wife : "They lived together with af. fection for fifty-nine years, and, without patrimony, without lucrative employment, by affiduous la bour, of an honeft industry, ob'aining the benediction of heaven, main tained in comfort a numerous family, and educated with fuccefs thirteen children, and feven g-andchildren. Let this example, reader, encourage thee deligently to fulfil the duties of thy calling, and to rely upon the fuccours of Providence. "He was pious and prudent; "She difcreet and virtuous, "Their youngest fon, from a fentiment of filial duty, Confecrates this flone to their meinory.' continuing, my father was apprehenfive, that, if a more agreeable one were not offered me, I might play the trnt or escape to fea, as, to his extreme mortification, my brother Jolias had done before. Accordingly he took me fometimes to fee mafons, coopers, braziers, joiners, and other mechanics employed at their work, in order to dif cover the bent of my inclination, and fix it, if he could, upon fome thore. I have fince, in confequence profeffion that would retain me on of thefe vifits, derived no fmall pleasure from fecing fkiiful work men handle their tools, and it has proved of confiderable benefit to me to have acquired thereby fufficient knowledge to be able to make little things for myfelf, when I have had no mechanic at hand, and to conftruct fmall machines for my experiments, while the idea I have conceived has been fresh, and strongly impreffed on my imagination. My father at laft decided that I fhould be a cutler; and I was placed for fome days upon trial with my coufin Samuel, fon of my uncle Benjamin, who had learned this trade in London, and had established himself at Boston. But the premium he required for my apprenticeflip difpleafing my father, I was recalled home. I perceive, by my rambling digreflions, that I am growing old, But we do not dress for a private From my infancy I had been pafcompany, as for a fixed ball. This fionately fond of reading, and laid deferves perhaps the name of negli-out in books all the little money I gence. To return. I continued thus employed in my father's bufinefs for the fpace of two years, that is to fay, till I arrived at the age of twelve. About this time, my brother John, who had ferved his apprenticeship in London, having quitted may father, and being married and fettled in bulinefs on his own account at Rhode-ifland, I was diftined, to all appearance, to fupply his place, and to be a candle-maker all my life. But my difguft for this occupation VOL. XXIV. could procure. I was particularly pleafed with accounts of voyages. My first acquisition was the collection of Bunyan, in fmall feparate volumes. Thefe I afterwards fold, in order to buy the hiftorical collection of R. Burton, which were fmall cheap volumes, amounting in all to forty or fifty. My father's little library confifted principally in books of polemical and practical theology. I have fince often regretted that, at a time when I had fo great a thirst for knowledge, F more more defirable books did not fall into my hands, as it was then a point decided, that I fhould not be a churchman. There were alfo among my father's book, Plutarch's Lives, in which I read continually, and I have fince regarded, as advantageoufly employed, the time I devoted to them. I found, befides, a work of De Foe's, entitled, Effays upon Projects, from which perhaps I derived impreffions that have fince influenced fome of the principal events of my life. fear it might be difcovered to be miffing or might be wanted! and After fome time, a merchant, Mr. Mathew Adams, a man of underftanding, who had a handsome collection of books, and who frequented our printing-office, took notice of me; he invited me to fee his library, and had the complaifance to lend me fuch books as I was defirous of reading. A ftrange fancy now took me for poetry, and I wrote fome trifling pieces. My brother, conceiving that he might find his My inclination for books deter- account in this, encouraged me, mined my father at laft to make me emyloyed me to compofe two balá printer, though he had already lads: one, intitled the Tragedy of one fon in this bulinefs. My bro Pharos, gave a detail of the hipther James had returned from Eng-wreck of captain Worthilake, with land in 1717, with a prefs and types, his two daughters; the other was a to establish a printing houfe at failor's fong upon the capture of the Bofton. This occupation pleafed famous pirate, called Tench, or Black me much better than that of my Beard. They were miferable verses father; but I ftill retained a predi-in point of ftyle, little better than liction for the fea. To prevent any ill confequence from this attachment, my father was impatient to fee me fettled with my brother. I held out for fome time; at length, however, I fuffered myself to be prevailed upon, and figned my inden-vanity; but my father damped my tures, being then no more than twelve years of age. It was agreed that I fhould ferve as an apprentice to the age of twenty-one, and I was to receive no wages, as journeyman, till the last year. In a fhort time I had made great progrefs in this bufinefs, and was become very ferviceable to my brother. I was now able to obtain better books. My intimacy with bookfellers apprentices gave me an opportunity of borrowing now and then fome volumes of them, which I was careful to return foon, and without injury. How often has it happened to me to pass the greater part of the night in reading by my bedside, when the book had been lent me in the evening, and was to be returned the next morning, for the fongs of blind men. When printed, he fent me about the town to fell them,. The first had a prodigious fale, because the event was recent, and had made a