the University of Pennsylvania, as a man of great talents, for whom he entertained a great personal regard. He inquired into the plans of the travellers; and finding that they had preferred a correct knowledge of Great-Britain before they went upon the continent of Europe, he highly approved them, as being directed to a country to which their own was so nearly assimilated in its laws, manners, and customs. They enjoyed his conversation for about three quarters of an hour; when, finding him a good deal exhausted, they took their leave. With the prospect of death immediately before him (his physicians had announced to him that he could live but a few days) he was, in that interview, as calm and collected as if many years were still to be his portion. His last words at parting were, "Do not forget to present my kind regards to Dr. Ewing." On the arrival of the travellers at Dublin, fourteen days afterward, they received the intelligence of the death of this illustrious man! EPISTOLARY FOR THE PORT FOLIO. Bethlehem. I AM always delighted with my visits to this place, and leave it with reluctance. The town is charmingly situated in a mountainous, healthy, and romantic country, upon one of the most beautiful rivers that our country can boast of. I take infinite pleasure in wandering upon the retired banks of the Lehigh, whose solemn, winding stream, and richly-shaded borders present a beautiful and secluded scene. The society of brothers and sisters united in one common interest, and shut out from the noisy and busy pursuits of the world, offers a sublime and beautiful model of the perfection to which human nature may be elevated, when the petty passions and desires of our nature are subdued or properly controlled. The Moravians are a most benevolent and charitable set of people, and have an integrity and simplicity of manners, at the same time an honest and frank politeness that prepos sesses us strongly in their favour. Bethlehem is the spot for those who are disgusted with the vain pursuits of the world, and a retreat where those who are bowed down with the misfortunes incident to life, may find comfort and consolation and live in calm resignation. The surrounding country is charming, and the neighbouring villages enliven the prospect. I have visited most of them, and particularly Nazareth, where you and I have passed many happy moments. The fond recollection of youthful pleasures, enjoyed while at school, rushes upon the mind. It was here that we received the rudiments of knowledge, and the first impression of piety and religion. As Memory throws her sunshine on the past, the many boyish amusements of our younger days, arising with renewed recollection, appear as actions of yesterday. The pleasure we took in receiving instruction from our amiable tutors, the amusements and plays in the moments of recreation, our delightful excursions to Bethlehem, the Blue mountains, &c. the little gardens we cultivated with such indefatigable labour and pleasure; the anxious joy with which we arose before break of day to receive our Christmas and Easter presents; the religious festivals, that occurred at stated periods; the fearful, the pleasing sensations, when summoned to attend our monthly confessions, when we reposed ourselves with unlimited confidence, in the bosom of our venerable and respectable President, acknowledged all our faults, promised amendment, and received his fatherly advice and benediction: the innocent celebration of our respective birth-days, and the playful and complimentary verses addressed to each other on these occasions, when we strove to outvie each other in the wit and beauty of our lines. I never shall forget the pleasure I experienced on the anniversary of my birth, when rising early in the morning, and entering the room, I observed these little testimonies of affection and esteem, upon my desk a pile of these verses, and my place decorated with the early flowers of Spring, my companions greeted me, and our amiable tutor advanced, took me by the hand, and congratulated me on having progressed one step more towards manhood. It was Hd, who has since become a celebrated Physician, and employed by the Holland Company, in the sultry and unhealthy climate of Batavia, has enlarged the delightful and charming Science of Botany; the manner of this one action was sufficient to leave a most favourable impression, but his uniform, affectionate, and tender conduct endeared us to him. All these scenes return with renewed pleasure, sometimes accompanied with a melancholy recollection of other circumstances, that is both pleasing and mournful to the soul. It was here that I first experienced the delights of generous friendship, and felt the first pangs of a separation from the objects of it, the day is still fresh in my memory, when C―s left us to return home, when I felt myself alone, and insulated, in the midst of my gay companions. Most of our acquaintances are scattered over the wide world: upon inquiring I found that many had gone to that country from whose bourne no traveller returns, others were engaged in the busy and active pursuits of the world, and rising to eminence in their respective professions. This one a soldier, here a lawyer, a physician, a divine, a merchant, or a wealthy farmer. D-1 lives here surrounded, with all the comforts and happiness that arises from domestic felicity and retirement, blessed in his amiable and lovely partner, and three smiling cherubs, the offspring of their union. I came unexpectedly upon them, and found them seated together, with their lovely infants playing around them, who flew into my arms, seeming to recognise me as a friend of their parents; I soon won their little hearts. We passed the evening in recalling times that are passed, and in talking over the adventures of his love, in which my friend represented himself sometimes as the sad emblem of despair, and again the happy picture of revived hope, as the goddess of his idolatry frowned or smiled. At parting I put into her hands those beautiful lines of Thomson, so applicable to their situation, which I had scribbled with my pencil: "Happy they! the happiest of their kind! "Their hearts, their fortunes, and their beings blend." She read them with satisfaction, and her eyes beamed upon her husband with inexpressible love. I left this happy couple with regret at my own hapless fate, who am most unfortunately gifted