wager; which being agreed upon by the other parties, he fet off, and beat them both. It was in the afternoon of this victorious day, that the good Doctor intimated the neceffity of his return to town; good-humouredly observing, that, although by a lucky arrangement, he had left his fick and wounded in very good hands with a brother phyfician in London, he could not trefpafs any longer, without fear of being fet down by the college as a deferter, and he must therefore repair to head quarters in the morning.

The reasonablenefs of this was admitted: yet the merchant fighed, and Amelia wept. The Doctor knew it must be done, and he faw that his prophecy, as to his friend's recovery, was fulfilled to his heart's content; but there is a fympathy in generous regret, and his eyes were not more dry than Amelia's. In defpite of exertions, the evening paft heavily away: the morning did not rife without cafting clouds. on every countenance. The hour, the almoft instant, that was to feparate the cottagers from their preferver, approached.

Friend, faid the Doctor to his patient, as he heard the wheels of his carriage advancing, fince I faw thee laft in the great city, I have profpered

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profpered exceedingly. All thofe families, to whom thou tookeft me by the hand, were, more for thy fake than mine, on my lift. Some merit, however, or infinite good fortune, I must needs have had, fince, from an yearly gain of one hundred, I have increased my income to feveral thousands per annum; and yet, I do not take fees for one in forty of my prescriptions. My houfe is too large for my family. Wilt thou come once again into the bufy world, with this mountain bloffom, and occupy fome of the apartments?This as thou wilt-At prefent I muft give thee a few words of parting advice, and must rely on this damfel to fee that it is adopted. Thou art fo much thy former felf, friend, that I fear not a relapse; but, to fortify and strengthen thee in my absence, I have written, and made up, a prefcription, which, I am convinced, hits thy cafe exactly. Hearing fomething of thy maladies from the friend who conveyed to me thy Amelia's meflage, and forming a judgment, foberly, thereupon, I brought with me fuch drugs as I thought could not be readily procured in thy neighbourhood. They lie, however, in a smail compass, even in this little box, yet, being compounds of peculiar strength, they will last you, I judge, for at least a year to come, probably more-if they should not, thou

thou knoweft where to addrefs the prefcriber for a fresh supply. There, friend, take it, but do not open it till you feem to wish for fomething of a cordial nature. It will then, I have no doubt, do thee good.

He received their tearful embraces, and departed. You are impatient to lift up the lid of the box. When it was opened by the merchant and his daughter, they discovered two feparate pieces of paper, each containing a draft, on a different banker, for one thousand pounds the one, a prefent from the phyfician, the other from the ftranger who had given him an account of this little family. Wrapt round thefe drafts was a flip of paper, in the Doctor's hand-writing, containing these words "Tributes, from the friends of filial piety and parental love."

I must not deny you the gratification of knowing that the father recovered, and the child added to his bleffings, and her own, many years; in the fmiling courfe of which, the young lady's virtues attracted the affections. of a very wealthy and worthy gentleman, whose power and inclinations not only enabled the merchant to make reftitution of the generosity received from the phyfician; but to make alfo

the refidue of that man's life, from whom he derived the beft and lovelieft of wives, as happy, in profperity, as it had been refpectable, in misfortune.

There is an air of romance about this little hiftory, better fuited to the fpirit of the days of chivalry (when to fally forth in quest of the unhappy and of the oppreffed, and to 'relieve them, was a vital part of the education-nay, and even of the religion, of a gentleman) than to the present times, which, though perhaps not lefs distinguished for liberal actions, than any age whatsoever, less encourages that quixotifm in benevolence, which marked the character of former æras. On your heart I need not prefs my repeated affurances of the fimple truth of the above tranfactions. You will eafily credit words and deeds, of which you are yourself so capable: indeed, to your feelings there will be nothing furprizing in all this, for you will follow the good old rule of judging others by yourself. Nay, I am perfuaded, that the wonder will ceafe, and die away, in every heart you think fit to make partaker of thefe falls, when given to understand, that they proceeded from a phyfician who was the means of converting an highwayman, who had violated the public

ཀླ ་ ་

faith,

faith, into a man who was afterwards chofen to guard the public faith, by holding a place of the highest trust in one of the public treafuries of his country; and that the Doctor's, colleague in the bounty, fhewn to our merchant and his Amelia, was no lefs a benefactor to human kind, than the late Mr. HOWARD, who happened, on the day that he was driven for fhelter into the village inn, which was then graced with the prefence of Amelia, to be returning to England from one of his ufual tours of benevolence, to the different prifons of Ireland and Wales., My friend, farewell.

LETTER XIV.

TO THE SAME.

SINGULAR indeed! that you should

be perusing the account of the death of the philanthropist mentioned in my laft, at the moment that you received my letter, and that on the morning of the fame day you fhould have fallen in company with Dr. ******, of whofe tour of loving kindness I had prépared for you fo ample a detail.

Things of this fort are occafionally fo welltimed, that there feems more in them than our philofophy

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