hall prevail upon me to alter my Promife made to you when we parted: With heavy Hearts enough, that's true: And yet I had a little Inkling given me, that Mr. Alford's Son, the Carpenter, would be glad to make love to me: But do you think I would fuffer it? No,. indeed! For I doubt not your Loyalty to me; and do you think I will not be as loyal to you?-To be fure I will. Thefe Sailors run fuch fad Chances, faid one, that you and I both know. They may return and they may not. Well, I will truft in God for that, who has returned fafe to his Friends, their dear Billy fo many a Time, and often. They will have a Mistress in every Land they come to, faid they. All are not fuch naughty Men, faid I; and I'll truft Billy Oliver all the World over. For why cannot Men be as faithful as Women, tro'? and for me, I am fure no Love fhall ever touch my Heart but yours.

God fend us a happy Meeting! Let who will fpeak. against Sailors, they are the Glory and the Safeguard of the Land. And what would become of Old England. long ago but for them? I am fure the lazy, good-fornothing Land Lubbers would never have protected us from our cruel Foes. So Sailors are, and ever fhall be," esteemed by me; and of all Sailors, my dear Billy Oliver, believe this Truth from

Your faithful, &c.

P. S. I had this Letter writ in Readiness to fend you as I had Opportunity. And the Captain's Lady undertakes to fend it with hers. That's very kind and condescending: Is it not?

LETTER XXXII.

Mifs Molly Smith to her Coufin, giving her an Account of a very remarkable Inflance of Envy, in one of her Acquaintance, who lived in the City of York.

Dear Coufin,

I Pro

Promifed, you know, to write to you, when I had any Thing to tell you: And as I think the following Story very extraordinary, I was willing to keep my Word.

Some Time ago there came to fettle in this City, a Lady whofe Name was Difon: We all vifited her: But the had fo deep a Melancholy, arifing, as it appeare 1,. from a fettled State of ill Health, that nothing we could do, could afford her the leaft Relief, or make her chearful. In this Condition fhe languifhed among us five Years, ftill continuing to grow worse and worse..

We all grieved at her Fate. Her Flesh was withered away; her Appetite decayed by Degrees, till all Food became naufeous to her Sight; her Strength failed her; her Feet could not fupport her tottering Body, lean and worn away as it was; and we hourly expected her Death. When at laft, fhe one Day called her most intimate Friends to her Bedfide, and, as well a he could, fpoke to the following Purpofe: "I know you all pity me: But, alas! I am not fo much the Object of your Pity as your Contempt; for all my Mifery is "of my own feeking, and owing to the Wickedness "of my own Mind. I had two Sifters, with whom I 61 was bred up; and I have all my Life-time been un- . happy, for no other Caufe but for their Success in "the World. When we were young, I could neither <6 eat nor fleep in Peace, when they had either Praife or Pleasure. When we grew up to be Women, they were both foon married much to their Advantage and Satisfaction. This galled me to the Heart, " and tho' I had feveral good Offers, yet, as I did not "think them, in all Refpects, equal to my Sifters, I "would not accept them; and yet was inwardly vexed

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to refuse them, for fear I fhould get no better. I ge"nerally deliberated fo long, that I loft my Lovers, "and then pined for that Lofs. I never wanted for any Thing; and was in a Situation in which I might "have been happy, if I pleafed. My Sifters loved me very well; for I concealed, as much as poffible, from "them, my odious Envy; and yet never did any poor "Wretch lead fo miferable a Life as I have done; for "every Bleffing they enjoyed was a Dagger to my "Heart. "Tis this Envy that has caufed all my ill Health, has preyed upon my very Vitals, and will now bring me to my Grave."

In

In a few Days after this Confeffion fhe died; and. her Words and Death made fuch a strong Impreffion on my Mind, that I could not help fending you this Relation; and begging you, my dear Suky, to remember how careful we ought to be to curb in our Minds, the very firft rifing of a Paffion fo deteftable, and fo fatal, as this proved to poor Mrs. Difon. I know I have no particular Reafon for giving you this Caution; for I never faw any Thing in you, but what deferved the Love and Esteem of

Your ever moft affectionate Coufin,
M. SMITH.

LETTER XXXIII.

