the bar, a listless spectator of scenes in which I took no | the other side, in accuracy and acquaintance with the interest, deprived me of the only motive that could goad me into activity, and left my mind open to the invasion of those propensities, whose dominion, though sometimes weakened, had never been overthrown.

These evil prognostics were too soon fulfilled. Instead of observing the course of practise in the courts, of remarking the skill and dexterity exhibited in the management of a cause, of treasuring in my memory the questions discussed and the arguments advanced, of examining the authorities referred to, in my own office, exercises by which I should have been improved in my profession, my time was occupied either in frivolous conversation with my young companions at the bar, or in the perusal of that innumerable brood of romances which have issued from the modern press. I delighted to catch them at their first transit into the world, before they had lost their freshness and flavor by exposure to the gaze of vulgar curiosity. I became the critic of coteries, the oracle of the shallow throng who flutter round bookstores and public libraries. It was only in these public repositories of books, that my cormorant appetite could be glutted. In the circles which idle curiosity assembled at these places, the characters and incidents of the last novel were discussed with as much earnestness as would have been displayed in analyzing the motives of real persons and the circumstances of actual events. This idle gossip, betraying a total ignorance of the principles of literary criticism, afforded me infinite amusement; on the same principle, that the description of a good dinner is a gratification to the gourmand, second only to the pleasure of eating one. The time and ingenuity I have spent in such disquisitions would have resolved the knottiest point of jurisprudence.

legal authorities, that I sat down overwhelmed with shame and mortification. Men, however ignorant, are quicksighted where their interests are concerned, in discerning to whom they can be safely entrusted. This failure lost me the confidence of my client, and I believe made an impression on the bystanders very much to my disadvantage.

My fondness for romance, now become my ruling passion, not only impaired my powers of reasoning and investigation, but destroyed the balance of my mind by giving an undue preponderance to the imagination. The unnatural activity of that faculty, by presenting false and exaggerated views of persons and events, was frequently a serious disadvantage to me in my profession. Often when I was wrought into a fever of excitement by an ideal state of facts, the reality has so differed from my preconceived hypothesis, as to produce a sudden syncope of all my faculties. I remember being engaged in a case of breach of marriage promise, on which I had built the most extravagant expectations. The vagaries of my own imagination and the representation of my client's friends, had misled me as to the true character of the evidence, and when these illusions were dissipated at the trial, the revulsion of my feelings left me incapable of sustaining my part in the argument. Relying on my instructions, I had figured to myself a case of great aggravation. A young female, of considerable beauty, of unimpeachable purity, of the most delicate sentiments, and of the most respectable connexions, had engaged herself to a man of suitable condition, and from the intimacy warranted by such an engagement and the confidence she reposed in his honor, had been involved in indiscretions fatal to her reputation. I supposed that this man, after thus betraying the confidence and tainting the innocence of his betrothed wife, had basely trifled with her affections by refusing to fulfil his engagement, and had abandoned her to misery and shame. A story, so similar to tales of seduction, with which my memory was stored, at once inflamed my imagination. I pictured to myself in the most glowing colors the whole train of artifice and treachery by which this arch-seducer had succeeded in the ruin of innocence, the misery of the parents, the disgrace of the connexion, and the shame of the poor girl, consigned to infamy and wretch

This course of reading exacted no effort from the mind, and the more I indulged in it the more averse I became to the drudgery of business, and the more incapable of that accurate thinking and careful analysis required in the practise of the law. I have said, that when once absorbed in a novel, I was hurried to the conclusion with an eagerness of curiosity that admitted neither pause nor reflection. Severely as I had already smarted under the consequences of this habit, it was destined to work me still more serious mischief. I cannot remember how often it has occasioned my absence from court, the breach of my appointments, and neglectedness. Here was a tale of real life, marked by darker of important business. These are unpardonable faults in a lawyer, and, whatever his talents or acquirements, must ultimately strip him of employment.

shades of villainy and deeper wounds of anguish, than my own imaginings or the wildest fiction had ever depicted. I entered into the case with a zeal and ardor proportioned to my sense of the magnitude of the injury. My indignation was at the highest pitch, and I was prepared to overwhelm the wicked defendant with a tempest of invective. But at the trial many cir

