trees, near a murmuring stream; that if she pleased, I would take her to that sweet, silent spot, and enable her to live in peace, with contentment and tranquillity of mind; though far awayfrom the splendours and honours of the world, and considering, that a Christian is not to conform to the world, or to the pomps and vanities of it; its grand customs and usages; its dress and entries; its stage representations and masquerades, as they minister to vice, and tend to debauch the manners; but are to look upon ourselves as beings of another world, and to form our minds with these spiritual principles; it follows then, I think, that a pleasing country situation for a happy pair must be grateful enough. There peace and love and modesty may be best preserved; the truth and gravity of our religion be strictly maintained, and every lawful and innocent enjoyment be for ever the delights of life. Away from the idle modes of the world, perpetual love and unmixed joys may be our portion, through the whole of our existence here; and the inward principles of the heart be ever laudable and pure. So will our happiness as mortals be stable, subject to no mixture or change; and when called away from this lower hemisphere, have nothing to fear, as we used this world, as though we used it not; as we knew no gratifications and liberties but what our

religion allows us, as our enjoyments will be but the necessary convenience and accommodation, for passing from this world to the realms of eternal happiness. Follow me then, Miss DUNK; I will convey you to a scene of still life and felicity, great and lasting as the heart of woman can wish for.

The charming AGNES seemed not a little surprised at what I had said, and after looking at me very earnestly for a minute or two, told me, she would give me an answer to Mr. CURLL'S letter in less than half an hour, which was all she could say at present, and with it I returned to give him an account of the reception I had. "It will do," said he after he had read the letter I brought him from Miss DUNK, but you must be my young man for a week or two more, and take some more things to the same place. He then shewed me the letter, and I read the following lines:

"SIR,

"I am extremely obliged to you for your concern about my happiness and liberty, and will own to you, that in my dismal situation, I would take the friend you recommend, for a guide through the wilderness, if I could think his heart was as sound 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 proposed. But

can we believe him true, as Lucinda says in the

play?

The sunny hill, the flow'ry vale,

The garden and the grove,

Have echo'd to his ardent tale,

And vows of endless love.

The conquest 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 CURLL replied in a circumstantial manner, and vouched very largely for me. I delivered his letter the next morning, when I went with some acts of parliament to old DUNK and I found the beauty, his daughter, in a rosy bower; Simplex munditiis, neat and clean as possible in the most genteel undress; and her person so vastly fine, her face so vastly charming; that I could not but repeat the lines of Otway

Man when created first wander'd up

and down,

Forlorn and silent as his vassal brutes;

But when a heav'n-born maid, like you appear'd, Strange pleasures fill'd his soul, unloos'd his tongue, And his first talk was love.

I said much upon the occasion, we became well

acquainted that day, as her father had got a disorder that obliged him to keep his bed, and by the time I had visited her a month longer, under various pretences of business invented by the ingenious CURLL, AGNES agreed to go off with me, and commit herself entirely to my care and protection. But before I relate this transaction, 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 she was but a month acquainted.

AGNES in her person was neither tall nor thin, but almost both, young and lovely, graceful and commanding; she inspired a respect, and compelled the beholder to admire, to love and reverence her. Her voice was melodious; her words quite charming; and every look and motion to her advantage. Taste was the characteristic of her understanding, her sentiments were refined, and a sensibility appeared in every feature of her face. She could talk on various subjects, and comprehended them, which is what few speakers do; but with the finest discernment, she was timid, and so diffident of her opinion, that she often concealed the finest thoughts under a seeming simplicity of soul. was visible to a hearer, and the decency of ignorance added a new beauty to her character. In short, possessed of excellence, she appeared uncon

This

scious of it, and never discovered the least pride or precipitancy in her conversation. Her manner was perfectly polite, and mixed with a gaiety that charmed, because it was as free from restraint as from boldness.

In sum, exclusive of her fine understanding, in her dress, and in her behaviour, she was so extremely pleasing, so vastly agreeable and delightful, that she ever brought to my remembrance, when I beheld her, the Corinna described in the beautiful lines of Tibullus:

Illam quicquid agit, quoquo vestigia flectit,
Componit furtim subsequiturque decor;
Seu solvit crines, fusis decet esse capillis;
Seu compsit comptis est veneranda comis.
Urit seu tyria voluit procedere pulla;
Urit seu nivea candida veste venit.
Talis in æterno felix Vertumnus Olympo
Mille habet ornatus, mille decenter habet.

When love would set the gods on fire, he flies
To light his torches at her sparkling eyes.
Whate'er Corinna does, where'er she goes,
The graces all her motions still compose.
How her hair charms us, when it loosely falls,
Comb'd back and ty'd, our veneration calls!
If she comes out in scarlet, then she turns
Us all to ashes, though in white she burns.
Vertumnus so a thousand dresses wears,

So in a thousand, ever grace appears.