with the property of strengthening the stomach and checking diarrhea. The most remarkable of the warm springs is Vermakielde, in Osteroe, which spouts out from a bank of earth in the neighbourhood of the sea. It is said to be so warm in winter, that if a limpet (palella testudinalis) be put into it, the animal will be separated from its shell. In the month of November, at which time I saw it, I found it to be almost milk-warm; the bottom of it is covered with that species of moss called Fontinalis antipyretica. In former times people, were accustomed to assemble here at Midsummer, partly to amuse themselves with singing, dancing, and various sports, and partly to use the water as a remedy for different disorders. It is still frequented; by a few, but the confidence in its healing qualities is much lessened. (To be continued.) Sir, LETTER FROM A LADY ON FEMALE MANNERS. IF To the Editor of the Athenæum. your readers are told that the following letter was written by an old woman, it is likely that those to whom it is intended to be useful will not be fond of reading or paying much regard to it; so,, if you please, we will keep that a secret. I have been very much grieved to see the many trials published in, the newspapers of ladies accused of infidelity to their husbands. In some of these such facts are brought before the public, that I often, feel ashamed of my sex; and in others, no defence is attempted to the crimes with which they are charged; so that, to my mind, every thing which they are accused of is allowed to be undeniably true. Now, at the time when I was married, my parents, who were first acquainted with the proposals of the gentleman who afterwards became my husband, made very strict enquiry into the character and. conduct of the gentleman before they mentioned his proposals to me. It was impossible to see him often and not to be partial to him; but it was thought that I had behaved to him with more reserve than to any other person who visited us. For this there was some reason: his eyes were generally watching every thing I did, and he was always particularly attentive to what I said or did to my parents, to my younger brothers and sisters, to the manner in which I spoke to the servants or the neighbouring cottagers, and he more frequently disputed my opinions on any book we had read than those of any other. person. He acted, indeed, like a spy upon my conduct; and though he was, I may justly say, a very sensible and well-bred man, which every body allowed, his scrutinizing manner was sometimes irksome to me. When When my father first mentioned his proposals to me, I then guessed the reason of all his former conduct and the watchful attention he had paid to me. I was then turned of twenty years of age, and having been so educated as to love and put confidence in my parents, as well as to respect them, (my mother was present) I told them my opinion without reserve, and said, though not without much agitation, that I certainly did prefer this gentleman to any and to all whom I had known; and, throwing my arms about my mother's neck, I replied, that being convinced my happiness was their only aim and wish, my conduct should be entirely guided by them. With all the circumstances which passed from this time to that of my marriage, interesting as they were to me, your correspondents would be wearied, though the recollection will ever be a source of great pleasure to myself, as must every thing which relates to the memory of my husband, with whom I lived most happily for sixteen years. With my distress on losing him I will not trouble you. I should in vain endeavour to describe it. It pleased God to enable me to struggle through all my difficulties and this great calamity; and being left with six children, I applied myself with all earnestness and perseverance to their education, instilling into their minds a proper sense of their religious and moral duties, polishing their manners, teaching every thing I knew which was likely to be useful to them, and every accomplishment their situation in life could require. In short, my whole time was constantly occupied in my endeavours to make my children reasonable, useful, and amiable women and men. Of proper and moderate pleasures I never denied them a share; but I took care to instruct them, that life consisted more in fulfilling duties than in pursuing pleasures. In a word, I struggled hard to make them such as my husband would have approved, had it pleased God to spare his life. When I was married, my education had pretty well qualified me for making a prudent wife and a reasonable companion, as well as an affectionate and capable mother, of which my own was a shining example. But there was a comparatively small circumstance which made a considerable impression upon my mind, which I will beg leave to mention. My great aunt was the daughter of Judge Pollexfen, of Nutwell, near Exeter, and she was married to Sir Francis Drake, of Beeralston, with whom she had lived many years very happily, and kept a kind of journal, if it may be so called. A copy of this journal was preserved by my dear mother among many other papers, like those preserved in most families. There were many texts of scripture, several little poems made on particular occasions, extracts from authors, and such like. To this journal, short as it is, I took a great fancy, and had a copy of it with me when I left my father's house. You may rely upon it as a truth, that it was written by that very lady, and now exists in her own hand writing. In this paper she first gives an account of her marriage with Sir Francis in the year, say, 1684, with the approbation of her parents and all her friends; and she stayed in her father's house at Nutwell for a whole year year afterwards, which, whether it was the custom of that time, or whether it was the peculiar wish of that lady's father and mother, I cannot tell; but with the Judge and his lady, who were most worthy people, she remained. The first circumstance mentioned is the birth of a son, with other matters of less consequence. This journal she continued for many years, recording such things as she thought of sufficient importance, lessening, however, the number of her remarks; but she never fails from the first year to add-nobody can be more affectionate and kind than my dear husband is. At length she made no remarks, except, after the date of every year, for twenty years or more, that of the continued kind and good behaviour of Sir Francis. This journal, short and imperfect as it was, always pleased me, and, when I married, shewing me that it was possible for a wife and husband to live many years together in a state of great happiness, it put me on thinking by what means I might best preserve the love and good opinion of my husband, which I considered as the first and greatest blessing this world can give to a married woman. In reading the trials mentioned in the beginning of my letter, I noticed two or three things which astonished me. First, it appears that the education of young ladies is widely different to what it was