MONTRIUL. THE next morning La Fleur entering upon his employment, I delivered to him the key of my portmanteau, with an inventory of my half a dozen shirts and silk pair of breeches; and bid him fasten all upon the chaise-get the horses put toand desire the landlord to come in with his bill. C'est un garçon de bonne fortune, said the landlord, pointing through the window to half a dozen wenches who had got round about La Fleur, and were most kindly taking their leave of him, as the postillion was leading out the horses. La Fleur kissed all their hands round and round again, and thrice he wiped his eyes, and thrice he promised he would bring them all pardons from Rome. The young fellow, said the landlord, is beloved by all the town, and there is : scarce a corner in Montriul where the want of him will not be felt he has but one misfortune in the world, continued he" He is always in love."—I am heartily glad of it, said I,-'twill save me the trouble every night of putting my breeches under my head. In saying this, I was making not so much La Fleur's eulogy, as my own, having been in love with one princess or other almost all my life, and I hope I shall go on so till I die, being firmly persuaded, that if ever I do a mean action, it must be in some interval betwixt one passion and another whilst this interregnum lasts, I always perceive. my heart locked up-I can scarce find in it, to give Misery a sixpence; and therefore I always get out of it as fast as I can, and the moment I am rekindled, I am all generosity and good-will again; and would do any thing in the world either for or with any one, if they will but satisfy me there is no sin in it, But in saying this surely I am commending the passion-not myself. A FRAGMENT. The town of Abdera, notwithstanding Democritus lived there trying all the powers of irony and laughter to reclaim it, was the vilest and most profligate town in all Thrace. What for poisons, conspiracies, and assassinationslibels, pasquinades, and tumults, there was no going there by day-'twas worse by night. Now when things were at the worst, it came to pass, that the Andromeda of Euripides being represented at Abdera, the whole orchestra was delighted with it but of all the passages which delighted them, nothing operated more upon their imaginations, than the tender strokes of nature which the poet had wrought up in that pathetic speech of Perseus O Cupid! prince of God and men, &c. Every man almost spoke pure iambics the next day, and talked of nothing but Perseus's pathetic address-" O Cupid! "prince of God and men"-in every street of Abdera, in every house-" O Cupid! Cupid!"-In every mouth, like the natural notes of some sweet melody which drops from it whether it will or no nothing but " Cupid! Cupid! prince of God and men"- -The fire caught, and the whole city, like the heart of one man, opened itself to Love. No pharmacopolist could sell one grain of hellebore-not a single armourer had heart to forge one instrument of death -Friendship and Virtue met together, and kissed each other in the street-the golden age returned, and hung over the town of Abdera—every Abderite took his oaten pipe, and every Abderitish woman left her purple web, and chastely sat her down and listened to the song. 'Twas only in the power, says the Fragment, of the God whose empire extendeth from heaven to earth, and even to the depths of the sea, to have done this. MONTRIUL. WHEN all is ready, and every article is disputed and paid for in the inn, unless you are a little soured by the adventure, there is always a matter to compound at the door, before you can get into your chaise; and that is, with the sons and daughters of poverty, who surround you. Let no man say, "Let them go to the "devil" 'tis a cruel journey to send a few miserables, and they have had suf ferings enow, without it: I always think |