N the pleafant vale of Arlin, on the Zilim and Selena. Their humble manfion ftood folitary, on a rifing lawn: a lofty grove fheltered it from uncouth winds, and a limpid ftream meandered through the pleasant vale beneath. Domeftick difcord approached not once their peaceful habitation; and Jealoufy, the frequent bane of conjugal felicity, entered not their doors. Their time fled swift on downy wings; for Innocence, with Chearfulnefs, her conftant mate, opened to thein ftill the gates of the morn, and heaven-born Contentment clofed their every day. Their views were limited to things within their power; thence were their enjoyments not imbittered by disappointment. Their friends were few, chofen, and fincere; their poffeffions moderate, but fo were likewife their defires. ་ 'mal!' faid Phyla, I know thy power " on earth. Thy words are truth; for 'thou doft execute the will of Heaven. Yet fuffer me to plead for this bleffed pair. O Shymal, part them not! Their fouls are like the elm and tender vine, entwined inextricable; to part 'them were worse than death.'-' Ceafe, Phyla,' faid Shymal; thou knoweft not what thou afkeft. The ways of • Heaven are ever juft. Inferior fpirits, like the mortals they watch, fee things darkly. Terreftrial felicity is often dangerous: affliction is the only true touchftone of virtue. If the pair for whom thou pleadeft are virtuous, as they feem, their days may yet be multiplied, and their blifs more exquifite. The great economy of things requires their feparation. If they look up with due devotion for affiftance, fupport their virtue, Phyla bowed fubmiffive, and departed, In thefe days the emperor of the East made war againft his enemies. On the 20th day of the third moon arrived a meffenger at the peaceful dwelling of Zilim, and faid- The enemies of the Shymal, who liveth in the third heaven, and to whom the guardian fpirits that watch the fons of men, pay due obedience, called unto him the fpirit Phyla, and faid-' Phyla, the earthly pair, whom in the vale of Arlin thou delighteft to guard from evil, are doomed to part. 'Tis fo ordained. Hafte down to earth, and lend thy aid invisible to support their virtue. They • soon must taste affliction.'-' O Shy-lity, for so the great king ordains.* VOL. I, great king are rifen up against him, and all the powers of the East prepare for battle. Hark, Zilim! gird on thy fabre, and leave the vale of tranquil T Zilim Zilim bowed down to the earth, and faid-The will of Heaven be done!-O my Selena! Thou best beloved of my foul! I fee thy affliction. Thy beaming eyes are bathed in forrow. Thy grief is already too mighty for expreffion. But, O my lovely fair! let us not, by our complainings, offend that • kind Providence to which we are indebted for fo much felicity; that Pro◄vidence, whose mandates are irrevocable, and whofe difpenfations are indubitably juft.' The charming Selena fell upon his neck, and hung fpeechlefs in his arms. He kiffed the gufhing pearls from her pale-grown cheeks, and ufed every tender expreffion of his love to mitigate her grief: but all his tendernefs ferved only to increase her affliction for his departure, and anxiety for his fafety. Alas! fhe funk down lifeless on the couch. Zilim, like one frantic with defpair, called her faithful female flaves to her affiftance; who no fooner beheld their beloved miftrefs pale and motionlefs on the couch, than they were all bathed in tears of sincere affection; for they adored her, because of her univerfal benevolence and affectionate condefcenfion. They used every effort in their power; but, notwithstanding all their endeavours, one dreadful hour paffed before they could recal her departed fenfes. At last the returning fun of life began again to beam through the dark cloud which had overwhelmed her lovely form-she looked the beheld her dear Zilim, with his eyes uplifted to Heaven, in gratitude for her revival. She started from her couch, and grafping his right-hand, fhe faid my beloved Zilim! thou faidft the ways of Heaven are ever juft; and fo in truth they are. I have seen • a bright celeftial fpirit; he spake delightful words; he called himself our guar‹ dian angel. "Selena," faid he, (methinks I hear him ftill)" be of good "comfort: thy Zilim fhall return, and 66 ye fhall yet be happy; but remember, "O remember, not to offend thy Creator "by thy distrust of his power and pro"mife to protect the virtuous." O my beloved! we shall furely meet again! No, no, I will not call down judgment upon us both by my complaining. Depart, my dearest Zilim. It is the will of the Almighty, and I am fatisfied.' -My ever-charming Selena,' faid Zilim, thy words are more reviving to my foul than the morning dew of heaven to blooming nature. Yes, we fhall furely meet again in peace and lasting joy. Farewel, thou best-beloved of my foul! May the great Alla grant_thee health and ferenity of mind!' They embraced with