bout them; if you can't bear disappointments of this kind with a philosophic composure, take a coach or a chair; and please yourself with laughing at those whom you see disconcerted by the same accidents which disturb your repose.""" Tis a plaguy thing though, said he, that a man can't go peaceably about his business, without paying these rascals for being carried from place to place, or else having his cloaths spoilt. - The first night I came to town, in the dusk of the evening, a fellow past by me with a door upon his shoulders; I thought I allowed him room enough to pass without jostling, but a villainous hinge, which hung from it, stuck close to my arm, and made a monstrous rent in my surtout.-Besides, there is such a collection of filthy smells in the streets of London, that I wonder the air is not peftilential.How can you bear to live, here, Mr. Babble? You must surely have an excellent conftitution ! -"A great deal, my friend, said I, depends on ufe, and a great deal on a disposition to be pleas'd. -Every state of life has its disquietudes, and every place its inconveniencies, which seldom make a deep impreffion on us when we are accustomed to them; and indeed we should be very miferable beings if they did. You have been long absent from this busy capital, and make too nice a comparison between the bustle of a town

life, and the tranquillity of a country life.-Were you to refide in London two or three months, you would not be fo acutely pained by some of its fmells, and chagrined by the brutality, or inadvertency of fome of its inhabitants. I must own indeed there are several regulations wanting; but those regulations are not to be made by such people as you and I. If magistrates will not exert their authority, and endeavour to rectify publick hufances, we can't make them. 'Tis better therefore, I think, to bear without repining, the evils which we can't remove, than to make ourselves uneasy about them:-those who are too quickly difcompofed by the common accidents of life, contract a peevishness which renders them unsociable, unamiable, and confequently unhappy."-" Lookee, Mr. Babble, replied he, 'tis an eafy matter to preach, but not fo easy to practise; -you talk very fluently, and I am glad with all my heart that you make yourself so happy; but, for my part-Here we were luckily interrupted by the arrival of our coffee and Yorkshire cakes.

The conversation then turned on more agreeable subjects; my friend was greatly refreshed by his breakfast, and left me foon afterwards in a tolerable mood,

NUMB.

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NUMB. XV. Saturday, June 19, 1756.

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Veluti in speculo.

As in a Mirror.

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THEN a few Moons had passed away, Hamed, a young Man of large posseffions, and remarkable integrity, demanded Zulima for a Wife. His Palace dazled the eye with its magnificence. His Dress was purple enriched with gold, and the jewels in his Turban glittered like the rays of the Sun. He commanded, by inheritance, an extensive tract of Land, which was cultivated like a garden. Herds innumerable lowed in his fields, and Flocks without number bleated in his pastures. Yet in the midst of his fiches Hamed was temperate; fifty Women only had he in his Haram. He had many personal perfections, but they were trifling compar'd to the Beauties of his Mind, which resembled an Emerald of inestimable value, deposited in a golden casket. The first view of Zulima's un common charms, struck him at once with wonn der and delight. She appeared to his ravished eyes

eyes as majestic as the Cedar of Lebanon, and graceful as the Tulip of Candahar. He poured forth his Soul before her, called her the light of his Life, and swore, she was more lovely than the daughters of Paradise. Zulima foon became inebriated with the homage paid to her, and imagining too hastily that she should increase his fensibility, by retarding the completion of his wishes, and quicken defire by protracting the moment of poffeffion, urged him, by turns, to hope and to despair, by every feminine artifice she could think of. But Hamed foon difcovered, that the heart of Zulima was as deceitful as the Ocean, when it is unruffled by a breeze, and that she was neither charmed by his Person, nor captivated by his Manners. He discovered, that the voice of adulation alone was music to her Ear, and that she was blind to all Beauties but her own. At this discovery his Soul was filled with indignation. Resentment extinguished all emotions of tenderness, and drove him abruptly from her pre

fence.

Zulima, as foon as Hamed had left her, hastened to her Talisman with the rapidity of a Roe, to fee in what light she had appeared to him, and to embellish herself with new Graces against the next interview; for as he had not mentioned his intention

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intention never to return, the hopes of fanning the flames of Love with fresh allurements, made her spirits flow with unusual brifkness, and her feet bound with unusual agility. But how great was her furprize, when, instead of Eyes sparkling with pleasure, and Cheeks glowing with expectation, she beheld in the polished crystal a monster of ugliness. Shock'd at the unexpected fight, she gazed at her alter'd Image. She gazed and was astonished. Abdaric instantaneously darted into her mind. She found, on a retrofpect of her conduct, that she had encouraged the addresses of Hamed not out of a regard for himself; not out of obedience to her father; not from a defire to be happily married; but to hear the fighs of fondness, to have her Ears regaled with the soothing strains of Eulogy; to be admired and praised, to be flattered and adored. Her conscience smote her. She repented, and at the fame time determined to receive Hamed with more affability, and to listen to him with more attention: to deserve his Love, and to merit his Esteem. These refolves had, in some measure, the wished-for effect. She saw with ecstasy her face by degrees recover its accustomed bloom; but its bloom, alass, was recovered too late, for Hamed had, during the eclipse of it, placed his affections