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excellency is unvaluable. A faithful friend is the medicine of life; and they that fear the < Lord fhall find him. Whofo feareth the Lord fhall direct his friendship aright; for as he is, fo fhall his neighbour,' that is, his friend, be alfo.' I do not remember to have met with any saying that has pleafed me more than that of a friend's being the medicine of life, to exprefs the efficacy of friendship in healing the pains and anguish which naturally cleave to cur existence in this world; and am wonderfully pleafed with the turn in the laft fentence, That a virtuous man fhall as a bleffing meet with a friend who is as virtuous as himfelf. There is another faying in the fame author, which would have been very much admired in an heathen writer; Forfake not an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him: a new friend is as new wine: when it is old thou fhalt drink it

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with pleasure.' With what ftrength of allufion, and force of thought, has he defcribed the breaches and violations of friendship? Whofo cafteth a stone at the birds, frayeth them away; and he that upbraideth his friend, breaketh friendship. Though thou draweft a fword at a friend, yet defpair not; for there may be ⚫ reconciliation; except for upbraiding, or pride, or difclofing of fecrets, or a treacherous wound; for, for these things every friend will depart.' We may obferve in this, and feveral other precepts in this author, thofe little familiar inftances and illuftrations which are fo much admired in the moral writings of Horace and Epictetus. There are very beautiful inftances of this nature in the following paffages, which are likewife written upon the fame fubject: Whofo difco< vereth fecrets, lofeth his credit, and fhall never find a friend to his mind. Love thy friend, and be faithful unto him; but if thou bewrayeft his fecrets, follow no more after him: for as a man hath destroyed his enemy, fo haft thou loft the love of thy friend; as one that letteth a bird go out of his hand, fo haft thou let thy friend go, and fhalt not get him again; follow after him no more, for he is too far off; he is as a roe efcaped out of the fnare. As for <a wound, it may be bound up, and after re'viling there may be reconciliation; but he that bewrayeth fecrets, is without hope.'

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In all thy humours, whether grave or mellow,
Thou'rt fuch a touchy, tefty, pleafant fellow;
Haft fo much wit, and mirth, and spleen about
thee,
There is no living with thee, nor without thee.
It is very unlucky for a man to be entangled in a
friendship with one, who by thefe changes and
viciitudes of humour is fometimes amiable and,
fometimes odious: and as moft men are at fome
times in an admirable frame and difpofition of
mind, it should be one of the greatet tafks of
wifdom to keep ourselves well when we are fo,
and never to go out of that which is the agree
able part of our character.

Among the feveral qualifications of a good friend, this wife man has very juftly fingled out conftancy and faithfulness as the principal: to thefe, others have added virtue, knowledge, difcretion, equality in age and fortune, and as Cicero calls it, Morum Comitas, a pleafantnefs of temper.' If I were to give my opinion upon fuch an exhaufted fubject, I should join to thefe other qualifications, a certain equability or evennefs of behaviour. A man often contracts a

N° 69, SATURDAY, MAY 19.

Hic fegetes, illic veniunt feliciùs uvæ ;
Arborei fetus alibi atque injufja virefcunt
Gramina. Nonne vides, croccos ut Tmolus odores,
India mittit ebur, molles fua thura Sabai?
At Chalybes nudi ferrum, virofaque pontus
Caftorea, Eliadum palmas Epirus equarum?
Continud has leges æternaque fœdera certis
Impofuit natura locis→→

VIRG. Georg. i. 54.

This ground with Bacchus, that with Ceres fuits:
That other loads the trees with happy fruits;
A fourth with grafs, unbidden, decks the ground;
Thus Tmolus is with yellow faffron crown'd;
India black ebon and white iv'ry bears;
And foft Idume weeps her od'rous tears:
Thus Pontus fends her bever ftones from far;
And naked Spaniards temper fteel for war:
Epirus for th' Elean chariot breeds
(In hopes of palms) a race of running steeds.
This is th' original contract; these the laws
Impos'd by nature, and by nature's caufe.

TH

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DRYDEN.

