not more lafting intheir duration, nor more honourable in their influence. He has frequently been in company with Mr. Richardfon and Dr. Johnson, at the house of the former, when feveral ladies of great character and understanding were prefent. In their converfation, which was generally directed to Mr. Richardion, they would often attack fome part or other of his writings, which he always defended fo well, as to convince his fair opponents that they were wrong. If the ladies did not begin with him, he would artfully lead to the fubject himself; for female oppofition animated him moft, and feemed a greater cordial to his fpirits than any flattery which they could beltow upon him and his works. In Dr. Johnfon's company, on other occafions, Mr. Richardfon has been obferved to be more filent than in any other, if a third perfon were prefent; fo that it has been a doubt with his friends, whether his filence in the Doctor's compa ny proceeded from respect or fear: for Mr. Richardfon was naturally very modeft and well bred. This part of his character was particularly noticed by the late ingenious Aaron Hill. "He would, perhaps," fays he, in every thing he fays or does be more in nature than all men before him, but that he has one fault, to an unnatural excefs, and that is Modefty."-With refpect to Mr. Richardfon's largeffes, the gentleman, who has favoured us with thefe remarks, thinks it an obvious queftion, how they could be known to Dr. Johnson, who he has reafon to imagine, was never admitted at Ember Court. And he thinks it highly improbable to fuppofe, that the influence of vails could be at all neceflary, to induce the domeftics of Arthur Onflow, to treat, with due refpect a gentleman, whom their mafter honoured with his moft friendly intimacy and particular efteem. But the truth is, that Mr. Richardfon was ever generous to excefs; a circumftance with which Dr. Johnson was well acquainted, and which he ought to have noticed in a very different manner; efpecially, fince he himself, as before obferved, had been fo much the object of his libera lity. (To be continued.) Hiftories of the Tête-à-Tête annexed; or, Memoirs of Dorcas and Dorinda. WE enter now, upon in their manners E enter now upon the hiftory of a as they are agreeable in their perfons. Our hero, brought up in the first military corps in this kingdom, foon obtained the art of refined behaviour, and was remarkable for his urbanity and politenefs. The captain was peculiarly diftinguished by the ladies, who feemed envious to fhew him the utmolt courtely and diftinction. Thus he may be faid to have revelled in the charm of the fair. Indeed his poetical talents did not a little conduce to advance his fuitsEvery woman is fufceptible of flattery, and when it is wrapt up in pretty flowing numbers, the poifon is the deeper inflilled. The lovely Annabella L, who profeffed herfelf a man-hater, concluding thofe male monfters were only fit to live by themselves; and that the women, if they had common fenfe, fhould once more eftablish themfelves into a colony of Amazons, and, bid them all defiance-cou'd not refift the impulfe of a well-timed fonnet. She funk into the arms of the fuitor and the bard, faying the never before was acquainted with force of numbers. Such inftances happen every day-Poetry is the language of love, and when conveyed in an energetical manner, cannot fail having its effect. It may be ftiled the flattering mirror of the fex, which they fail not to ftudy whether coquettes or prudes, all, all yield to the influence of real or imaginary beauty, Dorcas was, indeed, the beau garçon of the day, and the military uniform never appear. ed with greater eclat, than when he appeared in it. The amours of the hero of thefe pages, were as variegated as his ideas, and he had a flow of imagination which rendered him agreeable in all companies, and enabled him to fpeak upon moft fubjects, from trigonometry down to humble politics. It is true he did not entertain the ladies with logarithms; but he often entertained them at cards by lofing his money with a good grace. Lady Charlotte S almoft fwore he was one of the cleveret men in the world; for a foldier he had one of the whiteft hands fhe ever beheld, his cyes were expreffive, and his teeth regular. The captain was within hearing, but took no notice of the compliment for the prefent-but availd himself of a speedy opportunity of declaring that he was not infenible to the favourable fentiments that the entertained. They were invifible for a fortnight, and were at length found perdu by a party who was introduced into their apartments, at the Toy at Hampton. A quarrel would have the waiter declared, upon his bonour, it enfued, had the ladies not interfered, and was all owing to his mistake. After the bufinefs was amicably concluded, they fupped together in a very focial manner, many bons mots and fmart repartees paffed, which ad ded to a variety of good airs, fung in true tafte, gaye a complete ze to the entertain t 1786. Savary's Letters from Egypti ed, he was animated with all the godApollo smiled upon him, and the Nine Chafte Nymphs ratified the deed. Thus animated, and with fuch auxiliaries, he wrote a comic opera, in which our heroine performed the principal character, and gained uncommon applaufe. Lord Chefterfield has faid, "henever knew a woman of fenfe in his life." Nevertheless, no man, with all his brilliant talents, for they were only fuperficial, was a greater dupe to them than himself. Let but a female open her tableau, and with avidity take down one or two of his bons mots-she