The country to me is a necessary exile, and an escape from it a return to pleasure, splendour, and happiness. In short, I came to it with as much ill-humour as vexation could occasion, and I shall now leave it with as much pleasure as when I left my nursery, and returned from the duties of a mother to the poignant delights of a fashionable life. Congratulate me, my dear Frail, that the time of departure is now at hand. I shall leave this place in a few days; I shall have time, however, to write you two or three letters before this event; and as I love you, I shall certainly have the charity to continue my correspondence even when returned to London. Your disagreeable affair will prevent your coming amongst us this season; but keep up your spirits, my dear; they will talk of it but for a time, when some new adventure of the same kind will arise, and divert their scandal into another channel. Malice must always have a victim; but I have observed this difference between fashionable malice-I mean the malice of a London drawing-room, and the vulgar backbiting of a country neighbourhood. The one is content to teaze, torment, and play with its unfortunate object; the other is a bloody demon, and demands a complete sacrifice. I wish you could only hear how our country ladies treat each other's weaknesses. I have heard a harsher construction put upon an innocent whisper, than our most malignant scand l-loving coteries would affix to a masquerade assignation. Take my advice, my dear, and support your spirits: scandal must have a victim; but it is her delight, like that of the priests of old, to offer up on the altar The affair the most pure and unspotted one. will soon blow over, and you may again return to your element. say, Some few prudes, perhaps, who envy you your charms and your gallant, may gratify their spleen by reminding the world of you faux-pas, when it has good naturedly forgiven and forgotten it Such you know there are in all societies, who affect freezing and distant looks to their frail friends, and from their lips draw arguments of self-congratulation; "happy," as they in their own good fortune, in not being that weak, wretched, undone thing, a beauty!"All frivolous pretence, my dear! A handsome woman, I grant you, is subject to temptations, and like good Queen Emma, is perpetually walking over burning ploughshares. Then these odious opportunities, as the men call them—such as visits to milliners, jaunts to Windsor and Hampton Court, besides saunters in the Park by moonlight, and Kensington Garden assignations; these, I confess, afford strong instances of a fine creature's frailty :-but not to wish to be handsome for fear of being undone-pshaw, child! it would be as unreasonable not to wish to have been born, because we inust one day be old. Youth and beauty were Nature's best gifts, and meant for enjoyment; and those that suffer them to rust and spoil in their possession, are guilty of contradiction to her sovereign will and pleasures. I ain summoned to supper. Good-night, dear creature!I will write again to-morrow, and do all in my power to relieve your present dejection. Again good night, and believe me Your sincere and affectionate friend, LETTER FIFTH. E. L. FROM THE SAME TO THE SAME. DEAR FRAIL, I HAVE just seen a friend of your's, who had the charity to turn his horses' heads towards Can Clarebrook, and pay me a morning visit. you guess who it is? I defy you, my dear. Why then, to relieve you at once, and perhaps to relieve myself by telling you-for the eagerness to tell a secret is sometimes equal to that of hearing it)-my visitor was no other than the charming man himself! Yes, the object of your late levity-the source of your present banishmentthe envy of all imitating coxcombs, the aim of all rising toasts-the gallant, gay Lotharia-Sir Do you tremble, sigh, or Harry Loveday! blush? But I forgot, my dear,-you are a woman of fashion, and are therefore exempted from every feeling of nature. Nature may rise in the cheeks as she rules in the hearts of these country ladies; but as the habits of fashionable life so effectually banish her from our hearts, we have ourselves had the prudence to drive her from our faces. To give you a single instance:-how often are we under a necessity of professing what we do not mean; in other words, perhaps such as a surly moralist would use, how often must Now if we could we profess an absolute I-e. not do this without a blush, to how many inconveniences would the forms of fashionable life subject us!-But enough of this. I gave my visitor a hearty welcome. I was eaten up with spleen before his arrival, and contriving how to kill the lagging day. I was as melancholy as the great clock in our hall-or, I had nothing now to do rather, I was like it. but count the time, whilst my former occupation was to kill It. And is it not reasonable then, my dear Frail, to pay time in its coin, and destroy that which destroys every thing else? But to Sir Harry. After some previous bows, &c. I put a piece || says that, on perceiving the interruption he had of civil restraint upon him; and exercising a been guilty of, your husband bowed, and begged species of hospitality I had learned in Ireland, pardon for an intrusion on a party to which he ordered his horses to be locked up in the stable, was not invited; but as he had long owed a and compelled him to stay dinner, and pass the grudge to Sir Harry for rivalling him with a faday. He was in great spiri's, and, to use a vourite opera-dancer, under the pretended feelpretty strong metaphor, his wit was beaming asings of an unjured husband, he took an opporthe sun; and, in spite of the odious foliage that stood opposite our dining-room windows, his elegant and sprightly merriment made me imagine myself already in St. James's-square. I made him repeat to me the whole of your affair, and he told me some circumstances of which I was before ignorant. He says your husband, the Colonel, followed you