tim to the unruly paffion of an ungrateful wretch.' But, alas! when he found the confequences attendant on our crime, which I tremble to relate, he not only refused to fulfil his promife of marriage, but foon abandoned me to all the pangs of recollection, and the frowns of a mercilefs world. Yet, villain as he was, he did not turn me out of doors, till he had given me money to fupport me in thofe moments of perturbation which his paffion had forced me to fuffer; and an untimely birth at length relieved me from the anxieties of a mother, though it left me under the fevere preffures of infamy, and the painful profpect of approaching poverty. Friends and acquaintances have now forfaken me; and I am reduced to the lot of those unhappy beings, from whom many, who melt at the fight of all other mifery, think it meritorious to withhold relief; whom the rigour of virtuous indignation dooms to fuffer without complaint, and perish without regard, and whom I myself have formerly infulted, in the pride of reputation and fecurity of innocence. Let others, who read my ftory, be warned by my example; and, however fpecious, the pretence, avoid the confequences. Let them confider, that however fecure they may think themselves, they will have need of all their fortitude when put to the teft. Whatever they may think of me, let them judge as favourably as poffible; and, as it is out of their power to affift, let them at leaft pity, a wretch destined to suffer for the faults of an ungrateful monster. THE HISTORY OF A VIRTUOSO. WRITTEN BY HIMSELF. T was obferved, from my entrance into the world, that I had fomething uncommon in my difpofition; and there appeared in me very early tokens of genius, fuperior to the bulk of mankind. I was always an enemy to trifles, and threw away my rattle at the time when other children but begin to shake it. I was particularly fond of my coral, but would never fuffer my nurfe to ring the bells. As I grew older, I was more thoughtful and ferious; and inftead of amusing myfelf with puerile diverfions, made collections of natural rarities; and never walked into the fields without bringing home ftones of remarkable forms, or infects of fome uncommon fpecies. I never entered an old houfe from which I did not take away fome painted glafs, and often lamented that I was not one of that happy generation who demolished the convents and monafteries, and broke windows by law. Being thus early poffeffed by a tafte for folid knowledge, I paffed my youth with very little disturbance from paffions and appetites; and, having no pleafure in the company of boys and girls, who talked of plays, politicks, fafhions, or love, I carried on my enquiries with inceffant diligence, and had amaffed more ftones, moffes, and fhells, than are to be found in many celebrated collections, at an age in which the greatest part of young men are studying under tutors, or endeavouring to recommend themfelves to notice by their dress, their air, and their levities. When I was two and twenty years old, I became, by the death of my father, poffeffed of a small eftate in land, with a very large fum of money in the public funds; and must confefs that I did not much lament him; for he was a man of mean parts, bent rather upon growing rich than wife; and once fretted at the expence of only ten fhillings, which he happened to overhear me offering for the fting of a hornet, though it was a cold moift fummer, in which very few hornets had been feen. He often recommended to me the study of phyfic, In which,' faid he, 'you may as once gratify your curiofity after natural history, and encreafe your fortune by benefiting mankind.' I heard him with pity, and as there was no prospect of elevating a mind formed to grovel, iuffered him to please himself with hoping that I fhould fome time follow his advice. For you know that there are men with whom, when they have once fettled a notion in their heads, it is to very little purpose to difpute. Being now left wholly to my own inclinations, I very foon enlarged the bounds of my curiofity, and contented myfelf no longer with fuch rarities as required only judgment and induftry, and when once found, might be had for nothing. I now turned my thoughts to exoticks and antiques, and became fo well known for my generous patronage of ingenious men, that my levee was crouded with vifitants, fome to fee my museum, and others to encrease it's treafures, by felling me whatever they had brought from other countries. I had always a contempt of that narrownefs of conception, which contents itself with cultivating fome fingle corner of the field of fcience; I took the whole region into my view, and wifhed it of yet greater extent. But no man's power can be equal to his will. I was forced to proceed by flow degrees, and to purchafe what chance or kindness happened to prefent. I did not, however, proceed without fome defign, or imitate the indifcretion of thofe who begin a thoufand collections, and finish none. Having been always a lover of geography, I determined to collect the maps made in the rude and barbarous times, before any regular furveys, or. juft obfervations; and have, at a great expence, brought