HERE is no place in town which I fo much love to frequent as the Royal-Exchange. It gives me a fecret fatisfaction, and, in fome meature, gratifies my vanity, as I am an Englishman, to fee fo rich an affembly of country-men and foreigners confulting together upon the private bufinefs of mankind, and making this metropolis a kind of Emporium for the whole earth. I must confess I look upon High-Change to be a great council, in which all confiderable nations have their reprefentatives. Factors in the trading world are what ambaffadors are in the politic world; they negotiate affairs, conclude treaties, and maintain a good correspondence between thofe wealthy focieties of men that are divided from one another by feas and oceans, or live on the different extremities of a continent. I have often been pleafed to hear difputes adjufted between an inhabitant of Japan and an alderman of London, or to fee a fubject of the Great Mogul entering into a league with one of the Czar of Mufcovy. I am infinitely delighted in mixing with thefe feveral minifters of commerce, as they are diftinguifhed by the different walks and different languages: fometimes I am juftled among a body of Arminians: fometimes I am loft in a crowd of Jews; and fometimes make one in a groupe of Dutchmen. I am a Dane, Swede, or Frenchman, at different times; or rather fancy myfelf like the old philofopher, who, upon being asked what countryman he was, Epig. xii, 47, replied, that he was a citizen of the world. M 2 Though

friendship with one whom perhaps he does not
find out till after a year's converfation; when
on a sudden fome latent ill humour breaks out
upon him, which he never discovered or fufpect-
ed at his first entering into an intimacy with
him. There are feveral perfons who in fome
certain periods of their lives are inexpreffibly
agreeable, and in others as odious and detefta-
ble. Martial has given us a very pretty picture
of one of this fpecies in the following epigram;

Difficilis, facilis, jucundus, acerbus es idem,
Nec tecum poffum vivere, nec fine te.

Though I very frequently visit this bufy multitude of people, I am known to nobody there but my friend Sir Andrew, who often fmiles upon me as he fees me bustling in the crowd, but at the fame time connives at my prefence without taking any further notice of me. There is indeed a merchant of Egypt, who just knows me by fight, having formerly remitted me fome money to Grand Cairo; but as I am not verfed in the modern Coptic, our conferences go no further than a bow and a grimace.

This grand scene of bufmnefs gives me an infinite variety of folid and fubftantial entertainments. As I am a great lover of mankind, my heart naturally overflows with pleasure at the fight of a profperous and happy multitude, infomuch that at many public folemnities I cannot forbear expreffing my joy with tears that have ftolen down my cheeks. For this reafon I am wonderfully delighted to fee fuch a body of men thriving in their own private fortunes, and at the fame time promoting the public stock; or, in other words, raifing eftates for their own families, by bringing into their country whatever is wanting, and carrying out of it whatever is superfluous.

Nature feems to have taken a particular care to diffeminate her bleffings among the different regions of the world, with an eye to this mutual intercourfe and traffic among mankind, that the natives of the several parts of the globe might have a kind of dependence upon one another, and be united together by their common interest. Almost every degree produces fomething peculiar to it. The food often grows in one country, and the fauce in another. The fruits of Portugal are corrected by the products of Barbadoes: the infufion of a China plant fweetened with the pith of an Indian cane. The Philippin islands give a flavour to our European bowls. The fingle drefs of a woman of quality is often the product of an hundred climates. The muff and the fan come together from the different ends of the earth. The fcarf is fent from the torrid zone; and the tippet from beneath the pole, The brocade pettic at rifes out of the mines of Peru; and the diamond necklace out of the bowels of Indoftan.

felves under Indian canopies. My friend Sir Andrew calls the vineyards of France our Gardens; the fpice-iflands, our hot-beds; the Perfians our filk-weavers, and the Chinefe our potters. Nature indeed furnishes us with the bare receffaries of life; but traffic gives us a great variety of what is ufeful, and at the fame time fupplies us with every thing that is convenient and ornamental. Nor is it the leaft part of this our happiness, that whilft we enjoy the remoteft products of the north and fouth, we are free from thofe extremities of. weather which give them birth: that our eyes are refreshed with the green fields of Britain, at the fame time that our palates are feasted with fruits that rife between the tropics.

