meal, and makes his bed of ftraw fuperior to fofteft down. The flave would moft undoubtedly bring you into difficulties too dreadful even to has no pleasure above the gratifica-think of? Do I with you to do any tion of fenfe, and, confequently, has no idea of intellectual mifery. I will honeftly confefs that I have more than once beheld the happiness of others with a malignant eye, and have fickened at the thought of feeing others in profperity while I was racked with fuch cruel fenfations. I hope the idea prefents itself to every perfon in adversity; for I fhould tremble to think myfelf alone capable of forming it. It is the difpolition of a dæmon to give way to it; and, whatever pangs I may endure in the attempt, this I am determined to overcome.-Horrid conception!--Why doft thou haunt me thus? - What have I done, that I fhould be abandoned in this manner? I have examined my confcience, and have fo far fatisfaction, at leaft, as to fay that I hope and truft I never committed any act fo black that I fhould be conftrained to be the object of fuch a dreadfui perfecution. O, eternal fountain of kindnefs! look down with an eye of pity upon me!-fuffer me not to harbour ideas that make me loathe my existence. You have done me the honour to confefs that you fuffer equally with myfelf. Strange! that fuch a declaration can fupply any joy to a perfon who loves you more than he has any power to exprefs!-yet, believe me, that avowal gave me fome relief.-Good God! how felfith a being is man!--who would rather hear that fhe, for whom he has the moft tender attachment, is unhappy, than that he does not return his love. thing that you could not reflect upon in your last moments without regret? Do I defire you to run any risk, and by that injure, the good opinion you have with your father, which, I know, you value above life? No all of these are the fartheft from my defires; I only entreat you to tell me the movements of your foul, and to confent to an intercourfe which would be a mitigation of thofe pangs, the unhappinefs of our deftiny hath ordained us to feel. From fuch an intercourfe no evil can accrue; our letters may be delivered with our own hands, and inftantly deftroyed when read. We have frequent opportunities for fuch an exchange, without being in any danger of a difcovery. Confent, therefore, with a goodness to natural to your heart, to a correfpondence, that you must be convinced is innocent, if not deferving of an higher epithet. Adieu! I wait your determination with no fmall uneafinefs. If you are miferable, communi- As my affection for you afpires to cate your cares it will lighten the the most animated friendship (I burthen of them, and take from your would I could confine it within the fpirits a load fufficient to opprefs the bounds of amity), 1 fhall talk to you greatest fortitude. Reflect only upon very freely upon two or three pafwhat I alk. Do I attempt to per-fages of your laft letter, which I'did fuade you to a fecret marriage, which not expect from the pen of a man who who hath always expreffed fo perfect a reverence for the Deity as you have done; and which ftartled me the more, coming from you, who have often declaimed with the greatest energy and beauty of language against a crime the moft heinous, perhaps, that humanity is capable of committing; and againft which, you have often affured me, the divine vengeance will be hurled with the moft dreadful fury. I need fcarcely fay, I prefume, that the padage I allude to is that in which you fay that if I were not to confent to a correfpondence with you; I fhould be calinly arming your hand with 1uicide, The idea of putting an end to existence, to a mind that hath the finalieft trace of religion imprinted upon it, is fo fhocking, that nothing can excufe the perfon who indulges it for a moment, and who does not difmifs it from his mind with almoft the velocity of thought. To doubt is criminal, and to argue vicious, upon a fubject which must flash conviction of its impiety at the first glance of reafon. If you really hope I fhould tranfinit my fentiments to you, never repeat what fortitude impels to defpife, and religion to ablior. confiftence it attach reprehenfion. I cannot therefore affect to defpife the prejudice of the world; for, as I am fent into it, I muft, if I wish to avoid malicious infinuation, have fome refpect for its fentiments. You think you would prefer the condition of a galley-flave to your own. I wonder you should make fuch an obfervation. Do you think, because he hath not had the advantage of a fuperior education, he hath a lefs exquifite fenfe of his misfortunes? To perfons incapable of mental mifery, corporeal evils are the feveret fcourge they can feel: nor are their fufferings lefs than thofe that afflict higher fenfibility. And I do not believe that you would willingly accept of fuch a change of condition, were it even poffible. I am afraid it is too common for adverfity to envy the happiness of thofe whom it views content with their fituation. The horror you exprefs at its prefenting itself to your imagination certainly evinces the goodness and purity of your heart; and the refolution you have adopted is praifeworthy, and fuch as, you may depend upon it, will not fail powerfully to intereit the mercy of the Creator, always ready to give the moft willing aftance to virtuous I am not better pleafed with you inclinations. Perfevere, my dear when you fay that to conceal your Charles, (I fhall not entreat your grief is a more painful fenfation to pardon for calling you fo; for