and himself to your milliner's, Mrs. Etching, and that he burst in upon your conversation while Sir Harry was upon his knees. You, of course, fainted. They fought. Sir Harry was desperately wounded, and the Colonel left you with a tragical and ridiculous threat that he would never return-" No, never, Madam, shall you see me again!" Is it possible, my dear, he could have made himself so ridiculous? I really thought he had been more the man of fashion than to give into any of these foolish energies; and the beau-monde has hitherto been in a great error, and bestowed upon him the credit he little deserves, of having borne his misfortune with a truly fashionable indifference. My Lord Lounge, who has the most facetious knack at improving a story, tells every thing to the credit of the Colonel. He tunity to gratify the spite of a piqued lover, and bade the Baronet draw. Sir Harry, perceiving him in a bantering humour, and being himself in a state of equal good temper, would have ex- ́ cused himself, and turned the matter off in that tone of raillery which the Colonel seemed to assume. Your husband, however, insisted on satisfaction; but preserving an inimitable sangfroid even in his obstinacy, added, in a rallying tone, " that he had laid a bet he would kill a man before he went to bed, and he could not loose so fair an occasion of winning his wager." This was Lord Lounge's story. Whether true or not, I confess I prefer it to Sir Harry's; it sets the Colonel in a better light-it shews him possessed of those distinguishing characteristics of a man of fashion-a pleasant indif ference, and a habit of elegant levity in affairs generally esteemed of the most serious nature. But I am swelling my letter to an unusual length, and must put an end to our mutual fatigue, by assuring you that I am, A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF A LIVING CHARACTER, UNDER A FICTITIOUS NAME. IN proportion as mankind became more civi- || polis, are productive of more ill consequences lized, the influence of women gradually increased; and it is only in the most inhospitable and unpolished countries that they are incapable of ob aining an ascendency over the actions of the other sex. Though rew will attempt to controvert the truth of this obs rvation, still fewer will deny the necessity of the greatest at tention being paid to the education of the fair; for upon the morali y of their principles, and the ree tude of her actions, the good of society in a great measure depends than the power of language can describe; and I never see a title trumpery house established with the well-known characters of "Young ladies genteelly educated," without considering it as a hand-post to conduct them into the path of vice. Of all terms in the English language which admi's of corruption, the word education is carried to the greatest extent; for total ignorance would be more advantageous in its consequences, than that kind of instruction which the middling clas ses of society receive. Of what utility can muWera.ding-schools under the dominion of Sbe to the daughters of an humble mechanic? legislative author y, and licences only granted What advantage can they derive from a little to those hose abi ies and moral character smattor ng of French? Had they not better learn qualed them for the important trust, the be- to make and mend their father's body linen, nes which society would deriv. from such a than to be wasting their time in attempting to regadation, would be greater tha imagination is race the varying tints of a flower? If the evil able to conceive. The petty chools, which ac merly rested in a total ignorance of all useful tually swaria around the environs of the metro-acquirements, it would not be so seriously de plored; but these accomplished misses, proud || eye of an affectionate mother with such undeviat of their superiority, soon despise their parents for being deficient in those accomplishments which it is their misfortune to have attained; and instead of devoting their time to domestic occupations, they are too refined in their ideas to descend to any office which they consider in a degrading light. The circulating libraries complete the mischief which these fashionable seminaries unfortunately began; and in every libertine which these luckless girls unhappily become acquainted with, they behold a Lorenzo, or an Orlando, expiring at their feet! The licentious and the profligate, perceiving the slightness of the foundation on which the sacred temple of virtue is fixed, find little difficulty in destroying the beau teous edifice, or in substituting the altar of vice in its place. ing attention and solicitous care, that the slight- virtues, but it becomes a weakness when carried to excess; and if you suffer your mind to be agitated by the untimely death of an insect, how would you support a mother's or a brother's loss?" The streets of the metropolis display a striking || Sensibility almost deserves a rank amongst the proof of the truth of these observations: we there behold seduction stripped of all its alluring charms, and presenting a picture of the fatal effects of false education and indulged passions, calculated to shock every susceptible heart! The censure passed upon schools is not intended to include the whole number; for there are doubtless many conducted upon the most judicious plan; and if the daughters of humble tradesmen and mechanics were, instead of accomplishments, to be instructed in domestic duties, even the seminaries purposely intended for the reception of that class of individuals, would doubtless have their use; and it frequently happens that the mothers of girls in that situation are too much occupied in their husband's business to find leisure to instruct a child. In the higher classes of society, a love of dissipation is frequently so powerful, as completely to destroy every other claim; even the maternal duties are neglected, and principle sacrificed at