anfwer expectation. And by this means I leave it to every one to make his own character with me; I preferve my charity, and my complacency; and enter directly, with franknefs, into conversation with him; and generally continue that freedom to the end of the refpective perfon's leafe. Mifs Gr. I wonder how many of your leafes, brother, have been granted to ladies? Sir Ch. Many, Charlotte, of the friendly fort: But the kind you archly mean are out of the queftion at prefent. We were talking of esteem. This infenfibly led the converfation to love and courtship; and he faid [What do you think he faid, Lucy] That he should not, perhaps, were he in love, be over-forward to declare his paffion by words; but rather fhew it by his affiduities and vene. ration, unless he faw, that the fufpenfe was painful to the object: And in this cafe it would be equally mean and infolent not to break filence, and put himself in the power of her, whofe honour and delicacy ought to be dearer to him than his own. What fay you to this, Lucy? Some think, proceeded he, that the days of courtfhip are the happiest days of life. But the man, who as a lover thinks fo, is not to be forgiven. Yet it must be confeffed, that hope gives an ardour which fubfides in certainty. Being called upon by Lord L. to be more explicit; I am endeavouring, faid he, to fet up my par ticular humour for a general rule. For my own fake, I would not, by a too early declaration, drive a lady into referves; fince that would be to rob myself of those innocent freedoms, and of that complacency, to which an honourable lover might think himself intitled; and which might help him [Don't be affrighted, ladies!] to develope the plaits and folds of the female heart. This developement ftuck with us women a little. W: We talked of it afterwards: And Mifs Grandifon then faid, It was well her coufin Everard faid not that. And he answered, Sir Charles may with more fafety feal a hor fe, than I look over the hedge. Mifs Gr. Ay, coufin Grandifon, that is because you are a rake. A name, believe me, of at least as much reproach as that of an old maid. Mr Gr. Afperfing a whole clafs at once, Mifs Charlotte! 'Tis contrary to your own maxim : And a class too (this of the rakes) that many a generous-fpirited girl chufes out of, when the would difpofe of herself, and her fortune. Mifs Gr. How malapert this Everard! What Sir Charles next said, made him own the character more decently by his blushes. The woman who chufes a rake, faid he, does not confider, that all the fprightly airs for which fhe preferred him to a better man, either vanish in matrimony, or are fhewn to others, to her mortal difquiet. The agreeable will be carried abroad: The difagreeable will be brought home. If he reform (and yet bad habits are very difficult to fhake off) he will probaby, from the reflections on his paft guilty life, be an unfociable companion, fhould deep and true contrition have laid hold on him: If not, what has the chofen? He married not from honeft principles: A rake defpifes matrimony: If ftill a rake, what hold will she have of him? A rake in passion is not a man in love. Such a one can feldom be in love: From a laudable paffion he cannot. He has no delicacy. His love deferves a vile name: And if fo, it will be strange, if in his eyes a common woman excel not his modeft wife. What he faid was openly approved by the gentlemen; tacitly by the ladies. The fubject changing to marriages of perfons of unequal years; I knew, faid Lord L. a woman of character, and not reckoned to want- fenfe, who married married at twenty a man of more than fifty, in hopes of burying him; but who lived with her upwards of twenty years; and then dying, fhe is now in treaty with a young rake of twenty-two. She is rich; and, poor woman! hopes to be happy. Pi ty, Sir Charles, fhe could not fee the picture you have been drawing. Retribution, replied Sir Charles, will frequently take its courfe. The lady, keeping in view one fteady purpose; which was that she would marry a young man, whenever death removed the old one; forgot, when the loft her husband, that fhe had been growing older for the laft twenty years; and will now very probably be the defpifed mate to the young husband, that her late husband was to her. Thirty years hence, the now young man will perhaps fall into the error of his predeceffor, if he outlive the wife he is going to take, and be punished in the fame way. Thefe are what may be called punifhments in kind. The violators of the focial duties are frequently punished by the fuccefs of their own wishes. Don't you think, my Lord, that it is fuit able to the divine benignity, as well as juftice, to lend its fanctions and punishments in aid of those duties which bind man to man? Lord L. faid fome very good things. Your Harriet was not a 'mute: But you know, that my point is, to let you into the character and fentiments of Sir Charles Grandifon: And whenever I can do them tolerable juftice, I fhall keep to that point. You will promife for me, you fay, Lucy-I know you will. But one might have expected that Dr Bartlett would have faid more than he did, on fome of the fubjects: Yet Mr Grandifon, and he, and Mifs Emily, were almoft equally, and attentively, filent, till the last scene: and then the Doctor faid, I must fhew you a little tranflation of Mifs Emily's from the Italian. She blushed, and looked as if the knew not not whether she would stay or go. I fhould be glad to fee any-thing of my Emily's, faid Sir Charles. I know the is a mistress of that language, and elegant in her own. Pray, my dear (to her), let us be obliged, if it will not pain you. She blushed, and bowed. I must first tell you, faid the Doctor, that I was the occafion of her chufing fo grave a fubject, as you will find that of the fonnet from which hers is taken. A fonnet! faid Miss Grandifon. My dear little POETESS, you must fet it, and fing it to us. No, indeed, madam, faid Mifs Jervois, blufhing ftill more, Dr Bartlett would by no means have me a poetess, I am fure: and did you not, dear madam, fpeak that word, as if you meant to call me a name? I think fhe did, my dear, faid Sir Charles: Nor would I have my Emily diftinguished by any name, but that of a difcreet, an ingenious, and an amiable young woman. The titles of wit and poetess have been difgraced too often by Sappho's and Corrinna's, ancient and modern. Was not this in your head, fifter? But do not be disturbed, my Emily [The poor girl's eyes glistened]: I mean no check of livelinefs and modeft ingenuity. The eafy productions of a fine fancy, not made the business of life, or its boaft, confer no denomination that is difgraceful, but very much the contrary. I am very glad, for all that, faid Mifs Jervois, that my little tranflation is in plain profe: Had it not, I fhould have been very much afraid to have it feen. Even in that cafe, you need not to have been afraid, my dear Mifs Jervois, faid the good Dr Bartlett; Sir Charles is an admirer of good poetry: and Mifs Grandifon would have recollected the Philomela's, and Orinda's, and other names among her own fex, whofe fine genius does it honour. Your Your diffidence and fweet humility, my dear Emily, faid Lord L. would, in you, make the most envied accomplishments amiable. I am fure, faid the lovely girl, hanging down her head, tears ready to ftart, I have reafon to be affected with the fubject.-The indulgent mother is defcribed with fo much fweet tenderness-O what pleasures do mothers lofe who want tenderness! We all, either by eyes or voice, called for the Sonnet, and her tranflation. Dr Bartlett fhewed them to us; and I fend copies of both. SONNET of Vincenzio da Filicaja. Qual madre i figli con pietofo affetto 1 "See a fond mother encircled by her children: "With pious tenderness she looks around, and her "foul even melts with maternal love. One fhe "kiffes on the forehead; and clafps another to her "bofom. One fhe fets upon her knee; and finds a feat upon her foot for another. And while, by "their actions, their lifping words, and afking eyes, "fhe understands their various numberless little "wishes, to thefe fhe difpenfes a look; a word to VOL. III. *thofe; C |