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mifery of my prefent dependence, in the arms of so benevolent and so generous a protector." "Thofe arms are now open to receive you, faid a voice that was heard before the fpeaker appeared. Amelia started at the found, and her furprise was not a little increased in feeing Mr. Nelfon himself, who, entering the room from an adjoining apartment, embraced the lovely orphan in a tranfport of tenderness and delight. Amelia, alive to all the feelings of genuine modefty, was for fome minutes more painfully diftreffed by this furprife, than fhe had been by her paft mortification: fhe was ready to fink into the earth at the idea of having betrayed her fecret to the man from whom he would have laboured most to conceal it. In the first tumult of this delicate confufion, the links into a chair, and hides her face in her handkerchief. Nelfon, with a mixture of refpect and love, being afraid of increafing her diftrefs, feizes one of her hands, and continues to kiss it without uttering a word. The good Mrs. Melford, almost as much aftonifhed, but lefs painfully confufed than Amelia, beholds this unexpected fcene with that kind of joy which is much more difpofed to weep than to fpeak:-and, while this little party is thus ab forbed in filence, let me haften to relate the incidents which produced their fituation.

"Mr. Nelfon had observed the farcaftic manner of Mrs. Wormwood towards Amelia, and, as foon as he had ended his uncomfortable vifit, he haftened to the worthy Mrs: Melford, to give her fome little account of what had paffed, and to concert with her fome happier plan for the fupport of this amiable infulted orphan. "I am acquainted, faid he, with fome

brave and wealthy officers, who have served with the father of Mifs Nevil, and often speak of him with refpect; I am fure I can raise among them a fubfcription for the maintenance of this tender unfortunate girl we will procure for her an annuity, that thall enable her to efcape from fuch malignant patronage, to have a little home of her own, and to support a fervant." Mrs. Melford was transported at this idea; and, recollecting all her own obligations to this benevolent man, wept, and extolled his generofity; and, fuddenly feeing Amelia at fome distance, through a bow window, which commanded the ftreet in which the lived, "Thank Heaven, fhe cried, here comes my poor child, to hear and bless you for the extent of your goodness." Nelfon, who delighted most in doing good by ftealth, immediately extorted from the good old lady a promife of fecrefy: it was the best part of his plan, that Amelia should never know the perfons to whom she was to owe her independence. "I am still afraid of you, my worthy old friend, faid Nelfon; your countenance or manner will, I know, betray me, if Mifs Nevil fees me here to-night."-" Well, faid the delighted old lady, I will humour your delicacy; Amelia will probably not stay with me ten minutes; you may amufe yourself, for that time, in my fpacious garden: I will not fay you are here; and, as foon as the good girl returns home, I will come and impart to you the particulars of her recent vexation."-" Admirably fettled," cried Nelfon; and he im mediately retreated into a little back room, which led through a glass door into a long flip of ground, embellished with the fweetest and leaft expentive flowers, which af

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forded a favourite occupation and amusement to Mrs. Melford. Nelfon, after taking a few turns in this diminutive garden, finding himself rather chilled by the air of the evening, retreated again into the little room he had paffed, intending to wait there till Amelia departed; but the partition between the parlours being extremely flight, he overheard the tender confeffion of Amelia, and was hurried towards her by an irrefiftible impulfe, in the manner already defcribed.

"Mrs. Melford was the first who recovered from the kind of trance, into which our little party had been thrown by their general furprife; and the enabled the tender pair, in the profpect of whofe union her warm heart exulted, to regain that easy and joyous poffeffion of their faculties, which they loft for fome little time in their mutual embarraffment. The applaufe of her friend, and the adoration of her lover, foon taught the diffident Amelia to think lefs feverely of herself. The warm heated Mrs. Melford declared, that these occur rences were the work of heaven. "That, replied the affectionate Nelfon, I am most willing to allow; but you must grant, that heaven has produced our prefent happiness by the blind agency of a fiend; and, as our dear Amelia has too gentle a fpirit to rejoice in beholding the malignity of a devil converted into the torment of its poffeffor, I must beg that he may not return, even for a fingle night, to the house of Mrs. Wormwood.'

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Amelia pleaded her fenfe of past obligations, and wifhed to take a peaceful leave of her patronefs ; but the fubmitted to the urgent entreaties of Nelfon, and remained for a few weeks under the roof of Mrs, Melford, when he was unit, ed at the altar to the man of her heart. Nelfon had the double delight of rewarding the affection of an angel, and of punishing the malevolence of a fiend: he an nounced in perfon to Mrs. Wormwood his intended marriage with Amelia, on the very night when that treacherous old maid had amuf ed herself with the hope of deriding her gueft; whofe return she was eagerly expecting, in the moment Nelfon arrived to fay, that Amelia would return no more.

"The furprise and mortification of Mrs. Wormwood arofe almost to frenzy: fhe racked her malicious and inventive brain for expedients to defeat the match, and circulated a report for that purpose, which decency will not allow me to explain. Her artifice was detected and defpifed. Amelia was not only married, but the most admired, the moft beloved, and the happiest of human beings; an event which preyed fo inceffantly on the fpirit of Mrs. Wormwood, that fhe fell into a rapid decline, and ended, in a few months, her mischievous and unhappy life, a memorable example, that the most artful malignity may fometimes procure for the object of its envy that very happinefs which it labours to prevent!"

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To mifery fo kind; yet not to you,
Bounty, or charity, or mercy mild,

The penfive thought applies fair Friendship's name
That name which never yet cou'd dare exist
But in equality

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On Mrs. MONTAG U.

[From the fame Publication.]

