depreciate the advantages, disguise the inconveniencies, or deny the duties of celibacy, or retirement, but the very circumstances of our existence tell us, that few people can live entirely for themselves. At your age, Emily, I little thought I should have passed through life unconnected. With gratitude to Providence, I acknowledge the many comforts I have experienced, but, as far as temporal felicity is considered, my lot has been much less enviable than Lady Glenvorne's, who was once my intimate companion. Nor can I, in the fulness of my affection, wish you better fortune, than to be united to a man who resembles the deceased Marquis in every thing but his early death.

"You are not wrong, Emily, to aim highly, in every sense of the word; for though rank and fortune are not synonymous with happiness, if we are

born in an elevated station we cannot innocently submit to self-degradation without some most urgent reasons. We ought not, then, to indulge ourselves in using common-place invectives against the infelicities which we discover in our lot. It has been chosen for us by a Being infinitely good and wise, who does not expect from the prince the mechanical industry of the manufacturer, or from the children of rank and affluence the contemplative exercises of a recluse. The fortune of your ancestors has devolved to you to call you to a life of benevolence, generosity, and exertion, and in choosing your future partner you are bound, not merely to consider, whether he be pleasing to yourself, but also, whether he be disposed to act as a righteous steward of those valuable talents which you will transmit to his trust? We are not, I conceive, at liberty to point

out the situation in which we should have been happier, unless it be one that we have forfeited through our own vice or folly, and then we may allude to it as a humiliating source of self-reproach, not as a topic of discontent. Every class in society, and every individual in each class, has his peculiar trials and temptations, virtues and vices, joys and sorrows. The peevish worldling, and the religious enthusiast, looking only at a part, falsely determines the world to be the den of misery, and its inhabitants a mass of depravity. The liberal and the devout see much of real enjoyment in this life, and in their fellow creatures many remains of that original perfection in which their species was created. We indulge our passions, my love, till nothing but uninterrupted happiness will suit our craving appetites. We set out in life expecting others to pay us the

same attention which self love tells us is our due. Our fellow travellers are instigated by similar motives. Competitors for fame or fortune justle, and then become enemies, and we afterwards quarrel with our contemporaries because they too much resemble ourselves.

"Do not, my dearest Emily, dislike the world from a supposition that it has injured me. I am in most perfect charity with every creature; nor do I take to myself any merit in this; for I have nothing to complain of. My lot has been singular. I have been called to sustain hard trials. I have fallen far short of the submission which I ought to have exercised, and yet I have been commended for patience. I have often too been accused of misdeeds of which I am innocent. If my story were known, I should appear in a a very different light, and must

give up the credit in one instance which I should acquire in another. I believe we are much oftener mistaken in our opinion of our neighbours, than censorious through malice. That innate attachment to what is perfect, fair, and good, which is still discernible in fallen man, impels us spontaneously to condemn error and depravity, and in our eagerness to pay what we feel to be an casy homage to virtue, we do not wait to be fully acquainted with those minute particulars which would enable us to be correct in our decision. Indeed, our finite faculties disqualify us for the office of censor, for the grave closes on many a concealed excellence and many an undiscovered crime.

"Your drawing certainly is not above mediocrity, but I am not anxious to have you excel in mere accomplishments. It is no misfortune or