My first cause, I remember, was in chancery, and as it was to be argued the next day, I promised my client to devote the night to the examination of the papers. But my evil genius deposited a new novel on my table, and thinking I had ample time for the task I had un-cumstances conspired to damp my enthusiasm. I had dertaken, I could not forbear the gratification of glancing over the introductory chapters. I forgot my client and his papers, until the flickering of my candle in the socket compelled me to relinquish the book; and the next morning I endeavored, by a hasty and superficial examination, to prepare for the argument before the session of the court. When it was my turn to speak, I discovered such an imperfect knowledge of the facts and of the questions involved in the case, and was so far eclipsed by a plodding industrious young fellow on

the most exalted conceptions of the delicate sensibility, the keen sense of disgrace belonging to the female character, and it was the belief that he had wounded these admirable qualities in the person of my client, which inspired me with such deep abhorrence of the conduct of the defendant. When I saw her, adorned with the most tawdry finery, exhibiting, with an unblushing front, her person, day after day, to the rude gaze of the crowd that thronged the court-house, instead of shrinking from public observation, I felt the most inef

disguise or coquetry, she no longer kept me in suspense. but with the native frankness of her character, at once consented to be mine. Whether it is that they are unwilling to relinquish the last remnant of their power, or that maiden modesty shrinks from the idea of ma

day of their marriage. I found it so on the present occasion, and could not, by any importunity, prevail on my mistress to ascertain the epoch of my happiness. Being now an accepted lover, I was received by her on the most intimate and confidential footing, and

fable disgust. I discovered too, in the conferences 1 held with her, that she was not much concerned at the public exposure of her disgrace, and was chiefly solicitous to increase the amount of damages. Such a greedy desire of money, in an affair that touched her reputation so deeply, was most repugnant to my feel-trimony, ladies are, generally, reluctant to appoint the ings, and I could well believe that a woman of such coarse and grovelling sentiments would barter her fame and her innocence for a pecuniary equivalent. In the investigation that followed, proof was offered that her character was suspicious before she was acquainted with the defendant, and that during her en-spent much of my time in her society. She displayed gagement with him she had courted familiarities which no modest woman would have permitted. What I had myself witnessed, prepared me to place implicit faith in this evidence. I was so much disconcerted by the discovery, that my feelings had been enlisted by an ideal picture of guilt and injury, that, though the evidence on the part of the defendant was liable to be assailed, and there was clear proof of the promise, of the breach, and the seduction, I could not utter a word on these topics. My associate counsel argued the case with ability, and obtained a verdict for considerable damages.

in her conversation a strong vein of good sense and a native purity of taste, cultivated by reading and extensive intercourse with the best society. She had no pleasure in that censorious gossiping, which delights in the dissection of characters, that it may detect the minute faults and weaknesses that dim the surface of the finest dispositions. She put a liberal construction on the conduct of her acquaintance, and was content to balance their virtues against their defects. She had none of that mawkish fantastic sentimentality, which weeps only over the recital of fictitious distresses, and is deaf as an adder to the groans of My reputation at the bar, such as it was, had long real misery. Her benevolence was practical and un. been on the wane, and this failure gave the coup de grace ostentatious, springing from a heart open to every to my prospects. It was said that I loved pleasure impression of pity, to every impulse of generosity. more than business, that I neglected the most impor- Without a spark of that romance, which is the fruit tant affairs, that I made no preparation for my causes, of a diseased imagination, she was capable of the noand that when my adversary surprised me with un- blest self-sacrifice, of the most ardent and enduring expected evidence or argument, I was unable to rally. attachment. But her innocent and unaffected tenderSuch assertions, publicly circulated, soon left me utterlyness endeared her to me still more than the new charms caseless, and I began to think of seeking a livelihood and virtues which her character revealed upon a closer in some other calling. acquaintance. There was one foible, however, in her disposition which I did not detect, and which, co-ope rating with my own egregious folly, produced all the mischief that followed. She was punctiliously tenacious of respect, and could not brook the idea of indifference in those to whom she was attached.