inexpreffible tendernels, and Zilim began his journey towards the Eaft. Selena, alfo, unwilling to continue in a place where every object would renew her grief, left her delightful villa, and travelled weftward to the house of her father. Muftapha, the great king of the East, had now collected all his dreadful hoft, and the boundless plain glittered with various inftruments of war. The numerous enemy drew near, and all the hoftile field breathed flaughter and deftruction. The battle joined; victory wavered, and feemed long irrefolute; many thousands were flain, and many were led into captivity: at length the arms of Muftapha prevailed, and his enemy fled in confufion. Now Fame, with a thousand trumpets, flew quickly through the land, and spread abroad the news of victory.-Selena heard it, and trembled. O my Zilim!' faid fhe, What, no intelligence from Zilim? no affurance that Zilim lives? ་ Eternal God!-But be calm, my flut 'tering heart.' She then was filent; nor opened her lips till the going down of the fun. Her eyes were often raised toward heaven in fervent ejaculation. She now retired to rest; and balmy sleep, the only friend of the unhappy, at length wrapt her anxious mind in fweet infenfibility. But when the morning dawned, the rofe and bowed to earth, then lifted up her hands to heaven, and thus addreffed her God-0 great, eternal Being! Creator and Preferver of this univerfal world! Thou, mighty Father, gaveft me life, and thou alone 'canft make me happy. Accept, O God of truth, my humble, my imperfect gratitude, for all thy mercies paft; and O infpire my foul with fentiments to thee most acceptable, and moft becoming a creature whom thou hast been graciously pleafed to endow with reafon. O great Omnipotence! if ever thy " poor fervant hath found favour in thy fight, fhield, O fhield my Zilim! Reftore him to my foul; and, in thy good time, peace and tranquillity to mankind. So prayed the angelic fair; and ftraight her prayers were borne on feraphs wings to heaven. She She then walked ferenely forth: for confcious faith in Heaven had glowed her cheeks, religion foothed her foul, and all` within was peace. So walks the gentle fhepherd o'er the lawn, compofed, nor dreams of evil hour; when on a fudden, lo! the welkin gathers, darkens, and the unexpected ftorm breaks furious over his head. She faw the approaching reffenger, and in his aspect read his horrid tale. In one hand he bore the well-known turban, and in the other held the fword of Zilim. Speak,' fhe cried, my • Zilim is no more. Ah! did I fay no more? Juft Heaven! By all the powers ⚫ above, my Zilim lives!' He bowed, and thus began:- Hail! faireft of thy fex! This turban and this fword I found fcattered on the bloody field. No more I know. I faw him not; but much I fear thy Zilim fell.'-'My Zilim lives,' fhe cried, by Heaven, " my Zilim lives!' Her guardian angel heard her wondrous faith, and joyfully fled in fearch of Zilim. He found him in captivity. In the midst of the battle, his fword was dashed out of his hand by a javelin thrown with incredible rapidity. The warriors, feeing their leader difarmed, fled; and Zilim, preferring flavery to an ignominious flight, was taken by the enemy. Now the invisible Phyla entered the tent of Zilim, and beheld him penfive and alone, fitting on his couch. It was the dead of night; when lo! the beautiful Sarcafta, loofe and unattired, gently lifts the canvas, and thus the fpeaksWell mayeft thou feem furprised, O captive ftranger, that in this filent hour a female, as thou seeft, of no mean degree, fhould thus break in upon thy peace. I come to give thee liberty.' Ah, liberty!' cried Zilim. Yes, ftranger, liberty! I faw thee when thou wert first led in triumph through our camp. I faw, and wifhed thee well. • When last our king, the great Baroffa, queftioned thee alone, I faw thee through the veil that hangs between the king ⚫ and me. I beheld thee with a feeling ⚫ that much exceeds compaffion. Yes, gentle ftranger, thou haft raised a fenfe within me, that makes me wish to give thee happiness. Methinks I read within thy breaft a tender heart. Say, didft ⚫ thou ever love?' Zilim, like one who fees, or dreams he fees, an angel, (for Sarcafta was exquifitely beautiful) remained for fome time dumb with astonishment. He gazed, and doubted all his fenfes. At length he thus replied-Fair mortal, or fair fpirit, for fuch I deem thou art, 'methinks thou fpeakeft of liberty. Some 'generous heavenly power hath heard my prayer, and haply fent thee to redeem a ' llave.' She then drew near to Zilim, and feized his hand; then fixed her wanton eyes upon him, fat down upon the couch, and faid-Yes, thou shalt foon be free.' She raifed his hand, and pressed it to her lips. Zilim trembled, and was all amazement. She then difplayed her snowy bofom, and used every female art to feduce him to her will. The fpirit Phyla saw,and dreaded the event. Alas! what virtue could refift fuch bewitching beauty; what wonder if, for a moment, Zilim had forgot his facred vows? But Phyla wrote upon the wall the word SELENA. Zilim raised his eyes, and caught the golden charac→ ters. He gazed a while, then started from the couch, and faid- Go, go, "perfidious beauty! Who thou art I know not: 'tis enough, that I know thou art not mine.' She rofe with all the rage that ever fwelled the breaft of difappointed woman. Vile flave,' fhe faid, this very hour shall be thy laft. By our 'great Prophet I fwear thou haft not yet an hour to live!' Juft as the fpake, the king Baroffa rufhed into the tent, feized her by the neck, and stabbed his poniard to her heart.