compound of good-nature and good temper, shewed to Henry and Caroline every attention of which their situation admitted. Her refined and elegant manners, her comprehensive information, her classic imagination, highly susceptible of whatever was elevated and virtuous, together with the adornment of that meek and quiet spirit' of piety, which gives worth to genius and value to accomplishments, rendered her so attractive as that the day past heavily when uncheered by the society of Mrs. Hamilton. The earthly pilgrimage of Henry terminated, this amiable woman took Caroline (whose cares she had actively participated) to her own home, and sought, by every species of consolation, to reconcile her to the trial she was called upon to support; assuring her that the visitations by which it pleases infinite wisdom to wean us from a world we love too well' are, although varied in their forms, the inevitable

lot of all. As instancing the propriety of her observation she solicited the attention

of her young friend to a recital of events in her own singularly singularly chequered life. Which recital Caroline gave in the words of the relater:

My father was a younger son of a family more respectable than opulent, therefore was he compelled to betake himself to a profession, and the law being that selected by him, as a barrister he attained to a very considerable degree of eminence; but his situation in life obliging him to support a suitably handsome appearance, he found himself unable to make any addition to the provision secured to her children at my mother's marriage, which was her fortune of five thousand pounds. It had been settled, that in case of surviving her husband she should be entitled to the interest of that sum for life, and on it were we solely dependent after death had removed my fa

ther, which event took place when I was about eighteen years of age, Prudential considerations then demanding retrenchment, we were obliged to reduce our establishment, and to exchange our house in London, for a neat and convenient villa in Devonshire, where, by judicious management, we lived comfortably on our moderate income, and had frequently at more enlarged society than we could have wished, About four years after we had settled at Saffron Hill, the purchase of a very extensive adjacent estate, with a beautiful manor house annexed to it, occasioned many surmises and. conjectures respecting the birth and rank of the new proprietor; his fortune being unquestionable, as the purchase implied. With some difficulty› was the desired intelligence gained, and Mr. Hamilton discovered to be a native of Ireland, a perfect gentleman in both appearance and manners, but, withal, very

melancholy, dejected, and a widower, with an infant daughter. The first impressions of his character were disadvantageous and unpopular; he having announced that, as his present residence was selected by him for the purpose of retirement, he wished to avoid the receiving or returning of any visits which the neighbouring gentry might otherwise be induced to pay; and this interdiction being conceived to indicate contempt of their society, the gloomy misan-. thrope' (as he was thenceforward called). was by them unhesitatingly left to the seclusion he desired. For some weeks I only saw him as he entered or quitted the parish church, where the closely drawn curtains of his pew precluded other observation: but I frequently met his little daughter, a playful engaging child, about four years old, with whom I made up an acquaintance, by overhearing her lament that neither she nor her attendant was tall

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enough to reach to a cluster of blackberries, contemplated with a wistful eye, and by my having accomplished the desired object, for which favour I was immediately considered by her as an invaluable friend.

About this time an old servant of my mother, who had taken a small cottage near us, became severely afflicted with rheumatism, which confined her to her bed; and during the painful illness, I was in the habit of daily visiting her, and reading such passages from the Scriptures as she thought proper to select, which was a gratification prized by her above all others. On one of these occasions I recollect to have proceeded through several verses of the Twenty-seventh Psalm, when interrupted by a person opening the door, Mr. Hamilton stood before me: starting, he apologized for the involuntary intrusion, and instantly retired. There was in his