Hitherto, while the event was doubtful, and with the fear of rivalship before my eyes, I had been a most assiduous and attentive lover. Relinquishing every occu

I became acquainted, about this time, with a young lady of amiable disposition and engaging manners, whose beauty and accomplishments made a deep impression on my heart. She possessed all those showy and brilliant endowments so captivating to the fancy, and my imagination readily invested her with every perfection that enters into the composition of a consummate female character. Smitten with this ideal phantom, which I mistook for her, I became her pro-pation, whether of business or amusement, I bent my fessed admirer; and it was only when a more intimate acquaintance unfolded those hidden graces, which shrink from the glare of notoriety, that I was sensible of her real worth and excellent qualities. I found her encompassed with suitors, and the object of general admiration; but these obstacles to my success only augmented my eagerness and assiduity. In romantic tempers, when the prospect is smiling and propitious, the tender passion languishes and expires, but burns with the more intensity when it encounters rivalry or opposition. I was unremitting in my attentions, and my reception emboldened me to cherish the most sanguine hopes. My parents were anxious that I should marry, and as the family and circumstances of the lady made the connexion desirable, they encouraged me to prosecute my addresses. I pressed my suit with ardor, and having at length obtained a favorable opportunity to declare my attachment, was rewarded by the confession that my overtures were not unacceptable. That charming confusion, the offspring of innate delicacy, with which this precious acknowledgement was uttered, heightened my admiration. Superior to

undivided energies to the prosecution of an affair in which my heart was so deeply interested. But when the prize was gained, when her affections were secured, my anxiety subsided, and my usual propensities, which had sunk under the ascendancy of a master passion, revived. The lady resided in a town where there were several bookstores. My morbid appetite for new romances made me a frequent visitor at these establishments. When I got possession of a novel, I would remain, like Doctor Ockbourne, for hours in the same spot, wrapt in the interest of the tale, heeding neither the lapse of time nor the want of sustenance. My mistress, not having the same taste, could not comprehend the nature of this inordinate passion, and thought it very remarkable that I should prefer such frivolous amusements to her society. She was offended at my frequent absences and the unsatisfactory reasons I gave for them. Though she did not reproach me, she conceived that the ardor of my affection was subsiding into indifference. When this idea had once taken possession of her mind, "trifles, light as air, were confirmations strong" of her pre-existing suspicions. I cannot

enumerate the various instances in which my infatua- | earn an independence. I became passionately devoted tion betrayed me into conduct that a jealous temper to my new calling, and read with indefatigable dilimight construe into slight. I never dreamt of the mis-gence all the books and publications I could find on construction to which I was exposing myself, and the subject of tillage. I aspired to the character of an thoughtlessly repeated the offence so often, that at improver. My honest neighbors, who belonged to the length her displeasure was manifested in her deport- family of the good-enoughs, called me, in derision, a ment. Alarmed at these appearances, I eagerly in-book farmer. They warned me of the ruin that must quired wherein I had offended. She replied, that my conduct discovered such entire coldness and indifference, as to impress her with a belief that I was weary of our engagement, and that if I wished it, it might be cancelled. I protested that I never designed to exhibit coldness and indifference, that my attachment to her was as ardent as ever, and that, so far from desiring a dissolution of our engagement, there was nothing I so earnestly coveted as its speedy fulfilment. I reiterated, again and again, the sentiments of respect and love which I had never ceased to feel towards her, until appeased by my apparent contrition and sincerity, she dropped the subject, and resumed her former frank and affectionate demeanor.