-' Die, ftrumpet,' he cried; I have heard thy perfidy, and am now revenged. Hadft thou, captive, yielded to her lewd defire, this steel had now been fheathed within thy breast.' He fcarce had left the tent, when on a fudden a loud alarm fpread through all the camp: Muftapha, with ten thousand chofen men, had found means to surprise the army of his enemy, and advanced unoppofed even to the tent of king Baroffa, who no fooner faw himself furrounded, than he fell upon his own fword, and thus put an end to the war. Now Phyla rofe to heaven, and hailed the holy fpirit Shymal. He bleft the great God, that Zilim and Selena had proved themselves deferving his protection. ་ Thou feeft,' faid Shymal, that Pro'vidence is ever merciful to man. The manfion where the pair thou watchest dwelt, hath even now been swallowed by an earthquake; and thence thou feeft, it was meet they thould be re'moved, elfe they had both been buried in it's ruin. Moreover, it was ordained that war fhould rage throughout the T 2 ' eaftern RS. Winifred Wormwood was found hypocrify, the contrived to please, Mthe daughter of a rustic merchant, and to blind, her plodding old parent; who, by the happy union of many lucrative trades, amaffed an enormous fortune. His family confifted of three girls, and Winifred was the eldeft: long before the was twenty, fhe was furrounded with lovers, fome probably attracted by the fplendid profpect of her expected portion, and others truly captivated by her perfonal graces; for her perfon was elegant, and her elegance was enlivened with peculiar vivacity. Mr. Wormwood was commonly called a kind parent, and an honeft man; and he might deferve, indeed, thofe honourable appellations, if it were not a profanation of Janguage to apply them to a narrow and a felfifh fpirit. He indulged his daughters in many expenfive aufements, becaufe it flattered his pride; but his heart was engroffed by the profits of his extenfive traffic: he turned, with the most repulfive afperity, from every propofal that could lead him to diminish his capital, and thought his daughters unreafonable, if they wished for any permanent fatisfaction above that of feeing their father increase in opulence and fplendor. His two younger children, who inherited from their deceafed mother a tender delicacy of frame, languifhed and died at an early period of life; and the death of one of them was imputed, with great probability, to a fevere difappointment in her firit affection. The more fprightly Winifred, whofe heart was a perfect ftranger to genuine love, furmounted the mortification of feeing many fuitors difcarded; and, by the infenfate avarice of her father, fhe was naturally led into habits of artifice and intrigue. Poffelfing an uncommon fhare of very fhrewd and piercing wit, with the most pro who perpetually harangued on the dif cretion of his daughter, and believed her a miracle of referve and prudence, at the very time when she was fufpected of fuch conduct as would have difqualified her, had it ever been proved, for the rank the now holds in this effay*. She was faid to have amufed herself with a great variety of amorous adventures, which eluded the obfervation of her father; but of the many lovers who fighed to her in fecret, not one could tempt her into marriage; and, to the furprise of the public, the rich heiress of Mr. Wormwood reached the age of thirty-feven without changing her name. Juft as the arrived at this mature feafon of life, the opulent old gentleman took his leave of a world in which he had acted a bufy part, pleased with the idea of leaving a large fortune, as a monument of his induftry, but wanting the fuperior satisfaction which a more generous parent would probably have derived from the happy eftablishment of a daughter. He gained, however, from the hypocrify of Winifred, what he could not claim from her affection, the honour of being lamented with a profufion of tears. diftinguished herself by difplaying all the delicate gradations of filial forrow; but recovered, at a proper time, all the natural gaiety of her temper, which the had now the full opportunity of indulging, being mistress of a magnificent manfion, within a mile of a populous town, and enabled