I

It was not till the middle of the fecond dance, when, from fome pauses in the movement wherein they all feemed to look up, fancied I could distinguish an elevation of spirit different from that which is the cause or the effect of fumple jollity. In a word, I thought I beheld Religion mixing in the dance-but as I had never seen her fo engaged, I fhould have look'd upon it now as one of the illufions of an imagination which is eternally misleading ine, had not the old man, as foon as the dance ended, faid, that this was their conftant way! and that all his life long he had made it a rule, after fupper was over, to call out his family to dance and rejoice; believing he said, that a chearful and contented mind was the best fort of thanks to heaven that an illiterate peafant

THE CASE OF DELICACY.

WHEN you have gained the

top

of mount

Taurira, you run presently down to Lyons→ adieu then to all rapid movements! 'Tis a journey of caution; and it fares better with sentiments, not to be in a hurry with them; fo I contracted with a Voiturin to take his

time with a couple of mules, and convey me in my own chaife fafe to Turin through Savoy.

Poor, patient, quiet, honeft people! fear not; your poverty, the treafury of your fimple virtues, will not be envied you by the world, nor will your vallies be invaded by it.-Nature in the midst of thy disorders, thon art still friendly to the fcantiness thou haft createdwith all thy great works about thee, little haft thou left to give, either to the fcithe or to the fickle-but to that little thou grantest safety

and

and protection; and fweet are the dwellings which fland fo shelter'd.

Let the way-worn traveller vent his complaints upon the fudden turns and dangers of your roads your rocks-your precipices-the difficulties of getting up the horrors of getting down-mountains inprácticable- and cataracts, which roll down great flones from their fummits, and block his road up.-The peafants had been all day at work in removing a fragment of this kind between St. Michael and Madane; and by the time my Voiturin got to the place, it wanted full two hours of completing before a paffage could any how be gained: there was nothing but to wait with patience'twas a wet and tempeftuous night; fo that by the delay, and that together, the Voiturin found himself obliged to take five miles fhort of his ftage at å little decent kind of an inn by the road fide.

I forthwith took poffeffion of my bedchamber got a good fire-order'd fupper;

and was thanking heaven it was no worse when a voiture arrived with a lady in it and her fervant-maid.

As there was no other bed-chamber in the houfe, the hoftefs, without much nicety, led them into mine, telling them, as she usher'd them in, that there was no body in it but an English gentleman-that there were two good beds in it, and a clofet within the room which held another-the accent in which the spoke of this third bed did not fay much for it-however, fhe faid there were three beds, and but three people- and fhe durft fay, the gentleman would do any thing to accomodate matters. I left not the lady a moment to make a conjecture about it-fo inftantly mnade a declaration I would do any thing in my power.

As this did not amount to an abfolute furrender of my bed-chamber, I ftill felt myself fo much the proprietor, as to have a right to do the honours of it-fo I defired the lady to

fit down-preffed her into the warmeft feat call'd for more wood defired the hoftefs to enlarge the plan of the fupper, and to favour us with the very best wine.

The lady had fcarce warm'd herself five minutes at the fire, before fhe began to turn her head back, and give a look at the beds; and the oftener fhe caft her eyes that way, the more they return'd perplex'd-I felt for herand for myfelf; for in a few minutes, what by her looks, and the cafe itself, I found myfelf as much embaraffed as it was poffible the lady could be herfelf.

*

That the beds we were to lay in were in one and the fame room, was enough fimply by itself to have excited all this but the pofition of them, for they flood parallel, and fo

very close to each other as only to allow space for a fmall wicker chair betwixt them, render'd the affair ftill more oppreffive to us- they were fix'd up moreover near the fire, and the projection of the chimney on one fide, and a

large