that it is impoffible he ever should.

The

traveller of my caft, certainly, stands a better chance of hitting upon fome of these, than he that is in and out of the country, as faft as horses, or wheels, can carry him, and, of course, though he paffes by as many amiable people, as even a generous heart could expect to find, knows as little about them, as thofe wheels, or horfes. Whatever, therefore, you were before, I fet you down from this moment, as a convert to refidentiary travelling: and, moreover, whenever you next examine your map, to trace the wanderings of your correfpondent, you will be pleased to know, what you certainly did not know before, that upon the side of a barren heath, at the edge of a roaring fea, between Aberavon and Aberedftwith, there ftands a folitary hut, which would open to distress, as readily as to profperity, and afford its impartial bounty, to whofoever is in want of it. Ah, that truth would warrant our faying fo much in praise of half the houses, that have the most room to fpare, and the best accommodation to beftow, in the great city of London, or any other great city! but, as Cooper fays, very fweetly, though, perhaps, a little quaintly,

"God-made the country, and man made the town.”

After

After all, there are good people every where, if we take the trouble to look for them; and to expect them without trouble, or research, in a world like this, is prepofterous. As cities have their virtuous characters, cottages have their villains, and wherever cenfure is general, it is in life, as in literature, perhaps,

"Ten cenfure wrong for one who acts amifs."

At least, the practise of condemning in the lump, and erecting our panegyric on cottages, on the ruins of old threadbare fatire on courts, is my abhorrence. In either station, one of your principles would be a juft object of the love I bear you. Is this a letter, or a volume? Left in looking back, you should ask what it is about? I will abruptly end it, by bidding you Adieu.

LETTER VIII.

TRUE,

TO THE SAME.

Aberedftwith.

my friend, I plead guilty to your accufation of filence: it has been a whole month fince I laft addreffed you; but I understood by yours, which came to hand foon after mine was dispatched, that you were in your bed of fickness, and that heavy grief, for the lofs of one of the earliest adopted, and moft dearly loved, of your friends occafioned it. I have the most rooted diflike to interrupt, or to be interrupted, in the awful duties and inclinings of diftrefs on thefe occafions. It is ufual, I know, to write a very long epiftle of condolence, and confolation on such cases: but did not the intention fanctify the practice, I should pronounce it impertinent, if not impious. It is obtruding upon our forrow in its fabbath. One whom we have long valued, long conversed with, will be seen by us in this world no more; the day that bereaves us, and the days of mourning that fucceed it, fhould be kept holy. It fhould be hallowed with our tears. Such tears often do us good," or, at worft, they do us lefs harm, than an unreasonable attempt to wipe them away. And fuch efforts, are al

ways

ways more or lefs ineffectual: the eloquence of Cicero, cloathing the morality of Seneca, would neither reach our hearts, nor convince our understandings, under the recent impreffions of grief, for the death of a long tried, and long loved friend. The ordinary applications are packs of proverbs, and ftrings of maxims, which tell us what we know to be true, and impracticable. Had I infulted you with any of thefe, I fhould have dishonoured both the.living and the dead. I am not to learn, that you have "the virtue to be moved," and, that her you mourn, had a double claim on your tender regret her own admirable qualities, and her veneration for yours.

As there is a point, however, beyond which forrow fhould not pafs, fo is there one that fhould bound the falutary filence of a friend. That point is, methinks, arrived to you, and to myself. Your favour, by the post of yesterday, convinces me

"Difcretion hath fo far fought with Nature,
"That you with wifeft forrow think on her;

Together with remembrance of yourself.”

Your obfervation, that there was a resemblance betwixt me and the deceased, in the construction of our minds, or, at least, in the formation of our tafte, is extremely flattering; particularly, in

an hour like this, when you have been, as it were, embalming the qualities, that most pleased you in the latter, with your tears. I remember, you was formerly of this opinion. The difference of our ages made nothing againft The few days I

the fimilitude of our fpirits. paffed in the company of this fecond De l'Enclos, at your house, in the winter of were amongst the few that hurried away from life, without feeling one moment too long. Shall we ever forget the enthusiasm of sympathy, that by an involuntary. impulfe threw. us into each other's embraces, on our discovery, that we both held long conversations with ourfelves, and as regularly went on with question and answer, as if we had been in the heat of debate, in a room full of company? You'remember, likewife, I truft, our fatisfaction on finding, that we had been both fet down, for people out of their wits, by the

Sly, flow things, with circumfpective eyes."

and that we should both defcend to the grave, with the reputation of having been distracted: that is to fay, having had the power of extracting fweets, from thofe flowery trifles, which others, who are as pleafed with trifles, not a whit better themfelves, reckon amongst the weeds of life.

Her