will lead me through Italy-it is a quiet journey of the heart in pursuit of NATURE, and those affections which arife out of. her, which make us love each other and the world, better than we do. The Count said a great many civil things to me upon the occafion; and added, very politely, how much he food obliged to Shakespear, for making me known to him. But, à propos, said he - Shakefpear is full of great things. He forgot a small punctilio of announcing your name it puts you under a neceffity of doing it yourself. THE PASSPORT. VERSAILLES. THERE is not a more perplexing affair in life to me, than to set about telling any one who I am-for there is fcarce any body I cannot give a better account of than of myself; and I have often wifhed I could do it in a fingle word-and have an end of it. It was the only time and occafion in my life, I could accomplish this to any purpose for Shakespear lying upon the table and recollecting I was in his books, I took up Hamlet, and turning immediately to the grave-diggers fcene in the fifth act, I laid my finger upon YORICK, and, advancing the book to the Count, with my finger all the way over the name-Me voici ! faid I. Now, whether the idea of poor Yorick's fkull was put out of the Count's mind, by the reality of my own, or by what magick he could drop a period of seven or eight hundred years, makes nothing in this account it is certain the French conceive better than they combine-I wonder at nothing in this world, and the less at this; inasmuch as one of the firft of our own church, for whofe candour and paternal sentiments I have the highest veneration, fell into the fame miftake in the very fame cafe." He could not bear, "he faid, to look into fermons wrote by "the King of Denmark's jefter."—Good, my Lord! faid I; but there are two Yoricks. The Yorick your Lordship thinks of, has been dead and buried eight hundred years ago; he flourished in Horwendillus's court - the other Yorick is myself, who have flourished, my Lord, in no court - He fhook his head - Good God! faid I, you might as well confound Alexander the Great, with Alexander the Coppersmith, my Lord It was all one, he replied.— -If Alexander King of Macedon could have tranflated your Lordship, said I— I am fure your Lordship would not have faid fo. The poor Count de B **** fell but into the fame error — — Et, Monfieur, eft-il Yorick? cried the Count-Je le fuis, faid I.-Vous? — Moi-moi qui ai l'honneur de vous parler, Monfieur le Comte. Mon Dieu! said he, embracing me - Vous êtes Yorick! The Count inftantly put the Shakespear into his pocket- and left me alone in his room. THE PASSPORT. VERSAILLES. I COULD not conceive why the Count de B* **** had gone so abruptly out of the room, any more than I could conceive why he had put the Shakespear into his pocket-Myfteries which muft explain themselves, are not worth the loss of time which a conjecture about them takes up: it was better to read Shakespear; so taking up "Much ade about Nothing, I transported myself inftantly from the chair I fat in, to Mellina in Sicily, and got fo bufy with Don Pedro and Benedict and Beatrice, that I thought not of Verfailles, the Count, or the Passport. Sweet pliability of man's fpirit, that can at once furrender itself to illufions, which cheat expectation and forrow of their weary moments! -Long-long fince had he numbered out my days, had I not trod fo great a part of them upon this enchanted ground; when my way is too Tough for my feet, or too fteep for my ftrength, I get off it, to some smooth velvet path which fancy has scattered over with rose-buds of delights; and having taken a few turns in it, come back firengthened and refreshed - When evils press fore upon me, (and there is no retreat from them in this world,) then I take a new course I leave it, and as I have a clearer idea of the Elyfian fields than I have of Heaven, I force myself, like Aeneas, into them I fee him meet the penfive shade of his forfaken Dido- and wish to recognise it-I see the injured fpirit wave her head, and turn off filent from the author of her miferies and dif honours-I lofe the feelings for myself in hers, and in those affections which were wont to make me mourn for her when I was at school. - Surely this is not walking in a vain fhadow-nor does man difquiet himself in vain by it-he oftener does lo in trufting the issue of his commotions to reason onlyI can fafely fay for myself, I was never able to conquer any one fingle bad sensation in my heart fo decifively, as by beating up as faft as I could for fome kindly and |