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in London. For my own part I am saga-, cious enough in seeing the faults of my friends, and dearly as I love the world and its delusions, I can see them, and can expatiate on them; but to confess the truth, Hymenæa, I do not see that I am a whit nearer amendment."

“Do not despair, aunt," said I; "the first step to become indifferent to the world is to see it and understand it."

said I; "for according to them, women have no souls, and I suppose this has become a point of their faith, because they think them better without them. If you can really be content to resign your reason, and become as it were a piece of furniture in your drawing-room, you are in the right to wish for such a husband; but if women can do something better than their harps, if they are born for some other pur pose than to dress all day and to dance all night, why, then you should wish for something better than these self-sufficient coxcombs." what you

"Well," said my aunt, 66 say please, I have my own taste, and I should prefer a man of this kind to all your accomplished Sir Charles Grandisons or Mortimers in all the Circulating Libraries in London.”

"You will find neither Sir Charles Grandison nor Mortimers in real life," said I.

"To proceed, however, with my narrative," continued my aunt. "Nothing could be more happy for some months than the life of Clarissa and Sir William. Clarissa, as I have told you, had that kind of temper which, having more vivacity than sensibility, could extract content and happiness from every thing; sorrow passed over her mind like a summer cloud. And I cannot but think that this kind of temper is best suited to the happiness both of the possessor and of those about him or her. Domestic life is not much suited to he- "As to Mortimer, I suppose you intend roines, nor heroines to domestic life; life him as a specimen of the novel heroes in is neither comedy or tragedy, but some- general, and therefore I dismiss him as unthing between both, and those are not suit-worthy of a thought. These kind of heable actors who are always on the stilts. roes are usually made up of all the virtues, Clarissa and Sir William became the bye-beauties, and accomplishments, sewed toword of the country as models of conjugal perfection. More than one Epithalamium was written to celebrate their mutual concord. A young artist, moreover, deeming their figures suitable subjects for his pencil, chose them as his subjects, and displayed their pictures at the Exhibition.

You

must not forget this circumstance as you will find it to be of consequence in what I have hereafter to relate.

gether as girls sew patch-work, without any consideration of any thing of harmony, concert, or aptitude between them, nothing being required but a collection of finery. Sir Charles Grandison is another kind of being; he certainly has too many virtues for a character in life, but then he is held up as an example, and there is nothing absurd or unnatural that what is intended for a copy should have an excellence which few must expect to reach. There is another excellence which distinguishes Sir Charles Grandison. The virtues, though too numerous, and existing en mass, as it were, are not repugnant; the suit is somewhat too splendid, but it is not made by one of the journeymen of Nature. No one can read Sir Charles Grandison without admiring and feeling the excellence of many of the parts, and at a certain age, and in a certain station, to admire and to feel is to imitate, and to conceive a desire to resemble. The manners of Sir Charles Grandison, with some deductions on the score of formality, are likewise models; he is always the gentleman, as Miss "Then Heaven should send you a Turk," Byron is always the lady. And as to the

"Sir William, on the other hand, was a character of a very different kind, but still not less suited to make what the world calls a good husband. He was grave, but not the less indulgent, and though he possessed a mind infinitely superior to his wife, and could not himself but see it, he had that opinion of women, or rather of the quali. ties which were required in them, that he deemed any superior intellectual accomplishments as perfectly indifferent. He chose his wife as he did his riding-horse, a fine creature, a handsome figure, and easy to manage without wanting spirit. Oh, if ever I marry again, may Heaven send me such a husband!"

objection that such books may give false ideas of life, what does a young woman want to know about life but the duties of it in their several stations? you might as reasonably complain that Esop's Fables give a false notion of nature. These false notions are of no consequence, and are easily cured by experience. In the meantime the works of Richardson will stand forth as examples of a moral excellence both of virtue and manners; and our own

experience, I think, may prove that they
can never be read without sympathy, and
therefore without a direct and strong in.
fluence on the mind. Their faults are
those of a master, and detract nothing from
the effect of the work."
"that

"I am happy," said my aunt,
some novels please you. To return, how.
ever, to my narrative."

[To be continued.]

PERSIAN LETTERS.

No. V.

FROM MULEY CID SADI, ONE OF THE SECRETARIES TO HIS EXCELLENCY THE PERSIAN AMBASSADOR IN LONDON, TO OSMAN CALI BEG, HIS FRIEND IN ISPAHAN.

"Whence is this," said I to our interpreter; "they do not talk the language of the audience?"

"No," replied he.

"Perhaps," rejoined I," as the Koran is Arabic, and the colloquial Persian an adulteration of the Hindostanee, so the language of these performers which you call Italians, is but a purer kind of English, and is allowed, in order to keep up the memory and the knowledge of your original tongue."