For thefe reafons there are not more useful members in a commonwealth than merchants. They knit mankind together in a mutual intercourfe of good offices, diftribute the gifts of nature, find work for the poor, and wealth to the rich, and magnificence to the great. Our English. merchant converts the tin of his own country into gold, and exchanges his wool for rubies. The Mahometans are cloathed in our British manufacture; and the inhabitants of the frozen zone warmed with the fleeces of our sheep.

If we confider our own country in its natural Į rof; ect, without any of the benefits and advant. ges of commerce, what a barren uncomfortable fpot of earth falls to our fhare! Natural hiftorians tell us, that no fruit grows originally among us, befides hips and haws, acorns and pig-nuts, with other delicacies of the like nature; that our climate of itfelf, and without the affiftances of art, can make no further advances towards a plumb than to a floe, and carries an apple to no greater perfection than a crab; that our melons, our peaches, our figs, our apricots, and cherries, are ftrangers among us, imported in different ages, and naturalized in our English garders; and that they would all degenerate and fall away into the trash of our own country, if they were wholly neglected by the planter, and left to the mercy of our fun and foil. Nor has traffic more enriched our vegetable world, than it has improved the whole face of nature among us. Our ships are laden with the harvest of every climate our tables are ftored with fpices, and oils, and wines; our rooms are filled with pyramids of China, and adorned with the workmanship of Japan: our morning's draught comes to us from the remoteft corners of the earth we repair our bodies by the drugs of America, and repofe our

When I have been upon the 'Change, I have often fancied one of our kings standing in perfon, where he is reprefented in effigy, and looking down upon the wealthy concourse of people with which that place is every day filled. In this cafe, how would he be furprised to hear all the languages of Europe spoken in this little spot of his former dominions, and to fee fo many private. men, who in his time would have been the vasfals of fome powerful baron, negotiating like princes for greater fums of money than were formerly to be met with in the Royal Treasury! Trade, without enlarging the British territories, has given us a kind of additional empire: it has multiply'd the number of the rich, made our landed estates infinitely more valuable than they were formerly, and added to them an acceffion of other eftates as va.. luable as the lands themselves.

No

70. MONDAY, MAY 21. Interdum vulgus rectum videt.

W

с

HOR. Ep. II. i. 63. Sometimes the vulgar fee, and judge, aright. HEN I travelled, I took a particular delight in hearing the fongs and fables that are come from father to fon, and are most in vogue among the common people of the countries thro' which I paffed; for it is impoffible that any thing fhould be univerfally tafted and approved by a . multitude, though they are only the rabble of a nation, which hath not in it fome peculiar aptness to please and gratify the mind of man. Human nature is the fame in all reasonable creatures; and whatever falls in with it, will meet with admirers amongst readers of all qualities and conditions. Moliere, we are told by Monfieur Boileau, used to read all his comedies to an old woman, who was his houfe-keeper, as fhe fat with him at her work by the chimney-corner; and could foretel the fuccefs of his play in the theatre, from the reception it met at his fire fide: for he tells us the audience always followed the old woman, and never failed to laugh in the fame place.

I know nothing which more fhews the effential and inherent perfection of fimplicity of thought

above that which I call the gothic manner in writing, than this, that the first pleases all kinds of palates, and the latter only fuch as have formed to themselves a wrong artificial tafte upon little fanciful authors and writers of epigrams. Homer, Virgil, or Milton, fo far as the language of their poems is understood, will please a reader of plain common fenfe, who would neither relifh nor comprehend an epigram of Martial, or a poem of Cowley; fo, on the contrary, an ordinary fong or ballad that is the delight of the common people, cannot fail to please all fuch readers as are not unqualified for the entertainment by their affectation or ignorance; and the reason is plain, because the fame paintings of nature which recommend it to the most ordinary reader, will appear beautiful to the most refined.

The old fong of Chevy-Chafe is the favourite ballad of the common people of England; and Ben Jonfon ufed to fay he had rather have been the author of it than of all his works. Sir Philip Sidney, in his difcourfe of poetry, speaks of it in the following words: 'I never heard the old fong of Piercy and Douglas, that I found not my <heart more moved than with a trumpet: and yet it is fung by fome blind crowder with no rougher voice than rude ftile; which being fo evil apparelled in the duft and cobweb of that uncivil age, what would it work trimmed in the gorgeous eloquence of Pindar?' For my own part 'I am fo profeffed an admirer of this antiquated fong, that I fhall give my reader a critique upon it, without any further apology for fo doing.

