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monument of mercy derived from the principles f that art, which your correfpondent laudably endeavours to explain.

1

I was born, Sir, to the fucceffion of a large entailed eftate; the pride of my father, and the darling of my mother: I was educated with the greatest care, and received every inftruction and accomplishment that Great Britain, and the tour of Europe, could afford. When I returned from abroad at two and twenty, I was thought (I may fay without vanity) one of the most elegant and accomplished young men that had been imported from the continent for half a century. After the first joy of my family on my return was over, and I had received all the encomiums of my father, mother, and aunts, and all the admiration of the fquires and miffes in our neighbourhood in the country, I found an irrefiftable defire to leave the barbarity of a provincial refidence, for the elegant amusements of the capital. I went to London for the winter, was presented at court, drew upon my father, with his approbation, for three thousand pounds, the price I paid to a broker for a Cornish borough, got into Brookes's club, and the other fashionable focieties in town, kept a girl, fhook my elbow with the beft company, and in the elegance of conviviality, was able, in confequence of an excellent conftitution, to be at the fame time an excellent bottle companion. I played the violincello at private concerts, fung a catch with the beft in the club, and finished the winter with the reputation of being one of the moft promifing young men in England. Next fummer was paffed in the country with my father, who had one of the best packs of fox hounds in the kingdom, with a ftable of firft rate hunters, which, with my other qualities, made me the prince of our fociety. I had not paffed above a couple of the hunting months after this fummer had elapfed, before I began to feel my diftafte for the rough and uncultivated provincials wearing off, and a liking to the chace and the bottle taking poffeffion of my time, to the ex

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clufion of those more polished manners I had cultivated abroad. Next winter I fell into the fociety of my fox hunting friends, who followed me up from the country to London, and the bottle, which had formerly been disagreeable to me in excefs, became neceffary as a medium of friendship in the clubs I now frequented.

I got into habits that extinguished all rational curiofity and amusement; and my looking glafs began to bint to me, that I was about to get a red nofe to enli ven a face confiderably bloached by diffipation, and wrinkled by anxiety at the gaming table.

Though now only five and twenty, I began to find myself less admired than formerly, and to fink in my ewn estimation. One evening, after having loft five hundred at Brookes's, I came home fuddenly in great uneafinefs, and being unable to fleep, I fent my fervant to a circulating library for a book, by way of opiate, which I ordered him to read to me, while I was in bed, fuppofing that his whining uniform cadence might procure me that choiceft bleffing of the unfortunate, which is so often fought for in vain. The fellow having no inftruction to call for any particular book, brought the first that was offered by the fhop boy, and being defired to begin and read, as he fhould accidentally open the volume, he began his work as fol

lows:

66 If you ever read a letter, which is fent with the more pleasure for the reality of the complaints, this may have reason to hope for a favourable acceptance; and if time be the most irretrievable lofs, the regrets which follow will be thought, I hope, the most juftifiable. The regaining of my liberty from a long ftate of indolence and inactivity, and the defire of refifting the farther encroachments of idlenefs, make me apply to you; and the uneafinefs with which I recollect the paft years, and the apprehenfions with which I expect the future, foon determined me to it.

"Idlenefs is fo general a diftemper, that I cannot but imagine a speculation on this fubject will be of univerfal use.

"There is hardly any one perfon without fome allay ofit ; and thousands befide myself fpend more time in an idle uncertainty, which to begin firft, of two afa rs, than would have been fufficient to have ended them both. The occafion of this feems to be the want of fome neceffary employment, to put the fpirits in motion, and awaken them out of their lethargy.

"If I had lefs leifure, I fhould have more; for I fhould then find my time diftinguished into portions, fome for bufinefs, and others for the indulging of pleasures: But now, one face of indolence overspreads the whole, and I have no landmark to direct myfelf by. Were one's time a little ftraitened by bufinefs, like water inclofed in its banks, it would have fome determined course; but unless it be put into fome channel, it has no current, but becomes a deluge without either ufe or motion."

