commend, for a guide through the wildernefs, if I could think his heart was as found as his head. If his intentions were as upright as his words are fluent and good, I need not be long in pondering on the scheme he propofed. But can we believe him true, as Lucinda fays in the play?

The funny hill, the flow'ry vale, The garden and the grove,

Have echo'd to his ardent tale, And vows of endless love.

The conqueft gain'd, he left his prize, He left her to complain,

To talk of joy with weeping eyes, And measure time by pain.

To this Curl replied in a circumstantial manner, and vouched very largely for me. I delivered his letter the next morning, when I went with fome acts of parliament to old Dunk, and I found the beauty, his daughter, in a rofy bower;-Simplex munditiis, neat and clean as poffible in the most genteel undress; and her perfon fo vaftly fine, her face fo vaftly charming; that I could not but repeat the lines of Otway,

Man when created first wander'd up and down, Forlorn and filent as his vaffal brutes; But when a heav'n-born maid, like you appear'd, Strange pleasures fill'd his foul, unloos'd his tongue, And his firft talk was love..

A deal

A deal I said upon the occafion: we became well acquainted that day, as her father had got a diforder that obliged him to keep his bed, and by the time I had vifited her a month longer, under various pretences of bufinefs invented by the ingenious Curl, Agnes agreed to go off with me, and commit herself intirely to my care and protection: But before I relate this tranfaction, I think it proper to give my readers the picture of this lady; and then an apology for her flying away with me, with whom he was but a month acquainted.

The picture of
Mifs Dunk.

Agnes in her person was neither tall nor thin, but almoft both, young and lovely, graceful and commanding: She inspired a refpect, and compelled the beholder to admire and love and reverence her. Her voice was melodious; her words quite charming; and every look and motion to her advantage. Tafte was the characteristic of her understanding: Her fentiments were refined: And a fenfibility appeared in every feature of her face. She could talk on various fubjects, and comprehended them, which is what few fpeakers do: but with the finest discernment, fhe was timid, and fo diffident of her opinion, that she often

con

concealed the fineft thoughts under a feeming fimplicity of foul. This was visible to a hearer, and the decency of ignorance added a new beauty to her character. In fhort, poffeffed of excellence, the appeared unconfcious of it, and never difcovered the leaft pride or precipitancy in her converfation. Her manner was perfectly polite, and mixed with a gaiety that charmed, because it was as free from reftraint as from boldness.

In fum, exclufive of her fine understanding, in her dress, and in her behaviour, fhe was fo extremely pleafing, fo vaftly agreeable and delightful, that the ever brought to my remembrance, when I beheld her, the Corinna defcribed in the beautiful lines of Tibullus:

Illam quicquid agit, quoquo veftigia flectit,
Componit furtim fubfequiturque decor;
Seu folvit crines, fufis decet effe capillis;
Seu compfit comptis eft veneranda comis.
Irit feu tyria voluit procedere pulla;
Urit feu nivea candida velte venit.
Talis in æterno felix Vertumnus Olympo,
Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet.

When love would fet the gods on fire, he flies To light his torches at her fparkling eyes. Whate'er Corinna does, where'er fhe goes, The graces all her motions ftill compofe. VOL. IV.

I

How

How her hair charms us, when it loofely falls,
Comb'd back and ty'd, our veneration calls!
If fhe comes out in fcarlet, then she turns
Us all to afhes,-though in white she burns.
Vertumnus fo a thousand dreffes wears,
So in a thousand, ever grace appears.

Such was the beautiful Agnes, who went off with me, and in fo doing acted well and wifely, I affirm, on her taking me only for an honest man; for there is no more obedience due from a daughter to her father, when he becomes an unrelenting oppreffor, than there is from a fubject to an English king, when the monarch acts contrary to the constitution. Paffive obedience is as much nonfense in a private family, as in the government of the prince. The parent, like the king, must be a nurfing father, a rational humane fovereign, and fo long all fervice and obedience are due. But if, like the prince, he becomes a tyrant, deprives his daughter of her natural rights and liberties; will not allow her the bleffings of life, but keep her in chains and mifery; felf-prefervation, and her juft claim to the comforts of exiftence and a rational freedom, give her a right to change her fituation, and better her condition. If the can have bread, ferenity, and freedom, peace and little, with an honeft man, she is just to herself in going off with such a

deliverer. Reafon and revelation will acquit her.

Thus juftly thought Mifs Dunk, and therefore with me fhe fled at midnight. We met within half a mile of her father's house, by the fide of an antient wood, and a running stream, which had a pleasing effect, as it happened to be a bright moonfhine. With her foot in my hand, I lifted her into her faddle, and as our horses were excellent, we rid many miles in a few hours. By eight in the morning, we were out of the reach of old Dunk, and at the sign of the Pilgrim, a lone house in Efur-vale, in Hertfordshire, we breakfasted very joyfully. The charming Agnes feemed well pleafed with the expedition, and faid a thousand things that rendered the journey delightful. Twelve days we travelled in a fulness of delights, happy beyond defcription, and the thirteenth arrived at a village not far from my little habitation. Here we defigned to be married two days after, when we had refted, as there was a church and a parfon in the town, and then ride on to Foley-farm in Cumberland, as my small spot was called, and there fit down in peace and happiness.