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of Greece; and for this reafon Valerius Fluccas and Statius, who were both Romans, might be juftly derided for having chofen the expedition of the Golden Fleece, and the Wars of Thebes, for the fubjects of their epic writings.

The poet before us has not only found out an hero in his own country, but raises the reputation of it by feveral beautiful incidents. The English are the first who take the field, and the last who quit it. The English bring only fifteen hundred to the battle; the Scotch, two thoufand. The English keep the field with fifty-three; the Scotch retire with fifty-five: all the reft on each fide being flain in battle. But the moft remarkable circumftance of this kind, is the different manner in which the Scotch and English kings receive the news of this fight, and of the great mens deaths who commanded in it.

The greatest modern critics have laid it down as a rule, that an heroic poem should be founded upon fome important precept of morality, adapted to the conftitution of the country in which the poet writes. Homer and Virgil have formed their plans in this view, As Greece was a collection of many governments, who fuffered very much among themselves, and gave the Perfian emperor, who was their common enemy, many advantages over them by their mutual jealousies and animofities, Homer, in order to establish among them an union, which was fo neceffary for their fafety, grounds his poem upon the difcords of the feveral Grecian princes who were engaged in a confederacy against an Afiatic prince, and the feveral advantages which the enemy gained by fuch their difcords. At the time the poem we are now treating of was written, the diffentions of the barons, who were then fo many petty princes, ran very high, whether they quarrelled among themfelves, or with their neighbours, and produced unfpeakable calamities to the country: the poet, to deter men from fuch unnatural contentions, defcribes a bloody battle and dreadful scene of death, occafioned by the mutual feuds which reigned in the families of an English and Scotch nobleman, That he defigned this for the inftruction of his poem, we may learn from his four laft lines, in which, after the example of the modern tragedians, he draws from it a precept for the benefit of his readers.

God fave the king, and blefs the land
In plenty, joy, and peace;
And grant henceforth that foul debate
''Twixt noblemen may ceafe.'

This news was brought to Edinburgh, That brave earl Douglas fuddenly 'Where Scotland's king did reign,

Was with an arrow flain.

'O heavy news, king James did say; 'Scotland can witness be,

'I have not any captain more
• Of fuch account as he.

Like tidings to King Henry came
Within as short a space,

That Piercy of Northumberland
Was flain in Chevy-Chafe.
Now God be with him, faid our king,
Sith 'twill no better be,

'I trust I have within my realm

The next point obferved by the greatest heroic poets, hath been to celebrate perfons and actions which do honour to their country: thus Virgil's、 hero was the founderof Rome; Homer's a prince

Five hundred as good as he.

Yet fhall not Scot nor Scotland fay

But I will vengeance take,
And be revenged on them all

For brave lord Piercy's fake.
This vow full well the king perform'd
After on Humble down,
In one day fifty knights were flain,

With lords of great renown.
And of the reft of fmall account

'Did many thoufands die, &c.'

At the fame time that our poet fhews a laudable partiality to his countrymen, he reprefents the Scots after a manner not unbecoming fo bold and brave a people.

Earl Douglas on a milk-white steed,
Moft like a barɔn bold,
Rode foremost of the company,
'Whofe armour fhone like gold.'

His fentiments and actions are every way suitable to an hero. One of us two, fays he, muft die : I am an earl as well as yourself, fo that you can have no pretence for refufing the combat: however, fays he, 'tis pity, and indeed would be a fin, that fo many innocent men should perish for our fakes; rather let you and I end our quarrel in fingle fight.

Ere thus I will out-braved be, 'One of us two shall die;

I know thee well, an earl thou art, 'Lord Piercy, so am I.

But trust me, Piercy, pity it were,

And great offence, to kill
Any of these our harmless men,
For they have done no ill.

Let

Let thou and I the battle try,

And fet our men afide;

Accurft he he, Lord Piercy faid,

By whom this is deny`d.

