My friend was silent to these expostulations. The tear rolled in his eye, but he answered me not;

returned with a chearful

a

a few days afterwards he countenance. I have just received letter (he said,) that you will be glad to see. It is from Julia, (for so I fhall call her at present,) and put it in my hand. Julia was the intimate companion of my dear, dear, girl, who has now been long at her rest ; she was the greatest favourite beyond my own family I ever had on earth. Her absence, which the situation of her family rendered necessary, added not a little to the grief that overwhelmed me. She afterwards married a man of great worth in the Bahama islands. Our intercourse was thus in some measure suspended; but he never forgot the friend of her youth, nor her aged father. She had heard how much my health had been impaired. She had been afraid to write to myself; but fhe wrote to my friend, with the most engaging solicitude inquiring about the father of her friend. She had heard of the severe effects of the former winter: fhe dreaded those of that which was to come. She praised the serenity and mildnefs of the climate in which the breathed. She thought if I could venture to come thither, it would be productive of the happiest effects. She dwelt upon this theme with a inost engaging prolixity. She concluded by entreating my friend to press me, if still in life, and capable in his opinion of undertaking the voyage, to come there, where the winter blasts were never experienced; and where she would take a particular pleasure in performing those little afsiduities which the departure of her friend,

so cruelly deprived me of. It would be to her, fhe said, a source of peculiar felicity; as fhe would feel that in performing these pious offices, he would obtain the warmest approbation of that blessed spirit, who could not fail to look down with particular complacency upon her, while thus employed. "This thought is to me the said, highly consolatory. Deprive me not then, fhe kindly said, of the means of obtaining perhaps the most unmixed felicity that this earth can afford; for at the same time that I fhall thus be suffered to indulge the idea of gaining the approbacion of the spirit of my departed friend, i fhall be sure of conciliating, in the most engaging manner, the tenderest affection of my beloved husband, whose soul delights in acts of kindnefs, and who doats upon his Julia, merely because he is convinced that The takes pleasure in acs of tenderness and piety."

There is a charm in female softnefs, which I think no human heart is capable of resisting. I felt its full force on the present occasion. My friend prefsed me to obey this endearing call. I went. My voyage to London, for I could not undergo the fatigue of a journey by land, was pleasing. I had to wait only a few days in the metropolis before a vessel sailed for new Providence, in which I took my pafsage. I felt my health recover from day to day. Before I landed my strength was already in some measure returned. I found my Julia, as I had ever done, midly placid, and innocently chearful. While the presented me with exultation to her husband, the tear of recollection started from her eye. It was momentary. The good man, tenderly embraced me. He saw my

heart was big with strong emotions, and hastened to present his son, a pleasing child of two years old, whose little prattle in a short time called off our attention from thoughts that ought not perhaps to be too much indulged. In this delightful family, I have experienced a degree of felicity that I believed had for ever been banished from me; and having recovered unwonted strength, I have now come back to settle some little affairs that the hurry of my departure, and the uncertainty about my future destination prevented me from doing before I went. If it fhall please Heaven to grant health, I intend to return thither, and bid an eternal adieu to this part of the world, where now I have scarcely the appearance of a tie to bind me to it; for my friend the good doctor, who was so anxious about my fate, has himself paid the debt of nature before me. He was strong and healthy but all are subject to the power of the grim tyrant; and of every man that breathes it may be truly said, that "the place which now knows him will soon remember him no more.

:

In my pleasing retreat, it was a great consolation to me that I had the satisfaction of reading your miscellany. Many copies of it circulate in that island, and I found one of them appropriated by my friend. He is much pleased with it, and means from time to time to contribute his mite, as he says, to the general store. Julia, though naturally chearful, has yet a cast of seriousness; and the delights, as you will perceive by some exprefsions above, in those kind of religious exercises, that carry the mind forward from this transitory world, into the regions of spi

rits, where we hope to meet with pleasures unmix. ed with those dregs of humanity which deaden them in this world. Among a French collection of translations from the German, many of which he used to read with pleasure, there was one piece in particular, intitled Les Solitudes, by the baron Croneck, which was so perfectly congenial to her turn of mind, that she used to read it with particular marks of delight. Indeed there is so much in it of that tenderaefs which a delicate mind, highly susceptible of generous emotions, must often experience; and so little of the dreary gloom of fanatical despair, that I conceive there will be found much of nature in it, by all those who have formed in this world, any very pleasing connections that have been broken in the course of the ordinary events of life, that will make it very generally interes‹ i The hufband of Julia, observing the warm partiality of his wife for this piece, and fond of it at the same time himself, thought he would give her an agreeable surprise by translating it for your miscellany, without letting her know of it. He therefore did this by stealth; and gave me the translation just before I came away to communicate to you. I now discharge the trust reposed on me, by transmitting it to you. along with this letter; and hope you will find it convenient to insert it early in your Bee. I have some remarks to make on your miscellany, but at present fhall only say, that I am happy to find you adhere so strictly to your declared purpose of chastenefs, both as to morals and politics; though on this last head, you have perhaps allowed yourself to be a

י!!,

little drawn aside at times; but these I see are only temporary wanderings, and of trivial

conse

quence. Continue to have your eye steadily fixed on promoting the general interests of humanity; and firmly determine to follow truth through good report, and bad repòrt, as I am glad to see you have hitherto done, and you have nothing to fear. The fourteenth volume had reached Bermuda before I left it, but I had seen only the thirteenth, for I was told just as I was stepping into the vefsel, that Mr Wells had that very morning received the fourteenth volume. Offering my best acknowledgement to your correspondent for his obliging re

membrance of me, I remain with esteem your sincere friend

London, August

8. 1793.

SENEX*.

ON BORAX.

For the Bee.

The following letter from Patna was transmitted in a packet from Dr Anderson of Madras, dated the 28 February last. It contains a very distinct account of the formation of Borax; and gives a view of the natural state of some of the internal provinces in India, that will prove interesting to European readers. One of the most striking differences between Asia and Europe seems to be, that the former has a much greater tendency to produce natural saline concretions of various sorts than the latter. If the fact be admitted, it would prove an interesting disquisition to discover the circumstances that tend to produce this effect.

*The translation above named is thankfully received, and will be inserted with the earliest opportunity...