together a volume, in which, perhaps, not a fingle country is laid down according to it's true fituation, and from which, he that defires to know the errors of the ancient geographers, may find ample information. I did not fuffer myself, however, to neglect the products of my own country; but as Alfred received the tribute of the Welch in wolves heads, I allowed my tenants to pay their rents in butterflies, till I had exhausted the papilionaceous tribe. I then directed them to the purfuit of other animals, and obtained, by this eafy method, moft of the grubs and infects, which land, air, or water, can fupply. I have three fpecies of earth-worms not known to the naturalifts, have difcovered a new ephemera, and can fhew four wafps that were taken torpid in their winter quarters. I have, from my own ground, the longest blade of grafs upon record; and once accepted, as a half-year's rent for a field of wheat, an ear containing more grains than had been seen before upon a fingle stem. One of my tenants fo much neglected his own intereft, as to supply me, in a whole fummer, with only two horfeflies, and thofe of little more than the common fize; and I was upon the brink of feizing for arrears, when his good fortune threw a white mole in his way, for which he was not only forgiven, but rewarded. Thefe, however, were pretty acquifitions, and made at small expence; nor fhould I have ventured to rank myself among the virtuofi without better claims. I have fuffered nothing worthy the regard of a wife man to escape my notice. I have ranfacked the old and the new world, and been equally attentive to paft ages and the prefent. For the illuftration of ancient hiftory, I can fhew a marble, of which the infcription, though it is not now legible, appears, from fome broken remains of the letters, to have been Tufcan, and there. fore, probably, engraved before the foundation of Rome. I have two pieces of porphyry found among the ruins of Ephefus, and three letters broken off by a learned traveller from the infcriptions at Perfepolis; a piece of ftone brought from the Areopagus of Athens; and a plate without figures or infcription, which was found at Corinth, and which I therefore believe to be that metal which the ancients valued before gold. I have fand gathered out of the Granicus, a fragment of Trajan's bridge over the Danube, fome of the mortar which cemented the water-courfe of Tarquin, a horse-shoe broke in the Flaminian way, and a turf with five daifies dug from the field of Pharfalia. I will not raise the envy of unfuccefsful collectors, by too pompous a dif play of my fcientific wealth; but cannot forbear to obferve, that there are few regions of the globe which are not honoured with fome memorial in my cabinets. The Perfian monarchs are faid to have boafted the greatness of their empire, by being served at their tables with water from the Ganges and the Danube: I can fhew one phial, of which the water was formerly an icicle on the crags of Caucafus, and another that contains what once was flow on the top of Teneriffe; in a third is a folu tion of the ice of Greenland; and, in another, water that once rolled in the Pacific Ocean. I flatter myself that I am writing to a man who will rejoice at the honour which my labours have procured to my country, and therefore I fhall tell you that Britain can by my care boat of a fnail that has crawled upon the wall of China, a humming-bird which an American princefs wore in her ear, the tooth of an elephant who carried the Queen of Siam, the fkin of an ape that was kept in the palace of the Great Mogul, a ribband that adorned one of the maids of a Turkish Sultana, and a scimetar that belonged to a foldier of Abas the Great. In collecting antiquities of every country, I have been careful to chufe only by intrinfick worth, without regard to party or opinions. I have therefore a lock of Cromwell's hair in a box turned out from a piece of the Royal Oak; and keep, in the fame drawers, fand fcraped from the coffin of King Richard, and a commiffion figned by Henry VII. I have equal veneration for the ruff of Elizabeth, and the fhoe of Mary of Scotland; and should lose, with like regret, a tobacco-pipe of Ra leigh, and a stirrup of King James. I have paid the fame price for a glove of Louis, and a thimble of Queen Mary; for a fur cap of the Czar, and a boot of Charles of Sweden. You will easily imagine that these accumulations were not made without fome diminution of my fortune, for I was fo well known to fpare no colt, that at every fale fome bid against me for hire, fome for fport, and fome for malice; and, if I asked the price of any thing, it was fufficient to double the demand. For curiofity, trafficking thus with avarice, the wealth of India had not been enough; and I, by little and little, transferred all my money from the funds to my clofet: here I was inclined to ftop, and live upon my estate in literary leisure, but the fale of the collection fhook my refolution; I mortgaged my land, and purchased thirty medals, which I could never find be fore. I have at length bought till I can buy no longer, and the cruelty of my creditors has feized my repofitory; I