lowing their fashions; but keep up a fuppofe every man an Ambaffador, fettling the preliminaries of their feveral courts. Nothing trifling or flighty is admitted within thefe walls. None but the attentive, confiderate We vifited the poor house, a large and cautious. A fmile here would brick building mont commodiously calbe as prepofterous as tears at the pan-culated to accommodate a large numtheon. No man feems an indifferent fpectator, but every one looks with an earneftness, as if waiting an event on which his whole fortune depended. The greatest regularity is purfued,and punctuality obferved. Every tranf action is on the ftricteft principles of honour. The leaf failure in any of these points would defroy the best eftablished reputation in the city. HONOUR IS LAW; and the word once paffed is a decifion from whence there is no appeal. The play houfe is much larger than the hay market, and prettily faithed. The feats are numbered to prevent crowding, as each perfon has a right to fill up the pace of his number. The actors were tolerable; but not understanding the language, the performance was but indifferently entertaining to me. A Dutch comedy, to a person unskilled in their language, is really a farce on comedy; the language being no more calculated to excite any thing of the agreeable, or jovial, than the found of a broken bell. It may anfwer for tragedy, to raise ideas of the melancholy aad diftreffing. It is a perfect farce to fee a number of Dutchmen at the theatre; the English are conftantly in a loud laugh, but the Dutch hear a comedy with as much folemnity as a funeral dirge. It is indeed very laughable to hear lovers, in all the extaly of transport, converfing in a language the very found of which would difgoft an English prostitute. We were ertertained in Amfterdam with the greatest gentility. The merchants live in the highest tafle. Their entertainments are rich and fplendid; their houfes and furniture very elegant. This elegance within their families, muft arife wholly from the ladies, who are very induftrious, polite and focial. They cannot hoaft of beauty, but this deficiency is made up in affability and fincerity. Though fo near France, they do not, like England, compliment that nation, by fol ber of the poor. Alfo, the fpin house, where are employed those poor unfored their tuin. The common girls are tunate girls, whose affability has provdifguftingly ugly. I could not but pity the poor wretches, as nature had been fo unkind, that they could newas confidered as an antidote to love : ver expect marriage, unless beauty It was rather unfortunate they were born in this country, where Venus has not been lavish of her graces and charms. In America, fo peculiarly the favourite of this goddefs, they would have efcaped the fnares of feduction Their ugly appearance would have been the guardian of their chaftity. We went through the mad houses, where are objects which excite the keeneft reflections. There is alfo an hofpital, where poor Atrangers are enFriday evening, we went to the Jewstertained gratis for three nights. On fynagogue. Such a`rabble, and fuch confufion, are a burlesque upon reli-^ gion. The rafp house is a prifon for criminals, who are confined for a numbrazil wood. ber of years, and employed in fawing Whatever may have pity their unhappy lot. been their crimes, I could not but Their pu nifhment however, is more eligible England. than DEATH, fo often infli&ed in To the Editors of the BOSTON MA- I Gentlemen, T has long been a fubje&t of dif pute, whether the male or female in love. For my own part, I am in-. fex be most remarkable for conftancy clined, from obfervation and experithe ladies. I am far from thinking, ence, to give my opinion in favour of however, that inconftancy is any vedies may be aftonished at this affertiry great crime in the men. The laimputed entirely to them, that we are on; but I affure them, that it is to be fo changeable in our affections. Nature has made women fo charming, that it is impoffible, when we fee her, not to love her. But the cause of ficklenefs is, that nature has made too many women. This is peculiarly the misfortune in this capital, where beautiful ladies are fcattered with fuch profufion, that I defy any man, who walks the fireets with his eyes open, to be conftant a month. The impreffion,made by the lovely complexion of one lady, will infallibly be obliterated by the (parkling eyes of another. Many inftances, which prove the truth of thefe obfervatious, might be produced. Some particulars of my own hiftory afford one. A few months ago, by the death of an old aunt in the country, an eftate worth three thousand pounds fell into my poffeffion. As I have long entertained a very romantic idea of the pleafures of matrimonial life, the first thing I determined to do, upon hearing the good news, was to look out for a wife. An eafy cullibility of difpofition which I poffefs, I thought, would qualify me to make a very good hufband Mrs. Arrabella, an affable widow, who lives opposite to my lodgings, was the first object of my affection. She told me, that it was a fhame a young fellow of my accomplishments should live fingle; and that the knew many ladies who would be very happy to give me their hands. In short, the Battered me fo agreeably, that, in lefs than three weeks acquaintance, I fell deeply in love with her. I went to drink tea with her one afternoon, fully determined to make a declaration of my paflion, when it unfortunately