Stop, you rascal, faid I, what the devil are you about? I did not defire you to speak to me; I ordered you to read that book. An' please your honour, faid he, and fo I am reading the book, without putting in a word of my own. God help me, if I were ever fo willing, I could not speak fuch outlandish things for the world. Go on Sirrah, faid I.

"When Scanderbeg prince of Epyrus was dead, the Turks, who had but too often felt the force of his arm in the battles he had won from them, imagined, that by wearing a piece of his bones near their heart, they should be animated with a vigour and force like to that which infpired him when living. As I am like to be of little ufe while I live, I am resolved to do what good I can after my decease; and have accordingly ordered my bones to be disposed of in this manner, for the good of my countrymen who are troubled with too great a degree of fire. All fox-hunters, upon wear

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ing me"-Stop you, Sirrah, faid I, this will never do; go to fome other part of this damn'd book; I never heard fuch wretched ftuff in my life.

The boy, turning over a couple of pages, began again

"Auguftus, a few moments before his death, afked his friends who stood about him, if they thought he had acted his part well."

Stop, my lad, that wont do either. volume, and read where you pleafe.

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66

Take that other

"There are few who know how to be idle and innocent, or have a relish of any pleasures that are not "criminal; every diverfion they take is at the expence "of fome one virtue or other, and their very firit ftep out of business, is into vice or folly. A man "fhould endeavour therefore, to make the fphere of "his innocent pleasures as wide as poflible, that he may retire into them with falety, and find in them "fuch a fatisfaction as a wife man would not blush to "take."

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Irritated and confounded by thefe reflections, fo ap. plicable to my own unhappy fituation, I fprung out of bed, fnatched the book out of my fervant's hand, and in the scuffle, overthrew the table at which he fat, with the bottle and glaffes that were upon it; after which, overwhelmed with fhame and difgutt, I return-. ed to a fleepless pillow, and spent the long night in agony of thought.

I re-entered, as it were, into my own mind, and looked back upon the last three years of my life, as on a loathfome dream: I refolved inftantly to adopt a plan of rational existence; and having called in the whole of my bills, I wrote a long letter to my father, in explanation of my future refolutions, borrowed a fum of money fufficient to pay every thing I owed in London, and fet out for the country, where, with my father's confent, I applied myself to the fuperintendence of his patrimonial affairs, and, in the intervals of leifure, applied myself to study.

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Soon after, my father died, and I became poffeffed of an estate of four thousand a year, without any in

cumbrance.

As I had not been bred to any profeffion, I applied myflf, with unremitted earneftnefs, to the ftudy of agriculture, and all the fciences and arts immediately connected with that most useful and refpectable of all , occupations.

In the courfe of two years, I became fo much master of its principles, practice, and duties, that I found myfelf able to originate and direct in all my operations, as the pater familias of Colummella, that I was independent of my land fteward, my bailiffs, and my old experienced fervants.

I planted a field of two hundred acres with all kinds of forest trees, fuited to the foil and fituation; inclosed a great part of my eftate, and planted the fences around with hedgerows of oak, ash and elm. I laid out, and planted a large orchard, most of the trees having been ingrafted with my own hands, from the best bearers in the country.

I gave a good beginning to a manufacturing village, encouraged my farmers to good modes of husbandry, in which I fet them an example, often holding my plough in their presence, and established a club among them for comparing their respective improvements together, and keeping a diary of their proceedings.

It is now ten years fince I have been thus employed, going only to London for a few months, during the fitting of parliament, to attend my duty, the intervals from which are chiefly spent in affociating with those who are intent on the improvement of the country, or in attending the meetings of the Royal Society, and the fociety for the encouragement of arts and manufactures; and though idle, as having no trade or employment in the common acceptation of the term, I am one of the bufieft, and confequently one of the happiest men in the world.

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