withal to live, not only with ease, but with fome degree of fplendour, they chufe, as they fay, to enjoy the fruit of their labours. Accordingly, we live in an elegant houfe, have a handsome carriage, keep a good number of fervants, and fee a great deal of company. You will eafily conceive, however, that the fhew attending my father's prefent fyftem of living, and the manners fuited to his prefent condition, do not just agree with his former habits. But this does not fignify much. He is a good-natured worthy man; and they must be very captious, indeed, who will not fuffer his merits to conceal his defects.

With regard to myself, my parents, having no other daughter, and intending to give me a genteel portion, were determined I should have a good education. "For," faid my father," a young woman of fortune, and of an agreeable appearance, must go into com

( pany.

You and I, Bridget," addreffing himself to my mother, "fet out in life in a "different manner. But Mary must have e

"ducation."

So they fent me to a famous boardingschool; and, in fo far as my improvement was concerned, they fpared no expence.- Sir,

VOL. III.

R

I

I fpeak to you without referve; and I hope you will not think me too vain, if I tell you, that my education was no difficult matter. I understand music; and had little difficulty in acquiring the French and Italian languages. Indeed, the worthy perfon who had the charge of my education, was well calculated to promote my improvement. She was a woman of family, of fine education, exquifite tafte, great goodness of heart, and had shown Spirit enough, on the decline of her father's fortune, rather than live a dependant on her relations, to procure an independent, and now fhe has rendered it a rèspectable livelihood for herself. In a word, Sir, I am what they call tolerably accomplished; and you will think it ftrange, and I think it strange myself, that this should be the fource of my uneafinefs.

It is now fome time fince I returned to my father's houfe. When I came home, I was received with raptures. My father and mother adored me. They would refuse me nothing. They strove to prevent my wishes.Good people! may Heaven grant them peace of mind, and long life to enjoy the fortune they fo juftly deferve. But why, Sir, did

they

they make me, as they term it, so very accomplifhed? They have made me a different creature from themselves. I am apt to fancy my. felf of a higher order.- Forgive my presumption; and I am fure you will forgive me, when I tell you, I really wish myfelf lower. Indeed, Sir, and it grieves me to the foul, I am fometimes impatient of my parents. But I will not dwell upon this.

I told you, we fee a great deal of company; and all the people we fee are disposed to admire me. "Mighty well," you will fay: "Give a young woman admiration, and what

more can the wish for ?"- Sir, I wish they loved me more, and admired me lefs. I am made to fing, and to play on the harpficord; and, to oblige my father, am fometimes conftrained to repeat verfes: and all this to people who understand no mufic, and know no other poetry than the Pfalms of David in metre. Indeed, till I became better acquainted with them, I found, that, even in our converfation, there was a mutual misapprehenfion; and that they were fometimes as unintelligile to me as I was to them. I was not at all fuprifed to hear them call fome of our acquaintances good men; but, when I heard them call

our neighbour John Staytape a great man, I could not help afking what discovery he had made in arts or science, or what eminent fervice he had rendered his country? I was told, in return, that within these few years he had realized a plumb. This phrafe was alfo new to me; and I wished to have known fomething about the nature of fuch realization. Chufing, however, to afk but one question at a time, I faid nothing; and foon learned, that, whatever fervices Mr Staytape might do his country, he had hitherto made no great difcovery in arts or sciences.

I confefs, indeed, that at one time I fancied they might have fome little notion of books; and when I heard them speak about under writers, I thought it might perhaps be fome ludicrous term for the minor poets.

So, when they spoke about policies, I fan cied they were using the Scotch word for improvements in gardening; and ventured to fay fomething in favour of clumps; "Clumps," faid a gentleman who is a frequent vifitor at our houfe," fhe is to be laden with Norway "fir." I found they were speaking about the good ship Rebecca.

A grave-looking man, who fat near me one

day

day at dinner, faid a good deal about the fall, and of events that fhould have happened before and after the fall. As he alfo fpoke about Providence, and Salem, and Ebenezer ; and as great deference was shown to every thing that he faid; and being, as I told you, a grave-looking man in a black coat, I was not fure but he might be fome learned theologian; and imagined he was speaking about Oriental antiquities, and the fall of Adam. But I was foon undeceived. The gentleman had lived for fome time in Virginia; by Providence he meant the town of that name in Rhodeisland; and by the fall, he meant, not the fall of our first parents, for, concerning them he had not the leaft idea, but, as I fuppofe, the fall of the leaf; for the word is used, it seems, in the American dialect, for autumn.

In this fituation, Sir, what fhall I do? By my boasted education, I have only unlearned the language and loft the manners of that fociety in which I am to live. -If you can put me on any method of bringing my friends up to me, or of letting myfelf down to them, you will much oblige,

Yours, &c.

MARY MUSLIN

R 3

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