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She had, like a lute, all the passive powers of mufic in her, but wanted the mafter's hand to bring them forth.

She had quitted England very young-before her tender affections had been rendered callous, by the collifions of the world. She had been carried into India, where the continued, till those sentiments had been ripened into principle, and were inspired with all the sublime enthusiasm of eastern morality.

• She feemed to be unhappy.-This added a tenderness to my esteem for her.-I gueffed, but inquired not her private hiftory, and the communicated nothing.-She would repine, but not refent. She had no gall to boil over-her overflowings were of the pancreatic juices only.

From that time we held on a conftant and refined intercourse, while fhe remained in the kingdom, and a friendly correfpondence fucceeded our parting-to meet no more—in this world-I prophefy!-She happened to be another man's wife

too.

But the charity that had attracted, with the virtue that united us, were not able to fcreen us from the cenfures of bafe minds. Neither her own fair character, nor the memento of my ghoftly appearance, were fufficient bars to flander.

The improbability of a malicious flory ferves but to help forward the currency of it-because it increases the fcandal.—So that in fuch inftances, the world, like Romish priests, are industrious to propagate a belief in things they have not the leaft faith themselves; or, like the pious St. Auftin, who faid he believed fome things, because they were abfurd and impoffible,'

We shall not have a difadvantageous opinion of the reader who prefers the first part of this publication to the fecond, containing effays, fentiments, and characters. These are generally disjointed and hafty. Their merit is very unequal, and though we often catch a gleam of Shandean fentiments and humour, it is not fufficient to guide us through the bogs and quagmires we encounter, nor are the thoughts always original; we are therefore inclined to think that the author threw them together to ferve as a kind of nursery from whence he might transplant Shandeifms. The compilation, however, is fo incorrect and incoherent, that we are often at a loss for the author's meaning. We shall submit the following criticisins to our learned reader.

"Ah! te meæ fi partem animæ rapit Mauturior vis, quid moror altera, Nec carus æquè, nec fuperftes

Integer ?"

Hor. L. 2. Od. 17,

• Please

Please to obferve here, that Paddy Horace fays his friend is part of himself, and that if this fame part fhould be taken away, the remainder-altera-would not be the whole-integer.

• Now if any modern author had written the above paffage, would not the English critics ftiled it an Hibernicism ?

There is another paffage too in this author, which may likewife be carped at, but that it is not certain whether the error is to be imputed to the writer or transcriber-most probably to the latter, because that so small an erratum would fet it right.

Quid terros alio calentes

Sole mutamus? Patriæ quis exul
Se quoque fugit ?"

Lib. 2. Od. 16.

Here the fenfe is deficient in the first fentence-because the commutation is not propofed-and the expreffion abounds with a pleonafm in the fecond.-For exul comprehends patria.

But change this laft word into patria, and join it to the firft fentence-let us fee how it will ftand upon this alteration. "Quid terras alio calentes

Sole mutamus patriâ ? Quis exul
Se quoque fugit ?

You fee that the deficiency is by this means fupplied in the first part, and the abundance refcinded in the latter.'

We do not remember ever to have feen in Bentley, or the most outrageous hypercritic, two fuch bold amendments as the above; and till Mr. Sterne pointed them out we should have thought those two paffages the most unexceptionable of any in the works of Horace. The following is a quotation we neither can anfwer nor do we understand.

Afk Doctor Smollet what he means in his Travels by the Genoefe, the emprefs of Ruffia, and making heaven accountable for the death of Peter the Third-Joan-and the predestination of her fon ?'

After what we have faid we must be acquitted of any inimicality, to ufe his own word, to the memory of Mr Sterne; but we think that nudities ought not to be expofed merely because they are thofe of a deceased genius. The editor, it is true, hints that he had fuppreffed fome lefs allowable paffages in his friend's legacy, but we must be of opinion thatPlura depafcenda ftylo.

IV. Sen

IV. Sentimental Lucubrations. By Peter Pennylefs. 8vo. Pr. 2s. 6d. Becket and De Hondt.

THIS

HIS fame lady Sentimentality, of whom we are apt to hear fo much in modern publications, we are forry to say is but too apt to quarrel with her elder brother Common-sense; and we are afraid our friend Peter Pennylefs has a strong bankering to take her part. Peter, however, means well, but is so great an imitator of Triftram Shandy, that his friends must blufh for him, because in his endeavours to catch Triftram's manner, his delicate humour is apt to flip thro' his fingers; while Probability, the companion of that fame gentleman called Common-fenfe, entirely forfakes him ;-but let him speak for himfelf.

• Stripped of every thing but a tattered remnant of a fine garment,-afhamed of every one and every one afhamed of me, I fled from the place of my nativity;—as I entered a small village in the weft of England, an old man fat by the fide of the way, who had lost a leg and an arm in the fervice of his country, he rose up as I approached, and with a look and voice rather philofophical than dejected, begged that I would spare him an halfpenny, to enable him to obtain a place of shelter from the ftorm which was coming on.

