Whenever the deftined Hour fhall come, my Cleanthes, may we fink contented from the Word, and in the perfect Affurance of eternal Happiness.

LETTER X.

I am, &c.

A Letter from Bishop Atterbury to his Son Obadiah, at Christchurch College, in Oxford.

(Containing fome ufeful Hints in regard to writing Letters.) Dear Obby,

Thank you for your Letter, because there are manifeft Signs in it of your endeavouring to excel yourself, and of Confequence to pleafe me. You have fucceeded in both Refpects, and will always fucceed, if you think it worth your while to confider what you write, and to whom, and let nothing, though of a trifling Nature, pals through your Pen negligently; get but the Way of writing correctly and justly, Time and Ufe will teach you to write readily afterwards; not but that too much Care may give a Stiffness to your Stile, which ought in all Letters, by all Means, to be avoided. The Turnof them fhould be always natural and eafy, for they are an Image of private and familiar Converfation. I mention this with Refpect to the four or five firft Lines of yours, which have an Air of Poetry, and do therefore naturally refolve themfelves into Blank Verfes. I fend you your Letter again, that yourself may now make the fame Obfervation. But you took the Hint of that Thought from a Poem, and it is no Wonder, therefore, that you heightened the Phrafe a little when you were expreffing it. The reft is as it fhould be; and particu larly there is an Air of Duty and Sincerity, which, if it comes from your Heart, is the most acceptable Prefent you can make me. With thefe good Qualities an incorrect Letter would please me, and without them the finest Thoughts and Language will make no lafting Impreffion on me. The great Being fays, you know My Son, give me thy Heart, implying, that without it all other Gifts fignify nothing. Let me conjure you, therefore, never to fay any Thing, either in a Letter, or common Converfation, that you do not think; but always to

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let your Mind and your Words go together on the most trivial Occafions. Shelter not the leaft Degree of Infincerity under the Notion of a Compliment, which, as far as it deferves to be practifed by a Man of Probity, is only the moft civil and obliging Way of faying what you really mean; and whoever employs it otherwife, throws away Truth for Breeding: I need not tell you how little his Character gets by fuch an Exchange.

I fay not this as if I fufpected that in any Part of your Letter you intended to write what was proper, without any Regard to what was true; for I am refolved to believe that you were in Earneft from the Beginning to the End of it, as much as I am, when I tell you that I am,

Your loving Father, &c.

From a young Lady in one of the Canary Islands, to her Sifter England, whom she had never seen; containing a preffing Invitation to her to come over, and defcribing the Beauties of the Place, in order to prevail on her.

MUS

UST we for ever, my dear Sifter, converfe only. at this unhappy Diffance?- Are we born of the fame Parents, to be eternal Aliens to each other I have been told Wonders of your Wit, Ingenuity, and Good Nature Muft Strangers, or at leaft very diftant Kindred, reap all the Benefit of thefe amiable Qualities, while those who are neareft, and ought, methinks, to be deareft, mourn the Want of it. They fay there is a fecret Sympathy between Perfons of the fame Blood, and I am fure I feel it; how is it then with you ?— Have you never any of thofe Yearnings, thofe Longings, to fee the Daughter of your Father and your Mother, which fo powerfully agitate me in my daily Mufings and my nightly Dreams?—If not Affection, Pity fhould make you wish to be with a Sifter, who ftands so much in Need of your Affiftance. You know, my Father's great Affairs fuffer him feldom to be with his Family; Death has deprived me of my Mother, and Devotion of her Sifter; but fhe forfakes me only to

join herself to her Creator; you have no fuch Plea: And as you are fix Years older than myfelf, and of a much fuperior Understanding, it is a Kind of Duty in you to be with me, to correct the Errors of my unexperienced Youth, and form my Mind by the Model af your own. -Believe me, I would be moft obedient to your Inftructions, and love the Precepts for the Teacher's Sake What can with-hold you from coming to a Place where your Prefence is fo ardently defired? -What can you find fo pleafing to you in a Kingdom rent with internal Divifions?Where Father against Son, and Brother against Brother, maintain unnatural Contest!-A Kingdom, where Pride, Injuftice, Luxury, and Profanenefs, are almost univerfal, and Religion become a Reproach to the Profeffion! A Kingdom, finking by fwift Degrees-into Mifery, and Conteinpt, yet infatuated. fo far as to doat on the Caufe of their Undoing. At least this is

