I figh not for beauty, nor languish for wealth, When age shall steal on me, and youth is no more, That peace I'll preserve, then, as free as 'twas giv'n, For virtue and wisdom can warm the cold fcene, When long I the burden of life shall have borne, FROM MISS MIDDLETON TO MISS PEMBERTON, CIVING HER THE MELANCHOLY ACCOUNT OF Dear Mifs Pemberton, Just as I was fetting out for Worcestershire, in order to follow my fifter, who, you know, has been fome time there, I received a letter from my aunt, acquainting me that she was taken ill last Friday, and died in two days after.Yes, that lately fo much admired, that splendid beauty, is now reduced to a cold lump of clay;-for ever closed are thofe once sparkling eyes ;— hushed is that voice that gave so much delight ;-thofe limbs, which art has ranfack'd to adorn, have now no other covering than a fimple fhroud, and in a few days will be confined within the narrow compass of a tomb.Ah! what is life!-What all the gaudy pride of youth, or pomp, or grandeur! What the vain adoration of a flattering world!-Delufive pleasures,-fleeting nothings, how unworthy are you of the attention of a reafonable being! -You know the gay manner in which we have always lived, and will no doubt, be surprised to find expreffions of this kind fall from my pen ;-but, my dear Pemberton, hitherto my life has been a dream; but but I am now, thank heaven, awake:-My fifter's fate Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view, Whether it was the fuddennefs of her fate, or a letter the wrote to me not two hours before her death, I know not, that has made this alteration in me; but of this I am certain, that I can never enough acknowledge the goodness of that Divine Power, without whose affistance it could not have been brought about. I en I fhall make no apology for this melancholy epiftle, because I am very fenfible that whatever concern you may feel for my fifter, it will be greatly alleviated, by finding I am become at last a reasonable creature. clofe you the letter fhe fent, to the end you may judge. with what kind of fentiments fhe left this world.Heaven has, I hope, accepted her contrition, and will enable me, as you will find she defires, to be more early in mine. I am, dear Mifs, Your most afflicted humble Servant, PEMBERTON, ENCLOSED IN THE FOREGOING. MISS MIDDLETON'S LETTER TO HER SISTER, WROTE A FEW HOURS BEFORE HER DEATH, ADVISING HER NOT TO DEFER MAKING THE NECES SARY PREPARATIONS FOR FUTURITY. My dear fifter, BEFORE this can poffibly reach you, the unchanging hat will be paffed upon me, and Ishall be either happy er miferable for ever.None about me pretend to fatter me with the hopes of feeing another morning.Short space to accomplish the mighty work of eternal falvation!- -Yet I cannot leave the world, without admonishing, without conjuring you to be more early in preparing for that dreadful hour, you are fure not to efcape, and know not how shortly may arrive: We have had the fame fort of education,-have lived in the fame manner, and though accounted very like, have refembled each other more in our follies than our faces. Oh! what a waste of time have we not both been guilty of! To dress well has been our study,-parade, equipage, and admiration our ambition,-pleasure our avocation, and the mode our God.-How often, alas! have I profaned, in idle chat, that facred name, by whose merits alone I have hopes to be forgiven? How often have I fat and heard his miracles and sufferings ridiculed by the falfe wits of the age, without feeling the leaft emotion at the blafpemy !-Nay, how often have I my. felf, because I heard others do fo, called in question that futurity I now go to prove, and am already convinced of!-One moment, methinks, I fee the blifsful feats of Paradife unveiled;-I hear ten thousand myriads of myriads of celestial forms tuning their golden harps to fongs of praife, to the unutterable name.-The next a fcene all black and gloomy, fpreads itself before me, whence iffues nought but fobs, and groans, and horrid fhricks.My fluctuating imagination varies the profpect, and involves me in a fad uncertainty of my eternal doom :-On one hand beckoning angels fmile upon me, while on the other, the furies ftand prepared to H 3 feize |