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Adverfity, thou nobleft inftructor of the human heart, he who is incapable of learning at thy fchool, has a clay-cold heart, and will remain a stubborn and untractable clod, till he tumbles again into that inanimate mafs from which he seems to have been erroneously separated ;-thou had begun to tutor me;-thou had awakened my reflection ;-it was the first time that ever charity had warmed my heart;-I put my hand into my pocket; it was the first time that I ever had nothing to give. How unluckily are our abilities and our inclinations contrafted, faid I; fo I walked away afhamed.-At another time I would have faved this blush, by faying I had no change.

While I rioted in abundance I had always confidered poverty as one of the greatest evils; but having alfo confidered myfelf as entirely out of its reach, I had rather despised than pitied those who felt it.-Nothing is more natural than to change our fentiments with our condition.-Inftead of disdain,-every foft emotion now arofe in my breaft; and the firft, and perhaps the greateft unhappinefs I ever felt, was because I had nothing to bestow upon this poor man, whom I reckoned the moft wretched of the fpecies, as I concluded that he would inevitably perish for want of a lodging, which a few poor halfpennies of all that I had heedlefly thrown away might have purchased for him.

• Self

• Self-love was totally abforbed in a ftronger paffion.-If you will not allow, ye critics, that there is any itronger pafsion, you must allow that another one can, at least for fome time, thrust it out ;-for I feriously declare, that I never confidered all this while that I could not purchase a lodging for myself.

While I was revolving in my mind what would become of him, he refumed his feat with an air of the moft placid indifference, and wrapping himself in a tattered old cloke,—well, -faid he, if I muft lie without doors to-night, I have done fo in many a colder one,-here he began to hang down his head, his utterance feemed to fail him, and he added, ay, but then I had many a brave fellow to accompany me; whereas here I am like to be expofed alone to an-the reft was fo low, that I could not hear it. When it was ended, he raised up his head, looked afhamed, as if he had done fomething below the dignity of human nature, and tried to resume his ferenity.

There is a je ne sçai quoi in the manner in which a speech is delivered, that conveys the fentiments of the speaker more home to the heart, than any form of words. The speech of the old foldier was of this nature;-it convinced me at once, that poverty and happiness were not incompatible, although nature had for a few moments got the better of his refolution.

I had gone but a little way farther, when I heard a cobler, who was covered with rags in a dirty stall, finging in a manner that fhewed me he understood a chearful heart much better than the harmony of founds.-Since I fee, faid I, that other people can enjoy as much felicity in poverty as is confiftent with the prefent state of things, I make no doubt but I fhall enjoy as much as my neighbours.

Nature now began to call aloud for the neceffary fupplies of existence. I was stepping into a tavern, but just recollected in the paffage that I had no money.-A fmart-looking waiter came up to me :-Sir, faid he, what room would you choose to walk into? I had better walk out, thought I, so stepped toward the door.-I hope you are not affronted, Sir, continued he, pray be kind enough but to look at them; I affure you there are not better rooms, nor better accommodation to be met with any where in town.

The transition of the mind is far from being fo quick as that of the circumstances-I had been too newly initiated into poverty to have become able to beg my lodging. -I will go back, faid I, and lodge by the way fide with the old foldier; we seem to be of fimilar tempers, and if we cannot make a hearty meal and a warm bed together, I am perfuaded we

fhall

fhall at least affift each other to laugh at the inftability of fortune.

I walked back in a penfive and melancholy manner; for I am no ftoic, and have all the feelings of humanity about me, though the natural gaiety of my heart is fuch that I can never be depreffed above a few hours together by the most untoward accident.-The old foldier arofe when I drew near him; -I laughed, because I expected he would accoft me for another halfpenny.-Sir, faid he, I have been thinking of you ever fince you paffed this way; your behaviour then, and your returning now convince me, that your mind is not at ease.— I am much mistaken if you have not feen better days; poverty puts it out of my power to aflift you with any thing but advice, but even that may perhaps be of fome fervice to you, as I have fome little experience of the world.

I fat down filent by his fide, and after staring a little at each other, It is the first time, faid I, that I ever begged in my life; but I must now beg to lodge with you here all night.I will not grant your requeft, faid he, but we will go together to a little cottage hard by. Since you passed I have luckily received a fhilling from an old colonel, under whom I ferved in Germany; it will procure us all that is neceffary to nature, and we will enjoy all that it can procure.

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So faying, he laid his hand upon my fhoulder, so we rose up, and jogged on towards the cot. On our way, I told him all that had happened to me.-He advised me to return to my friends, who would certainly do fomething for me: adding, that if I should throw myself friendless and unknown upon the world, the world would ufe me in a cold and friendlefs manner. I will never return to them, faid I; they are the people I want most to avoid; as they have long been tired with admonishing me in vain, a confcioufnefs of my guilt would put it out of my power to appear before them.-I had just finished this fentence when we arrived at a little ftraw-built hut, into which we entered, and a fimple repast was foon prepared for us. I fat down to the homely morfel with much more relish than ever had done to the moft luxurious feaft, and ate with a much better appetite.

When we had finished our meal, and, as I expected, our money likewise, my meffmate, looking cheerily over the table, told me, that the one half of our stock only was spent, and that with the other we might have a couple of bottles of strong beer. Though this was a liquor I had never been accustomed to spend my evenings with, I agreed to the motion. --It was brought, and was good.'

We

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