pleasure's shrine! Schools conducted by able instructors, must then be considered of the highest utility, and may be no less advantageous to girls than boys; example improves, emulation excites attention, and the noblest faculties of the mind are called forth. But when a parent is truly a mother, and ready to sacrifice the allurement of pleasure for the benefit of her child, the advantage evidently leans to the side of private education, where opportunities hourly present themselves for the improvement of the mind. Though I have apparently digressed from my original subject, which was to prove the influence of females upon the opposite sex, yet I mean to confirm my opinion by entertaining my readers with the history of a young lady of rank. By this kind of reasoning Lady Beaumont conquered by degrees that exquisite sensibility, which, by indulgence, would have inca|| pacitated her daughter for those trials to which the most affluent are exposed, and fortified her mind for those misfortunes which, at a future period, it was her lot to endure. Nobly born, carefully educated, and possessing all those attractive graces for which females are admired, no sooner was Elvira introduced into public, than she actually enslaved all the young men's hearts. The Earl of C-'s estate joined that of Sir Edward Beaumont's; in consequence of which an intimacy between the families had taken place, long before that period when the public were first captivated by a view of Elvira's charms. Mr. Beverley, the younger son of his Lordship, had beheld the expanding beauties of this fair flow'ret from the very moment they first blew; yet, from daily viewing this masterpiece of loveliness, its attractive graces lost their charm. The buz of admiration which attended Miss Beaumont's presentation, first led him attentively to view a face, which intercourse had rendered familiar, and in which he had never discovered any thing extraordinary before. "What a divinity! What an angel! What grace in all her motions!" burst from the lips of every beholder, as Elvira Beaumont entered the drawing-room. These eulogiums roused Mr. Beverley's attention; his eyes eagerly followed the attracting fair; and those charms which he had been accustomed to behold with indifference, Elvira Beaumont had been educated under the suddenly seemed to partake more of the angelic than the human kind. The drawing-room happened to be unusually crowded. He, in vain, endeavoured to discover Elvira's compeer; but so completely transcendent was her beauty, that all comparison only tended to evince its superior power. Proud of appearing upon terms of intimacy with a being who had excited such universal ad- || miration and remark, he accosted her with that familiarity which their long acquaintance authorised; and upon Lady Beaumont's retiring from the brilliant circle, exultingly conducted the lovely Elvira to her chair. Lord C, at that period, had made a pleasurable excursion to the Continent, and was not expected home in less than six weeks; an actual age in Cupid's Ca- lender, who converts minutes into days. In his Lordship's character many eccentricities were blended; and to epistolary communications he had an antipathy which he did not endeavour to overcome; and to solicit a favour through pen and paper, was a certain means of having that favour denied. Mr. Beverley's situation was, from this peculiarity, completely trying; in every company he heard the charms of Elvira praised, and likewise understood that two or three young men of the first consequence had openly solicited the fair one's hand. He resolved, therefore, to fly on the wings of love to Paris, yet it was torture to think of leaving the abritress of his destiny surrounded by a numerous train, who, from possessing both rank and fortune, could place her in a most elevated state. As a young son, he was aware that he lay under many disadvantages. He was,|| it is true, a Member of the House of Commons, and had been educated for the bar-a profession in which he was calculated to make a figure, from a peculiar elegance in the choice of language, and a perfect knowledge of the law.Yet unsanctioned by parental authority, he could not presume to address Sir Edward Beaumont upon a subject so dear to his heart; but at length conquering that timidity which arises from genuine affection, he made her Ladyship the|| confidant of his hopes and his fears; and had the happiness of hearing her declare, that fortune would be a secondary consideration, in disposing|| of the hand of her child. Animated by this cheering declaration, and assured that Elvira's affections were disengaged, the delighted young man instantly set off for Paris, for the purpose of obtaining his father's consent, and knowing what addition he would make to his fortune, if Sir Edward Beaumont did not repress the flattering hopes he had indulged. was one of those phlegmatic cha Lord C- racters who never deviate from the beaten road; and whose feelings were never under the dominion of a passion from the very hour of his birth. That his son, therefore, should for years have been in the habits of intimacy with Miss Beaumont, without discovering the situation of his heart, struck him as a circumstance so completely incomprehensible, that he actually began to fear his brain was turned; and until he had conversed with him upon different subjects, and found him completely rational, he could not conquer his fears. Had Elvira Beaumont been totally destitute of personal attractions, she would have been a most desirable match for a younger son; for she pos sessed charms, which the generality of parents estimate far superior to loveliness; in short, she was presumptive heiress to an estate worth upwards of fifty thousand pounds! The old Earl, therefore, as it may be supposed, was highly pleased with the prospect of such an alliance, and did every thing in his power to promote the wishes of his son, who, on the day of marriage, received