When there brave men had diftinguished themfelves in the battle, and in fingle combat with each other, in the midst of a generous parley, full of heroic fentiments, the Scotch earl falls; and with his dying words encourages his men to revenge his death, reprefenting to them, as the moft bitter circumftance of it, that his rival faw him

fall.

• With that there came an arrow keen
Out of an English bow,
Which ftruck earl Douglas to the heart
A deep and deadly blow.

Who never spoke more words than these,
Fight on my merry men all,
For why, my life is at an end,

Lord Piercy fees my fail.'

Merry Men in the language of thofe times, is no more than a chearful word for companions and fellow-foldiers. A paffage in the eleventh book of Virgil's Æneids is very much to be admired, where Camilla in her latt agonies, inftead of weeping over the wound the had received, as one might have expected from a warrior of her fex, confiders only, like the hero of whom we are now fpeaking, how the battle should be continued after her death.

Tum fic expirans Accam ex æqualibus unam
Allaquitur; fida ante alias que fola Camille,
Quicum partiri curas; atque hæc ita fatur:
Katienus, Acca foror, potui: nunc vulnus acerbum
Conficit et tenebris nigrefcunt omnia circum :
Efuge, et bac Turno mandata noviflima perfer;
Succedat pugna, Trojanofque arccat urbe:
Jamque vale.

N. xi. Szo.

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O Chrift! my very heart doth biced
With forrow for thy fake;
For fure a more renowned knight
'Mifchance did never take.'

That beautiful line, Taking the dead man by the
hand, will put the reader in mind of Æneas's be-
haviour towards Laufus, whom he himself had
flain as he came to the refcus of his aged father.
At verò ut vultum vidit morientis, & ora,
Ora modis Anchifiades pallentia miris ;
Ingemuit, miferans graviter, dextramque tetendit.

EN. x. 822. The pious prince beheld young Laufus dead; He griev'd, he wept; then grafp`d his hand and faid, &c. DRYDEN.

I shall take another opportunity to confider the other parts of this old fong.

N° 71. TUESDAY, MAY 22.

Scribere juffit amor.
Love bid me writs.

TH

OVID. Epift. iv. 1ò.

THE intire conquest of our paffions is fo difficult a work, that they who defpair of it fhould think of a lefs difficult task, and only attempt to regulate them. But there is a third thing which may contribute not only to the eafe, but alfo to the pleasure of our life; and that is refining our pafions to a greater elegance, than we receive them from nature. When the paffion is love, this work is performed in innocent, though rude and uncultivated minds, by the mere force and dignity of the object. There are forms which naturally create refpect in the beholders, and at > once inflame and chaftife the imagination. Such an impreffion as this gives an immediate ambition to deferve, in order to pleafe. This caufe and effect are beautifully defcribed by Mr. Dryden in the fable of Cimon and Iphigenia. After he has reprefented Cimon fo ftupid, that

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He whistled as he went, for want of thought'— he maftes him fall into the following fcene, and fhews its influence upon him fo excellently, that it appears as natural as wonderful.

It happen'd on a fummer's holiday That to the greenwood-fhade he took his way; 'His quarter-aff, which he cou'd ne'er forfake, Hung half before, and half behind his back. 'He trudg'd along unknowing what he fought, 'And whistled as he went, for want of thought.

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By chance conducted, or by thirst constrain'd, The deep receffes of the grove he gain'd; 'Where in a pla n, defended by the wood, Crept thro' the matted grafs a crystal flood, By which an alabafter fountain stood: And on the margin of the fount was laid, (Attended by her flaves) a flceping maid, 'Like Dian, and her nymphs, when, tir'd with fport,

The dame herfelf the goddess well express'd,
To rest by cool Eurotas they refort:
'Not more diftinguifh'd by her purple vet,
Than by the charming features of her face,
And ev'n in fumber a fuperior grace:
Here comely limbs compos'd with decent

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The fanning wind upon her bofom blows,
To meet the fanning wind the bofom rofe:
The fanning wind and purling streams con-
tinue her repofe.

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The fool of nature ftood with ftupid eyes And gaping mouth, that teftify'd furprize, Fix'd on her face, nor could remove his fight, * New as he was to love, and novice in delight: Long mute he food, and leaning on his staff, "His wonder witnefs'd with an idiot laugh; Then would have fpoke, but by his glimm'ring • fenfe

First found his want of words, and fear'd of

'fence:

Doubted for what he was he fhould be known, By his clown-accent, and his country tone.

