what were to be wished in a character, were it set up for a general pattern; her soul entirely turned to those tender attachments that are not inconsistent with strict virtue, had long been wooed with every irresistible art by an accomplished youth, whose virtues and excellences could not but discover themselves, in such a space of time, on a thousand occasions. By the characters given on each side, their passion seems to have been grounded on a just esteem; and the known truth and goodness of Henry had produced in her mind such an unlimited confidence, that it was impossible she could suspect him of any crime. To try her constancy, he accuses himself, in the harshest terms, as a murderer; but it was easy for Emma's heart to furnish him with sufficient excuses. The wild unsettled state of the island in those early times, torn by so many and so fierce factions, involved the young and brave in perpetual bloodshed: what was called valour in one party, would, in the other, be branded as murder. In those days the vast forests were filled with generous outlaws; and the brave mixed with the vile, from a likeness of fortune, not of crimes.

I have dwelt upon this, because, at first reading, it offended me to imagine that Emma should be so unmoved with a supposition of her lover's guilt, and continue her affection, when she must have lost her esteem that point, I think, is now cleared up; but I am extremely sorry, that, to prevent all scandal, Prior did not alter a few lines in the answer she makes him to his open declaration of

inconstancy. In spite of all prejudice, there is certainly a want of all spirit and delicacy in it. If what he told her was fact, he could not be faultless, nor could her affection continue to be innocent: the same mild benevolence to her rival might surely have been expressed, without the extravagance of desiring to attend them as a servant. Permit me

to insert the alteration here.

"Go then, while I, in hopeless absence, prove,
By what I shall endure, how much I love.
This potent beauty, this triumphant fair,
This happy object of our different care-
Her shall my thoughts through various life attend,
With all the kindness of the fondest friend.
Loved for thy sake, howe'er her haughty scorn
May triumph o'er me as a thing forlorn ;
For her my warmest wishes shall be made,
And Heaven implored for blessings on her head.
O may she never feel a pain like mine!
Never for then a double guilt were thine.

Here must I stay: like thought, were actions free,
No wrongs, no hardships, should divorce from thee,
Thy Emma-not a rival's company:

But wandering thoughts and anxious cares are now
All that a rigid virtue will allow.

Go happy then; forget the wretch you leave,

Nor for a woman's weakness vainly grieve.

Thy fate decreed thee false; the same decree

Entail'd a hopeless constancy to me."

The few following lines in the same speech are so easily adapted to these, that the change in them is not worth mentioning.

There is something infinitely beautiful in all the

tender passages of this poet: he has the art of representing all the softness of the passion without any of its madness. Other writers raise their expressions with such hyperboles, as are a profanation of much nobler sentiments. Methinks, softness and tenderness are the only characteristics of a mortal love the strains of adoration ill become Anacreon's lyre, and are ill addressed to human imperfection, Those imagined everlasting attachments, that rebel against mortality; those infinite ideas, that grasp at all excellence in one finite object—are fatal absurdities, that have both their guilt and punishment.

This kind of sentiment is quite unnecessary: we may survey those we love, surrounded with all the frailties and imperfections of human nature, and yet be partial to these imperfections as we are to our own. Pity does but endear the tender tie, where it is not incompatible with esteem. The pleasures of giving and receiving from the dear object of affection, mutual protection, comfort, and relief, are the joys that we are formed most sensible of; as such a disposition was, in our present situation, most necessary for the preservation and happiness of society.

The expressions of this kind of sentiment are, on the other hand, as offensively misused when applied to sacred subjects, as they too often are by the soft enthusiasm of constitutional Pietists. Of human love, kindness, compassion, mutual care, mus tual assistance, mutual forgiveness of a thousand little blemishes and errors, are necessary ingredi

ents, which have their merit and their reward. All that refined caprice, that shows its kindness, like Alicia, in Jane Shore,

"In everlasting wailings and complainings,"

is as contrary to this system, as it is to the happiness of whoever is honoured by its persecution; and proceeds from a failure in point of confidence, which, when once the honour of a character, justly esteemed worthy, is seriously engaged, should remain unshaken as a rock. This is prettily expressed by Prior's Celia :

"Reading thy verse, Who heeds, said I,
If here or there his glances flew ?

O, free for ever be his eye,

Whose heart to me is ever true!"

Another great, as great a contradiction to the amiable kind of temper that Prior describes, is that violent detestation, upon even just cause of offence, which so much too often verifies the poet's expression,

"Heaven has no curse like love to hatred turn'd,
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorn'd."

The hatred of anger can justly proceed only from injury: real, premeditated injury can proceed from no such character as could ever be the object of a well-placed love; and, therefore, in this last, the injury retaliates on a person's own mistaken choice, who has, therefore, no more reason to be angry

with the other for not acting up to an ideal perfection, than to be displeased at any other instance of wrong behaviour in those who never were the ob jects of any just partiality.

But if the character be mixed; faulty indeed, but not totally bad—pity, methinks, should gladly take hold on the occasion, and banish at once all bitterness of resentment: religion itself forbids the spirit of uncharitable anger and revenge. When there has ever been a real affection, it can never, I fancy, be so rooted out as to give place to those hateful emotions.

Whoever, then, yield up their minds to these excesses, must confess their former partiality to have been founded merely in pride, vanity, and selfishness; for kindness and benevolence will never cease to exist, whilst their objects remain in any degree unchanged. If those objects were only our dear selves, every disappointment of our pride, interest, and vanity, will wound us to the heart: but if our thoughts had a more generous aim; if the happiness of one dearer than ourselves was the centre of our wishes; we shall joyfully acquiesce in any means by which that happiness may be attained, laying ourselves entirely out of the case: and should the injury to us be ever so grievous, we shall only wish for them, with the same disinterested ardour Aristides did for the Athenians who had banished him, that the time may never come when they shall repent it.