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lous and fearful of offending, is often heard to complain of the difadvantages lie lies under in every path of honour and profit. "Could I but get over fome nice points, and conform to the practice and opinion of those about me, I might ftand as fair a chance as others for dignities and preferment." And why can you not? What hinders you from difcarding this troublefome fcrupulofity of yours, which ftands fo grievously in your way? If it be a fmall thing to enjoy a healthful mind, found at the very core, that does not fhrink from the keeneft infpection; inward freedom from remorfe and pertur bation; unfullied whitenefs and fimplicity of manners; a genuine integrity,

if

Pure in the laft receffes of the mind;

you think thefe advantages an inadequate recompence for what you refign, difmifs your fcruples this inftant, and be a flave-merchant, a director-or what you please.

VII. Defcription of the vale of Keswick in Cumberland.

THI

HIS delightful vale is thus elegantly defcribed by the late ingenuous Dr Brown, in a letter to a friend. In my way to the north from Hagley, I paffed through Dovedale; and, to fay the truth, was difappointed in it. When I came to Buxton, I vifited ano ther or two of their romantic scenes; but these are inferiour to Dovedale. They are all but poor, miniatures of Kefwick; which exceeds them more in grandeur than you can imagine; and more, if poffible, in beauty than in grandeur.

Instead of the narrow flip of valley which is feen at Dovedale, you have at Kefwick a vaft amphitheatre, in circumference above twenty miles. Instead of a meagre rivulet, a noble living lake, ten miles round, of an obJong form, adorned with a variety of wooded islands. The rocks adeed of Dovedale are finely wild, pointed, and irregular; but the hills are both little and unanimated; and the margin of the brook is poorly edged with weeds, morals, and brushwood. But at Kefwick, you will, on one fide of the lake, fee a rich and beautiful landscape of cultivated fields, rifing to the eye in fine in equalities, with noble groves of oak, happily difperfed,

and

and climbing the adjacent hills, fhade above fhade, in the moft various and picturefque forms. On the oppofite fhore, you will find rocks and cliffs of ftupendous height, hanging broken over the lake in horrible grandeur, some. of them a thoufand feet high, the woods climbing up their steep and fhaggy fides, where mortal foot never yet approached. On thefe dreadful heights the eagles build their nefts; a variety of water-ialls are feen pouring from their summits, and tumbling in vaft fheets from rock to rock in rude and terrible magnificence: while on all fides of this immenfe amphitheatre the lofty mountains rife round, piercing the clouds in fhapes as fpiry and fantastic as the very rocks of Dovedale. To this I must add the frequent and bold projection of the cliffs into the lake, forming noble bays and promontories: in other parts they finely retire from it, and often open in abrupt chafms or clefts, through which at hand you fee rich and uncultivated vales; and beyond these, at various distance, mountain rifing over, mountain; among which, new profpects prefent themselves in. mift, till the eye is loft in an agreeable perplexity;

Where active fancy travels beyond fenfe,
And pictures things unfe an..

Were I to analyfe the two places in their conftituent principles, I fhould tell you, that the full perfection of Kefwick confifts of three circumftances; beauty, horrour, and immenfity, united; the second of which alone is found in Dovedale. Of beauty it hath little, nature having left it almoft a defert: neither its finall extent, nor the diminutive and lifelefs form of the hills, admit magnificence; but to give you a complete idea of the fe three perfections, as they are joined in Kefwick, would require the united powers of Claude, Salvator, and Pouf fin.

The first should throw his delicate funthine over the cultivated vales, the fcattered cots, the groves, the lake, and wooded islands. The fecond fhould dafh out the horrour of the rugged cliffs, the fteeps, the hanging woods, and foaming water-falls; while the grand pencil of Pouffin fhould crown the whole with the majesty of the impending mountains.

So much for what I would call the permanent beau ties of this aftonishing fcene. Were I not afraid of be