am therefore condemned to difperfe what the labour of an age will not reaffemble; I fubmit to that which cannot be opposed; and fhall, in a fhort time, be under the dreadful neceffity of declaring a fale. THE UNGENEROUS BENEFACTOR. RELATED BY A LADY. I Am the wife of a very worthy of. ficer in the army, who by a train of unavoidable misfortunes was obliged to fell his commiffion; and, from a flate of cafe and plenty, has been long fince reduced to the utmost penury and want. One fon and a daughter were our only children. Alas, that I fhould live to fay it! happy would it have been for us, if one of them had never been born. The boy was of a noble nature, and in happier times his father bought him a commithion in the fervice, where he is now a lieutenant, and quartered in Scotland with his regiment. Oh! he is a dear and dutiful child, and has kept his poor parents from the extremity of want, by the kind fupplies which he has from time to time fent us in our misfortunes. His fifter was, in the eyes of a fond father and mother, lovely to an extreme! Alas, she was too lovely! The times I have watered her dear face with my tears, at the thought that her temper was too meek and gentle for fo engag-. ing a form! She lived with me till the was turned of fourteen, at which time we were prevailed on by a friend to place her with a gentleman of fortune in the country, (who had lately buried his lady) to be the companion of his daughters, The gentleman's character was too honourable, and the offer too advantageous, to fuffer us long to hefitate about parting with a child, whom, dear to us as the was, we were not able to fupport. It is now a little more than two years fince our feparation; and till within a very few months, it was our happiness and joy that we had provided for her fo fortunately. She lived in the esteem and friendthip of the young ladies, who were indeed very amiable perfons; and fuch was their father's feeming indulgence to us, us, that he advanced my husband a fum of money on his own bond, to free him from fome small debts, which threatened him hourly with a jail. But how fhall I tell you, Sir, that this feeming benefactor has been the cruellest of all enemies! The enjoyment of our good fortune began to be interrupted, by hearing lefs frequently from our daughter than we ufed to do; and when a letter from her arrived, it was fhort and conftrained, and fometimes blotted as if with tears, while it told us of nothing that fhould occafion us any concern. It is now upwards of two months fince we heard from her at all; and, while we were wondering at her flence, we received a letter from the eldest of the young ladies, which threw us into a perplexity, which can neither be defcribed nor imagined. It was directed to me, and contained these words MADAM, FOR reafons which you will too foon be acquainted with, I mult defire that your daughter may be a ftranger to our family. I dare not indulge my pity for her as I would, left it should lead me to think too hardly of one whom I am bound in duty to reverence and honour. The bearer brings you a trifle, with which I defire you will immediately hire a poft-chaife, and take away your daughter. My father is from home, and knows nothing of this letter; but assure yourfelf it is meant to ferve you, and that I am, &c. Alarmed and terrified as I was at this letter, I made no hesitation of complying with it's contents. The bearer of it either could not, or would not, inform me of a fyllable that I wanted to know. My husband, indeed, had a fatal guets at it's meaning; and in a fury of rage infifted on accompanying me: but as I really hoped better things, and flattered myfelf that the young ladies were apprehenfive of a marriage between their father and my girl, I foothed him into patience, and fet out alore. I travelled all night; and early next morning, faw myself at the end of my journey. O, Sir! an I alive to tell you? I found my daughter in a fituation the moft fhocking that a fond mother could behold! She had been feduced by her benefactor, and was vifibly with child. I will not detain you with the fwooning and confusion of the unhappy creature at this meeting, nor my own distraction at what I faw and heard. In short, I learnt from the eldest of the ladies, that fhe had long fufpected fome unwarrantable intimacies between her father and my girl; and that, finding in her altered fhape and appearance a confirmation of her fufpicions, fhe had questioned her feverely upon the fubject, and brought her to a full confeffion of her guilt: that farther, her infatuated father was then gone to town, to provide lodgings for the approaching neceffity; and that my poor deluded girl had confented to live with him afterwards in London, in the character of a mistress. I need not tell you, Sir, the horror I felt at this difmal tale. Let it fuffice that I returned with my unhappy child, with all the hafte I was able. Nor is it needful I fhould tell you of the rage and indignation of a fond and distracted father, at our coming home. Unhappily for us all, he was too violent in his menaces, which I fuppofe reached the ears of this cruelleft of men, who eight his