in my younger days, especially with respect to religion, which, I fear, they practice superficially, and are ignorant of its principles. For this I am inclined to suspect their parents of much neglect, as well as the bad example often set them. I am yet persuaded that religion is of chief consequence both with regard to our present and future happi ness. Secondly, I have observed when I have been in company, that ladies set themselves more at liberty in the pleasures, as they are called, of the table. They seem to me to eat vulgarly and greedily, and drink without reserve different kinds of liquor. Would you believe, Mr. Editor, that I have seen some ladies drink three or four glasses of wine, nay, I am ashamed to say, some have gone as far as six or seven. This is bad enough; but you will be more shocked to hear what I have seen a young lady do, not more than 16 or 17 years of age: instead of waiting to be asked by a gentleman to drink a glass of wine, and accepting the invitation in a maidenly way, make no ceremony of asking any one to drink with her. Where there is such liberty taken in eating and drinking, I do not see for my part how the body can be said to be preserved in temperance, or the mind in chastity. In I am also sorry to say, that I observe ladies as eager in the pursuit of other pleasures, the nets for which are every where spread. stead of complying with a request to make one in a party of pleasure, innocent it may be in itself, our young ladies come foremost and invite the gentlemen. Well and truly might Mr. Burke say, the days of chivalry are at an end: the ladies sacrifice the honour of the sex, and men of worth, respectability, and character, can scarcely be civil to them without encouraging folly, if not vice; between which, Solomon in his Wisdom made little difference. But But there is another circumstance mentioned in these trials, which astonishes and alarms me, as I consider an endless deal of mischief resulting from it, which was never thought of in my days, and which I hope none of my daughters will ever practice. This is, the custom of married young women receiving morning visits from gentlemen, and of sitting in rooms where they are alone and secluded from the public eye, or at so great a distance from the family, that if any rudeness were offered, they are hardly within the protection of the family. If this be allowed, there is no doubt but that young men of fashion will find a proper time of paying these improper visits, and contrive them so that their husbands shall always be absent. Fie upon it! I dread this custom, and think it the worst in the catalogue of all our follies have sanctioned. If I thought my writing on this subject had a chance of being of any use, or met with your approbation, perhaps I might trouble you with another letter. Sir, your very humble servant, DEBORAH. POPE'S LETTER TO RACINE. To the Editor of the Athenæum. Sir, IN Voltaire's catalogue of writers in his "Siecle de Louis XIV." under the head of Louis Racine, he takes occasion to mention that poet's attack upon Pope's Essay on Man, and the interference of the Chevalier Ramsay for the purpose of conciliating them. He further says, that Ramsay wrote a letter to Louis Racine in the name of Pope, in which the latter seems to justify himself. "I lived a whole year with Pope (proceeds Voltaire) and knew that he was incapable of writing in French, that he did not speak our language at all, and scarcely could read our authors: it was a fact publicly known in England. I apprized Louis Racine that the letter was Ramsay's and not Pope's, and endeavoured to make him sensible of the ridiculousness of the cheat. I even informed the public of it in a chapter on Pope, which was several times printed in the life-time of Pope himself. Yet, since his death, the Abbé l'Avocat has printed this forged letter of Ramsay's, and has ascribed it to Pope in his Dictionnaire Historique Portatif." The question now occurs, whether or not Voltaire's imputation be just? His argument drawn from Pope's ignorance of French goes no farther than that he did not write the letter in that language; but if he had written it in English and procured it to be translated, it might still be called his. I know not what Pope's biographers in general say of it, but Dr. Johnson refers to his letter to Racine as if it were authentic. Yet if no other authority exists for his having written such a letter than the assertion of Ramsay, by whom it was transmitted, I confess I confess I should very much doubt the fact. The letter itself, as printed in Louis Racine's works, is very suspicious. Pope is made to conclude with saying that "his sentiments are perfectly conformable to those of Paschal and Fenelon, and that he shall always place his glory in imitating the docility of the latter in submitting all his particular opinions to the decisions of the church." This sentence alone, in my opinion, is a sufficient evidence of the fabrication. It extremely well suits Ramsay, who was a disciple of Fenelon, and a kind of jansenist-quietist; but is altogether unsuitable to Pope, who was not at all the man to receive the extravagancies of Paschal and the mysticism of Fenelon, as articles of faith, or to regard it as a glory to submit to the decisions of a church, of which he was, at most, only half a member. For although Ramsay, in his letter to Racine, assures him that his friend Pope is "tres bon catholique," the assertion is belied by the whole tenour of his writings. Even on his deathbed he expressed indifference as to the ceremonies enjoined by the catholic church, and only submitted to them in compliance with a zealous friend. Ramsay further affirms, that Pope was offered by queen Caroline some considerable places if he would merely dissemble as to the religion of his fathers, and that he should be dispensed from taking the accustomed oaths; but that he steadily declined the offer which is surely a groundless story. That Ramsay was capable of what might seem to him a pious fraud, is manifested by his assertion in the same letter to Racine that Dr. Clarke, a short time before his death, expressed to him his compunction for having written his work on the Trinity; an assertion, the falsehood of which is indisputably proved by the declarations of the Doctor's friends and family. (See Dr. Kippis's edition of the Biograph. Britan.) If any of your readers can throw further light on the question agitated in this letter, I shall probably not be the only person gratified by the communication. Sir, CASE OF MR. GRIGNION. To the Editor of the Athenæum. IT is my custom, after reading the principal articles in your valuable Magazine, to give my mind a repose by casting a vacant eye over those papers that envelope it. It is a kind of nap after the gratification of an exquisite repast. Yesterday I was pleasing myself with this harmless indulgence, when my languid attention was suddenly and forcibly arouzed by the name of Grignion, that met my eye in its careless wanderings-a name that I had never heard repeated, nor which had ever passed my |