come with terror, and fled yelling along the area, and the devil after me. My knees grew extremely weak, and besides I was so entangled among women and petticoats, that I sunk powerless to the earth, and Satan got hold of me by the arm. My friend, at that unlucky moment, observing my extraordinary agitation, took hold of my arm, and awaked me. My scattered senses not having got time to collect, I still conceived him to be the devil, and remembering the text," resist the devil and he will fly from you," I attacked my astonished friend with the most determined fury, boxing him unmercifully on the face, and uttering the most dreadful imprecations, resolved, it seems, that he should not insult me, or take me prisoner with impunity. The other The other gentleman interfered and brought me to my senses. "What do you mean by such a rude and beastly attack, Sir?" said my friend, while the blood poured from his nose. "I most humbly beg your pardon, Sir," said I," but indeed I thought you was the devil." "Upon my word a very extraordinary excuse," said he, “I know I never had any great share of beauty to boast of, but I am not just so ugly as to be taken for the devil neither; and I am certainly entitled to expect an apology, both for your mad assault, and the whimsical excuse you have made for it." He accompanied this sentence with a look so malicious, and, as I imagined, so like a fiend, that I was utterly disconcerted; and could only add, by way of palliation, that I believed I did not know what I was doing; so, bowing, I walked off rather abruptly, accompanied by the other gentleman, who was ready to burst with

laughter all the way down the stairs. When we got to the street, "Well," said he, said he, "our friend certainly was to blame, but you have, without doubt, carried the jest rather too far. I believe, after all, that he has been speaking the truth of you, which has caused you to take it so ill." "Speaking the truth of me!" exclaimed I, "what do you mean? I hope he was not assailing my character and foreboding my ruin while I was asleep?" "Aye, that's very good," said he, laughing; "that's very good indeed; so you were indeed sleeping, and did not hear a word that he said?" Upon my honour, I did not hear a word that he said," returned I, "Oh! that is rather too bad, my dear Sir," said he, continuing to laugh immoderately; moderately; "why, what the devil was it then that offended you, and induced you to give him such a drubbing?”— "The devil, I believe it was," said I, and then began a long bungling story about my dream, at which he only laughed the more, being firmly established in the belief that the sleep was a sham, and the assault intentional, or at least that it was the least that it was the consequence of my having been irritated past bearing, by his injurious reflections.

Now, Mr. Spy, as this business is soon to be made public, by being discussed in a court of justice, I intreat you to reserve a place in your excellent paper for this letter, which I declare to you upon my honour, contains the real and fair statement of the facts as they followed upon one another. I am cited to answer for entering the house of Mr. A. T. philosopher, and teacher of backgammon and the science of chance, without any previous invitation, inter

ing, bruising, maiming, and taking away the life of the foresaid A. T. philosopher and teacher of backgammon and the science of chance; and for inost feloniously, maliciously, and barbarously, threatening, cursing, and striking the said Mr. A. T. philosopher, and teacher of backgammon and the science of chance, to the effusion of his blood, the damage of his person and clothes, and the endangerment of his life; and that without any provocation on the part of the foresaid A. T. philosopher and foresaid of foresaids. Yet, notwithstanding of all this, Sir, and though my counsel assures me, that I will be found liable in expences to a high amount, I hereby declare to you, and to the world, that I am conscious of no evil intention with regard to my friend the philosopher. I went with an intention of receiving amusement and instruction from his conversation. I believed all that he told me.-I fell asleep,-which was certainly a breach of good manners, but what demon put it into my head, that he was the devil I cannot tell; certes, I thought he was; and when a man acts from the best intentions, I do not think he is blame-worthy if the effect should sometimes prove different. It is very hard that a man should be severely fined for resisting the devil when there are so few that give themselves the trouble to do it.

It is true, that owing to my country education, I am a little inclined to be superstitious; but I cannot help thinking, that the whole of the accident was a kind of judgment inflicted on us both for a dangerous error; on him for

bability better than he; and on me for assenting implicitly to all his injurious insinuations. Nay, I would even fain carry the mystery a little further, by alledging that a traducer and backbiter is actually a limb or agent of the devil, and that the dream was a whisper conveyed to my fancy by one of those guardian spirits that watch over the affairs of mortal men. The strange combination of ideas which that foolish dream and its concomitant mischiefs have impressed on my mind, have, besides giving me a mortal aversion to the features and looks of my old acquaintance; led me often to an examination of the apparent springs of this principle of detraction, and foreboding of evil from every action, whether public or private; and, the more I think of it, the more firmly am I persuaded of its impropriety; and that whatever such foreseers may pretend, if their inferences point only towards evil, it is a symptom of a bad heart. such men be trusted."

"Let no

We can form our opinions ofthat which we do not know, only by placing it in comparison with something that we do know: whoever therefore is over-run with suspicion, and detects, or pretends to detect artifice, in every proposal, must either have learned the wickedness of mankind by experience, or he must derive his judgment from the consciousness of his own, disposition, and impute to others the same inclinations which he feels predominate in himself. Suspicion, however necessary, through ways beset on all sides by fraud and malice, has been always con

to be a tyrant, who has created man, and woman in particular, for the sole purpose of working mischief, and then

I was for the space of twenty years intimately acquainted with an old man named Adam Bryden, whose disposition and rule of behaviour, were widely different from those of the philosopher above mentioned, and I fear too many of the inhabitants of this metropolis. It was a maxim with him, which, though never avowed, was easily discovered, that if he could not say well of a person, he said nothing of them at all. Of the characters of the fair sex he was peculiarly tender in this respect, and always defended them against every probability. When the charges became too evident to be longer denied, he framed the kindest and most tender excuses for them, on account of the simplicity of their hearts, and kindness of their natures, which induced them to trust too implicitly to the generosity of others. It was impossible to be long in his company, without conceiving a higher opinion of the goodness of the Almighty, of his love and kindness towards his creatures, and of his wisdom displayed in the government of the universe. On the contrary, it is impossible to be long in the company of Mr. A. T. the philosopher, without conceiving that Being who is all goodness,

very mischievous disposition which is an ingredient in the composition of their natures. their natures. It was impossible to be long in company with the former without conceiving a higher opinion of the dignity of human nature, and of the happiness attainable by man, both in this life and that which is come. It is im. possible to be long in the company of the latter, without conceiving ourselves to be in a world of fiends, who have no enjoyment but in the gratification of sensual appetites, nor any hope but in the ruin of others.

Let your readers, then, Sir, consider seriously, which of these two characters appears to be most congenial to a hea venly mind,-which of them is most likely to be productive of happiness and contentment in this life, and which of them is most conformable to the precepts left us by our great Lawgiver, in order to fit us for partaking of the blessings of a world to come. Let them weigh all these considerations impartially, and imitate the one or the other, as reason and revelation shall direct; but perhaps those who delight in magnifying the shades in the human character, may, in the end, be subjected to pay as dear, if not dearer, for it, than either Mr. A. T. the philosopher, or

Your humble servant,

And constant reader,
J. G.