why you than the thought of felf-deftruc-ihould I affect an indifference that tion. Would you not rather be my heart is an utter ftranger to?) unfortunate than impious -Recol- and you will unquèftionably meet ket yourfeif, fir, nor permit your with fuccefs. reafon to be hurried away by paffion. You must not fpeculate fo deeply upon every little fymptom of a pafI am very willing to admit your fion, of the fincerity of which I am diftinction between inconfiftence and convinced from your description of guilt; but you must remember we it; for, alas! I have long recognised live in a world too apt to judge of every fenfation you have mentionevery thing by appearance; and it ed, in my own breaft; and yet, matters very little whether we be tortured as I am, I would not be any really criminal or not, provided we other perfon upon earth, if it were are thought fo, with refpect to its in my power. This refinement opinions; or whether our fault be upon calamity can have no end, nor inconfiftence or vice, if to that in-will it anfwer any good purpofe, but, I answered your firft letters, and the repugnance I felt to connive at your ruin. Yes, thank God! I exerted but, fo far from effecting any thing ferviceable, only plunges you deeper in a thraldom which it fhould be our mutual endeavour to break from.myfelf to the utmost; I made ufe of But what am I writing? Do I really with you to escape from it? I dare not confult my heart. You have accused yourself of being felfish, what then am I?-What name does my conduct deferve, that has not even the advantage of candour to excufe it? Miferable wretch that I am, who cannot help requesting you to avoid an effort that prudence dictates, and which my reafon points out to me as the only means of leffening fome part of your anxiety. But, though I have defired you not to fpeculate upon your paffion, I cannot help withing to hear every thing you have to fay upon the fubject. If you think it will prove a mitigation to the canker of diftrefs to unburthen myfelf to you, I will fhortly write fuch a volume to you, as muft put the reality of my affection for you beyond all doubt, and which would excite pity in the breast of an inquifitor. I will allow you have every claim upon my gratitude, and that your conduct towards me has been founded upon the ftricteft honour and humanity. When a woman has owned her partiality for a man, he is a very uncommon creature who will not take advantage of it: neverthelefs, I will do my prudence the credit to fay, if I had not entertained this opinion of you, I fhould not have hazarded fuch a difclofure. But what claim have I to prudence? Have I not been the means, by a foolish acknowledgment of regard, of betraying one of the nobleft creatures that nature ever made? for fuch I muft call you. Might he not, if fuch a circumftance had not occurred to favour his diforder, have been able to overcome his folly,-or, if not overcome, at least to refift it? I call you to witnefs how reluctantly VOL. XXVII. reafon, entreaties, and fupplication, to reftrain the extremity of your madness; and it was not until I had loft all hope of your recovery, that I unbofomed myfelf to you. But this attempt to throw all the blame upon you is cowardly and unjuft :-I will therefore difmifs the idea with,indignation, and conclude with declaring that the confequences of our acquaintance are the offspring of the imprudence of both. Yet let me add, 1 fhall glory in them, be they what they may, fince I have the confolation (and a dear one it is to me, I affure you) of reflecting that with you I fuffer, and for you I fhall come to deftruction. P.S. If you mean to write to me before we return to town, let it be as fhortly as poffible; for my brother Richard will spend a few days in the country, previous to his departure from the kingdom. You well know that Richard and I are infeparable, when it is in our power to be in the fame houfe. Indeed I love him with the greatest tenderness; and I fear, unless you find an opportunity of delivering your letter to me before he arrives, you will not be able to do it until we reach London. be placed, as to lay one's felf entirely open to his animadverfions? Before we can bring ourselves to fuch an act of confidence, what and how great ought to have been the trials of his worthinefs?-We ought to be convinced of his humanity, candour, honour, and fecrecy. It is neceffary that fuch a perfon fhould have great affection, great eftecm, and an intereft in our welfare, in order to be qualified for fo intimate a friendfhip as this. And even here new obftacles arife; for, to discover every fentiment to a perfon whom we love, and who has an equal regard for us, not to conceal any thing, but to undraw that curtain which we all fpread before our conduct,-at the expente of being per haps defpifed, and by whom? not forfeit any of my reputation, if I openly confefs all the thoughts that agitate my bofom, and lay bare all the tranfactions of a heart which, I hope, is not altogether vicious, although I have infinite reafon to wifh it were better than I find it. To you I mean to open all my frailties, without concealing the leaft of them: -and this is a talk I fhall perform with pleafure; for (pardon my vanity) I begin to look upon you as another felf, with this only difference that I expect to experience, -you will treat my cafe without that partiality fo natural to all of us when we attempt to correct ourfelves. The heart is ever ready to find some excufe for its own defects: in fact, it is a flatterer we fhould