twenty thousand pounds with the lovely bride. A dissolution of Parliament took place a few months after the union of Elvira, who would fain have persuaded her husband to resign a contest which it was evident must involve him in expences which his income could not support; as, since the last election, there had been a total change in the ministry, and the former supporters of his pretensions were no longer in power.Relying, however, upon the professions of friendship, and too self-important to be influenced by the representations of his wife, this misguided young man, not only lost his election, but actually spent upwards of two and twenty thousand pounds. Sir Edward Beaumont, who had foreseen the consequence of this imprudence, and who had endeavoured to dissuade his son in-law from standing the poll, was so exasperated at seeing his daughter's fortune squandered away, upon electioneering dinners, that under the impulse of passion, he cut off the entail of his estate; declaring, that a man who was weak enough to beggar his family for a seat in parliament, should never enjoy one penny of what he possessed!Elvira, eventually, was the chief sufferer from this mark of resentment; the disappointed Beverley constantly upbraided her with the injustice of Sir E; and instead of endeavouring to render his family independent by the emolument arising from an honourable profession, indulged himself in the practice of every disgraceful vice! Poverty and dependance Elvira could have N "has en supported with resignation; but to see the man Too proud to be guided by this judicious council, yet agonized by those reflections which his situation naturally inspired, the bottle was resorted to, as an antidote to banish painful recol- || lections, and drive away care. The death of Lord C-, which happened a short time after the election, had left the imprudent Beverley destitute of resource, as the present Earl and himself, had never, even during the days of childhood, been upon intimate terms. An an fortune and fame; and though they had not succeeded, she felt gratified in the reflection of having fulfilled the duties of a wife! But more than fortune, fame, or ambition, this exemplary young woman now beheld at stake. The eter nal happiness of the man, with whose interest her own was interwoven, depended upon regaining that influence which she had once possessed over his mind. By all those blandishments of love, at once refined and delicate, Elvira endeavoured to captivate a heart which possession had rendered cold; and upon finding the amiable artifice had answered her intention, she then adopted those measures which piety and affection had pointed out. Instead of pronouncing anathemas upon her husband's atheistical associates, she mildly induced him to make her acquainted with the different subjects they had discussed; and with an inspiration almost equal to that which had been bestowed upon the apostles, from the sacred book of scripture, she refuted their remarks — "And truths divine came mended from that tongue." The wavering Beverley listened with astonishment; every long-cherished idea underwent a sudden change;-and clasping to his breast the being who had produced this alteration in his sentiments, he exclaimed-" Oh, Elvira! I am your proselyte! from this propitious moment your husband is reclaimed! Form me-mould me-I am newly created.-Yes most amiable of women-I denounce-I abhor my former self!" Tears of contrition marked the sincerity of this declaration-the delighted Elvira tenderly returned his embrace. But who shall attempt to those talents which did honour to human nature, no longer disgraced; but rendered resplendently bright by the irradiating light of religion, and mired. The amiable Lady Beaumont exerted her influence to induce her husband to be reconciled to her son-in-law; but every enquiry Sir Edward made into his conduct only tended to strengthen his antipathy, and fix his resolution. nual allowance was punctually paid Elvira, and this was her only support; for Beverley totally neglected his profession, and selected his associates from the most despicable part of man-paint the extacy of her sensations, at perceiving kind. Yet let it not be supposed that his mind was so degenerated as to find pleasure in the society of the illiterate and obscure. No; his companions were amongst those whom a good || adorning a being whom she both loved and adeducation had enlightened, but who shamefully || perverted those abilities which nature had be stowed. In short, he became a member of a Free-thinking Society, where disputations upon subjects which the Divinity has thought proper to render obscure, were every evening committed and discussed, until these unfortunate reasoners upon religion actually doubted the existence of a God! This dreadful turn, which the shining abilities of Beverley had taken, completely filled the measure of Elvira's woes; for she had not only the misery of seeing all the tempo. ral prospects of her husband blighted; but what was far dearer to her, he was sacrificing his eternal peace. She had endeavoured by all the argument of persuasion to raise him to make those exertions which must necessarily have insured him both That religion and morality are intimately connected, does not admit of a doubt; the reformed Beverley is sufficient to prove the justness of the opinion; for no sooner was he convinced of the truth of his wife's argument than his disposition seemed to change; and, instead of wasting those talents which nature had endowed him with, he felt it a duty incumbent upon him to exert them for the public good. In the course of a few years he rose to the highest eminence in his profession. Sir Edward Beaumont became proud of his son-and Elvira had the happiness of seeing her husband set an example to her children of religion, honour, and rectitude of mind. After perusing this simple statement of matter of fact circumstances, who will venture to doubt |