Mr. Hall, notwithstanding the various sufferings both of mind and body which he had undergone, began to recruit, and get a little better; and this circumstance, of itself, diffused a flow of spirits over me that contributed to my support. We consoled each other by every means we could devise-sometimes indulging in all the luxury of woe-sometimes rallying each other, and, with ill-dissembled sprightliness, calling on the goddess Euphrosyne to come with her quirps and cranks, and wreathed smiles:" but, alas! the mountain nymph, sweet Liberty, was far away, and the goddess shunned our abode. We however began to conceive that we might form a system for our relief, and by a methodical arrangement, entrench ourselves from the assaults of grief: to this end, we formed several resolutions, and entered into certain engagements—such as, never to repine at our fate, if we could to draw consolation from the more dreadful lot of others, if we could;-and to encourage hope-hope that comes to all; and, on the whole, to confine our conversation as much as possible to subjects of an agreeable nature: but these, like many other rules which we lay down for the conduct of life, were often broken by necessity, and left us to regret the fallibility of all human precautionary systems.

The youth and strength of Mr. Hall was to the full as adequate as mine to the support of any personal hardship: his intellectual powers were excellent, his temper incomparable, and his fortitude unparalleled; yet could I see, that something more than appeared upon the surface wrought within him, and gnawed his heart with hidden pain. United as we were by sentiment, as well as by parity of suffering, I felt for him too deeply, not to have an interesting curiosity to know what it was that preyed upon his mind: we had been, months together, fellow-sufferers: and I thought myself not without some claim to his confidence-I told him so, and desired him to impart to me his story; which he, with his accustomed suavity and condescension, agreed to-assuring me that it was not such a story as could requite the trouble of hearing it, or interest any one but himself, or some,

very warm friend indeed: such, however, he added, he took me to be; and, as such, would tell it to me. I think it, however, worth relating, and will give it to you in his own words; and, though it be very short, must defer the relation to another letter.

LETTER LI.

MR. HALL having, as I told you in my last, obligingly agreed to favor me with a relation of his story, I now give it to you as nearly in his own words as I can remember them. He proceeded thus:

"Although you are now, my dear friend! a witness to my being the most perfectly wretched of all created beings, yet the time is not long past when fortune smiled upon and gave me promise of as much happiness as Man in this wretched vale of tears is allowed by his circumscribed nature to hope for. I have seen the time, when each revolving sun rose to usher me to a day of joy, and set to consign me to a night of undisturbed repose when the bounties of Nature, and the productions of Art, were poured with the profusion of fond paternal affection into my lap-when troops of friends hailed my rising prospects-when health and peace made this person their uninterrupted abode-and when the most benignant love that ever blessed a mortal filled up the measure of my bliss. Yes, Campbell! it was once my happiness, though now, alas! the source of poignant misery, to be blessed with the best parents that ever watched over the welfare of a child-with friends, too, who loved me, and whom my heart cherished-and-O God! do I think of her, and yet retain my senses-with the affections of a young lady, than whom providence, in the fulness of its power and bounty to mankind, never formed one more lovely, one more angelic in person, more heavenly in disposition, more rich in intellectual endowments. Alas! my friend, will you, can you pardon those warm ebullitions of a fond passion? will you

for a moment enter into my feelings, and make allowance for those transports? But how can you? Your friendship and pity may indeed induce you to excuse this interruption; but, to sympathise truly, and feel as I feel, you must have known the charming girl herself.

"My father, though he did not move in the very first walk of life, held the rank of a Gentleman by birth and education, and was respectable, not only as a man of considerable property, but as a person who knew how to turn the gifts of fortune to their best account: he was generous without prodigality, and charitable without ostentation: he was allowed by all who knew him to be the most tender of husbands-the most zealous and sincere of friends; and I can bear witness to his being the best of parents. As long as I can remember to have been able to make a remark, the tenderness of both my father and mother knew no bounds: I seemed to occupy all their thoughts, all their attention; and in a few years, as I thank God I never made an unsuitable return for their affection, it increased to such a degree, that their existence seemed to hang upon mine.

