twenty.

This was her father's will.

As to the skeleton in the library, it was my fon's express order it should be fo, and that the figure fhould not be removed from the place it ftands in, while the library remained in that room; but continue a folemn memorial in his family, to perpetuate his memory, and be a memento mori to the living.

§. io. This is the history Old Mr. of Bafil Groves, and the late Henley offers me his grandowner of this feat, and his daughter in daughter Statia. We live a marriage. happy, religious life here, and enjoy every bleffing that can be defired in this lower hemifphere. But as I am not very far from a hundred years, having paffed that ninety-two which Sir William Temple fays, he never knew any one he was acquainted with arrive at, I must be on the brink of the grave, and expect every day to drop into it. What may become of Statia, then, gives me fome trouble to think; as all her relations, except myself, are in the other world. To fpend her life here in this folitude, as feems to be her inclination, is not proper; and to go into the world by herself, when I am dead, without knowing any mortal in it, may involve her in troubles and diftreffes.

Hear

Hear then, my fon, what I propose to you. You are a young man, but ferious. You have got fome wifdom in the fchool of affliction, and you have no averfion to matrimony, as you have juft buried, you fay, a glorious woman, your wife. If you will stay with us here, till Statia is two and twenty, and in that time render yourself agreeable to her, I promise you, fhe fhall be yours the day fhe enters the three and, twentieth year of her age, and you fhall have with her fortune all that I am owner of, which is no fmall fum. What do fay to this proposal ?

§. 11. Sir, I replied, you

do me vaft honour, much My reply. more I am fure than my me

you

rits can pretend to. I am infinitely ob. liged to you, and must be blind and infenfible, if I refused fuch a woman as Mifs Henley, were the far from being the fortune the is: But I have not vanity enough to imagine, I can gain her affections; efpecially in my circumftances; and to get her by your authority, or power of dif pofing of her, is what I cannot think of. I will stay however, a few months here, fince you fo generously invite me, and let Mifs Henley know, I will be her humble fervant, if fhe will allow me the honour

of

of bearing that title. This made the old gentleman laugh, and he took me by the hand, faying, This is right. Come, let us go and take a walk before dinner.

My refidence

at Bafil

Groves for Seven months, and manner of living.

§. 12. There I paffed the winter, and part of the spring, and lived in a delightful manner. The mornings I generally spent in the library, reading, or writing extracts from

fome curious MSS. or scarce books; and in the afternoons Mifs Henley and I walked in the lawns and woods, or fat down to cards. She was a fine creature indeed in body and foul, had a beautiful understanding, and charmed me to a high degree. Her converfation was rational and eafy, without the leaft affectation from the books fhe had read; and she would enliven it sometimes by finging, in which kind of mufic fhe was as great a mistress as I have heard. As to her heart, I found it was to be gained; but an accident happened that put a stop to the amour.

The death of old Mr. Henley, and Statia's beha

viour there

upon.

§. 13. In the beginning of March, the old gentleman, the excellent Mr. Henley, Statia's grandfather and guardian, and my great friend, died, and by

his death a great alteration enfued in my affair. I thought to have had Mifs Henley immediately, as there was no one to plead her father's will against the marriage, and intended to fend Ŏ Finn for Fryar Fleming; but when Statia faw herself her own miftrefs, without any fuperior, or controul, and in poffeffion of large fortunes, money, and an eftate, that fhe might do as fhe pleased; this had an effect on her mind, and made a change. She told me, when I addreffed myself to her, after her grandfather was interred, that what the intended. to do, in obedience to him, had he lived, fhe thought required very ferious confideration now fhe was left to herself: That, exclufive of this, her inclination really was for a fingle life; and had it been otherwise, yet it was not proper, fince her guardian was dead, that I fhould live with her till the time limited by her father's will for her to marry was come; but that, as she had too good an opinion of me, to imagine her fortune was what chiefly urged my application, and must own fhe had a regard for me, fhe would be glad to hear from me fometimes, if I could think her worth remembering, after I had left the Groves of Bafil. This fhe faid with great ferioufnefs, and feemed by her manner to forbid my urging the thing any further.

§. 14. I

My reply to Mifs Henley; being an apology for matrimony, as it is by the goffel made a memorial of the covenant of grace.

§. 14. I affured her, however, that time only could wear out her charming image from my mind, and that I had reafon to fear, she would long remain the torment of my heart. She had a right to be fure to difmifs me from her fervice; but in respect of her inclination to live a single life,

I begged leave to observe, that it was certainly quite wrong, and what she could not anfwer to the wife and bountiful Father of the Universe, as fhe was a Chriftian, and by being fo, muft believe, that baptifm was a memorial of the covenant of grace.

The Catholics and the Vision-mongers of the proteftant fide, (the Rev. Mr. Wm. Law, and others of his row) may magnify the excellence of celibacy as high as they please, and work it into Chriftian perfection, by founding words and eloquent pens; but most furely, revelation was directly against them, and required the faithful to produce in a regular way.

Confider, illuftrious Statia, that when the Moft High gave the Abrahamic_covenant in these words, I will be a God unto thee, and to thy feed after thee, and in thy feed fhall all the families, or nations of the earth

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