their arrival ;-nothing would the souls of Smelfungus and Mundungus hear of, but fresh anthems of joy, fresh raptures of love, and fresh congratulations of their common felicity. I heartily pity them; they have brought up no faculties for this work; and, was the happiest mansion in heaven to be allotted to Smelfungus and Mundungus, they would be so far from being happy, that the souls of Smelfungus and Mundungus would do penance there to all eternity. MONTRIUL. I HAD once lost my portmanteau from behind my chaise, and twice got out in the rain, and one of the times up to the knees in dirt, to help the postillion to tie it on, without being able to find out what was wanting ;-nor was it till I got to Montriul, upon the landlord's asking me if I wanted not a servant, that it occurred to me, that that was the very thing. A servant! that I do most sadly, quoth I.-Because, Monsieur, said the landlord, there is a clever young fellow, who would be very proud of the honour to serve an Englishman.-But why an English one, more than any other?-They are so generous, said the landlord.-I'll be shot if this is not a livre out of my pocket, quoth 1 to myself, this very night.-But they have wherewithal to be so, Monsieur, added he.-Set down one livre more for that, quoth I.-It was but last night, said the landlord, qu'un my Lord Anglois presentoit un ecu à la fille de chambre.-Tant pis, pour Madamoiselle Janatone, said I. Now Janatone being the landlord's daughter, and the landlord supposing I was young in French, took the liberty to inform me, I should not have said tant pis-but, tant mieux. Tant mieux, toujours, Monsieur, said he, when there is any thing to be got-tant pis, when there is nothing. It comes to the same thing, said I. Pardonnez moi, said the landlord. I cannot take a fitter opportunity to observe, once for all, that tant pis and tant mieux, being two of the great hinges in French conversation, a stranger would do well to set himself right in the use of them, before he gets to Paris. A prompt French Marquis at our Ambassador's table demanded of Mr. H-if he was H-the poet? No, said Mr. H- mildly.-Tant pis, replied the marquis. It is H-the historian, said another.-Tant mieux, said the Marquis. And Mr. H-, who is a man of an excellent heart, returned thanks for both. When the landlord had set me right in this matter, he called in La Fleur, which was the name of the young man he had spoke of-saying only first, That as for his talents he would presume to say nothing. Monsieur was the best judge what would suit him; but for the fidelity of La Fleur, be would stand responsible in all he was worth. The landlord delivered this in a manner which instantly set my mind to the business I was upon-and La Fleur, who stood waiting without, in that breathless expectation, which every son of nature of us have felt in our turns, came in. MONTRIUL. I AM apt to be taken with all kinds of people at first sight; but never more so, than when a poor devil comes to offer his service to so poor a devil as myself; and as I know this weakness, I always suffer my judg ment to draw back something on that very accountand this more or less, according to the mood I am in, and the case-and I may add the gender too, of the person I am to govern. When La Fleur entered the room, after every dis count I could make for my soul, the genuine look and air of the fellow determined the matter at once in his favour; so I hired him first-and then began to inquire what he could do. But I shall find out his talents, quoth I, as I want them ;-besides, a Frenchman can do every thing, Now poor La Fleur could do nothing in the world but beat a drum, and play a march or two upon the fife. I was determined to make his talents do and can't say my weakness was ever so insulted by my wisdom, as in the attempt. La Fleur had set out early in life, as gallantly as -most Frenchmen do, with serving for a few years; at the end of which, having satisfied the sentiment, and found moreover, That the honour of beating a drum was likely to be its own reward, as it opened no further track of glory to him-he retired à ses terres, and lived comme il plaisoit à Dieu-that is to say, upon nothing. -And so, quoth Wisdom, you have hired a drummer to attend you in this tour of your's throngh France and Italy!-Psha! said I, and do not one half of our gentry go with a humdrum compagnon du voyage the same round, and have the piper and the devil and all to pay besides? When man can extricate himself with an equivoque in such an unequal match, he is not ill off.-But you can do something else, La Fleur? said I.-O qu'oui! he could make spatterdashes, and play a little upon the fiddle.Bravo! said Wisdom.-Why, I play a bass myself, said I-we shall do very well. You can shave, and dress a wig a little, La Fleur ?-He hal all the dis positions in the world.-It is enough for Heaven! said I, interrupting him-and ought to be enough for me.So supper coming in, and having a frisky English spaniel on one side of my chair, and a French valet, with as much hilarity in his countenance as ever Nature painted in one, on the other-I was satisfied to my heart's content with my empire; and, if monarchs knew what they would be at, they might be as satisfed as I was. MONTRIUL. AS La Fleur went the whole tour of France and Italy with me, and will be often upon the stage, I must interest the reader a little further in his behalf, by saying, that I had never less reason to repent of the impulses which generally do determine me, than in regard to this fellow;-he was a faithful, affectionate, simple soul as ever trudged after the heels of a phi losopher; and, notwithstanding his talents of drumbeating and spatterdash-making, which, though very good in themselves, happened to be of no great ser vice to me, yet was I hourly recompensed by the festivity of his temper;-it supplied all defects:-I had a constant resource in his looks in all difficulties and distresses of my own-(I was going to have added, of his too); but La Fleur was out of the reach of every thing; for, whether 'twas hunger or thirst, or cold or nakedness, or watchings, or whatever stripes of ill luck La Fleur met with in our journeyings, there was no index in his physiognomy to point them out byhe was eternally the same; so that, if I am a piece of a philosopher-which Satan now and then puts it into my head I am-it always mortifies the pride of the conceit, by reflecting how much I owe to the complexional philosophy of this poor fellow, for shaming me into one of a better kind. With all this La Fleur had a small cast of the coxcomb;-but he seemed at first sight to be more a coxcomb of nature than of art; and, before I had been three days in Paris with him, he seemed to be no coxcomb at all. MONTRIUL. THE next morning, La Fleur entering upon his employment, I delivered to him the key of my portmantean, with an inventory of my half a dozen shirts and a silk pair of breeches, and bid him fasten all upon the chaire-get the horses put-to-and 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 eloge 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 goodwill 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-sure 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 assassinations-libels, 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 Andromede 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 Persens, O Cupid, prince of Gods and men, &c. Every man almost spoke pure iambacs the next day, and talked of nothing but Perseus his pathetic address-"O "Cupid! prince of Gods and men!"-in every street of Abdera, in every house-" O Cupid! Cupid!"in every mouth, like the natural notes of some sweet |