"To make so much of a child so beloved as his natural talents would allow, no expence was spared in my education: from childhood, every instruction that money could purchase, and every allurement to learn, that fondness could suggest, were bestowed upon me: while my beloved father tracing the advances 1 made with the magnifying eye of affection, would hang over me in rapture, and enjoy by anticipation the fame and honors that, overweening fondness suggested to him, mast one day surround me. These prejudices, my dear friend! arising from the excess of natural affection, are excuseable, if not amiable, and deserve a better fate than disappointment. Alas! my honored father, you little knew

and, oh! may you never know, what sort of fame, what sort of honors, await your child! May the anguish he endures, and his most calamitous fate, never reach your ears!-for, too well I know, 'twould give a deadly wrench to your heart, and precipitate you untimely to your grave.

"Thus years rolled on; during which, time seemed to have added new wings to his flight, so quickly did they pass. Unmarked by any of those sinister events that parcel out the time in weary stages to the unfortunate, it slid on unperceived; and an enlargement in my size, and an increase of knowledge, were all I had to inform me that eighteen years had passed away.

"It was at this time that I first found the smooth current of my tranquility interrupted, and the tide of my feelings swelled and agitated, by the accession of new streams of sensation-In short I became a slave to the delicious pains of Love; and, after having borne them in concealment for a long time, at length collected courage to declare it. Frankness and candor were among the virtues of my beloved: she listened to the protestations of affection, and, rising above the little arts of her sex, avowed a reciprocal attachment. The measure of my bliss seemed now to be full; the purity of my passon was such, that the thoughts of the grosser animal desires never once occured; and happy in loving, and being beloved, we passed our time in all the innocent blandishments which truly virtuous love inspires, without our imagination roaming even for an instant into the wilds of sensuality.

"As I was to inherit a genteel, independent fortune, my father proposed to breed me up to a learned professionthe Law; rather to invigorate and exercise my intellects, and as a step to rank in the state, than for mere lucrative purposes. I was put to one of the universities, with an allowance suited to his intentions towards me; and was immediately to have been sent to travel for my further improvement, when an unforeseen accident happened, which immediately crushed all my fathers views, dashed the cup of happiness from my lips, and brought me ultimately to that deplorable state in which you have now the misfortune to be joined along

I had

with me. "It was but a few months antecedent to my embarking for the eastern world, that my father, wh for some time with sorrow observed though ous and melancholy, took me into his stud

cudi.

seiz

ing my hand, and looking earnestly into my face, while his countenance betrayed the violent agitation of his mind, asked me emphatically, if I thought I had forti tude to bear the greatest possible calamity? I was horror-struck at his emotion, accompanied by such a question but replied, I hoped I had. He then asked me if I had affection enough for him to forgive him if he was the cause of it? I answered, that the idea connected with the word forgiveness, was that which I could never be brought by any earthly circumstance to apply to my father; but begged him at once to disclose the worst to me-as, be it what it might, my misery could not sur pass what I then felt from the mysterious manner in which he then spoke.

"He then told me that he was an undone man-that he had, with the very best intentions, and with the view of aggrandizing me, engaged in great and important speculations, which, had they succeeded, would have gained us a princely fortune-but, having turned out, unfortunately, the reverse, had left him little above beggary. He added, that he had not the resolution to communicate his losses to me, until necessity compelled him to tell me all the truth.

"Although this was a severe shock to me, I endeavored to conceal my feelings from my father, on whose account, more than on my own, I was affected, and pretended to make as light of it as so very important a misfortune would justify; and I had the happiness to perceive that the worthy man took some comfort from my supposed indifference. I conjured him not to let so very trivial a thing as the loss of property, which could be repaired, break in on his peace of mind or health, which could not; and observed to him, that we had all of us still enough for that my private property (which I possessed independent of him, and which a relation left me) would amply supply all our necessities.

"Having thus endeavored to accommodate my unhappy father's feelings to his losses, I had yet to accommodate my own; and began to revolve in my mind what was likely to ensue from, and what step was most proper to be taken, in this dreadful change of circumstan