Nerissa into some of the first and gayest circles of which the town could boast; and, as it was sometimes a place of fashionable resort, the scenes which she now witnessed were so entirely new to her, the manners she saw so different from the unvarying simplicity of those which characterized the village in which she resided, that another world seemed bursting upon her. All her former habits of thinking and acting were overturned, and she had no partialities and predilections but those which sprung from the brilliant circles with which she now associated. She was anxious to excel in all the accomplishments, which appeared to her to be the only passports to notice and admiration in general company, and she sighed for an acquaintance with refinements, of which she before never knew the existence. Many young men appeared to her to be far more amiable and accomplished than her Eugenius, and when she compared his native candour and unostentatious sincerity with the flattering attentious of some of the fluttering fribbles of the ball-room, how greatly did he suffer by the comparison! He possessed noue of the little graces and elegancies which she so much admired in them, and therefore she began to despise him, forgetful that it was her favourable reception of his early addresses, that made him unambitious to attain them.

Thus prejudiced against her former admirer, dazzled by the daily novelties rising around her, and rendered giddy by the numerous, novel, and lively objects which were quickly passing before her in this new view into society, she gave way to the assiduous and fulsome atten tions of a rival to Eugenius, and, at the expense of a first

affection and broken vows, married him. Her aunt, to whose contracted system of seclusion in early life Nerissa owed all her troubles, had died soon after her niece had been openly betrothed to Eugenius. The new bride, therefore, had now the entire disposal of her property: she committed it all to the care of her husband, and with a burning curiosity to see and indulge in the delights of the metropolis, accompanied him to London. There she entered into every scene of fashionable dissipation, because they were to her, scenes of novelty. Her hus band encouraged her desire to engage in every extrava-' gance by joining in every frivolous wish she expressed; it was therefore no difficult thing for him to persuade her to transform every species of property into means to satisfy present calls, and to indulge in new extravagancies.

After little short of a year had been spent in this continual round of pleasure, Nerissa lay in with her first child, and the confinement which this subjected her to, gave her husband something like a specious plea for pursuing his pleasures alone. It was now that Nerissa began to reflect on the folly of the course she had pursued. The growing indifference of her husband towards her was too evident not to be perceived. The affection which she felt for her new offspring made her think seriously of her domestic duties, for her heart was never radically bad, although the giddy whirl, into which her head had been lately thrown, had sometimes led it into But she found herself unable to bring her husband to a proper feeling on the same subject. He had his riotous companions and jolly boys whose society he valued more than that of his wife and child; and if

error.

Nerissa ventured to reproach him for want of affection, she was treated with incivility, if not with brutality. She was now alas! convinced of the uselessness of those assumed graces and elegancies, which had so much attracted her attention before marriage: she saw how easily they could be thrown off, and exchanged for the most gross and repugnant habits. She now too late discovered that she had hurried into matrimony with a mere adventurer, who had neither property nor principle; for, after another year had passed, in which she conti nually remonstrated with her husband, and patiently bore his brutal insolence in return, he deserted her, just as she was delivered of her second child.

How acutely now did she feel the misery, which her short career of folly had brought upon her. It was in vain that she now repented the precipitancy of her mar. riage. It was in vain that she repined, when she saw herself robbed of an affluence, which would have supported her, even handsomely, to the end of her days. Abandoned to the wide world, with two helpless children for whose existence she was responsible, to what a heart-rending situation was she reduced! She had but one friend in the world-she had but one step to pursue, however torturing the humiliation. She set out for the village of her former residence; and, worn out with woe and fatigue, arrived just in time to present herself to the injured Eugenius (who had but newly entered into orders)—to cast a last look on the meadows over which they had rambled together, and, throwing herself and children at his feet, expire.

H.

254

ON THE WONDERFUL PROPERTIES AND ADVAN TAGES OF LOTTERIES.

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IT is a delightful and gratifying reflection that we live in an age and country when no man need be poor, but through his own obstinacy. Every body who has an inclination to be rich may be made so whenever he pleases :

a fact which is sufficiently plain and evident from the great number of civil advertisements in the newspapers respecting Lotteries; in which £20,000—with a note of admiration (no improper appendage by the bye) is at once offered to the most wretched or the most unfortunate. The world formerly complained very justly of the inconstancy of fortune, and many worthy persons, as there was then no lottery, wrote books to inculcate a sort of dull resignation to the dispensations of Providence under the severest losses. Such a remedy was applicable to only a few philosophers, but was useless to the great bulk of mankind. It is not that misfortunes are now less common than formerly; but that, like some diseases, if they cannot be avoided, they may be easily cured. On the contrary, bankruptcies and all other disasters were never more frequent. It is but a few days ago, that a circumstance occurred which would have formerly been reckoned an event of the most exquisite distress. I allude to the failure of my neighbour, Mr. Surtout, the eminent tailor, an evil considerably aggra vated by the acute and delicate feelings of his lady and three daughters; especially as it happened just as he

was looking up to the honour of knighthood. Mr. Surtout, it is true, had long kept his chariot and countryhouse, for the accommodation of his lady and daughters, who had received a most fashionable education in French, geography, music, drawing, and every other necessary accomplishment. The family, however, are not so unhappy as might be expected; and Mr. Surtout, who is a great politician, candidly owned to me, that he had still a resource left-in the humane institution of the Lottery. I perfectly agreed in the observation of this "eminent taylor," who said further, that he would im-, mediately apply at Bish's for a 10,000 prize, for his lady had had a dream about the particular number. He wasso certain, that Mr. Bish (even taking it from his own advertisement) had that sum in readiness for him, that he consulted me as to the propriety of undertaking again the fatigues of his profession, or of retiring, with his amiable family, to a snug box within a few miles of town.

This gentleman's case fully proves how Lotteries may extricate a man from the most disagreeable circumstances. Extravagance had formerly no other resource under its misconduct but patience or a brace of pistols; but since the invention of Lotteries the prospect has been improved! It is somewhat strange that some of our journalists have not yet given an account of the suicides, which have been prevented by the timely supply of a capital prize. The comforts of philosophers are so vague, that they can be of service to few but heroes and philosophers; but now every eminent tailor and boots