there is very little in it, my dear, faid I; but be as good as thou art handsome, and Heaven will fill it; I had a parcel of crowns in my hand to pay for ShakSpeare; and as fhe let go the purfe entirely, I put a fingle one into it; and tying up the riband in a bow-knot, returned it to her.

The young girl made me more an humble courtesy than a low one-it was one of thofe quiet, thankful finkings where the spirit bows itself down-the body does no more than tell it. I never gave a girl a crown in my life which gave me half the pleasure.

My advice, my dear, would not have been worth a pin to you, faid I, if I had not given this along with it: but now, when you fee the crown, you will remember it- fo do not, my dear, lay it out in

ribands.

Upon my word, Sir, faid the girl earnestly, I am incapable-in faying which, as is ufual in little bargains of honour, fhe gave me her hand-En vérité, Monfieur, je mettrai cet argent à part, faid fhe.

When a virtuous convention is made betwixt man and woman, it fanctifies their most private walks; fo notwithstanding it was dufky, yet as both our roads lay the fame way, we made no fcruple of walking. along the Quai de Conti together.

She made me a fecond courtefy in fetting off, and before we got twenty yards from the door? as if she had not done enough before, she made a fort of a little ftop to tell me again-fhie thanked me,

It was a fmall tribute, I told her, which I could not avoid paying to virtue, and would not be mistaken in the perfon I had been rendering it to for the world -but I fee innocence, my dear, in your face-and foul befal the man who ever lays a fnare in its way.

The girl feemed affected some way or other with what I faid-she gave a low figh-I found I was not empowered to inquire at all after it-fo faid nothing more till I got to the corner of the Rue de Nevers, where we were to part.

-But is this the way, my dear, faid I, to the Hôtel de Modene? The told me it was-or, that I might go. by the Rue de Gueneguault, which was the next turn.— Then I will go, my dear, by the Rue de Gueneguault, faid I, for two reafons; firft, I fhall please myself, and next, I fhall give you the protection of my company as far on your way as I can. The girl was fenfible I was civil-and faid the wished the Hôtel de Modene was in the Rue de St., Pierre-You live there, faid I. She told me he was fille de chambre to Madame R**** Good God! faid I, it is the very lady for whom I have brought a letter from Amiens.-The girl told me that Madame R****, fhe believed, expected a stranger with a letter, and was impatient to fee him-fo I defired the girl to prefent my compliments to Madame R****, and fay I would certainly wait upon her in the morning.

We ftood ftill at the corner of the Rue de Nevers whilst this passed we then stopped a moment whilst

The difpofed of her Egarements du Cœur, more commodiously than carrying them in her hand-they were two volumes; fo I held the fecond for her whilst she put the first into her pocket; and then the held her pocket, and I put the other in after it.

It is fweet to feel by what fine-fpun threads our affections are drawn together.

We set off afresh, and as he took her third step, the girl put her hand within my arm-I was just bid、 ding her but she did it of herself, with that undelibe. rating fimplicity, which fhewed it was out of her head that he had never feen me before. For my own part, I felt the conviction of fanguinity fo ftrongly, that I could not help turning half round to look in her face, and fee if I could trace out any thing in it of a family likeness. Tut! faid I, are we not all relations?

When we arrived at the turning of the Rue de Gueneguault, I stopped to bid her adieu for good and all: the girl would thank me again for my company and kindness She bid me adieu twice-I repeated it as often; and fo cordial was the parting between us, that had it happened any where elfe, I'm not fure but I fhould have figned it with a kifs of charity, as warm and as holy as an Apostle.

But in Paris, as none kifs each other but the menI did what amounted to the fame thing

I bid God bless her.

SENT. JOURNEY, P. 121.

H

CONTUMELY.

OW many may we observe every day, even of the gentler fex, as well as our own, who, without conviction of doing much wrong, in the midst of a full career of calumny and defamation, rise up punctual at the stated hour of prayer, leave the cruel story half untold till they return,-go, and kneel down before the throne of Heaven, thank God that he had not made them like others, and that his Holy Spirit had enabled them to perform the duties of the day, in fo Chriftian and confcientious a manner!

This delufive itch for flander, too common in all ranks of people, whether to gratify, a little ungenerous refentment; whether oftener out of a principle of levelling, from a narrowness and poverty of soul, ever impatient of merit and superiority in others; whether a mean ambition, or the infatiate luft of being witty, (a talent in which ill-nature and malice are no ingredients); or, laftly, whether from a natural cruelty of difpofition, abstracted from all views and confiderations of felf; to which one, or whether to all jointly; we are indebted for this contagious malady, this much is certain, from whatever feeds it springs, the growth and progress of it are as destructive to, as they are unbecoming a civilized people. To pafs a hard and illnatured reflection upon an undesigning action; to invent, or, which is equally bad, to propagate a vexa

tious report, without colour and grounds; to plunder an innocent man of his character and good name, a jewel which perhaps he has starved himself to purchase, and probably would hazard his life to fecure; to rob him at the fame time of his happiness and peace of mind; perhaps his bread, the bread, may be, of a virtuous family; and this, as Solomon fays of the madman, who casteth fire-brands, arrows, and death, and faith, Am I not in sport? all this out of wantonnefs, and oftener from worfe motives; the whole

Dears

fuch a complication of badnefs, as requires no words or warmth of fancy to aggravate. Pride, treachery, envy,, hypocrify, malice, cruelty, and felf-love, may have been faid, in one fhape or other, to have occafioned all the frauds and mifchiefs that ever happened in the world but the chances against a coincidence of them all in one perfon are so many, that one would have fuppofed the character of a common flanderer as rare and difficult a production in nature, as that of a great genius, which feldom happens above once in an age.

SERMON XI. p. 226.

SEDUCTION.

OW abandoned is that heart which bulges the tear of innocence, and is the cause the fatal cause of overwhelming the spotlefs foul, and plunging the yet untainted mind into a sea of sorrow and repent

M