the Account we have of it.Can this be agreeable to a Person of your nice and diftinguifhing Tafte!O my dearest Sifter! liften to the Dictates of Reafon, of Duty, and of Nature, all join to call you from that worfe than Egypt into the Land of CanaanHere Peace and Innocence go Hand in Hand, and all the Graces, all the Pleafures, wait upon their Steps-No foreign Wars, no home-bred Jars, no Envy, no Diftruft, difturb the foft Serenity of these blifsful Seats, but all is Harmony and Love-Eternal Zephyrs_watch our Morning Wakings, bringing ten thoufand Odours on their Wings, and tempt us to the Groves from whence they fpring-In Troops we wander through the Jeffamine Lanes, or fit in Orange Bowers, where Fruits, ripe and in Bloffom, charm our Smell and Tafte-Sometimes on Mules we take fhort Journies to Teneriffe, and on the Foot of that ftupendous Mount, recline on Banks of Rofes umbrella'd over with fpreading Myrtles:-Then change the Scene, and view the fpacious Vineyards, where huge Alcoves of cluftering Grapes hang pendant over our Heads.Some. times we roam through a long Gallery of ftately Pines, whofe loaded Boughs prefent us every Kind of Fruit in one. But there is no defcribing Half the various Sweets

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Sweets which Nature, with a lavish Hand, pours on thefe lles, which juftly have the Name of Fortunate! nor (I flatter myself will there be any Need of farther Arguments, to bring you to us;-my Father has just now informed ine, that Captain *** carries his pofitive Orders for your coming, and I may now reft in an affured Hope of enjoying the Happiness I fo long and so earneftly have wifhed; yet I am craving ftill more—I would fain, methinks, imagine, if I could, that, with your Obedience to our Father, fome little Share of Love for me was mingled, and that you will embark with the more Readiness, by the Thoughts that you will embrace one who has fo tender an Affection for you, and thinks it the greatest Bleffing to fubfcribe herself,

My dear Sifter,

Your most affectionate and moft obedient Servant,
MARIA BOYLE.

LETTER XII.

From Mifs Middleton to Mifs Pemberton, giving her the melancholy Account of her Sifter's Death.

Dear Mifs Pemberton,

JUS

UST as I was fetting out for Worcestershire, in order to follow my Sifter, who, you know, has been 1ome Time there, I received a Letter from my Aunt, acquainting me that he was taken ill laft Friday, and died in two Days after.- Yes, that lately so much admired, that fplendid Beauty, is now reduced to a cold Lump of Clay, for ever clofed are thofe once fparkling Eyes;hufhed is that Voice that gave fo much Delight; thofe Limbs which Art has ranfack'd to adorn, have now no other Covering than a simple Shroud, and in a few Days will be confined within the narrow Compass of a Tomb. Ah! what is Life! ---What all the gaudy Pride of Youth, of Pomp, of Gandeur! What the vain Adoration of a flattering World!delufive Pleafures,fleeting Nothings, how unworthy are you of the Attention of a reasonable Being! You know the gay Manner in which we have always lived, and will, no Doubt, be furprized to find Expreffions of this Kind fall from my Pen;-but,

my

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my dear Pemberton, hitherto my Life has been a Dream but I am now, thank Heaven, awake.:- -My Sifter's Fate has rouzed me from my Lethargy of Mind, made me fee the Ends for which I was created, and reflect that there is no Time to be loft for their Accomplishment. Who can affure me, that in an Hour, a Moment, I may not be as fhe is! And if fo, oh! how unfit, how unprepared to make my Audit at the great Tribunal!In what a ftrange Stupidity have I paffed fourteen or fifteen Years; (for thofe of my Childhood are not to be reckoned,)I always knew that Death was the Portion of Mortality, yet never took the leaft Care to arm against the Terrors of it.Whenever I went a little Journey, I provided myself with all Things neceffary, yet have I got nothing ready for that long, laft Voyage, 1 muft one Day take into another. World: What an Infatuation to be anxious for the minuteft Requifites for Eafe and Pleasure, in a Dwelling where I propofed to ftay a few Weeks, of Months, perhaps, yet wholly regardless of what was wanting for making my Felicity in an eternal Situation. Reafon, juft kindled, fhudders at the Recollection of the endless Train of Follies I have been guilty of:Well might the poor Berinthia feel all their Force ;vain, gay, unthinking as myfelf, I tremble at the bare Imagination of thofe ideas, which her laft Moments. muft infpire, for I now faithfully believe with Mr. Waller, that,

Leaving the Old, both Worlds at once they view
Who ftand upon the Threshold of the New.

Whether it was the Suddenness of her Fate, or a Letter he wrote to me not two Hours before her Death, I know not, that has made this Alteration in me; but of this I am certain, that I can never enough acknowledge the Goodnefs of that divine Power without whofe Affiftance it could not have been brought about.

I fhall make no Apology for this melancholy Epiftle, because I am very fenfible that whatever Concern you may feel for my Sifter, it will be greatly alleviated, by finding I am become at laft a reafonable Creature. I

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