made a conqueft, and an affignation enfued. It must be owned his brdhip's purfe was always freely dilated up on thefe occafions, and it may be faid that his wit was fet up, and knocked down at the auction of beauty. Our hero has exerted himself very powerfully to bring our heroine, in every fenfe forward in dramatic life. His farce, which he wrote for her benefit last year, established her reputation. She has ever since risen upon the boards, and made a respectable figure even in tragedy. Many admirers fucceeded each other Promifes, fettlements, and even coronets were objected to by her. She had appreciated happiness in the fcale of prudence, and found that it did not confift in riches, rank, and ftate. The man after her own heart could alone confer felicity; and, in this opition, the liftened to their fond, their foolish tales, and preferved her heart free and uncontaminated from the luft of avarice. The hero of these pages had for a confiderable time entertained a very ftrong paftion for Dorinda, which induced him to exert all his talents and abilities in her behalf, and gratitude prevailed. In fine, they are emphatically called the Conftant Couple, whiift fhunned by the women, who think fhe has no right to menopolize fo fine a felhow to herfelf; and the men envy him in fecret for being in poffeffion of fuch a jewel. They hear the little rancorous tales of the day, laugh at them, and defpife their authors. Happy in each other's fociety, they Ive but to make themselves mutually happy, and, as far as this mundane state will admit, have attained, if not celestial, at leaft terreftrial beatitude. Account of Rojetta; from M. Savary's Let- A FTER a fatiguing voyage, and a continual profpect of ruins and defolation, when one comes within fight of a flourishing town, furrounded with plantations and verdant fields, he feels his foul expand, and becomes peculiarly difpofed to enjoy the beauties of nature. Such is the fituation of the Havelier who has quitted Alexandria to vifit 69 Rofetta. Efcaped from the horrors of a de- Rofetta, called Rafcbid by the Arabs, is On the north of the town there are gardens, with citron, orange, date, and fycamore trees, planted at random. This dif order is not graceful; but the mixture of thefe trees, the vault which they form, imrays of the fun, and the penetrable to the flowers which they every where scatter around, make the fhade of these groves altogether enchanting. When the atmosphere is as it were on fire, when the fweat exfudes from every pore, and men pant for the fhade, as fick people for health; how delightful a refreshment do thefe bowers afford, aided by the rivulet which wanders around them? It is here that the Turk with his long pipe of jafmin, adorned with amber, believes himfelf transported into the garden of delights which Mahomet promifes. Cool and at cafe, with a vacant mind, he fmokes the whole day, and is happy: without defires and without ambition, he never spends an anxious thought upon futurity. That activity which torments others, and is the foul and fource of their talents, is unknown to him. Content with what he poffeffes, he neither invents new pleafures, nor improves thofe which he enjoys; his life appears a long fleep, while ours feems to him a perpetual intoxication. But while we purfue the happiness which for ever escapes us, he, regardless of to-morrow, enjoys with contentment the bleflings of nature; to him ever abundant, and ever new. It is here too, that the young Georgian ladies, who have been fold to flavery by unnatural parents, come to throw off, with the veil that covers them, that decorum which they obferve in public. Free from all confraint, it is hither they refort to view the moft indecent dances, to listen to the moft amorous fongs, and to fee performed the moft lively reprefentation of their own manners and pleafures. Born in a temperate climate, they have received from nature the moft fuitable harbour for the turbulent paffions, a fufceptible heart. Transported into Egypt, the fire of the atmosphere, the perfume of the flowers, and the exhalations from numberies aromatic plants, difpofe them to fenfual defires; and every fenfe is affected with the most voluptuous inclinations. Then one only care employs them, a fmgle defire torments them, a fingle want is felt; and its viclence is increafed by the reftraint in which they are kept. It is principally commerce that enriches the people of Kofetta. The carrying of foreign merchandife to Cairo, and the productions of Egypt into the ports of Alexandria, employs a great number of feamen. They make ufe of light fmack-failed veffels called feberm, which not being decked, are very dangerous, for a fudden guft of wind often overlets them. The bar at the mouth of the Nile, which they call biogaz, is a formidable fhelve for thefe veffels. Here the waters of the river endeavour to force a paffage into the fea. When the wind blows freth, the waves rife like mountains, and form whirlpools, in which many fhips are loft. This bar is not deep; and though a league in length, there is but one opening, ΟΙ a few fathoms, through which veffels can país. This opening changes place inceflantly; fo that a pilot is kept there night and day to found, and to point out to fleerfmen the courfe they wuft hold: But their art is often unable to ftruggle with the winds and the waves they mifs the paffage, the fhip finks in th fand, and in a few minutes the water an the mud overpower it, and the whole is en gulphed. Rofetta is an excellent refort for the curi ous European. A thoufand new objects fo