happened, that Belinda, a dear little coquette, was paying her a vifit. This lady, who poffeffes fprightlinefs, wit and politeness, directed her eyes at me, as foon as I entered the room. I forgot Arrabella immediately. The afternoon paffed away I know not how. All I know is, that, at the end of it, I waited upon Belinda home. She allured me, in our walk, that he had long withed for the pleasure of my acquaintance; for The had heard that I was a gentleman of a refined tafle and moft benevolent heart. She added, that he had now the happiness of finding, from the delicacy and ingenuity of my converfation, that I exceeded her expectati ons. I answered her in fome very warm expreffions. Never were kin dred fouls fo enamoured of each other, as we were in three minutes. I had juft begun to make an offer of my perfon, when we arrived at the door of her house. I entered without ceremony; for coquettes prevent all ceremony. "My dear Eliza, faid Beliada to a young lady who arose to receive us, this is Mr. Inconftant, of whom you have heard so much." I faluted her, and Belinda escaped men. Delia however, at length convinced me that Eliza was deflitute of every attraction. This is a young lady of fixteen, who to a moft beautiful face and elegant perfon has added great ingenuity, fenfibility, and delicacy. Alas! That Sophia fhould be endowed with more knowledge and w.fdom. Intelligent Sophia, how wretched am I, that Maria's wit fhould have power to obliterate the impreffion made by the good fenfe of your converfation. Maria fmiled fo bewitchingly, reparteed fo fatirically, and repeated poetry of her own fo gracefully, that I concluded I had now found the pa ragon of perfection. In thefe fentiments I fhould have ftill remained, had I not feen at he house, one day, the amiable Candi da. But I had fcarcely difcovered tha Candida was all alfability, fincerity and good nature; I had but twice a fured her, how much I efteemed, love and adored her,when her lovely frien Fanny, caught my attention. Sh poffeffes all the amiable properties Candida, is two years younger, an much more beautiful. I apprehend her charms would have been fatal to my peace of mind (for the abfolutely refused to receive my addreffes) had I not become ac quainted with Harriet, who is fix months younger still. The beauty of this lady was juft in the bud; but it promised to expand every day more and more till it should bloffom into perfection. She was tall and genteel, had teeth white as the flock of theep defcribed by Solomon, a skin delicate' and clear; there was a glow of health and fenfibility in her check, and a fpirit of vivacity and frolic in her eyes. She fpoke but little, but the liftened with attention. One wished to hear her talk; for it feemed impoffible that a young lady of fuci. eafy manners, and fo intelligent a countenance should not deliver herself agreeably. When I faw her, a flame, more delicious than I had hitherto felt, glided through my veins. Had the poffeffed only a more eloquent tongue, Paflorella could never have been able to have taken my heart from her. Paftorella is handfome; but it was not her beauty which ftruck me. It was her romantic ideas, and her rural language. I thought I perceived Arcadia's plain rife up to view, when I heard her (peak, with the most melodious voice, of rocks and focks, of hills and rills, of mountams and fountains. Several ladies, who facceeded in the dominion of my heart, I pafs over. At prefeat it is retained by Angelina. She is not fo young as Harriet; but the poffeffes the lip of Eliza, thefprightlinefs of Belinda, the romance of Paftorelia, the wit of Maria, the knowledge of Sophia, and the finceri ty of Candida. Her converfation can never be fully defcribed. There is no thing in it low or impertinent, abfurd or trite. It is at the fame time (portive and gay, ingenious and inftructive, animated and original. It is not a compound of nonfenfe and fcandal, fuch as is too commonly met with; but is "The feaft of reafon and the flow b DR R. COOPER was the fecond fon of that diftinguished divine, the late Rev. WILLIAMCOOPER, one of the paftors of the church in Brattle Street: He was born the 28th of March, 1725. While he was paffing through the common course of educa tion at a grammar fchool in this town, and afterwards at the univerfity in Cambridge, he exhibited such marks of a mafterly genius as gave his friends the pleature of anticipating a life eminently ufeful to his country. His pious father having defigned him for the gofpel miniftry, was happy to find his fon's inclination. meeting his own. Divinity was therefore the Doctor's favourite ftudy; and having early felt the impreffions of ferious religion, the honour of being a minifter of the gospel weighed down every confideration of temporal ad vantages. He early made his appearance as a preacher, and so acceptable were his first performances, and fuch the expectations they had raised, that he had fcarce attained to the age of twenty years before he received a call from the church and congregation in Brattle-Street, to fucceed his father who died December 13th, 1743, as colleague with the celebrated Dr. Colman. In this office he was ordained May 25th, 1746, juft thirty years after the ordination of his father. The Doctor did not disappoint the expectations he had raised; his reputation increased, and he was foon one of the moft univerfally acceptable preachers in the country. Through a course of near thirty-nine years blic |