was eafy for me to give in English; it having been my cuftom to write down fuch converfations as I intended to recite to you, in that language, and after having given it to fome English friend to tranflate, have from the corrected copy made tranflations intended for your ufe. Mr. Denbeigh was much entertained with my account of the philofophers, but faid, "if it was known in England, people would think that I intended to turn philofophy itself into ridicule." Thus it is that the defigns of authors are mistaken! Perhaps this is not the only paffage in my letters that might, to an English reader, appear to be abfurd. Happily they will never be expofed to any eye, fave that of my friend.It is therefore fufficient if to him they convey a picture of the truth, fuch as it appears to the mind of Zaarmilla.

I have already hinted my aftonishment at the number of new books that are every year produced in England; but now that I know what these books have to encounter, before they fight their way into the world, my aftonishment is increased tenfold! many and various are the evils which these poor adventurers have to encounter. Befides the fmarting, though fuperficial wounds, which they may expect

to receive from the fmall-fhot of the ladies and gentlemen, genteely educated; who call every thing ftupid that is beyond the limits of their flender comprehenfions, they have to fuftain the heavy blows of thofe who cut down every thing as nonfenfe, that fwerves from the beaten track over which they have been accustomed to trot. Should they be endowed with fufficient ftrength to furvive the attack of both these adverfaries, they have still to pass before the formidable phalanx of Reviewers, each of whom, like the mighty Carticeya*, brandishes in his hundred arms a hundred inftruments of deftruction. These terrible Genii are faid to judge of books by the fmell, and when that has happened to be offenfive to their noftrils, have been known, by one wellaimed dart, to transfix an unfortunate book to the fhelves of the booksellers' thops for ever. But with the powerful is found mercy. Inftead of the dread weapons of war, thefe imitators of the fons of the Mountain-born Goddefs, fometimes condefcend gently to tickle the trembling ad

*The Hindoo God of War. He is reprefented with fix faces, and a number of hands, in each of which he brandishes a weapon. He rides upon a peacock, and is ufually found in company with his Mother Parvati, or the Mountain Goddefs, one of the characters of the confort of Seeva. See Afiatic Refearches, vol. ii.

venturer with a feather plucked from the plumage of the Peacock.

Ah! if ever a friend of Zaarmilla's ventures to fend forth a book into the world, may it find these terrible Reviewers in this favourable mood! May its perfume be pleafing to their noftrils, and its form find favour in their fight!!

I have just received a letter from my friend Severan, it contains the defirable information, that a fhip will in a few weeks fail for India-the commander of which, is his particular friend. In it I fhall take my paffage-and if the powerful Varuna is favourable to my prayers, fhall, in the progrefs of a few returning moons, again behold the bleffed fhores of Hindoostan. O thought replete with extacy! How does the bofom of Zaarmilla pant, for the period of thy realization!-Yet fhall I not purchase that felicity, without having paid the debt of Anguish, in many a tear; before my eyes can be solaced by beholding the companions of my youth, they muft have been moistened with the forrow of an eternal feparation from every English friend.

From this amiable family, from the worthy Denbeigh, and the excellent Severan, I fhall have been parted for ever.

But the remembrance of their virtues fhall be the companions of my life; and the idea of their happiness fhall folace every hour of my exiftence.

Nothing can equal the delight of my friend Severan, at the fuccefs of his experiment; which has opened a new field for discovery, of which he will not be flow to take poffeffion. It is a peculiar advantage attendant upon fcience, that the gratification it affords is not more delightful to the individual, than beneficial to fociety; and it is this confideration. that enhances every enjoyment of the fcientific philofopher.

I cannot help thinking, that this fort of philofophy is more favourable to the happiness of its votaries, than that fort profeffed at Ardent-Hall; but this may be owing to the advantages enjoyed by the former, of a happier method of conducting their experiments. It certainly does not arife in the latter from any want of zeal, or from a backwardness to repeat experiments, that have already been found unfuccefsful. As a proof of this, my friend Severan informs me, that Mr. Axiom, has perfuaded Mifs Ardent to accompany him to the Coutinent, on an experiment of abftraét principle, which, he fays-fhould put a learned female

above the cenfure of the world." My friend feems to doubt whether the refult of this experiment, will bring peace to the poor Lady's bofom; and adds, "that it would be no lefs furprising, to fee the flame of the taper brighten, on being plunged into mephitic air, than that a female, who bids defiance to modefty and decorum, fhould preserve her honour and her peace.

Mifs Ardent has refigned her charge of the younger daughter of Sir Caprice, to Lady Grey. The eldest daughter of the Baronet, the Novel-reading Julia, has it feems, fuffered much from the unexpected metamorphofis of a charming fwain; who, foon after he had introduced himself to her acquaintance, as a hero of exalted fentiment and tender fenfibility, was unfortunately recognized by certain fagacious men, from a place called Bowftreet to be one of the tribe of Swindlers-the difcovery gave fuch a shock to the nerves of the young Lady, that fhe has been ordered to a place called Bath, for the recovery of her health. Thither her father and mother have accompanied her, and there the former, at the inftigation of a teacher of a fect called Methodists, has renounced the poojah of Syftem, and, infead of building