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"I am not only excluded by my suspicions from matrimony, but am almost shut out by my principles from female society. Too honourable to desire to excite unfounded hopes and expectations, I carefully abstain from any peculiar attentions to single women, but alas! I cannot now ask a young lady to drink wine, without a congratulatory glance passing between her father and mother; nor request her to be my partner in a quadrille, without raising sanguine hopes of a partnership of a more durable nature. If I chance to speak low to any fair expectant, a murmur runs round the room, that I am making my proposals; and the offer of my arm during a walk, the loan of a book, or the approval of a drawing, is sure to produce a paragraph in the County Chronicle, in which I am led to the hymeneal altar with the object of this unmeaning attention. Then how the fathers, and mothers, and uncles, and aunts, teaze me about my bachelor condition; the health of the future Mrs. is drunk at every dinner-party; whenever Northwood Hall is mentioned it is declared to want nothing but a mistress-and "So you are going to be married at last?"-" So you are really about to become a Benedict?"-" Who is the fortunate lady?""When am I to wish you joy?"-and a hundred jokes about honey-moons, and curtain-lectures, and petitions for wedding-cake and favours, meet me in all directions. If I may trust the account of their relations, all the young women in my neighbourhood are miracles of sense and excellence-patterns of every virtue; and all I have to do is to decide between rival angels. These pieces of perfection themselves are very willing to perform the agreeable; two or three are learning Italian, because I said, by chance, it was my favourite language; four are squalling themselves hoarse because I am fond of singing; and there is not a colour to be seen on one of them since I was heard to say that I thought white dresses most genteel and becoming. In some respects my influence is beneficial. I have banished waltzing from the country, by saying I should not like my wife to waltz; and the once-neglected national schools have abundance of patronage since I expressed my approbation of two or three good old ladies who occasionally attended them.

"Suppose not, my dear friend, that my vanity is at all gratified by so much compliance and flattery; on the contrary, I assign all to the real motives, feel vexed and mortified, and fear I must live and die a bachelor, because all the ladies are anxious to marry me. Willingly, cheerfully would I resign my fortune, leave Northwood Hall and idleness, for London and labour, could I do so consistently with duty and common-sense; but this is impossible, and I am obliged to exchange unsuspecting love and confiding affection for splendour I do not relish, and leisure I do not enjoy. I yearn for the duties, the charities, the blessings of domestic life; but must content myself with performing well the obligations of a master, a landlord, and a friend-happy if, after years of caution and suspicion, I do not, in more advanced life, overthrow the prudence of years by the infatuation of a week, and become at threescore the dupe of arts, which at thirty I should have discovered and despised. I remain, my dear Friend,

Very sincerely your's."

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2) ot awayh 01 tha AN ANECDOTE FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHILLER.

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PLAYS and romances disclose to us the most shining traits in the human mind our imagination is inflamed, but our heart remains cold; at least the fervour which is raised in it in this manner is only momentary, and becomes chilled in practical life. At the same instant that we are moved almost to tears by the unadorned goodness of heart of the noble hero of romance, we perhaps spurn with anger from our door, the miserable beggar who importunes us for charity. Who knows, whether this artificial existence in an ideal world, may not undermine our existence in the real one? We hover as it were about the two extremes of morality, angel and devil, and the medium-man-we abandon.

The following anecdote of two Germans, (with a proud joy do I say it) has one indisputable merit-it is true. I hope it may instil more warmth into my readers, than all the volumes of Grandison or of Pamela.

Two brothers, Barons of W were in love with a young and excellent lady, and neither was acquainted with the passion of the other. The affection of both was tender and vehementit was their first: the maiden was beautiful, and formed of sensibility. They suffered their inclinations to increase to the utmost bounds, for the danger the most dreadful to their hearts was unknown to them, to have a brother for a rival. Each forbore an early explanation with the lady, and thus were both deceived; until an unexpected occurrence discovered the whole secret of their sentiments.