But left this fine defcription fhould be excepted against, as the creation of that great mafter, Mr. Dryden, and not an account of what has really ever happened in the world; I fhall give you, verbatim, the epiftle of an enamoured footman in the country to his miftrefs. Their furnames shall be inferted, because their paffion demands a greater refpect than is due to their quality. James is fervant in a great family, and Elizabeth waits upon the daughter of one as numerous, fome miles off of her lover. James before he beheld Betty, was vain of his strength, a rough wrestler and quarrelfome cudgel-player; Betty a public dancer at may-poles, a romp at ftool-ball: he always following idle women, the playing among the peafants: he a country bully, the a country coquette. But love has made her conftantly in her miftrefs's chamber, where the young lady gratifies a fecret paffion of her own, by making Betty talk of James; and James is become a conftant waiter near his master's apartment, in reading, as well as he can, romances. I cannot learn who Molly is, who it feems walked ten miles to carry the angry meffage, which gave occafion to what follows: To ELIZABETH-

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May 14, 1711.

My Dear Betty, Rmening at the wounds Cuidade with Emember your bleeding lover, who lies the arrows he borrowed at the eyes of Venus, which is your sweet perfon.

Nay more, with the token you fent me for my love and fervice offered to your fweet perfon; which was your bafe refpects to my ill condi. tions; when alas! there is no ill conditions in me, but quite contrary! all love and purity, efpecially to your sweet person; but all this take as a jeft.

But the fad and difinal news which Molly brought me ftruck me to the heart, which was, it feems, and is, your ill conditions for my love and refpects to you.

For the told me, if I came forty times to you, you would not speak with me, which words I am fure is a great grief to me.

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marry her, fat in the arbour most part of laft 'night. O dear Betty, muft the nightingales 'fing to those who marry for money, and not to 'us true lovers! Oh my dear Betty, that we 'could meet this night where we used to do in the • wood!

'Now, my dear, if I may not be permitted to your fweet company, and to have the happiness: of fpeaking with your fweet perfon, I beg the 'favour of you to accept of this my fecret mind and thoughts, which hath fo long lodged in my breaft; the which if you do not accept, I believe 'will go nigh to break my heart.

For indeed, my dear, I love you above all the <beauties I ever faw in all my life.

The young gentleman, and my mafter's daughter, the Londoner that is come down to 3

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Now, my dear, if I may not have the bloffing ' of kiffing your fweet lips, I beg I may have the happiness of kiffing your fair hand, with a few lines from your dear felf, prefented by whom you please or think fit. I believe, if time would permit me, I could write all day; but the time being fhort, and paper little, no more from your 'never-failing lover till death,

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James

ames

Poor James fince his time and paper was fo hot; I, that have more than I can ufe well of both, will put the fentiments of his kind letter, the file of which feems to be confufed w th fcraps he had got in hearing and reading what he did not understand, into what he meant to exprefs, Dear Creature,

CA

of her.

AN you then neglect him who has forgot all his recreations and enjoyments to pine away his life in thinking of you? When I do fo, you appear more aniable to me than Venus does in the most beautiful defcription that ever was made All this kindness you return with an accufation, that I do not love you: but the contrary is fo manifeft, that I cannot think you in earft. But the certainty given me in your meffage by Molly, that you do not love me, is what robs me of all comfort. She fays you will not fee me: if you can have fo much cruelty, at leaft write to me, that I may kifs the impresion made by your fair hand. I love you above all things, and, in my condition, what you look upon with indiffer ence is to me the moft exquifite pleasure or pain. Our young lady, and a fine gentleman from London, who are to marry for mercenary ends, walk about our gardens, and hear the voice of evening nightingales, as if for fashion fake they courted thofe folitudes, because they have heard lovers do fo. Oh Betty! could I hear thofe rivulets murlittle fenfible fhould I be that we are both fervants, mur, and birds fing while you ftood near me, how that there is any thing on earth above us, Oh! could write to you as long as I love you, till death

itself.

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