ensue from my innovations on the old modes of farming in that neighborhood, which had been transmitted from father to son, without addition or diminution, from the first settlement of the colony. I was deaf to their prophecies. With my usual proclivity to castle building, I imagined that my system of tillage would in a few years convert my farm into a garden. I had counted and appropriated the great profits which the completion of my plans must certainly produce. I would become a great land proprietor, and when I had purchased all the land I chose to cultivate, I would vest my surplus resources in works of public improvement. But while I was so busy with my projected reforms in agriculture, I did not forget to provide a fund She had promised to spend the day with a lady who of entertainment for my idle hours by the purchase of resided about a mile from town, and with whom I was an abundant stock of novels. These companions unacquainted. She designed to accompany this lady, were not calculated to increase my attention to the who was then in town, on her return home; and to operations of my farm. I was seen more frequently show me that she cherished no resentment she proposed seated by the fireside, poring over one of my favorite that I should walk with her back in the evening, to romances, than in the fields, superintending the cultivawhich I joyfully assented. Having nothing to engage tion of my land. While I was thus dissipating my me after I left her, I strolled to the bookstore, my usual time in unprofitable amusements, or indulging in exresort, to while away the time, and there, unluckily, travagant expectations, my overseer and negroes were met with a new novel by a celebrated name, which ex-consuming my substance. My stock dwindled and tended to several volumes. Having no engagement disappeared, my crops mouldered and wasted away, until the evening, I thought I might innocently appro- until, by midsummer, I found myself in want of all the priate the interval to the perusal of a work of such necessaries of life. To put the copestone to my disas reputation. But I became so much entranced with the ters, I had one night been reading a novel in bed, acinterest of the tale that I totally forgot my appoint- cording to my frequent custom, and fell asleep without ment, until I was admonished by the approach of dark- extinguishing the candle. I was awakened by a sufness that the time had passed. I hastened to make focating smoke, and found the whole room wrapt in my apologies, and found my mistress in an agony of flames. I saved my life with difficulty by jumping distress and agitation. It seemed that she set out alone from the window in my shirt, while my house and all in the hope of meeting me, and was assailed by a its contents became the prey of the devouring element. drunken man, who would have insulted her grossly Thus, in one night, was I bereft of clothes, house, and but for the interference of a chance passenger. As furniture, and left to the charity of my neighbors, who soon as she became composed, and had heard my ex-generously afforded me all the assistance in their power. planation, she told me, with a countenance "more in By their friendly exertions, a temporary hut was erected sorrow than in anger," that it was useless to disguise for my accommodation, and having now a shelter for it; that my indifference to her safety that evening, my head, I had leisure to inquire into the origin of the evinced by my wanton breach of promise, revealed, fire. I was soon satisfied that I had left the candle more strongly than words, the extinction of my love, burning, and that that act of negligence was the cause and that a regard for her own dignity constrained her of the whole mischief. to annul our engagement and to dismiss me at once and forever. Saying this, she retired from the room, leaving me overwhelmed with a complication of feelings, astonishment, dismay, grief, and despair. From this time she refused to see me, and, though I frequently wrote to solicit an interview, returned me my letters unopened. Satisfied that she was inflexible, I fled from the village in unspeakable anguish, and never saw her more. Such was the inconsiderate folly by which I lost the possession of an amiable and beautiful woman, and made shipwreck of my own happiness.

I was now thirty years of age, and my father, finding that I had utterly failed in the profession of the law, put me in possession of a farm, hoping that in the honorable pursuit of agriculture, I might at last

By a series of disasters, for which I could only reproach my own folly and infatuation, I was reduced to very narrow circumstances. I could trace the principal calamities of my life to that overweening fondness for novel-reading which had destroyed the vigor and activity of my mind, and disabled it alike for the pursuits of business and the toils of study. To the same fruitful source of misfortune were attributable my severest disappointments both in love and ambition. In the despondency produced by reflections such as these, the idea suddenly occurred to me that the very cause of all my difficulties might be made subservient to the restoration of my shattered fortunes. Archimedes, when he shouted eureka, felt no greater rapture, though from a worthier cause, than I did when I hit upon this

tudes that throng the streets, he sees no familiar face, recognises no friend, and is struck with a feeling of loneliness the more painful because the scenes around him perpetually excite his natural yearnings for society. It was in a mood like this that I first entered the city of William Penn-and to shake off these disagreeable sensations, I set out as soon as I could obtain the necessary directions, in quest of a gentleman to whom I bore a letter of introduction. This gentleman belonged to the society of Friends. He was a merchant of extensive

brilliant expedient. I resolved forthwith to write a novel, and embody all the dreams and fantasies of my past life. The habits of my mind, and my intimate acquaintance with the whole region of romance, I conceived, qualified me in a peculiar manner for such a task. I could now give the visions of my distempered fancy "a local habitation and a name." The stories of fiction which I had been amassing for so many years would no longer be useless lumber, but would furnish inexhaustible materials for the execution of my work. I set about the undertaking with an ardor and applica-connexions, and a shrewd and intelligent man of busition which promised its speedy accomplishment.

ness. Though the pressure of his affairs did not leave

me at his house. This was no empty profession. I availed myself frequently of his friendly invitation, and was uniformly received by him and his family with an engaging simplicity and unaffected kindness far more congenial to my taste than the most magnificent hospi