WHEN I wrote you last I expected || term the Opera. From the small acthat we should have left this country be-quaintance that I had with the English fore this, as our mission was completed.language, I discovered that the language The Great Vizier, who, in the jargon of of the performers was not that which I hear this country, is called the First Minister, or daily spoken in the country. Premier, bears so strong a resemblance to Persians in his manners and way of thinking, that I can almost imagine myself, when in his company, with one of our own Viziers. He conducts the affairs of the na tion without troubling himself to defend his measures; he leaves to others to speak, and contents himself, like a wise Mussel man, with acting. He is likewise fond of shew and splendour, and when his house is prepared for the reception of visitors, he is not inferior to the Princes of Persia. The riches of this country overflow on every subject, and even attach to those which do not seem naturally to admit them. There is no article of furniture about an Englishman's house the cost of which would not buy a Persian estate. Once for all, as I have told you before, the English live in this world as if they had no hopes of another; they remember that they are not Mahometans, and therefore having no hope are without shame.

Since I wrote last I have been at one of their houses of amusement, which they

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"No," said he; "it is Italian, a language totally foreign, and which ninetenths of those who are here do not understand."

"Then why are they there?" said I.

"Because," replied he, "it is the fashion; because it is a place where friends can meet each other; and because of the music."

"And cannot they lave this same society, and as good music, without this foreign language as with it? You have other theatres in the country in which the

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"There it is," replied I; "you have all the ample means of folly, and you are all resolved not to lose the opportunity. You are enabled to play the fool, and you avail yourselves of it to become a nation of fools There is a Persian fable, that the Persians of earlier days being rendered barbarous by long anarchy, suddenly took to the woods, and in the next generation became monkeys. One would imagine that these monkeys had now left the woods and were again in your country, in their progress towards civilization."

grubs and butterflies, and poor and rich, the ragged and the well clothed, are huddled together as if in a playhouse; their parks and streets are then full.

I have mentioned the park. An English park is the open garden of a seraglio, where every one may walk at his pleasure. The English are so fond of spectacle that they couvert every thing into one. They have nothing close, open, or reserved; their women are made spectacles, and they throw down the walls of their gardens that they may see every one, and every one see them. Such is this unaccountable people.

Oh, Cali Beg, when shall I again see the delightful regions of Persia! where the women are hidden as if in tomb-stones Have I ever mentioned to you, my dear only for the enjoyment of the faithful; friend, what in this country they call gal-where every man has a property in what lantry. The women, as I have informed is most peculiarly his own; where he may you, are suffered to roam at raudom; they shut up his house and gardens, and imare wild birds, which, according to the prison his wife. Persian laws, are every man's game who can take them. Now the net in which they are taken, and the method in which they are pursued, is here termed gallantry.of wise sayings,-break out the bottom of The women attack the men by the eyes; the men make their attack by the ladies' ears. They deceive them by all manner of Hattery, invent all manner of delusions, and are guilty of every mode of imperti

nence.

This is what they term gallantry. Imagine a spaniel in his most fawning mood, and you have a competent notion of an English gallant.

There are two follies above all others, says the Persian Sadi; the one is to talk seriously to a woman, and the other to walk about where you can repose. The English are guilty of both these follies. With the exception of some wise meu whom they term Aldermen, and who seem too portly for exercise, the English never seem to live but when they are in motion; they walk for amusement. When the sun shines, they issue forth like a-nation of

Fix up your horse at night, and your women both day and night, says the prophet Sadi. And again in the same book

your drinking cup, and expect the liquor to remain in; but forget the padlock to your hatem, and expect not to find your wife.

There is a people in this country whom they call Jews; they are the wisest people in the nation, for, like the Persians, they can distinguish between clean and unclean beasts, and avoid the latter. Like the Persians, too, they wisely hate all but those that belong to their own sect; this is true wisdom, to love each other, but to hate those who have no concern with

you.

From London, the city of Infidels, in the Month denominated April.”

[To be continued.]

THE HISTORY OF THE OLDCASTLE FAMILY. AN ORIGINAL NOVEL.

[Continued from Page 167.]

THE dinner was scarcely concluded, before they were joined by Mirabel, who was to attend them to the rout of the Countess of Shuffleton.-Mirabel was unusually thoughtful.

"Now what mischief are you meditating?" said Miss Beachcroft, with her usual flippancy. From the rudeness of the address, or some other cause, Mirabel started, and was evidently, for a moment at least, discomposed.

“I never knew a libertine thoughtful, except to some bad purpose," continued

she.

The conversation was broken off to go to the rout of the Countess of Shuffleton, as the hour now approached.

The history must now return to Bellasis. Informed of the situation of Agnes, he knew not how to act. It did not require the natural penetration he possessed to understand the selfish designs of Sir George. The profligate character of this Baronet confirmed every suspicion to his disadvantage. He feared that he would spare nothing in his power to ensure the success of Mirabel's addresses. He was informed of a circumstance of which Agnes was ignorant, and which appeared to him replete with danger.

The Captain and Sir George had the same solicitor. Bellasis having occasion to call on the latter, had seen Sir George leave the door as himself approached it. Mentioning casually this circumstance to the solicitor:-" Sir George's business," said he," is no secret, as it must become a matter of record in the Court of Chancery, though I confess it is of a very singular nature. By the will of the Lady Priscilla Harrowby, he is appointed guardian to a young lady of large property, and the will empowers him, should he deem it necessary, to appoint her a second guardian, as his assistant. He has this morning made this appointment, and his nomination has fallen upon a very singu- || No. V. Vol. I.-N. S.