bond, and hurried to a prison. days ago caufed him to be arrested on But if this had been the utmost of my mifery, cruel as it is, I had spared you the trouble of this relation, and buried my griefs in my own bofom. Alas! Sir, I have another concern, that is more infupportable to me than all I have told you. My diftracted husband, in the anguifh of his foul, has written to my fon, and given him the moft aggravated detail of my daughter's fhame, and his own imprifonment; conjuring him, as he has confeffed to me this morning, by the honour of a foldier, and by every thing he holds dear, to lofe not a moment in doing juftice with his fword upon this deftroyer of his family. The fatal letter was fent laft week, and has left me in the utmoft horror at the thoughts of what may happen. I dread every thing from the rashness and impetuofity of my fon, whofe notions of honour and juftice are thofe of a young foldier, who in defiance of the law will be judge in his own caufe, and the avenger of injuries which Heaven only fhould punish. I have written to him on this occafion, in all the agonies of a fond mother's diftreffes. But, oh! I have fatal forebodings that my letter will arrive too late. What is this honour, or what this justice, that prompts men to acts of violence violence and blood, and either leaves them victims to the law, or to their own unwarrantable rafhnefs? As forcibly as I was able in this distracted condition, I have fet his duty before him; and have charged him, for his own foul's fake, and for the fake of thofe he most tenderly loves, not to bring utter ruin on a family, whofe diftreffes already are near finking to them the grave. The only glimmering of comfort that opens upon me, is, the hope that your publication of this letter may warn the wretch who has undone us of his danger, and incline him to avoid it. Fear is generally the companion of guilt, and may poffibly be the means of preferving to me the life of a fon, after wore than death has happened to a daughter. FANNY; OR, THE FAIR FOUNDLING OF ST. GEORGE'S FIELDS. BY MR. MACNALLY. I was the morning, when the fun having rifen confiderably above the horizon, his beams emanating from their fource, danced over the face of the earth: they wantoned on every object; but, as if attracted by the beauty of Fanny, played and fported about her eyes, til they had broke her golden flumber. T was in the month of June, at about Fanny was about ten years old, and lay upon the verdant. bank of a greenmantled ftagnate pool, in St. George's Fields. Rubbing her eyes as the awoke, and finding herfelf alone, fhe fet up a horrid fhriek; which alarming a clergyman, who was taking his morning's walk, he approached the wailing innocent, and enquired into the cause of her forrow. Alas! your honour,' faid Fanny, fobbing as if her little heart would burst; my father and my mother have left me, and I have neither houfe nor home to go to, nor any bread to eat.' Here grief ftopped the organs of articulation, by a fwell of paffion, till Nature kindly opened the fluices of little Fanny's eyes, and calmed the ftorm by a plenteous fhower of tears. "What can be done with her!' faid the honest clergyman to himself, gently rubbing his brow. What can be done!' faid the clergyman-looking towards the left, and taking the Magdalen Hofpital in his eye. 'Alas! if ⚫fomething be not done, the very beauty which should protect her virtue, will lead her to proftitution and ruin !— What can be done!' faid the clergyman-looking towards the right. I have it! I have it!' he exclaimedat that inftant seeing the Afylum for VOL. I. 6 Female Orphans. Come, my girl,' faid the good man, taking Fanny by the hand; you shall have a house and a home, and enough to eat, and enough to drink.' And he led her to his lodgings, which were within the rules of the King's Bench. -He had lent his fecurity to a relation in trade; who, failing, was liberated by a commiffion of bankruptcy, and left his friend to answer an inexorable creditor. Now the parents of Fanny loved her with as warm and natural an affection, as if the had been a princefs royal. Her father was an itinerant tinker, and her mother was remarkable for 'restoring a vigorous refpiration to the worn-out lungs of old bellows; their whole pro perty confifted of a jack-afs, and the implements of their trade. Unfortunately for this couple, the country they had travelled through for the day preceding their baiting in St. George's Fields, had no culinary utenfils out of repair, nor any confumptive bellows wanting wind; fo that not having any opportunity to exercise their art, they were reduced to their laft penny. To difpofe of this last penny, in procuring a breakfast for Fanny, they had iffued to the Borough, and entered a baker's fhop. The hot loaves fmoaked enticingly; and the mother of Fanny, confidering that a pennyworth of bread would fcarce give a mouthful to her child, and being impelled by her own hunger, and the hunger which the knew was gnawing the ftomach of her huf band, flipped a loaf under her cloak. A pawn-broker on the oppofite fide of the street faw the tranfaction-he was a confeientious man, and informed the 2 A baker. |