Oft do I walk along the purling fiream, And fee the bleating flocks around me ftray: III. Here daily dancing on the flow'ry ground The chearful fhepherds join their flute and voice; Alone the turtle tunes her plaintive strain. IV. Here the green turf invites my wearied head V. Here free from all the tempefts of the Great, From Envy's rage fecure, and Fortune's pow'r ; Or Truth's immortal fource alone explore. VI. Here far from all the busy world's alarms, I prove in peace the Mufe's facred leisure: Break my repofe, or interrupt my pleasure. This fong delighted the old Gentleman to a great degree. He told me, he was charmed with it, not only for the fine mufic I made of it, but the morality of it, and liked me fo • much, that I was moft heartily welcome to make his folitary retreat my home, as often and as long as I pleased. And, indeed, I did fo, and continued to behave in fuch a manner, that in two months time, I gained fo entirely his affections, and fo totally the heart of his admirable daughter, that I ⚫ might have had her in wedlock when I pleafed, after the ex⚫piration of that current year, which was the young Lady's requeft, and be fecured of his eftate at his death, befides a ⚫ large fortune to be immediately paid down; and this, tho' my father should refufe to fettle any thing on me, or Mifs Noel, my wife. This was generous and charming as my heart heart could defire. I thought myself the happieft of men. Every week I went to Eden-Park, one time or other, to fee my dear Mifs Noel, and pay my refpects to her worthy father. We were, while I stayed, a most happy family, and • enjoyed fuch fatisfactions as few, I believe, have experienced in this tempeftuous hemifphere. Mr. Noel was paffionately fond of his daughter, and he could not regard me more if I ⚫ had been his own fon. I loved my Harriot with a fondness ⚫ beyond defcription; and that glorious girl had all the esteem I could wifh fhe had for me. Our mutual felicity could rise no higher till we gave our hands, as we had already plighted our hearts. This world is a series of vifionary scenes, and contains fo little folid, lafting felicity, as I have found it, that I cannot call life more than a deception; and, as Swift fays it, he is the happiest man, who is best deceived. When I thought myself within a fortnight of being married to Mifs Noel, and thereby made as compleatly happy, in every respect, as it was poffible for a mortal man to be; the fmall-pox steps in, and, in feven days time, reduced the finest human frame in the universe, to the most hideous and offenfive block. The most amiable of human creatures mortified all over, ⚫ and became a spectacle the most hideous and unbearable.— This broke her father's heart in a month's time, and the ⚫ paradife I had in view, funk into everlafting night. My heart, upon this fad accident, bled and mourned to an extreme degree. All the tender paffions were up in my foul, and with great difficulty could I keep my ruffled spirits in tolerable decorum. I loft what I valued more than my ' life-more than repeated millions of worlds, if it had been poffible to get them in exchange. This engaged, beloved partner, was an honour to her fex, and an ornament to human kind. She was one of the wifeft and most agreeable of women; and her life quite glorious for piety to God, compaffion to the neceffitous and miferable, benevolence and good will to all, with every other grace and virtue. These hined with a bright luftre in her whole deportment, and ⚫ rendered her beloved, and the delight of all that knew her. • Sense and Genius were in her united; and by study, reflexion, and application, fhe improved the talents, in the happi'eft manner. She had acquired a fuperiority in thinking, " speaking, writing, and acting, and in manners, her beha viour, her language, her defign, her understanding, were inexpreffibly charming. Mifs Noel died in the twenty-fourth year of her age, the 29th of December, in the year 1724. This • Having thus loft Mifs Noel, and my good old friend, her worthy father, I left the univerfity, and went down to the country, after five years and three months abfence, to fee how things were pofited at home, and pay my refpects to my father; but I found them very little to my liking, and in a fhort time returned to Dublin again. He had lately ⚫ married, in his old age, a young wife, who was one of the moft artful, falfe, and infolent of women; and to gratify her to the utmoft of his power, had not only brought her • nephew into his houfe, but was ridiculously fond of him, and lavishly gratified all his defires. Whatever this little brute (the fon of a drunken beggar, who had been a journey-man glover) was pleafed, in wantonnels, to call for, and that his years, then fixteen, could require, my father's ⚫ fortune in an inftant produced; while fcarcely one of my • rational demands could be anfwered. Money, cloaths, fervants, horfes, dogs, and all things he could fancy, were given him in abundance; and to please the bafeft of women, and the most cruel ftep-mother that ever the devil infpired to make the fon of another woman miferable, I was denied almoft every thing. The fine allowance I had at the univerfity was taken from me. Even a horse to ride out to • the neighbouring Gentlemen, was refused me, tho' my father had three ftables of extraordinary cattle; and, till I purchased one, was forced to walk it, where ever I had a mind to vifit. What is ftill more incredible (if any thing of feverity can be fo, when a mother-in-law is fovereign) I was not allowed to keep my horse even at grafs on the land, tho' five hundred acres of freehold eftate furrounded the • manfion, but obliged to graze it at a neighbouring farmer's. Nor was this all the hard measure I received.