great noise. This fuccefs was flattering to my courage, by turning my productions into ridicule, and telling me that verfifiers were always poor. I thus escaped the misfortune of being a poet, and probably a very wretched one. But as the faculty of writing profe has been of great utility to me in the course of my life, and principally contributed to my advancement, I fall relate by what means, fituated as I was, I acquired the little skill I have to boast in this way. There was in the town another young man, a great lover of books, of the name of John Collins, with whom I was intimately connected. We frequently engaged in difpute, and were indeed fo fond of argumentation, that nothing was fo agreeable to us as a war of words. This con tentious tentious temper, I would obferve by was very much inferior to him in the by, is in danger of becoming a elegance of expreffion, method, and very bad habit, and frequently ren- perfpicuity. Of this he convinced ders a man's company infupport ble, me by many examples. I felt the as being no otherwife capable of in-truth of his remarks; became more dulgence than by indifcriminate con- attentive to language, and resolved tradiction. Independently of the to make every effort to improve my acrimony and difcord it introduces ftyle. into converfation, it is often productive of dislike, and even of hatred, between perfons to whom friendship was indifpenfibly neceffary. I had acquired it by reading, while at my father's, books of religious controverfy. I have fince remarked, that men of fenfe feldom fall into this error; lawyers, fellows of univerfities, and perfons of every perfeffion educated at Edinburgh, excepted, Meanwhile, an odd volume of the Spectator fell into my hands; it was the third. This was a work I had never feen. I bought the volume, and read it again and again. I was enchanted, thought the style excellent, and wished it were in my power to imitate it. To fucceed therein, I felected fome of the effays, made fhort abridgements of the fenfe of each period, and put them afide for a few days. I then, without looking at the book, endeavoured to restore effays to their original form, and to exprefs every thought at length, as in the book, by making ufe of fuch words as prefented themfelves to my mind. I afterwards compared my Spectator with the original, in which I perceived fome One day there arofe, by fome means or other, a difpute between Collins and me, upon the fubject of the education of women; namely, whether it were proper to inftruct them in the sciences, and whether they were competent to the study. Collins maintained the negative fide of the question, and affirmed that the task was beyond their understanding.errors, which I corrected. I found I took the oppofite fentiment, a it by this, that I was deficient in a le perhaps for the pleasure of dif- fund of words, if I may fo exprefs paring. He was naturally more myfelf, and in that facility of recolcloquent than myfelt; words flowed lecting and employing them, which abundantly from his lips; and fre- I conceived 1 fhould before that time quently thought myself filenced have acquired, had I continued to more by his volubility than the force make verfes. The continual want of his arguments. We leparated of words of a fimilar meaning, but without coming to an agreement of different lengths for the measure, upon this point, and as we were not or different founds for the rhyme, to fee one another again for fome would have obliged me to feek for time; I committed my thoughts to various tynonymes, would have fixwriting, made a fair copy, and fent it ed them in my head, and made me him. He answered, and I rejoined: mafter of them. From this belief, three or four letters had piffed on I took fome of the ftores in the ech fide, when my father found Spectator and turned them into verse. my papers and read them. With- After the expiration of a certain put entering into the difpute, he took time, when I had fufficiently for, the opportunity of talking to me up-gotten them, I again converted them on my manner of writing. He ob- into profe. ferved, that, though I had the advantage over my antagonist in point at orthography and punctuation, which I owed to my occupation, 1 1 fometimes alfo mixed all my abridgments together; and, a few weeks after, endeavoured to range them in the best order, before I F 2 began my began to form entire fentences, and complete the effays: I did this with the view of acquiring method in the arrangement of my thoughts. On comparing afterwards work with the book, many faults were apparent ; but I had fometines the pleafure of imagining, that, in certain particulars of trivial importance, I had been fortunate enough to improve the order or ftyle, which encouraged me to hope that I fhould fucceed, in time, in writing tolerably well in the English language; which was one of the great objects of my ambition. The time which I devoted to thefe exercises and to reading, was the evening, when my day's work was at an end, the morning before it began, and Sundays, which I contrived to pafs alone at the printing-office, by ftaying away from divine fervice. My father had infifted, while I was with him, upon my conftant attendance; and indeed I ftill regarded it as a duty; though it appeared to me that I had no longer leifure to practifie it. (To be continued.) THE MONKS of la TRAPPE, THE BY MADAME GENLIS. HIS morning at a quarter before ten we entered once more into the inner compartment of the After having abbey. heard mafs, we were admitted into the refectory to fee the fathers dine. There was no cloth upon the fable, but each monk had a napkin; their plates were of pewter, and their fpoons were of wood; each monk received a poringer of foup, a plate of herbs, two or three uncooked apples, a large flice of bread of a good fort, a little mug of water, and another of beer. One of the fociety afcended a fort of pulpit made for that parpole, and preached them a fermon during their repaft. Each mork preaches Each mork preaches 7 thisermon in his turn, and themonks who dine are attended by other monks, who afterwards take their refreshment along with the preacher. The lay brothers dine at the fame time in a leffer hall adjoining to the principal, and which is feparated from it only by an arcade without any door: we could fee them therefore as we ftood in the refectory; and they, as in the former inftance, were ferved by other lay brothers, who ate when they had finished. . . From the refectory we went to the libWe afterwards visited rary. the tomb of M. de Rancé.