to enliven it with all the arts of luxury, by inheriting fuch accumulated wealth, as would fafely fupport the utmost efforts of provincial fplendor. Mifs Wormwood now expected to fee every batchelor of figure and confequence * This History is extracted from Mr. Hayley's celebrated Effay on Old Maids. She a fuppliant a fuppliant at her feet: the promised to herself no little entertainment in fporting with their addreffes, without the fear of fuffering from a tyrannical husband, as the had learned caution from her father, and had privately refolved not to trust any man with her money; a refolution the more difcreet, as he had much to apprehend, and very little to learn, from fo dangerous a mafter! The good-natured town, in whofe environs the rich Winifred refided, very kindly pointed out to her no lefs than twenty lively beaux for her choice; but, to the shame or the honour of thofe gentlemen, they were too timid, or too honeft, to make any advances. The report of her youthful frolicks, and the dread of her farcaltic wit, had more power to repel, than her perfon and her wealth had to attract. Paffing her fiftieth year, the acquired the ferious name of Miftrefs, without the dignity of a wife, and without receiving a fingle offer of marriage from the period in which the became the poffeffor of fo opulent a fortune. Whether this mortifying disappointment had given a peculiar afperity to her temper, or whether malevolence was the earlier characteristic of her mind, I will not pretend to determine; but it is certain, that from this autumnal, or rather wintry feason of her life, Mrs. Wormwood made it her chief occupation to ainufe herself with the moft fubtle devices of malicious ingenuity, and to fruftrate every promifing fcheme of affection and delight which he difcovered in the wide circle of her acquaintance. She feemed to be tormented with an inceffant-dread, that youth and beauty might fecure to themselves that happinefs which the found wit and fortune were unable to beltow; hence the watched, with the most piercing eye, all the lovely young women of her neighbourhood, and often infinuated herself into the confidence of many, that the might penetrate all the fecrets of their love, and privately blaft it's fuccefs. She was enabled to render herself intimate with the young and the lovely, by the opulent fplendor in which the lived, and by the bewitching vivacity of her converfation. Her talents of this kind were, indeed, extraordinary: her mind was never polished or enriched by literature, as Mr. Wormwood fet little value on any books, excepting thofe of his counting-house; and the earlier years of his daughter were too much engaged by duplicity and intrigue, to leave her either leifure or inclination for a voluntary attachment to more improving ftudies. She read very little, and was acquainted with no language but her own; yet a brilliant understanding, and an uncommon portion of ready wit, fupplied her with a more alluring fund of converfation than learning could bestow. She chiefly recommended herfelf to the young and inexperienced, by the infinuating charm of the moft lively ridicule, and by the art of feafoning her difcourfe with wanton innuendos of fo fubtle nature, that gravity knew not how to object to them: fhe had the fingular faculty of throwing fuch a foft and dubious twilight over the moft licentious images, that they captivated curiofity and attention, without exciting either fear or difguft. Her malevolence was perpetually difguifed under the mask of gaiety, and the completely poffeffed that plausibility of malice, fo difficult to attain, and fo forcibly recommended in the words of Lady Macbeth Bear welcome in your eye, Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower, But be the ferpent under it! With what fuccefs fhe practifed this dau gerous leffon, the reader may learn from the following adventure. It was the cuftom of Mrs. Wormwood to profefs the most friendly folicitude for female youth, and the highest admiration of beauty; fhe wished to be confidered as their patronefs, because such an idea afforded her the fairest oppor tunities of fecretly mortifying their infufferable prefumption. With a peculiar refinement in malice, fhe firft encouraged, and afterwards defeated, thofe amuling matrimonial projects, which the young and the beautiful are fo apt to entertain. The highest gratification, which her ingenious malignity could devife, confifted in torturing fome lovely inexperienced girl, by playing upon the tender paffions of au open and unfufpecting heart. Accident threw within her reach a moft tempting fubject for fuch fiendlike diverfion, in the perfon of Amelia Nevil, the daughter of a brave and accomplished officer; who, clofing a laborious and honourable life in very indigent circumftances, had left his unfortunate child to the care of his maiden fitter. The aunt of Amelia was fuch an old |