HY boat, O arrogant, imperious man,

W Perfections fo exclufive? are thy powers

Nearer approaching Deity? can't thou folve
Questions which high Infinity propounds,
Soar nobler flights, or dare immortal deeds,
Unknown to woman, if fhe greatly dares
To ufe the powers affign'd her? Active ftrength,
The boaft of animals, is clearly thine;
By this upheld, thou think'it the leffon rare
That female virtues teach; and poor the height
Which female wit obtains. The theme unfolds
Its ample maze, for Montagu befriends
The puzzled thought, and, blazing in the eye
Of boldeft oppofition, ftrait prefents
The foul's beft energies, her keencit powers,
Clear, vigorous, enlighten'd; with firm wing
Swift the o'ertakes his Mufe, which spread afar
Its brighteft glories in the days of yore;

Lo! where the, mounting, fpurns the stedfast earth,
And, failing on the cloud of fcience, bears

The banner of Perfection.

Afk Gallia's mimic fons how ftrong her powers,

Whom, flufh'd with plunder from her Shakspeare's page,
She fwift detects amid their dark retreats
(Horrid as Cacus in their thievifh dens);
Regains the trophies, bears in triumph back
The pilfer'd glories to a wand'ring world.
So Stella boafts, from her the tale I learn'd;
With pride fhe told it, I with rapture heard.
O, Montagu! forgive me, if I fing
Thy wisdom temper'd with the milder ray
Of foft humanity, and kindnefs bland:
So wide its influence, that the bright beams
Reach the low vale where mifts of ignorance lodge,
Strike on the innate fpark which lay immers'd,
Thick clogg'd, and almoft quench'd in total night-
On me it fell, and cheer'd my joylefs heart.
Unwelcome is the first bright dawn of light
To the dark foul; impatient, fhe rejects,

And

And fain wou'd pufh the heavenly stranger back;
She loaths the cranny which admits the day;
Confus'd, afraid of the intruding guest;
Ditturb'd, unwilling to receive the beam,
Which to herself her native darkness fhews.
The effort rude to quench the cheering flame
Was mine, and e'en on Stella cou'd I gaze
With fullen envy, and admiring pride,
Till, doubly rous'd by Montagu, the pair
Confpire to clear my dull, imprifon'd fenfe,
And chafe the mifts which dimm'd my visual beam.
Oft as I trod my native wilds alone,

Strong gufts of thought wou'd rife, but rife to die;
The portals of the fwelling foul ne'er op'd
By liberal converfe, rude ideas strove

Awhile for vent, but found it not, and died.

Thus ruft the mind's beft powers. Yon ftarry orbs,
Majestic ocean, flowery vales, gay groves,
Eye-wafting lawns, and heaven-attempting hills,
Which bound th' horizon, and which curb the view;
All thofe, with beauteous imagery, awak'd
My ravish'd foul to extacy untaught,
To all the transport the rapt fense can bear;
But all expir'd, for want of powers to speak;
All perish'd in the mind as foon as born,
Eras'd more quick than cyphers on the fhore,
O'er which the cruel waves, unheedful, roll.

Such timid rapture as young Edwin feiz'd,
When his lone footsteps on the fage obtrude,
Whofe noble precept charm'd his wond'ring ear,
Such rapture fill'd Lactilla's vacant foul,
When the bright moralift, in softness drest,
Opes all the glories of the mental world,
Deigns to direct the infant thought, to prune
The budding fentiment, uprear the stalk
Of feeble fancy, bid idea live,

Woo the abstracted fpirit from its cares,

And gently guide her to the fcenes of peace.

Mine was that balm, and mine the grateful heart,

Which breathes its thanks in rough, but timid strains.

SONNET to LAURA.

[From Mr. PoLWHELE's Pictures from Nature, in Nineteen Sonnets.]

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Yet as the fecret canker-worm

Preys inly on its fainting heart;
From the cold floweret's fallen form
Shall all that glow of colour part!
Ah! on thy lover turn thine eyes-
The blooming cheek may Laura fee!
Yet know this pining bofom dies—
And read the rofe's fate in me!

SONNET to the AUTHOR'S WIFE.

[From the fame Publication.]

OR thee, whose love I value more than life,

FOR

Whose charms the balm of heart-felt blifs infpire-
For thee I reaffume my humble lyre,

Here in this fhade, far diftant from the ftrife
Of scenes, where fashion's pamper'd votaries, rife
In diffipation's revel, quench thy fire

O Mufe! and blast the hallow'd name of wife
'Mid the dark orgies of impure defire-.
For thee, tho' ne'er my unambitious strain
May foothe the unfeeling world, I yet awhile
Tune the rude fhell! and haply, not in vain,
If (fweet reward of every anxious toil)
My fimple fong have still the power to gain
From Laura, but a fond approving smile!

ADDRESS to the PUPIL of ELOQUENCE.

[From Mr. PoLWHELE'S English Orator, a Didactic Poem.]

HUS then the effentials hath the mufe unveil'd

Preceptive-Studious thou, meanwhile, to trace

Their union and their order, as thy sphere

And genius of the juft oration wills;

Except where versatile occafion's turn,
Or fudden impulfe of thy audience points
A devious course: for oft, their due degrees
Abandon'd, one effential ev'n excludes
The reft; or argument perhaps ufurps
The throne of pathos; or the paffions, free
From previous forms, as high emergence calls,
Burft on a Catiline's devoted head

Impetuous: fuch thy genius, now matur'd
To nerve of claffic vigour, feels-crelong
In quick accordance with that fenfe, to seize
The golden moment, as thy practice adds
Activity to ftrength. And now furvey

That

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