-Religion • had a hand in my mifery. Falfe Religion was the spring of that paternal refentment I fuffered under. It was my father's wont to have prayers read every night and morning in his family, and the office was the Litany of the Common-prayer book. This work, on my coming home, was transferred from my fifter to me; and for about one week I performed to the old Gentleman's fatisfaction, as my voice was good, and my reading diftinct and clear: but this office was far from being grateful to me, as I was become a ftrict Unitarian, by the leffons I had received from my private tutor in college, and my own examinations of the vulgar faith. It went against my confcience to use the tritheiftic form of prayer, and became at last fo uneafy to mey that I altered the prayers the first Sunday morning, and • made $2 made them more agreeable to Scripture, as I conceived. My father at this was very highly enraged, and his paffion arofe to fo great a height, upon my defending my confeffion, and refufing to read the established form, that he called me ⚫ the most impious and execrable of wretches, and with violence drove me from his prefence. Soon after, however, he fent me Lord Nottingham's Letter to Mr. Whiston, and ⚫ defired I would come to him when I had carefully read it over. I did fo; and he afked me what I thought of the ⚫ book. I answered, that I thought it a weak piece; and if he would hear me with patience, in relation to that in particular, and to the cafe in general, perhaps, he might think my religion a little better than at present he fuppofed it to be. I will hear you, he faid: proceed. Then I immediately began, and for a full hour repeated an apology I had prepared. He did not interrupt me once; and when I had done, all he replied was, I fee you are to be placed among the incurables. Begone, he faid, with ftern difdain; and I refolved to obey. Indeed it was impoffible for me to ftay, ⚫ for my father took no farther notice of me, and my motherin-law, and the boy, did all they could invent to render my ⚫ life miferable. On the first day of May then, early in the morning, as the clock ftruck one, I mounted my excellent mare, and ⚫ with my boy, O'Fin, began to journey as I had projected, on feeing how things went. I did not communicate my defign to a foul, nor take my leave of any one, but in the true fpirit of adventure, abandoned my father's dwelling, and fet out to try what fortune would produce in my favour. I had the world before me, and Providence my guide. As to my fubftance, it confifted of a purfe of gold, that contained fifty Spanish piftoles, and half a score moidores; and I had a bank note for five hundred pounds, which my dear • Mifs Noel left me by her will, the morning the fickened; and it was all the had of her own to leave to any one. • With this I fet forward, and in five days time arrived, from the western extremity of Ireland, at a village called RingsEnd, that lies on the Bay of Dublin. Three days I refted there, and at the Conniving-houfe, and then got my horfes • on board a ship that was ready to fail, and bound for the land I was born in, I mean Old England." And now, having fhipped our Author for his native clime, we shall take our leave of him, for the prefent, to make room for a work of a very different kind, our mention of which, has been but too long delayed: however, we hope, the extraordinary addition lately made to the number of our sheets, will foon enable us to pay off the whole of our arrear to the public. A Treatise on Ruptures. By Percival Pott, Surgeon to St. Bar tholomew's Hospital. 8vo. 4s. Hitch and Hawes. O N a former occafion we mentioned the Venereal Difeafe as one of the principal refources of Empiricism; Ruptures may, with great propriety, be arranged under the fame Predicament. The boafted pretences of fecrets for the cure of the latter, have not been lefs numerous than for the former; and it will, perhaps, be difficult to determine, whether the pretenders to the one are entitled to the honour of having facrificed more victims than the profeffors of the other." But experience has clearly fhewn, that most of these fecrets, however countenanced, however applauded, whatever great feats their original poffeffors afcribed to them, have no fooner been difclofed, but they have fallen into contempt. If inftances of this kind, were neceffary, or convenient for us to enumerate, multitudes might be produced: let it fuffice to mention two remarkable ones; that of the Prior Cabriere, whofe arcanum was purchased, at no inconfiderable expence, about the latter end of the last century, by Lewis XIV; and in our own country, that of Sir Thomas Renton's, for which he was paid by his late Majefty 5000l. befides a penfion of 500l. a year, and the honour of Knighthood. That Credulity has not loft its influence, or Pretenders to Phyfic their affurance, the public ftill daily experience. 6 To remove the prejudice against the profeffion (with regard to Rup ⚫tures) which the repeated affertions of advertising Quacks has raifed, and which a perfect ignorance of the nature of the disease, and the parts concerned in it, ftill fupports," is one profeffed defign of the work now under our confideration. Nor has our Author unaptly traced the probable fource of this prevailing credulity: To labour,' fays he, under a troublefome diforder, in the moft active and joyous part of life, and to be told that a palliative cure, by wearing a bandage, is all that can be expected, is very difagreeable; the true reafon of this, they [the patients] are not acquainted ⚫ with, and are eafily induced to believe, what is infinuated to' |