or to conceive an idea of the rapidity with which improvements would be carried forward on many occasions, were this conveniency put within his reach. One improvement, it is well known, accelerates another; so that by stopping one, like poisoning a seed in embrio, you may stop many thousands of others for ages, that might have been going forward in an endlefs succefsion of accumulating progression. It will be seen in the sequel, that larch wood may be reared in such abundance, and in such a short space of time for this purpose in every pofsible situation, that were men to set themselves seriously to rear it, there is no part of Britain that might not in ten or twelve years at farthest pofsefs the advantages that would be thus derived from it, along with many others that fhall be specified in some future number of this work.

To be continued:

Sir,

LETTER OM SENEX.

R GROU

To the Editor of the Bee.

AFTER a long absence, I return again to my native land. The distress which opprefsed me when last I wrote to you, seemed ready to put a period to that existence which though productive of little joy we all

removed in a few years; and a man, like Ariel in the tempest, whenever he found he had immediate occasion for an enclosure, could ob tain it almost "with a wifh."

are formed by an instinctive bias to wish to preserve. I looked forward with a kind of solemn serenity to the near approach of that awful scene which await eth all mankind. My physician, alarmed for a life which his partiality had rendered dear to him, pushed me away; make haste said he, before the approach of winter fly to some warmer region, where the chilling blasts of December may not overpower your weakly frame. I hesitated; for whither to go I knew not-.No daughter was left to cheer the evening of life, with those tender cares which it so much becomes her to minister to a father. To go in the state of health I then experienced to a distant region among strangers, to me appeared a task more frightful to encounter than death itself. Suffer me then, O my friend, I said, at least to die in peace. most that could be expected from all your anxious care and fkill would be only to prolong for a few moments more that brittle thread, which soon at all events must break. What avails it whether this fhall take place to day or tomorrow, or some months, or even years hence?

The ut

All that life is worth the wishing for is gone, and were it not for the ideal pleasure of holding converse at times with those who have gone before, and thus exalting the mind to a degree of happy enthusiasm, I should not have spirits to converse even with you; for all would then be a settled gloom, without one spark of day. Suffer me then to close my days in peace, and to indulge the sweet idea that when the scene is finally closed, my body shall be deposited by you in the same grave with those I loved.

VOL. XVII.

My friend was silen to these expostulations.

but he answered me not ♬ returned with a chearful

The tear rolled in his eye, a few days afterwards he countenance. I have just received a 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; fhe was the greatest favourite beyond my own family I ever had on earth. Her absence, which the situation of her family rendered necefsary, 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 she 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 mildness of the climate in which he 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 most engaging prolixity. She concluded by entreating my friend to prefs 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 ittle afsiduties which the departure of her friend,

so ci uelly 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, fhe would obtain the warmest approbation of that blefsed spirit, who could not fail to look down with particular complacency upon her, while thus employed. "This thought is to me he said, highly consolatory. Deprive me not then, the 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 approbation 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 kinducfs, and who doats upon his Julia, merely because he is convinced that The takes pleasure in acis 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 passage. 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, mildly placid, and innocently chearful. While fhe presented me with exultation to her hufband, 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 seriousnefs; and fhe 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