licit his regard. He thinks himfelf tranf ported into another world, where the c as well as the productions of nature ar changed. A profound filence reigns in th town, which is never interrupted by th rattling of a carriage; camels are the only vehicle. The inhabitants walk with grea compofure; and nothing can difturb the gra vity of their countenance. They wear long robes that reach down to their heels; and or their heads a heary turban or thawl rolle up. They cut their hair, and let theim beards grow. The girdle is common to both fexes. The citizen is armed with a hanger, the foldier with a cimeter and two piftols The habit of the women of lower rank contifts in a wide blue fhirt and long drawers, and their face is covered with a bit of cloth with holes oppofite to their eyes. The richer fort have a large white veil with a robe of black filk, which covers the whole body as if they were dreffed in dominos. A franger dares fcarcely look at them; and to fpeak to them would be a crime. But there malks are neither niggard of their figns nor of their looks. As this is the only language they can speak in public, it is here more expreffive, more copious, and more complete, than any where in Europe. They can fay any thing without opening their lips; and they are understood to admiration. The country around differs as much from the environs of Paris, as Rofetta itfelf does from a city of Europe. An immenfe expanfe without mountain or hill, interfected with innumerable canals, and covered with yellow fields; tufted fycamores, which af ford to the labourer that indeftructible wood with which he covers the earthen hut that protects him from the rigour of winter, for in fummer he fleeps under the fhade; date trees, either feattered over the plain or collected into a wood, and crowned at the top with enormous clufters of a fweet and molt wholefome fruit; caflia trees, with their beautiful yellow flowers, which produce a pod well known in medicine; orange-trees and citrons, which fpread their perfumed branches, and form arches impenetrable to the rays of the fun : thefe are the principal trees which one meets with in the Delta. Winter does not fpoil them of their leaves, for they flourish as if the whole year were ipring. The foil is a black mud of inexhauftible fertility; for it produces without requiring relt. 1,86 Savary's Letters from Egypt. In preparing the rice-fields, oxen with 1 bandage over their eyes are employed to tam wheels, which lift the water into a balon, from whence it fpreads itfelf over the ground, where it remains for a week. When the earth is thoroughly foaked, men, women, and children, naked to the waift, ter the field, finking deep in the mud, nd tear up the weeds by the roots. Then the rice, already a foot high, is tranfplanted to this field, where the water is let over it every day, and it grows with atonishing rapidity. The fields bordering on the Nile ad the canals, are planted with rice at the end of July, which is cut down in November. The fheaves are fpread upon the ground; and a man drawn by two oxen in a low cart with fharp wheels rides over the fraw, and cuts it in pieces. It is feparated from the grain by a fan: and after the pelfile which envelopes the feed is detached by means of a mill, they throw falt on it, and pack it into oval baskets made of palm laves. As foon as the rice is cut down, the hufbandmen tear up the ftubble, give a flight dreing to the ground, and plant barley, which ripens in a fhort time. Those who prefer hay, inundate the field, an fow luterne. This rifes fo quickly, that it is a foot and a half high in three weeks. It grows foclofe, that the furface of it appears a folid green turf. It is cut three times before the fem arrrives for transplanting rice. Thus in the space of twelve months the fame field twice reaped, once of rice and the fecond time of barley; or it yields four crops, one of rice and three of hay. But this fertility is only found in the Delta, where the ground, being lower than in the Thebaid, can be watered the whole year by means of the canals and the wheels mentioned above. There are manufactures of coarfe cloth at Roferta. The lint of the country is long, foft, and filky, and might make very good linen if the women who fpin it were more expert at their trade; but the thread which they make with the fpindle is thick, hard, and unequal. The cloth, which is whitened by the dew, is ufed for table linen, the reft died of a blue colour, and makes the ordisary apparel of the inhabitants. Every body has heard of the ancient Pfylli, thole celebrated eaters of ferpents, who diverted themselves with the bite of vipers and Numbers of the credulity of the people. trem inhabited Cyrene, a town fituated to th west of Alexandria, and formerly dependent on Egypt. The daftardly Octavius, Wofe vanity made him wish to have the beautiful Cleopatra adorn his triumph, vexed to fand that he had escaped him by death, made one of thefe Pfylli fuck the wound made by the afp of which he died. But the experiment was in vain; for the poifon had The feait of Sidi Ibrahim was lately ce- The populace followed them with amazement, and cried, "A miracle!' Thefe Pfylli have the reputation of being infpired, and of being poffeffed with a fpirit which deftroys the effect of a ferpent's bite. This picture, which I have painted after nature, frightened me at firft; but afterwards made me reflect on the nature of man, that ftrange being who can turn poison into food ; that credulous animal, whom a fhow annually renewed does not make wifer, and who is ready to adore