoon!' cries Booth.

'Ay, suppose I should have interest enough to introduce you into the presence.'

venge in the magistrates or officers of justice, when they punish criminals? Why do such, ordinarily I mean, concern themselves in inflicting punishments, but because it is their duty? and why may not a private man deliver an offender into the hands of justice from the same laudable motive? Revenge, indeed, of all kinds, is strictly prohibited; wherefore, as we are not to execute it with our own hands, so neither are we to make use of the law as the instrument of private malice, and to worry each other with inveteracy and rancour. And where is the great difficulty of obeying this wise, this generous, this noble precept? If revenge be, as a certain divine, not greatly to his honour, calls it, the most luscious morsel the devil ever dropped into the mouth of a sinner, it must be allowed at least to cost us often extremely dear. It is a dainty, if indeed it be one, which we come at with great inquietude, with great difficulty, and with great danger. However pleasant it may be to the palate, while we are feeding on it, it is sure to leave a bitter relish behind it; and so far, indeed, it may be called a luscious morsel, that the most greedy appetites are soon glutted, and the most eager longing for it is soon turned into loathing and repentance. I allow there is something tempting in its out-edly depraved, where would the vain man ward appearance; but it is like the beautiful colour of some poisons, from which, however they may attract our eyes, a regard to our own welfare commands us to abstain. And this is an abstinence to which wisdom alone, without any divine command, hath often been found adequate; with instances of which, the Greek and Latin authors every where abound. May not a Christian, therefore, be well ashamed of making a stumbling-block of a precept, which is not only consistent with his worldly interest, but to which so noble an incentive is proposed!'

You are jesting, dear sir,' cries Amelia. 'Indeed, I am serious,' answered the doctor; 'I will introduce you into that presence, compared to whom the greatest emperor on the earth is many millions of degrees meaner than the most contemptible reptile is to him. What entertainment can there be to a rational being equal to this? Was not the taste of mankind most wretch

find an honour, or where would the love of pleasure propose so adequate an object as divine worship? With what ecstasy must the contemplation of being admittted to such a presence fill the mind! The pitiful courts of princes are open to few, and to those only at particular seasons; but from this glorious and gracious presence we are none of us, and at no time, excluded.'

The doctor was proceeding thus, when the servant returned, saying, the coaches were ready; and the whole company, with the greatest alacrity, attended the doctor to St. James's church.

When the service was ended, and they were again got into their coaches, Amelia returned the doctor many thanks, for the light in which he had placed divine worship; assuring him, that she had never before had so much transport in her devotion, as at this time; and saying, she believed she should be the better for this notion he had given her, as long as she lived.

The old gentleman fell into raptures at this speech, and after making many compliments to the doctor upon it, he turned to his son, and told him, he had an opportunity of learning more in one day, than he had learned at the university in a twelvemonth. The son replied, that he allowed the doctrine to be extremely good in general, and that he agreed with the greater part; but I must make a distinction,' said he. How- The coaches being come to the waterever, he was interrupted from his distinc-side, they all alighted, and getting into one tion at present; for now Booth returned boat, proceeded to Vauxhall. with Amelia and the children.

CHAPTER IX.

A scene of modern wit and humour. In the afternoon, the old gentleman proposed a walk to Vauxhall; a place, of which, he said, he had heard much, but had never seen it.

The extreme beauty and elegance of this place is well known to almost every one of my readers; and happy is it for me that it is so; since, to give an adequate idea of it, would exceed my power of description. To delineate the particular beauties of these gardens, would, indeed, require as much pains, and as much paper too, as to rehearse all the good actions of their master; whose