by nature with proud, cold, and insensible feeling, that can never suffer me to become the willing happy slave of woman. Le, whom we all loved and esteemed for his amiable and engaging manners, became the melancholy victim of despair and hopeless love; scorned and rejected by the woman, whom he fondly hoped would become the friend of his heart, and consoler of its cares, he fell into a dull and gloomy habit of retirement; the world with all its pleasure to him, was a mere blank; he relinquished all his former companions and pursuits; for a while Reason maintained her sway; but possessed of the most keen and tender sensibility, he sunk under this misfortune; his strength of mind was broken, his early impressions of piety were destroyed, and in a moment of phrenzy and despair, he committed that most horrid of crimes, which in opposition to reason, virtue, and religion, violates the decrees of God and man: he fell by his own hands. As usual, the funeral rites were refused to this unfortunate young man, and he lies in a retired and sequestered corner of the wood, in which we have so often played together. I walked to his lonely and solitary tomb encircled with deep shaded cypress, and shed a tear of regret and affection over our lost companion. Peace to his departed shade! The unfortunate girl, who loved him, but tampered with his feelings, and trifled with his passion, discovered her folly and cruelty, when too late, and became the miserable object of delirious phrenzy. She wandered about desolate and forlorn; her form and countenance once so lovely and expressive, is now changed into the wan and withered figure of despair; her eyes once beaming intelligence and serenity, now gleam with the wild stare of madness; her hollow cheeks; her projecting features, and pallid, death-like complexion; her dishevelled hair; her hurried, and irregular step; the wild touching tones of her voice, while with frantic and incoherent words, she calls upon her Henry; mourns his untimely end; imprecates herself as the cause, and implores the Mercy of Heaven to avert the merited curses from her head. All these, mark her as the hopeless, irrecoverably lost maniac. I conversed with her until my feelings were wrought to the highest pitch; I offered assistance; I attempted to console, but all in vain; and I tore myself away in a state of mind, almost equal to her own. Hr, who was gallant, gay, and generous, and possessed of a large fortune, entered as an officer in the Austrian army, and has risen to considerable rank; and Sd, whom I remember as a spritely mischievous boy, is here transformed into the sleek and rigid tutor; and I need scarcely recall to your remembrance our noble friend Jarvis, who lives in the memory of every American, who gloriously preferred certain death to an abandonment of his post while contending against the enemies of his country, and bravely kept his dangerous station in the main top of the Constellation, while fighting under the command of the gallant Truxtun. Even in his boyish plays he discovered that manly and generous spirit, which in after years, gained him the applause and regret of his countrymen, and the honourable resolve of Congress, so justly due to his memory. FOR THE PORT FOLIO. AN ACCOUNT OF THE LIFE AND CHARACTER OF MRS. ELIZABETH FERGUSON. MRS. ELIZABETH FERGUSON was the daughter of Dr. Thomas Grame, by Anne, the daughter of Sir William Keith, then governor of Pennsylvania. Her father was a native of Scotland, and a graduate in medicine. For nearly half a century he maintained the first rank in his profession in the city of Philadelphia. He held, during a great part of this time, the office of collector of the port. Her mother possessed a masculine mind, with all those female charms and accomplishments which render a woman alike agreeable to both sexes. They had one son and three daughters, all of whom attained to the age of maturity. The subject of this memoir was the youngest of them. She discovered, in early life, signs of uncommon talents and virtues, both of which were cultivated with great care, and chiefly by her mother. Her person was slender, and her health delicate. The latter was partly the effect of native weakness, being a seven months' child, and partly acquired by too great application to books. She passed her youth in the lap of parental affection. A pleasant and highly-improved retreat, known by the name of Græme Park, in Montgomery county, twenty miles from Philadelphia, in which her parents spent their summers, afforded her the most delightful opportunities for study, meditation, rural walks, and pleasures, and, above all, for cultivating a talent for poetry. This retreat was, moreover, consecrated to society and friendship. A plentiful table was spread daily for visitors, and two or three young ladies from Philadelphia generally partook with Miss Græme of the enjoyments which her situation in the country furnished. About her seventeenth year she was addressed by a citizen of Philadelphia of respectable connexions and character. She gave him her heart, with the promise of her hand upon his return from London, whither he went to complete his education in the law. From causes which it is not necessary to detail, the contract of marriage, at a future day, was broken, but not without much suffering on the part of Miss Græme. To relieve and divert her mind from the effects of this event, she translated the whole of Telemachus into English verse; but this, instead of saving, perhaps aided the distress of her disappointment in impairing her health, and that to 'such a degree as to induce her father, in conjunction with two other physicians, to advise a voyage to England for its recovery. Her mother concurred in this advice, but for another reason besides that of restoring her daughter's health. This venerable and excellent woman had long laboured under a disease which, she believed, would have a fatal issue. She anticipated the near approach of death; and that it might be less terrible to her, she wished her daughter to be removed beyond the sphere of the counter attraction of her affections from the world of spirits, which her presence near her deathbed, would excite. This feeling is not a solitary or casual one, in the human mind. Archbishop Lightfoot wished to die from home, that he might dissolve more easily his ties to his family. A lady in Philadelphia, some years ago, in her |