My scheme of romance consisted in unexpected inci- | him much leisure for the exercise of hospitality, he redents and sudden surprises, in grouping together circeived me with the plain unpretending civility peculiar cumstances of terror and distress, and in the history of to his sect, promised me all the assistance he could rentender and constant lovers sundered by the pride or der in an affair so foreign to his pursuits, and assured avarice of their families. "To catch the manners living me, that while my engagements detained me in Philaas they rise," to describe national peculiarities, to dis-delphia, he should always take pleasure in entertaining tinguish the moral features of the different classes of society, to paint the natural evolutions of passion and the effect of circumstances on the characters of men, to inculcate the great principles of ethics by examples of human depravity or virtue, belonged to a different province. I had always disliked those novels that termi-tality. On my return to Virginia I was indebted to nated in a tragic catastrophe, and I determined, therefore, to bring mine to a fortunate conclusion. My own country furnished neither castles nor ruins, nor robbers, nor monks, nor nobility-things essential, in my estimation, to the constitution of a romance. I laid my scene, therefore, in Italy, the land of monks, inquisi-native genius. Books were prized in proportion to the tions, ruined castles, bravoes, and banditti. I will not exhaust my reader's patience by sketching the outline of a story that extended to seven mortal volumes. Let it suffice that there was a combination of all that is pathetic and horrible, and that the heroine was conducted through a succession of the most surprising and incredible adventures-from obscurity to the possesion of rank, wealth, and unalloyed happiness.

this excellent, man for a most essential service-a service which I shall never forget. Through his intervention I had an opportunity of submitting my work to the inspection of all the leading publishers in the city. It was not then the fashion to patronise the efforts of

distance they had travelled, and were supposed, like wine, to be improved by a voyage across the Atlantic. We imported our literature as well as our woollens from Great Britain, and never dreamed of fostering the domestic manufacture. It is now the American system to build up a native literature by praise and puffing. Criticism is divested of its terrors, and "roars you as gently as any sucking dove." It is the very paradise of mediocrity, and many an insect author is now brought into a transient existence by the warm breath of applause, who, but for that genial influence, would have slept for

I finished my novel in eighteen months, and the next inquiry was how I could make it profitable. The art of printing was at so low an ebb in my own state, and there was so little disposition to patronise native litera-ever in his shell. Had I offered my work for publication ture, that I could not hope to dispose of the copy-right, and to publish by subscription, was, with my slender finances, too hazardous an experiment. I resolved, therefore, to repair to the northern cities, those great marts of commerce and genius. I procured letters of introduction to several persons in Philadelphia and New York, and with my precious manuscript set out on my journey filled with the most buoyant hopes of fame and fortune.

thirty years later, its destiny would have been far more fortunate than that which was now prepared for it. I could prevail on no publisher to bid for the copy-right. Some objected to its length, some to the style, some to the story, and all agreed that it would not suit the prevailing taste. Indignant at their frivolous criticisms, I thrust the manuscript into my trunk, and posted off to New York, with the hope of finding greater discernIment in the publishers of that city. But the same fate As I am writing a history of my mind, not a awaited me there. I could never persuade any one of journal of my travels, I shall not pause to record my the merits of my book, or of the immense gains which observations on men and things during the journey. its publication must produce. After being tantalized Suffice it that I reached Philadelphia without any re- with some faint prospect of success for several weeks, I markable adventure, and was installed in a comfortable at length abandoned my project in despair, convinced apartment at one of the principal hotels. The impres-that the stupidity of the publishers had robbed me of sions of a stranger for the first few hours after his arrival immortality. I had a strong disposition to try my forin a large city, are always melancholy. His mind has tune in England, but the slenderness of my resources not yet been diverted from its solitary musings, by the compelled me to relinquish that idea. various objects of curiosity which offer themselves to While I was thus dancing attendance upon the printhis researches. He is incapable of analyzing the con-ers of New York and Philadelphia, I did not fail to fused assemblage of things that press upon his observa- find abundant entertainment for my predominant taste tion, and the vastness of the prospect oppresses him within the bookstores and public libraries. At those plaa sense of his own insignificance. In the busy multi-ces I met with some aspirants to literary distinction,

who, like me, had been paying court to the despots of the precocity of her mind, and at the age of sixteen she the press. Similar pursuits soon cemented an intimacy appeared a prodigy of beauty and talent. An English between us, and we became constant companions in our merchant of great wealth, with whom her father had pleasures and amusements. These gentlemen intro-long had commercial transactions, happened to visit duced me to the theatres, which boasted at this period of some celebrated actors. This was the first time I had witnessed a theatrical representation, and I beheld it with the deepest and most engrossing interest. The scenery, the dresses, the artifices of exhibition, the action and emphasis of the performers, gave me such a vivid impression of reality, that I felt as if the dreams and fantasies, which had haunted my imagination for so many years, had received actual life and being. My companions were diverted at the rapt attention with which I listened, and ridiculed my rawness and inexperience. But in the excited state of my mind, their pleasantry was entirely lost upon me, and did not for a moment damp the fervor of my enthusiasm. I became passionately devoted to spectacles so congenial to the temper of my mind, and even when they had lost the gloss of novelty still continued to frequent them with undiminished avidity.