ing tirefome, I could now dwell as long on its varying or accidental beauties. I would fail round the lake, anchor in every bay, and land you on every promontory and ifland. I would point out the perpetual change of profpect; the woods, rocks, cliffs, and mountains, by turns vanishing or rifing into view: now gaining on the fight, hanging over our heads in their full dimensions, beautifully dreadful: and now, by a change of fituation, affuming new romantic shapes; retiring and leffening on the eye, and infenfibly losing themselves in an azure mift. I would remark the contraft of light and fhade, produced by the morning and evening fun; the one gilding the western, the other the eastern, fide of this immenfe amphitheatre; while the vaft fhadow projected by the mountains buries the oppofite part in a deep and purple gloom, which the eye can hardly penetrate. The natural variety of colouring which the feveral objects produce, is no lefs wonderful and pleafing: the ruling tincts in the valley being thofe of azure, green, and gold; yet ever various, arifing from an intermixture of the lake, the woods, the grafs, and corn-fields: these are finely contrafted by the gray rocks and cliffs; and the whole heightened by the yellow ftreams of light, the purple hues and mifty azure of the mountains. Sometimes a ferene air and clear sky difclofe the tops of the highest hills; at other times, you fee the clouds involving their fummits, refting on their fides, or defcending to their bafe, and roiling among the valleys, as in a vast furnace. When the winds are high, they roar among the cliffs and caverns like peals of thunder; then, too, the clouds are feen in vaft bodies fweeping along the hills in gloomy greatnefs, while the lake joins the tumult, and toffes like a fea. But, in calm weather, the whole scene becomes new: the lake is a perfect mirror, and the landfcape in all its beauty: iflands, fields, woods, rocks, and mountains, are feen inverted, and floating on its furface. I will now carry you to the top of a cliff, where, if you dare approach the ridge, a new fcene of aftonishment prefents itself; where the valley, lake, and iflands, feem lying at your feet; where this expanse of water appears diminished to a little pool, amidit the vast and immeafurable objects that furround it; for here the

fum

fummits of more diftant hills appear beyond those you have already feen; and, rifing behind each other in fucceffive ranges and azure groups of craggy and broken fleeps, form an immenfe and awful picture, which can only be expressed by the image of a tempeftugus sea of mountains. Let me now conduct you down again to the valley, and conclude with one circumstance more; which is, that a walk by ftill moon-light (at which time the diftant water-falls are heard in all their variety of found) among these enchanting dales, opens fuch scenes of delicate beauty, repofe, and folemnity, as exceed all defcription.

VIII. Pity, an Allegory.

IN the happy period of the golden age, when all the celestial inhabitants defcended to the earth, and converfed familiarly with mortals, among the most cherished of the heavenly powers, were twins, the offspring of Jupiter, Love and Joy. Wherever they appeared, the flowers fprung up beneath their feet, the fun fhone with a brighter radiance, and all nature feemed embellished by their prefence.

They were infeparable companions; and their growing attachment was favoured by Jupiter, who had decreed that a lasting union fhould be folemnized between them fo foon as they were arrived at maturer years. But, in the mean time, the fons of men deviated from their native innocence; vice and ruin over-ran the earth with giant ftrides; and Aftrea, with her train of celeftial vifitants, forfook their polluted abodes. LovE alone remained, having been stolen away by Hope, who was his nurse, and conveyed by her to the forefts of Arcadia, where he was brought up among the fhepherds. But Jupiter affigned him a different partner, and commanded him to efpoufe SORROW the daughter of Atè. He complied with reluctance; for her features were harth and difagreeable, her eyes funk, her forehead contracted into perpetual wrinkles, and her temples were covered with a wreath of cypress and wormwood.

From this union fprung a virgin, in whom might be traced a strong refemblance to both her parents; but the fullen and unamiable features of her mother, were fo

H

mixed

mixed and blended with the fweetness of her father, that her countenance, though mournful, was highly pleafing. The maids and fhepherds of the neighbouring plains gathered round, and called her PITY. A redbreaft was obferved to build in the cabin where she was born; and, while fhe was yet an infant, a dove, purfued by a hawk, flew into her bofom. This nymph had a dejected appearance; but fo foft and gentle a mien, that he was beloved to a degree of enthusiasm. Her voice was low and plaintive, but inexpreffibly fweet; and the loved to lie, for hours together, on the banks of fome wild and melancholy ftream, finging to her lute. She taught men to weep, for the took a ftrange delight in tears; and often, when the virgins of the hamlet were affembled at their evening fports, the would steal in amongst them, and captivate their hearts by her tales, full of a charming fadnefs. She wore on her head a garland, compofed of her father's myrtles, twifted with her mother's cyprefs.

One day, as the fat mufing by the waters of Helicon, her tears by chance fell into the fountain; and ever fince, the Mufe's fpring has retained a strong taste of the infufion. Pity was commanded by Jupiter to follow the fteps of her mother through the world, dropping balm into the wounds the made, and binding up the hearts fhe had broken. She follows with her hair loofe, her bofom bare and throbbing, her garments torn by the briars, and her feet bleeding with the roughness of the path. The nymph is mortal, for her mother is fo; and when he has fulfilled her deftined course upon Ithe earth, they fhall both expire together, and LOVE be again united to Joy, his immortal and long betrothed bride.

IX. Advantages of Commerce.

THERE is no place in town which I fo much love

to frequent as the Royal Exchange. It gives me a fecret fatisfaction, and in fome meafure gratifies my vanity as an Englishman, to fee fo rich an affembly of my countrymen and foreigners confulting together upon the private bufinefs of mankind, and making this metropolis a kind of emporium for the whole earth. I must con

fefs,

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