The lady, to whose abilities and misfortunes the world owes the possession of the following pages, was the wife of Sir Joseph Pennington, Bart. of Walter-Hall, Yorkshire. With a heart firmly attached to the practice of every virtue, she frequently indulged in expressing such an indifference for public opinion, as provided the enemies of her peace with the fatal means of wounding her feelings, though they could not injure her reputation. This error of her life she every where deplores, with more severity than candour thinks allowable. From melancholy experience she tells the unsuspecting female, that it is not enough that life be passed in deeds of active virtue, attended with the approbation of a good conscience, she is also amenable to the world for its opinion.-The sturdy integrity of a man may stand secure amid the storm of public censure; but, in this respect, the chief praise of the softer sex is negative-the crystalline purity of female reputation is almost sullied by the breath even of good report.

She

Lady Pennington died in August 1783. was buried in the parish church of Fulmer, Buckinghamshire. The numerous kind and charitable offices which a good heart, assisted by even a small income, can perform, were daily exemplified in her benevolence to the poor of an extensive village, wherein she resided.

May the youthful heart be taught by her precepts to practise those virtues which she so earnestly enforces; and, from her example," learn to guard against indiscretion. Happy, indeed, are they, who shall equal her in piety, charity, and resignation.

A

MOTHER'S ADVICE,

&c.

My dear Jenny,

WAS there any probability that a letter from me would be permitted to reach your hand alone, I should not have chosen this least eligible method of writing to you. The public is no way concerned in family affairs, and ought not to be made a party in them; but my circumstances are such as lay me under a necessity of either communicating my sentiments to the world, or of concealing them from you;-the latter would, I think, be the breach of an indispensable duty, which obliges me to wave the impropriety of the former.

A long train of events, of a most extraordinary nature, conspired to remove you, very early, from the tender care of an affectionate mother: you were then too young to be able to form any right judgment of her conduct, and since that time it is very probable that it has been represented to you in the most unfavourable light.-The general prejudice against me I never gave myself the useless trouble of any endeavour to remove. I do not mean to infer from hence, that the opinion of others is of no material consequence; on the contrary, I would advise you always to remember, that, next to the consciousness of acting right, the public voice should be regarded, and to endeavour by a prudent

behaviour, even in the most trifling instances, to secure it in your favour;-the being educated in a different opinion, was a misfortune to me. I was indeed early and wisely taught, that virtue was the one thing necessary, and without it no happiness could be expected, either in this, or in any future state of existence; but, with this good principle, a mistaken one was at the same time inculcated, namely, that the self-approbation arising from conscious virtue, was alone sufficient; and, that the censures of an ill-natured world, ever ready to calumniate, when not founded on truth, were beneath the concern of a person, whose actions were guided by the superior motive of obedience to the will of Heaven. This notion, strongly imbibed before reason had gained sufficient strength to discover its fallacy, was the cause of an inconsiderate conduct in my subsequent life, which marked my character with a disadvantageous impression. To you I shall speak with the most unreserved sincerity, not concealing a fault which you may profit by the knowledge of-and therefore I freely own, that in my younger years, satisfied with keeping strictly within the bounds of virtue, I took a foolish pleasure in exceeding those of prudence, and was ridi. culously vain of indulging a latitude of behaviour, into which others of my age were afraid of launching: but then, in justice to myself, I must at the same time declare, that this freedom was only taken in public company; and, so extremely cautious was I of doing any thing that appeared to me a just ground for censure, I call heaven to witness, your father was the first man whom I ever made any private assignation with, or even met in a room alone-nor did I take that liberty with him, till the most solemn mutual engagement, the matrimonial ceremony, had bound us to each other. My be

haviour then, he has frequently since acknowledged, fully convinced him I was not only innocent of any criminal act, but of every vicious thought; and that the outward freedom of my deportment proceeded merely from a great gaiety of temper, and from a very high flow of spirits, never broke, if the expression may be allowed, into the formal rules of decorum.-To sum up the whole in a few words, my private conduct was what the severest prude could not condemn; my public, such as the most finished coquette alone would have ventured upon the latter only could be known to the world, and, consequently, from thence must their opinion be taken. You will therefore easily be sensible, that it would not be favourable to me; on the contrary, it gave a general prejudice against me-and this bas been since made use of as an argument to gain credit to the malicious falsehoods laid to my charge. For this reason-convinced by long experience, that the greater part of mankind are so apt to receive, and so willing to retain, a bad impression of others, that, when it is once established, there is hardly a possibility of removing it through life-I have, for some years past, silently acquiesced in the dispensations of Providence, without attempting any justification of myself; and, being conscious that the infamous aspersions cast on my character were not founded on truth, I have sat down content with the certainty of an open and perfect acquittal of all vicious dispositions, or criminal conduct, at that great day, when all things shall appear as they really are, and when both our actions, and the most secret motives for them, will be made manifest to men and angels.

Had your father been amongst the number of those who are deceived by appearances, I should have thought it my duty to leave no method un

essayed to clear myself in his opinion-but that was not the case: He knows that many of those appearances, which have been urged against me, I was forced to submit to, not only from his direction, but by his absolute command, which, contrary to reason and to my own interest, I was, for more than twelve years, weak enough implicitly to obey: and that others, even since our separation, were occasioned by some particular instances of his behaviour, which rendered it impossible for me to act with safety in any other manner.-To him I appeal for the truth of this assertion, who is conscious of the meaning-that may hereafter be explained to you. Perfectly acquainted with my principles and with my natural disposition, his heart, I am convinced, never here condemned me. Being greatly incensed that my father's will gave to me an independent fortune-which will he imagined I was accessary to, or at least that I could have prevented-he was thereby laid open to the arts of designing men, who, having their own interest solely in view, worked him up into a desire of revengeand from thence, upon probable circumstances, into a public accusation ;-though that public accusation was supported only by the single testimony of a person, whose known falsehood had made him a thousand times declare, that he would not credit her oath in the most trifling incident; yet, when he was disappointed of the additional evidence he might have been flattered with the hope of obtaining, 'twas too late to recede. This I sincerely believe to be the truth of the case, though I too well know his tenacious temper to expect a present justification; but, whenever he shall arrive on the verge of eternity-if reason holds her place at that awful moment, and if religion has then any power on his heart,-I make no doubt he will at that time