The following Letter is from an unknown Lady to a young Gentleman, on whom she had unfortunately fixed her Affections; but as she never had it in her Power to make a ny proper Impreffions on him, or a better Opportunity of having her Inclination fignified to him, fhe wrote as fol

lows:

SIR,

IR

RELY on your Goodness to redrefs and conceal the Misfortunes I now labour under; but oh! with what Words fhall I declare a t affion which I blush to own? It is now a Year and a Half fince I firft faw, and (muft I say) loved you, and fo long I have trove to forget you; but frequent Sights of what I could not but admire, have made my Endeavours prove vain. I dare not fubfcribe to this Letter, left it should fall into Hands that may poffibly expofe it; but if you, Sir, have any Curiofity or Defire to know who I am, I fhall be in the Park Tomorrow, exactly at Two o'Clock. I cannot but be under Apprehenfions, left you should come more out of Curiofity than Compaffion; but, however, that you may have fome Notion of me, if you do come, I will give you a fhort Defcription of my Perfon, which is tall and flender, my Eyes and Hair dark; perhaps you will think me vain, when I tell you that my Perfon is altogether what the flattering World calls handfome; and as to my Fortune, I believe you will have. no Reafon to find Fault with it. I doubt you will think fuch a Declaration as this, from a Woman, ridiculous;

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but

but, you will confider, 'tis Cuftom, not Nature, that makes it fo. My Hand trembles fo, while I write, that I believe you can hardly read it.

LETTER XXXIV.

The Gentleman did not give himself the Trouble to meet the Lady; but took great Pains to expofe and ridicule her Letter, tho' reproved for it by his Acquaintance; which coming to the Lady's Knowledge, fhe fent him the following. SIR,

YOU

YOU will the more eafily pardon this fecond Trouble from a flighted Correfpondent, when I affure

you it fhall be the laft.

A Paffion like mine, violent enough to break through customary Decorums, cannot be fuppofed to grow calm at once; but I hope, I fhall undergo, no feverer Trials, or Cenfures, than what I have done by taking this Opportunity of difcharging the Remains of a Tendernets, which I have fo unfortunately and imprudently indulged. I would not complain of your Unkindness and Want of Generofity in expofing my Letter, becaufe the Man that is fo unworthy of a Woman's Love, is too inconfiderable for her Refentment; but I can't forbear afking you, what could induce you to publish_my Letter, and fo cruelly to fport with the Mifery of a Perfon whom you knew nothing worfe of, than fhe had entertained too good, too fond an Opinion of you!

For your own Sake, I am loth to speak it, but fuch Conduct cannot be accounted for, but from Cruelty of Mind, a Vanity of Temper, and an incurable Defect of Understanding; but whatfoever be the Reafon, amidft all my Difappointments, I cannot but think myfelf happy in not fubfcribing my Name, for you might perhaps have thought my Name a fine Trophy to grace your Triumph after the Conqueft; and how great my Confufion muft have been, to be expofed to the Scorn, or at least to the Pity of, the World, I may guess from the Mortifications I now feel from feeing my Declarations and Profeffions returned without Succefs, and in

be

being convinced by the rafh Experiment I have made, that my Affections have been placed without Diferetion. How ungenerous your Behaviour has been, I had rather you were told by the Gentlemen, (who, I hear, univerfally condemn it) than force myself to fay any Thing fevere; but although their kind Senfe of the Affair muft yield me fome Satisfaction under my prefent Uneafinefs; yet it furnishes me with a fresh Evidence of my own Weakness, in lavishing my Efteem upon the Perfon that least deferved it.

I hope the Event will give me Reafon not only to forgive, but to thank you for this ill Ufage. That pretty Face, which I have fo often viewed with a mistaken Admiration, I believe I fhall be able to look on with an abfolute Indifference; and Time, I am fenfible, will abundantly convince me, that your Features are all the poor Amends which Nature hath made you for your Want of Understanding, and teach me to confider them only as a decent Cover for the Emptiness and Deformity within. To cut off all Hopes of difcovering who I am, if you do not yet know, I have taken Care to convey this by a different Hand from the former Letter, for which I am obliged to a Friend, on whofe Goodnefs and Fidelity I can fafely rely. And it is my laft Requeft, that you would make this Letter as public as you have done the former; If you don't, there are other Copies ready to be difperfed; for though I utterly defpair of ever fhewing it to yourself, yet I am very fure of making it plain to every one elfe, that you are a Coxcomb. Adieu.

LETTER XXXV.

Lydia to Harriot, a Lady newly married. My dear Harriot,

IF

F thou art fhe, but oh, how fallen, how changed, what an Apoftate! How loft to all that's gay and agreeable! To be married, I find is to be buried alive; I can't conceive it more difmal to be fhut up in a Vault, to converse with the Shades of my Ancestors, than to be carried down to an old Manor-Houfe in the Country, and confined to the Converfation of a fober Husband,

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