-The cells are very fall: they contain a ftraw bed, a wooden table, and a Wefaw the monks. crucifix. We enter at work in the garden. I fhall here relate all that I learned from the converfation of the fathers. The hiftory of Count de Comminges is fabulous, as well as various other things, viz. that the monks are every day employed in digging their tombs: that they raife and level hills for the purpofe of occupying themselves: that their falutation when they meet is, We muft die; that they wear upon their hearts a cushion stuck with thorns, &c. All these things are a' folutely falfe. They faft continualy; they never eat either fish, fugar, eggs, butter, or oil, except a fmall quantity with their fallads. Vinegar is allowed them, as well as milk, but the latter is proTheir rule hibited during Lent. never allows them the use of wine, except in journies, and in any place of occafional refidence. where they may ufe both wine, fifh, and butter . . . Their drefs, like that of the Chartreux, is entirely white, their head and beard are fhaved, and they have a large hood which they put on at pleature. They always frequently happens that the gratitude and admiration which fo much benevolence infpires, induce the perfons who are the objects of it to become members of their fraternity, and pass their lives with them. Indeed, whoever is in purfait of virtue in all its perfection, will find it only here, under a form it may be fomewhat too auftere, but so true, fo fublime, that it is not at all aftonishing that a mind fufceptible of enthufiafin fhould refo've upon this great facrifice. These monks alfo affist and take care of all the poor in the neighbourhood for many leagues round. I interrogated a great number of the peafants, who fpoke of them with the refpect and veneration that we should feel for angels if they were to condefcend to refide among us. Shew me the in fleep in their clothes; their fhirts | tion. Not a day paffes without their are of wool, not hair cloth, every being vifited by perfons of this demortification of this kind being pro-feription, particularly foldiers. It hibited by the rules of their order. No one is admitted among them till the age of twenty, when he enters upon his noviciate, which continues for the fpace of twelve months. The infirm alone employ themselves in little articles of industry, fuch as the making of rofaries, wooden spoons, and in winter the work of the garden; after which they fhell the peas, dress the vegetables, prefs the grain for ufe, &c. These last occupations are common to them all. The monks of this abbey amount to about 120, including both the fathers and lay-brothers. There are fixty of the former, of whom ighteen only are priests; the rett, though equally engaged by irrevocable vows, do not fay mafs, and have not received holy orders, thinking themselves not fufficiently virtuous and devout to celebrate the facred myfteries. The abbot is elected for life, and is named by the king in pursuance of the vote of the monks; the votes are collected by way of ballot; and as foon as that is done, the balloting box is fealed up, and fent to Verfailles. There are three monks, called hoteliers, whofe bufinefs it is to receive ftrangers, and the poor that prefent themselves at the monafiery.a fubfiftence, they conceive that a From their original endowment, and the bequests of private individuals, they are fufficiently wealthy to afford three days hofpitality to every poor traveller who paffes that way. When all the beds in the house are occupied, the traveller is accommedated at the inn, and his expences defrayed by the monks. If during thefe three days, he falls fick, they take care of him till his recovery; he is attended by their furgeon, fupplied by them with medicines; the monks alfo viut him, drefs his wounds, &c. If any poor traveller be in want ofther had a particular friendship for money to pursue his journey, they give him as much as is necellary to carry him to the place of his deftina dividuals that, with the fame revenues, can do an equal portion of good both by their example and their beneficer ce! Where fall we find fuch virtues, unless religion inspires them? They never receive a widower among them unle's his children are already provided for; whatever may be the age of thefe children, if their fituation be not such as to enfure them father cannot, in that cafe, difpofe of his liberty, but is bound to bestow all his care upon his family. When they have made their vow, they renounce every kind of epiftolary correfpondence whatever, and do not allow themselves to be vifited by their relations, except their father and mother, and this but feldom. They are exprefsly enjoined not to thew the lealt preference to any individual of their order, as being bound to love them all equally. If one monk should perceive that ano him, he would confider it as his duty, when they were all affembled, to atk leave to fpeak, and then publicly to |