Their love had already risen to its utmost height: that most unhappy passion, which has caused almost as cruel ravages as its dreadful counterpart, had taken such complete possession of their hearts, as to render a sacrifice on either side impossible. The fair one, full of commiseration for the unhappy situation of these two unfortunates, would not decide upon the exclusion of either, but submitted her own feelings to the decision of their brotherly love.

Conqueror in this doubtful strife, betwixt duty and sentiment, which our philosophers are always so ready to decide, but which the practical man undertakes so slowly, the elder brother said to the younger, "I know thou lovest the maiden as vehement as myself. I will not ask for which of us a priority of right should determine. Do thou remain here, whilst I seek the wide world. I am willing to die, that I may forget her. If such be my fate, brother, then is she thine, and may Heaven

bless thy love! Should I not meet with death, do thou set out, and follow my example."

He left Germany, and hastened to Holland; but the form of his beloved still followed him. Far from the climate which she inhabited, banished from the spot which contained the whole felicity of his heart, in which alone he was able to exist, the unhappy youth sickened,-as the plant withers which is ravished from its maternal bed in Asia by the powerful European, and forced from its more clement sun into a remote and rougher soil. He reached Amsterdam in a desponding condition, where he fell ill of a violent and dangerous fever. The form of her he loved predominated in his frantic dreams; his health depended on her possession. The physicians were in doubt of his life, and nothing but the assurance of being restored again to her, rescued him from the arms of death. He arrived in his native city changed to a skeleton, the most dreadful image of consuming grief, and with tottering steps reached the door of his beloved-of his brother.

"Brother, behold me once again. Heaven knows how I have striven to subdue the emotions of my heart. I can do no more."

He sunk senseless into the lady's arms.

The younger brother was no less determined. weeks he was ready to set out.

In a few

"Brother, thou carriedst thy grief with thee to Holland. I will endeavour to bear mine farther. Lead not the maiden to the altar till I write to thee. Fraternal love alone permits such a stipulation. Should I be more fortunate than thou wert, in the name of God, let her be thine, and may Heaven prosper thy union. Should I not, may the Almighty in that case judge further between us! Farewell. Take this sealed packet; do not open it till I am far from hence. I am going to Batavia."

He then sprung into the coach. The other remained motionless, and absorbed in grief, for his brother had surpassed him in generosity. Love, and at the same time, the sorrow at losing such a man, rushed forcibly upon his mind. The noise of the flying vehicle pierced him to the heart-his life was feared. The lady-but no! of her I must not yet speak.

The packet was opened. It contained a complete assignment of all his German possessions to his brother, in the event of fortune being favourable to the fugitive in Batavia. The latter, subduer of himself, sailed with some Dutch merchants, and arrived safely at that place. A few weeks after, he sent his brother the following lines:

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Here, where I return thanks to the Almighty, here, in another world, do I think of thee, and of our loves, with all the joy of a martyr. New scenes and events have expanded my

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soul, and God has given me strength to offer the greatest sacrifice to friendship-the maiden--God! here a tear doth fallthe last-I have conquered-the maiden is thine. Brother, it was not ordained that I should possess her; that is, she would not have been happy with me. If the thought should ever come to her, that she would have been-Brother! brother! with difficulty do I tear her from my soul. Do not forget how hard the attainment of her has been to thee. Treat her always as thy youthful passion at present teaches thee. Treat her always as the dear legacy of a brother, whom thy arms will never more enfold. Farewell! Do not write to me, when thou celebratest thy marriage-my wounds still bleed. Write to me, that thou art happy. My deed is a surety to me, that God will not forsake me in a foreign world."

The nuptials were celebrated. The most felicitous of marriages lasted a year. At the end of that period the lady died. In her expiring moments, she acknowledged to her most intimate friend the unhappy secret of her bosom :-the exiled brother she had loved the strongest.

Both brothers still live. The elder upon his estates in Germany, where he has married again. The younger remains in Batavia, and has become a fortunate and shining character. He made a vow never to marry, and has kept it.