his equal as a god, when he is able to deceive him. Thus it appears, that ancient usages are not loft in a country, where cuftom, that imperious governefs of the world, hath in a particular inanner erected her throne and her altars. I am now on board a large veffel with two mafts, called mach, which has a neat' cabin, with a little clofet, furnished with matting very elegantly wrought. A tent is erected on the deck as a covert from the rays of the fun; and from this I fhall defcribe the objects as they pafs in fucceflion before me. The most beautiful perspectives on all The banks of the fides attract our regard. Nile are fringed with reeds; the plain is covered with corn; the rice, which is nearly ripe, is gently agitated by the wind, and O T E. N the waving of its top is like the undulation *Le Seigneur Abraham. of of the fea. The labourer is bufy in fupplying it with water, raised with the wheel by the patient ox. At fmall diftances appear little hamlets of earth, a few houfes made of brick hardened in the fun, and a little mofque, the minaret of which is loft among the tops of palm, of orange, and fycamore trees. Now we fail amidst ifles where the grafs is long, and whither they lead buffaloes to feed. A clown feated on the neck of the firft of the troop defcends into the river, cracking his whip, and directs the march. The whole flock follow in a ftring, lowing as they fwim to the place of their pafture. Thefe animals live in the Nile during the heats; they plunge into it up to the fhoulders, and graze upon the tender herbs along the borders. The cows yield abundance of rich milk, of which is made very excellent but ter. Oppofite to the villages by which we now pafs, the children of both fexes exercife themselves in swimming. They bedaub their bodies with clay, plunge to the bottom, then come up, and plunge again. Swimming is a pleasure which neceffity has taught them. Indeed, all Egypt is fo interfected with large and deep canals, full of water during the inundation, that one muft pafs over feveral in going from one village to another. Then men and women are obliged to quit both fhirt and drawers; and having rolled them round their head, crofs the river by fwimming. It furprifes an European to fee an Egyptian woman in thefe circumftances; for though fhe retains a finall bit of cloth to cover her, yet the applies that fmall bit to her face. A Turk is at no lofs to explain this phenomenon. Vanity and Penitence; an Anecdote. Art, curfed art! wipes off th' indebted blush From Nature's cheek, and bronzes every fhame, Man fmiles in ruin, glories in his guilt, And Infamy stands candidate for praise. NIGHT THOUGHT 5. HE fentiment of this fine writer is Tftrikingly confirmed by the following nies of defpair, and being himself a man learning, told him, that he hoped his ca was not fo defperate as he apprehende fince he found that he was so very fenfible his fault, and fo fincerely repented of The Penitent ftill urged the evil tendency his book to fubvert all religion, and the lit ground of hope there could be for on whofe writings would continue to do m chief, when his body was laid in the afhe The Curate, finding no other way to con fort him, told him, "that he did well in b ing afflicted for the evil defign, with whic he published his book, but that he ought t be very thankful that there was no danger its doing any hurt: that his caufe was very bad, and his arguments fo weak, th he did not apprehend any ill effects from it in short, that he might reft fatisfied, his per formance could do no more mifchief afte his death, than it had done whilft he wa living. To which he added, for his farthe fatisfaction, that he did not believe any, be fides the author's particular friends and ac quaintance, had ever been at the pains o reading it; or that any body after his death would ever enquire after it." But (fee the vanity and inconfiftency of the human mind the dying man had fo much the pride and frailty of an author in him, as to be cut to the heart with thefe confolations; and without anfwering the good man, his confident, afked thofe about him (with a peevifhnefs too natural to a fick perfon) where they had met with one fo ignorant, and whether they thought him a proper perfon to attend one in his condition? The Curate, finding that the author did not expect to be dealt with as a real and fincere Penitent, but as a Penitent of importance, after a fhort admonition, withdrew; not queftioning, but he should be again fent for, if the fickness grew defperate. The unhappy author, however, recovered for that time, and afterwards lived fame fpirit, and, very luckily for mankind, and his own reputation, with the fame acceptance and fuccefs. to write two or three other tracts with the Intelligence Extraordinary. the greateft applaufe in every part of COMEDY is now performing with flory of an atheistical author. This man, the Disunited States of America, from the at a time when he lay dangerously fick, and had defired the affiffance of a neighbouring Curate, confeffed to him, with great contrition, that nothing fat more heavy at his heart, than the fenfe of having feduced the age by his writings, and that their evil influence was likely to continue even after his death. The Curate, upon farther examination, finding the Penitent in the utmost ago pen of Dr. Franklin, and intitled, Every man bis own Legiflator; to which is added a farce, from the fame hand, called All Majters, All Men. Thefe pieces have had an amazing run-fo great indeed, that it is thought they will foun run over the whole Continent. Letters |