sure to perform this generous office, as you would prosper, and be yourself protected in any of the calamities of human life. By desiring you to make all possible provision for her happiness, I present you with an opportunity of promoting your own. AMANDA.

LETTER VII.

To

My dear Emilia, it will be impossible for me to give you the intelligence I promised from the invisible regions, unless I could translate the language of paradise into that of mortals: For here are a thousand beauties unrevealed, and a thousand delights unnamed among the race of men. We drink at the fountain-head of happiness, and bathe in the rivers of immortal pleasure; the sprightly hours dance along, crowned with love and unutterable ecstacy.

You were witness to my dying agony; I saw your last kind tears, and gave up my breath in your arms. But how changed was the scene in a moment! from the gloom and horror of a death-bed, to the smiles and songs of angels, who conducted me to the ætherial heights; a thousand dazzling wonders met my view; the heavens in pomp unfolded their glories, the paradise of God opened before me in all its blissful and transporting scenes. The happy groves stood crowned with unfading verdure; the lucid currents danced along over sands of gold; the charming bowers displayed their ever-blooming pride, and breathed ambrosia; the palaces of the heavenly powers ascended with exquisite magnificence, sparkling far beyond all the glories of the lower skies, and resounded with the voice of festivity and joy. The first gentle spirit that welcomed me to these happy mansions was your charming brother, gay as a cherubim. The heavenly loves and graces triumphed in all his form; vital pleasure danced in his eyes; life and celestial bloom sat smiling on his face; a wreath of unfading flowers circled his head; and a golden lute

was in his hand, whose harmony, joined to his melting voice, far surpassed all description. That tender innocent passion I had long conceived for him, kindled at the first interview, and has taken eternal possession of my soul.

But how shall I make you sensible of what an angel's flowing song, in all the pomp of heavenly harmony, would not fully describe! In what figures of celestial eloquence shall I relate the loves of immortal spirits; or, tell you the height, the extent, the fulness of their bliss! All the soft engagements on the earth, the tenderest sympathies, and the most holy union that nature knows, are but faint similitudes for the sanctity and grandeur of these divine enjoyments. Hope and languishing expectation are no more, and all desire is lost in full and complete fruition. Love reigns in eternal triumph; here it governs every heart, and dwells on every tongue.

They tune their golden harps to the great name
Of Love, immortal Love, their darling theme.
Ten thousand echoes thro' the lightsome plains
Repeat the clear, the sweet melodious strains.
The fields rejoice, the fragrant groves around
Blossom afresh at their inchanting sound.
The heav'n of heav'ns from dazzling heights above
Returns the name, and hails the power of Love.

But, oh! when the fair face of eternal Love unveils its original glories, and appears in the perfection of uncreated beauty, how wondrous, how ineffabie the vision! Fulness of joy is in his presence, raptures and inexpressible ecstacy: the fairest seraph stops his lute, and with a graceful pause confesses the subject too great his most exalted strain. How impetuously do the streams of immortal joy roll in, and enlarge the faculties of every heavenly mind!

for

Ye sacred mysteries, unrevealed to men; yé glories, unprofaned by mortal eyes, forgive the bold attempt that would describe you. The only description that mortals can receive of you is, that you are not to be described

DELIA.

LETTER VIII.