never place the leaft confidence in: for it evades all our refearches in a-By thofe for whom we feel the twofold manner-In the fi ft place, it never admits any action to be coloured with all that glow of guilt in which it might be beheld by another; and, confequently, the firft horror of any action being taken off, the mind becomes indifferent whether it be guilty or not of the act, when it is no longer ftartled by the enormity of the degree of crime that attaches to it, nor under any uneafy fenfations to think itfelf influenced by vice. Secondly, with refpect to the being actually guilty of any crime, how many palliatives does it throw round our conduct! With how many deceptive circumffances does it enfnare the underftanding and baffle the judgment! How many caufes for extenuation does it infinuate! Ile, therefore, who Would you believe it, that I am withes to judge rightly of his faults, capable of forming the moft vilfhould by no means truft fo partial alanous wifhes,-nay, fuch as conjudge, but rather reveal them to fcience makes me deteft? -Can you fome judicious friend, who, without think it probable that I fhould with being morofe, will cenfure where he to justify thein to myfelf?-And yet may fee occafion, and excufe when fuch is the tendency of my the nature of the cafe will admit of flections. it. But where to find this friend, is the object. Where is the perfon in whom fuch implicit confidence can mot lively fenfations of kindness, and who poffefs an equal good opinion of, us:-to ruin ourfelves, by this communication, in their eyes,— nay, to be avoided by them,-are thoughts by no means to be reconciled to the feelings of any one who poffeffes the fmalleft fpark of fenfbility.-Yet I know not how it comes to pals: but to you Ican unfold every wifh of my foul, and can difplay, without any dread, the operations of my mind, however injurious they may be to my own vanity. But I entreat you not to fpare me: for in doing fo, you will deceive me, by making me fuppofe that which may be highly culpable, indifferent; and prevent me from correcting what it is my duty to amend. When I mufe upon the cruelty of my deftiny, in being obliged to be feparated from all I hold dear upon earth, happy flumbers, and a mind at peace. earth,-from every thing which is calculated to infpire me with felicity, and to afford me the means of You fee, madam, I have been very contentment,-in a word, from explicit; and by having been fo, I the woman I adore,-I often with have become proportionably easier I had been endued with fufficient in any mind. If I did not ear to hardihood to have prevailed upon take up too much of your time, I her to confent to a private marriage, could fill another feet with my which would at once have put me in expreffions of thankfulness for your poffeffion of perfect happinefs.-kind permiflion to relate to you the Fancy runs away with me at the idea, evils of my fate. and paint to myfelf all the delightful blifs of an union in which love A ROMANCE. would have been fweetened, and its GRASVILLE ABBEY; force ftrengthened by retirement. Loft in the raptures of imagination, I forget that my virtue fuffers by the reverie, until I am roufed from this enchanting vision by the admonitions of honour. I By G. M. (Continued from p. 214.) "Found myfelf, however, greatly And what art thou, honour, that mistaken, when Leonard incompelleft us to refign every thing formed me, the next day but one, formed to make us happy in life, that you had questioned him on the that ordereft us, with thy harfh dic-fubject.-I now told him, if you' tates, to leave the paths of pleafure, where every object that prefents itself to our view is gratifying to the fense and captivating to the heart, to beat thy thorny roads?-What are the confolations thou affordeft us? What are the returns thou makeft for fuch a facrifice ?-and by what authority doft thou act? A little reflection tells me that honour is a principle which is the refult of human reafon and goodnefs, a principle which approaches nearer to religion than almoft any other branch of morality,-that thofe flowery paths which it forces us to abandon were so many fnares for our true happinefs,--that the thorns we behold growing in the ways of honour, after a little ufe, fo far from giving us any pain, foon become preferable to the rofes of vice, that its confolations are the highest fenfations of blifs we can be fenfible of,--fenfations flowing from a confcioufnefs of integrity,-and the returns for our giving up ourselves to its direction are a quiet confcience, made any further inquiries, to fay that I had given him the most pofitive orders to be filent on the topic. Lord Millverne had mentioned in his letter, that, through a fortunate and unforeseen circumftance, Felix would be again at the fame piace the next day: he alfo hinted he had faint hopes of gaining over two of the banditti to his intereft. "Accordingly, the following day, in the afternoon, the time appointed, Leonard fet off, and found Felix, as he expected, with two others.-They exchanged notes without being perceived; but Leonard could obferve the mafter of the fhop, and the two men, feemed to wonder, by their looks, at feeing him juft at the time of their arrival.-I had ordered him to read the letter before he returned to the abbey, that if it was neceffary to procure any articles more than what we had got, he might purchase them, and bring them with him :-he did fo, and they were carried unopened to my chamber. I was furprifed to find a dark lanthorn, £12 tome |