One memorable evening I saw on the theatre at New York the most beautiful woman I have ever known. This lovely creature, whom I shall call Rosalie, united with the most perfect face and figure, a gracefulness of action and a melody of voice which would have secured the plaudits of an audience to the most indifferent acting. But she required not the support of these adventitious endowments. Her performance displayed the most consummate art and the profoundest knowledge of the passions. The emotions, proper to the character she was representing, flitted across her varying and expansive countenance like ripples over the surface of a lake, while her impassioned gesture and melting tones carried them to the bosom of the spectator. Never have I been so enchanted, so transported with admiration. Feelings so deep disdained the ordinary expressions of applause, and I hung in breathless silence on her accents.

New York about this time, and saw her in the full maturity of loveliness. Smitten with her charms, he made her proposals of marriage, and was rejected. The acci dents of commerce had given this man unlimited control over the fortunes of her father. Enraged at his disappointment, he had the vindictive baseness to use that power for the accomplishment of the parent's ruin, that he might avenge the disdain of the child. After this wanton destruction of her prospects, he had the impudence to insult her with the promise of re-establishing her father in business, if she would yield to overtures now no longer honorable. She indignantly spurned the proposition. Urged by her friends, and still more by the cruel distresses of her parents, whose age and indigence appealed to her for aid, she had reluc tantly made a theatrical engagement, with the pious hope of acquiring by that means a competence for her family. She avowed the utmost repugnance to this public exposure of her person, and was resolved to abandon her profession as soon as the demands of filial duty were fulfilled.

A story like this was calculated to take a strong hold on my imagination, already inflamed by the view of her uncommon beauty and accomplishments. Her conduct and adventures bore so strong a resemblance to the incidents of romance, that they enlisted my warmest sympathies. Fiction frequently described females of the purest character and most finished education, stifling their delicate sensibilities from a sense of duty, and publicly exercising their accomplishments to gain an honest subsistence. A woman, who could so act, was a heroine, and I honored her character. I desired to become acquainted with Rosalie, and my companion promised to introduce me. We visited her lodgings the next day, and I had no reason to distrust his account of her from any thing I observed in her conversation or I was accompanied on that occasion by a man with demeanor. She was evidently a woman of brilliant whom, from the unguarded impulse of an ardent temper, talents, and there was no trace of indelicate boldness in I had formed a great intimacy. The fascination of his her manners. I was so much delighted with her society address and the apparent similarity of our tastes, had that I became a frequent visitor at the house where won my entire confidence. When Rosalie appeared on she boarded. Southern gentlemen were then well the stage, he observed my agitation. With his penetra- received every where at the north, and were generally tion he had not failed to discover my ignorance of the supposed to be opulent. I discovered that my visits world, and how much my opinions of men and things were acceptable, and my daily observations confirmed depended upon the phasis which they presented to my my original impressions of the purity and tenderness of imagination. He was aware that the nicety of my no- her manners and character. She spoke often of her tions with regard to female delicacy, amounted almost parents in the most affectionate language, and expressed to squeamishness, and that I deemed all public exhibi- | her anxiety to quit her disreputable occupation, that tion repugnant to the modesty of the sex. Apprehen- she might enjoy their society in the humble cottage sive that these sentiments might abate my admiration where they resided. The deep tenderness of her of Rosalie, he undertook to relate her history. He de- accents convinced me of her sincerity. The dignity, scribed her as the most talented and amiable creature in the modest reserve of her deportment, the brilliancy of the world, of irreproachable character, and of the most her conversation, the splendor of her beauty, her filial delicate sentiments. Her father was once a wealthy piety, and, above all, the flattering attention which she merchant, and in his prosperity had bestowed on this, paid me, gradually so won upon my affections, that I his only child, all the advantages of education. Her felt an irresistible inclination to rescue this gifted being progress amply repaid his parental care. Before her from so hateful a lot, and to restore her to the society sixteenth year, she had, with an aptitude almost intui- she was formed to adorn. In a delirium of admiration, tive, acquired a fund of knowledge and a variety of I one day avowed my attachment and made a direct accomplishments most uncommon in females of any age. proposal of marriage. She expressed the greatest surThe development of her personal charms kept pace with prise, acknowledged her sense of my generosity in