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lar person, Sir Harry Mirabel, a Baronet, who has been cast in the court in heavy damages for more than one intrigue. This is rather a singular guardian for a young lady, the more particularly so as the articles of the guardianship, dividing the trouble between the two, make Mirabel guardian of her person, and Sir George of her property."

This information was so alarming, and appeared so evidently done with design, that Bellasis resolved without delay to inform Agnes of her situation. It was too late, however, to effect this purpose that evening, and he was compelled to delay his visit till the following morning, that after the rout at the Countess Shuttleton.

Bellasis accordingly called at the house at rather an early hour, and enquired for Agnes. The servant informed him that she was not at home.

66

My business is important," said Bel lasis, I must see her; inform her that I am below."

"Indeed, Sir," said the servant, “she is not at home; she did not return from the Countess's with my Lady last night. I know not where she has gone, except that she has accompanied some friend."

Bellasis was fixed to the spot in astonishment; by a mechanical motion of his hand he put it into his pocket, and conveyed a guinea into the hand of his informer, whilst he questioned him in hasty monysyllables.

"I'll call the coachman, Sir," said the fellow; "he is more likely to inform you of the circumstances than myself.”

The coachman was accordingly called, and obeyed the summons. Being ques tioned by his fellow-servant if he knew what was become of Miss Agnes, he beckoned Mr. Bellasis into the street, and thence to the corner at some distance from the house.

"Young gentleman," said he, "I am afraid you have lost her." Ff

"How lost her?" exclaimed Bellasis.

“Why, if so be that you be her sweetheart, do you see, young gentleman," replied the phlegmatic Davy, "damme she's off."

"Off! where, with whom?"

"Why, with some one," replied Davy; "but as I am an honest Welchman, do you see, young gentleman, and have been trusted in this affair, you shall get no more from me."

Bellasis thought this but a hint, and of fered his purse.

on.

further explanation was thus interrupted. Bellasis was for a moment at a loss in what manner to act. Returning to M. E——, his solicitor, he demanded his legal opiniMr. E replied, that Sir George had not acted beyond the authority given him by the will, in appointing a personal guardian to Agnes; and that Mirabel being thus appointed, had the legal disposal of her person during her minority; that however evident the nature of the conspiracy, it was so strictly according to the forms of law, that the courts could give no relief.

Bellasis, agitated at once by contending emotions, by jealousy, love, and indignation at such barefaced violation of all that was honourable and just, hastened to the lodgings of Mirabel in Albany-buildings. The Baronet, as he suspected, was absent; had departed, as it was supposed, for the

"No, no, young gentleman," replied honest Davy; "you have none of those varlets to deal with. You shall know nothing from me; and, if I can help it, you shall know nothing from any other of the servants. I beckoned you here, friend, to teach you better than to seek the secrets f the family by pumping the servants." Bellasis was in a too great agony of im-country. Bellasis endeavoured, by indipatience to attend to the propriety of this advice; but before he could determine what farther to do, Sir George himself passed him. Bellasis immediately addressed him with some abruptness. Sir George demanded cooly upon what authority he so anxiously concerned himself with regard to Agnes?

"By the right of a friend, Sir George, and one who is not ignorant of your character," replied Bellasis.

"Mr. Bellasis," replied Sir George, "when I have leisure from other business I shall answer the latter part of what you have said. With regard to Agnes, you must address me in another manner before, as her guardian, I shall think it necessary to return you any answer."

rect inquiries, to discover his route; but his servants appeared ignorant, and Bel. lasis was compelled to return as much in the dark as ever.

The more he reflected upon this affair, the more was he moved to indignation. He knew that the character of Mirabel was that of a polished ruffian, a profligate who, possessed of the advantages of natural courage and a daring spirit, neglected nothing towards the accomplishment of his designs; the more he thought upon this subject the more did he tremble for Agnes.

He was walking by the side of the Serpentine River, in Hyde Park, as he was making these reflections. The day was gloomy, a dripping mist obscured every · Bellasis could scarcely restrain his in-thing; Bellasis saw no one in the Park but dignation from breaking forth into open violence.

"As to the fortune of Miss Harrowby," replied Sir George, perhaps if questioned in a proper manner, and for a proper purpose, I may answer. With regard to her person, her legal guardian is Sir Harry Mirabel. He may have found it necessary to remove her to prevent her from any imprudent union. You must know that I cannot interpose whilst he acts only in the dischargé of his duty."

Before Bellasis could answer, Sir George was joined by some gentlemen, and all

himself. The sound of something falling into the water at length aroused him from his reflections. Bellasis looked around, and within a few yards before him (he being concealed amongst the trees) saw a woman already floating on the surface. Forgetting every thing in the impulse of humanity, he rushed forward, and after some difficulty drew the body to the bank. It was already insensible, and apparently lifeless. She had been seen, moreover, by other persons at a distance, who now hastened to the assistance of Bellasis. Every thing was put in practice to recal her to

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