ed with the eafe and gracefulnefs. of her motion, would have made her as many admirers as beholders.

After this, fhall I defcend to a more particular defcription?-I will.

Her cheek-I never faw a cheek fo beautifully turned; illuftrated as it is by a charming carmine flufh, which denotes found health. A most bewitching dimple takes place in each when she fmiles; and the has fo much reafon to be pleafed with herfelf, and with all about her (for fhe is the idol of her relations), that I believe from infancy she never frowned; nor can a frown, it is my opinion, fit upon her face for a minute. Would to heaven I were confiderable enough with her to prove the contrary!

Her mouth-There never was fo lovely a mouth. But no wonder; fince fuch rofy lips, and fuch ivory and even teeth, muft give beauty to a mouth lefs charming than hers.

Her nofe adds dignity to her other features. Her chin is fweetly turned, and almost imperceptibly dimpled.

Her eyes-Ay, Madam, her eyes!-Good heaven! what a luftre! Yet not a fierce, but a mild lüftre! How have I defpifed the romancing poets for their unnatural defcriptions of the eyes of their heroines! But I have thought thofe defcriptions, tho' abfurd enough in confcience, lefs abfurd (allowing fomething for poetical licence) ever fince I beheld thofe of Mifs Harriet Byron.

Her hair is a real and unlaboured ornament to her. All natural its curls: Art has no fhare in the luftre it gives to her other beauties.

I mentioned her neck-Here I dare not truft myfelf-Inimitable creature! All-attracting loveliness! Her arm-Your Ladyfhip knows my paffion for a delicate arm-By my foul, Madam, your own does not exceed it.

Her

Her hands are extremely fine. Such fingers! and they accuftomed to the pen, to the needle, to the harpfichord; excelling in all-O Madam; women have fouls. I now am convinced they have. I dare own to your Ladyfhip, that I once doubted it, on a fuppofition that they were given us for temporary purposes only. And have I not feen her dance! Have I not heard her fing!-But indeed, mind and perfon, fhe is all harmony.

Then for reading, for acquired knowledge, what lady fo young-But you know the character of her grandfather Shirley. He was a man of universal learning, and, from his public employments abroad, as polite as learned. This girl from seven years of age, when fhe came to fettle in England, to fourteen, when she loft him, was his delight; and her education and inftruction the amusement of his vacant hours. This is the period, he used to say, in which the foundations of all female goodness are to be laid, fince fo foon after fourteen they leap into women. The dead languages he aimed not to teach her; left he fhould overload her young mind: But in the Italian and French he made her an adept.

Nor were the advantages common ones which she received from his lady, her grandmother, and from her aunt Selby, her father's fifter, a woman of equal worthinefs. Her grandmother particularly is one of the most pious, yet moft chearful, of women. She will not permit her daughter Byron, fhe fays, to live with her, for both their fakes-For the girl's fake--because there is a greater refort of company at Mr Selby's than at Shirley Manor; and the is afraid, as her grandchild has a ferious turn, that her own contemplative life may make her more grave than the wifhes fo young a woman to be. Youth, fhe fays, is the season for chearfulness. -For her own fake-becaufe fhe looks upon her Harriet's company as a cordial too rich to be al- ·

ways

ways at hand; and when she has a mind to regale, fhe will either fend for her, fetch her, or visit her at Mrs Selby's. One of her letters to Mrs Selby I once faw. It runs thus-" You must spare me my "Harriet. I am in pain. My fpirits are not high. "I would not have the undecayed mind yield, for "want of using the means, to the decaying body. "One happy day with our child, the true child of "the united minds of her late excellent parents, " will, I hope, effect the cure: If it do not, you "muft fpare her to me two."

Did I not tell you, Madam, that it was very difficult to defcribe the perfon only of this admirable young lady. But I ftop here. A horrid apprelady.—But henfion comes acrofs me!How do I know but I am praifing another man's future wife, and not my own! Here is a cousin of her's, a Mrs Reeves, a fine lady from London, come down under the curfed influence of my evil ftars, to carry this Harriet away with her into the gay world. Woman! Woman! -I beg your Ladyship's pardon; but what angel of twenty is proof against vanity? The firft hour The appears the will be a toaft; ftars and titles will croud about her; and who knows how far a paltry coronet may dazzle her who deferves an imperial crown? But woe to the man, whoever he be, whofe pretenfions dare to interfere (and have any affurance of fuccefs) with those of

LETTER III.

Miss HARRIET BYRON, To Miss LUCY SELBY.

I

It is bet

Selby-Houfe, Jan. 16. RETURN you inclofed, my Lucy, Mr Greville's trange letter. As you asked him for it, he will have no doubt but you fhewed it to me. ter therefore, if he make enquiry whether you did or not, to own it. In this cafe he will be curious to know my fentiments upon it. He is fenfible that

my whole heart is open to you.

Tell him, if you think proper, in fo many words, that I am far more difpleafed with him for his impetuofity, than gratified by his flattery.

Tell him, that I think it very hard, that, when my nearest relations leave me fo generoufly to my liberty, a man to whom I never gave caufe to treat me with difrefpect, fhould take upon himself to threaten and controul me.

Afk him, What are his pretences for following me to London, or elsewhere?

If I had not had reafons before to avoid a more than neighbourly civility to him, he has now furnifhed me with very ftrong ones. The threatening lover must certainly make a tyrant husband. Don't you think fo, Lucy?—But make not fuppofals of lover or husband to him: These bold men will turn fhadows into fubftances in their own fa

vour.

A woman who is fo much exalted above what fhe can deferve, has reason to be terrified, were she to marry the complimenter (even could fhe fuppofe him fo blinded by his paffion as not to be abfolutely infincere), to think of the height fhe muft fall from in his opinion, when she has put it in his power to treat her but as what she is.

Indeed

Indeed I both defpife and fear a very high complimenter-Defpife him for his defigning flattery, fuppofing him not to believe himself; or, if he mean what he fays, for his injudicioufnefs.-I fear him, left he should (as in the former cafe he must hope) be able to raise a vanity in me, that would fink me beneath his meannefs, and give him cause to triumph over my folly, at the very time that I am full of my own wifdom.

High-ftrained compliments, in fhort, always pullme down; always make me shrink into myself. Have I not fome vanity to guard againft? I have nodoubt but Mr Greville wifhed I fhould fee this letter: And this gives me fome little indignation against myself; for does it not look as if, from fome faults in my conduct, Mr Greville had formed hopes of fucceeding by treating me like a fool?

I hope thefe gentlemen will not follow me to town, as they threaten. If they do, I will not fee them, if I can any way avoid it. Yet, for me to appear to them folicitous on this head, or to defire them not to go, will be in fome measure to lay myfelf under an obligation to their acquiefcence. It is not therefore for me to hope to influence them in this matter, fince they expect too much in return for it from me; and fince they will be ready to found a merit in their paffion even for difobliging me.

I cannot bear, however, to think of their dangling after me wherever I go. These men, my dear, were we to give them importance with us, would be greater infringers of our natural freedom than the most severe parents; and for their own fakes : Whereas parents, if ever fo defpotic (if not unnatural ones indeed), mean folely our good, though headftrong girls do not always think fo. Yet fuch, even fuch, can be teazed out of their wills, at least out of their duty, by the men who ftile themselves lovers, when they are invincible to all the intreaties and commands of their parents. C

VOL. I.

O that