PEARCE'S ACCOUNT OF ABYSSINIA.*

THE observations of a man of an active and vigorous mind like that of Nathaniel Pearce, on a country in which he resided about fifteen years, although an uneducated British seaman, cannot be otherwise than interesting to every inquirer after truth and impartial investigator of facts. It will not be expected that such a narrative should abound with the beauties of language; but if it contains what is more intrinsically good-a faithful description of the country, however homely the language, that is what we particularly seek.

When Mr. Salt visited Abyssinia the second time, and found Mr. Pearce still there, he says, "I found Mr. Pearce, to my great surprise, very little altered in complexion, and he spoke English almost as perfectly as when I left him. It was truly gratifying to witness his raptures at finding himself once more among Englishmen, and in an English ship. In the fullness of his heart he seemed to consider every countryman aboard as a brother; and it was interesting to observe with what respect and astonishment our sailors looked up to him in

A small but true Account of the Ways and Manners of the Abyssinians, by Nathaniel Pearce, an English Sailor, who was left in Abyssinia at his own desire, by Lord Valentia (now Earl Mount Norris), during his Visit to Mossowa, in 1805. From the 2d volume of the Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay.

return, from the various accounts they had previously heard of the intrepidity with which he had surmounted so many dangers. He subsequently gave proofs of extraordinary activity, for although there were several excellent sailors on board, there was not one that could follow him aloft, owing to the rapidity with which he darted from one point of the ship to another. I was also glad to find that the cultivation of his mind had kept pace with the improvement of his bodily powers: with a knowledge of the languages, he possessed so perfect an insight into the manners and feelings of the Abyssinians, that his` assistance to me, as an interpreter, became invaluable."-Salt's Voyage, p. 203.

Our interesting traveller, on his return to England through Egypt, in 1820, has added another loss to the fatal list of African travellers. In May 1818, however, he was in Abyssinia, the Ras not allowing him to leave the country, but he had of late suffered much from disease and oppression; and in a letter of the 20th October, 1814, to Theodore Forbes, Esq. the British resident at Môka, he complained "that the Ras* behaved in a very niggardly manner, in spite of all his services, scarce giving him and his family enough to live on; though," continues. he, "the Ras, on account of his religion, sends, at this present time, to Muhamed Ali, to bring the Kopti Bishop, or Aboon, from Cairo, 10,000 dollars, 15 slaves, 24 pieces of Abyssinian cloth, 2 fine horses, and 2 mules." The arrival of the Aboon, or Patriarch, from Egypt, was peculiarly unpropitious to poor Pearce, who was now worn down with sickness and suffering.

"As soon as I arrived at Massow, says Pearce, (Letter, 20th March, 1816) the Ras sent me word to quit my house, and that the Aboon was to take it on his arrival at Challicut, which I strictly denied, and swore that I would die in my own house, which I had been at the expense of building, which at first enraged him very much; but finding that I was determined to die sooner than quit my house by force, the wretched old savage (I can call him no better) coaxed me over with promises, even swore to give me the price of my house, garden, &c. which, after great persuasion, I agreed to. But I soon saw him go far from his oath. As soon as the Aboon arrived, I went to pay him my compliments, and endeavour to get into favour with him; but before I could see him, I found that the old wretch had ordered people to watch my motions, and not on any account to let me speak with the Aboon. You would be surprised were I to mention the multitude of people that flock from all quarters of Ethiopia to this Egyptian monk; but I shall send you all particulars another time. The reason the old wretch does not wish me to see him is, that he is afraid I shall tell him what expense and industry I have been at with my house and garden. I leave you to guess how it would touch an Englishman's heart, after seven years endeavouring to teach these idle villains to be a little industrious, by shewing them the produce of my garden-grapes, peaches, limes, English cabbage of all sorts, turnips, carrots, potatoes,

• From the Arabic Ras, i. e. a head (man) a chief.

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