To

WHEN you had just made me happy, and rewarded the most tender passion in the world with the possession of your charms, I was compelled to make a voyage to Spain. You saw the inward struggle of my soul, and that I must suffer the anguish of death in leaving you, when you surprised me with the unexpected generous offer, to follow me through all the dangers of the seas. Charmed with the proposal, I took you at your word, and rashly ventured my darling treasure to the hazard of a voyage. I lost my life in your defence against an Algerine corsair. The cause was just, and met with its approbation in the seats of peace and happiness.For my own lot, I could not wish it more advantageous; and for yours, such virtue in distress will be the peculiar care of Heaven. The barbarian that made you his prize, treated you with an unaccustomed gentleness; nor has the illustrious Bassa, that ransomed you out of his power at an immense price, given you the least occasion of reproach. In the height of his passion he has always observed even the sanctity of the Christian rules, and treated you with a submission very different from. the principles and customs of his country. Though he has courted you to increase the nun.ber of his wives, he seems to have such an absolute command of himself, even in the warmth of his youthful desires, that you need fear no violence from the generous infidel. But, should the worst you imagine arrive, Heaven has a thousand ways to protect your innocence. Depend on that; and let not the extravagance of your grief persuade you that it is lawful to free yourself by the fatal opiate which you keep for that design. The heavenly genii that attend you, have made a thousand impressions on your sleeping fancy, to warn you from the desperate attempt. Sometimes you have been led through the desolate shades where unhappy ghosts complain; the gloomy caverns.

the abodes of eternal horror, have been opened to your view; sometimes the rewards of patience and constant virtue have displayed their glories to your pleased imagination; and, by the soft inspiring whispers of celestial beings, your restless thoughts have been composed, while the realms of joy have unfolded their delights in visionary prospects to you. By heavenly scenes, and gentle slumbers, your griefs were calmed, the tempest of your passions suspended. Then quietly attend the event, and the gentle Calicara will find a way to free you. Till Abubetar saw you, she was his darling slave; and as he is handsome to admiration, she loved, and renounced the Christian faith for him: But still the fair apostate in her heart adores the name which her tongue has denied. This, though you are her rival, fills her soul with the softest compassion for you, and makes her abhor the task that her insolent master has imposed, of persuading you to quit the possession of the heavenly truth, which is your happiness and glory. She is so far from giving you that infernal counsel, that she has with tears and intreaties persuaded you to die, rather than abandon your glorious hopes, and title to immortality; nor will she rest till she has, by some means or other secured you from Abubecar's importunity; of complying with which she has experienced the delusive and bitter consequence..

Your coldness and aversion, with the ascendant her wit and vivacity has on his temper, will soon recover the youthful wanderer, and restore her to an absolute empire over him; and then you are secure of a guiltless protection, till you can give your friends in England intelligence of your circumstances, who will soon pay your ransom; which no one can for virtue lost.

In the mean time, if you love my memory, moderate the excess of your grief for my death; which, however tragical it appeared, was glorious and happy for me. I fell in the ardour of a brave action, in the defence of your beauty and liberty, and my own life. The wounds. Í received, gave a free passage to my soul; which took its flight with no other regret but that of parting with

you, if it may be called a separation; for I have been your constant attendant in my invisible state, your unseen companion in the beautiful walks and bowers where you so frequently spend your hours of retirement. I should with pleasure hear you repeat my name, as I often do, and in the softest language express the constancy of a virtuous passion, could you restrain those floods of tears, and be more resigned to the will of Heaven. But let this assure you, that I am in the height of happiness; and when your life is finished, we shall meet to part no more: which circumstance though you, through your partiality for me, may too highly value, believe me, you will find it by much the smallest blessing of this place. AMINTOR.

FROM the fragrant bowers, the ever-blooming fields, and lightsome regions of the Morning Star, I wish health and every blessing to the charming Sylvia, the blessing of the earth.

I have a secret to reveal to you, of the greatest impor tance to your present and future happiness. You are as much a stranger to your own rank and circumstances as I was to mine till I came here; where I met a fair spirit, who informed me, that when she was a mortal I was her son, and not the heir of the Earl of as was supposed; and that the Lord is your own brother. It is necessary that you should know and discover this to him, which will prevent that innocent fondness, which he now indulges for you, from growing into a guilty passion.

You have been educated only as a dependant on the noble family you are in, and as a companion to the young ladies who are really your sisters. The mystery is this: My Lord, your father, had several daughters successively by the Countess, your mother, but no lawful heir; which made him fond of a natural son that he