MONTREUIL.

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 determine me, than in regard to this fellow; he was a faithful, affectionate, simple soul as ever trudged after the heels of a philosopher; and, notwithstanding his talents of drum-beating and spatterdash-making, which, though very good in themselves, happened to be of no great service to me, yet I was 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 everything; for, whether 'twas hunger or thirst, or cold or nakedness, or watchings, whatever stripes of illluck La Fleur met with in our journeyings, there was no index in his physiognomy to point them out by, he 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.

MONTREUIL.

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 a silk pair of breeches, and bid him fasten all upon the chaise, 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 Montreuil where the want of him will not be felt but he has 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 another 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 anything 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 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 gods and men," &c. Every man almost spoke pure iambics the next day, and talked of nothing but Perseus' 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 melody, which drop from it, whether it will or no,-nothing but "Cupid! Cupid! prince of gods 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 a 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."

MONTREUIL.

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;