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(cried the jokers) they are not lively enough for any thing but a pack of half marved mendicant friars, or to fhed a fort of darkness, vifible, round the vault of our great grandfather.' The Francifcan next took us, by a narrow flight of fteps, into a long gallery, on each fide of which were the humble lodgings of his fraternity. He opened a little door which led into his own, and pointed, with a meek and patient action of the finger, to his couch of ftraw. The cafement of the window (half over which clung flips of ivy) might be about the fize of a fingle pane of a modern fafh, and it was defended by bars of iron. It feemed, indeed, to be the very cabinet of mortification and felfdenial; but the English jefters declared, it was the worst kennel for thofe foxes in theeps cloathing, the parlors, they ever beheld. This fimile bore fo hard upon the brotherhood, that our Franci'can (who, by the bye, understood too much English, to be infentible of a downright infult in coarte language) turned round to our companions, and was going to addrefs them, when, happening to turn his eye towards a crofs, upon which his God was extended, in the attitude of fuffering the latt indignity, after almoft every other had been difcharged against him, he bowed fubmiilively to the figure, as if he had just caught from it the fpirit of acquiefcence, and the colour which indignation had before brought from the heart to the check, went off, and put a check to whatever might have happened. Every nerve that I had was tha ken; and, leaving Amelia a moment to amufe herself with the pro fpect of the garden of the convent, through the little lattice in the iar's apartment, I drew the venerable monaftic gently afide into the gallery, and there, in a whisper, apologized for the liberties which were taken by our young, inexperienced travellers, who defired to appear more impious than they really were.

"The mendicant made no reply; but, as if he had heart enough to forgive all trefpafies against him, whether of malice or ignorance, he fimiled ineffable benignity, and we again joined the company.

"liere, to the increase of my diftrets, I found Amelia in a warm argument with our young gentlemen, upon the fubject of a decent deportment at places of public worship. The conteft, ir feems, began upon an expedient ftarted by the eldest, to make a covering for the nakedness of the figure upon the cross, in the room of the friar; for, our delicate Englishinen infifted, that, unlets fome fuch circumstance took place, a crucifix was not a fit object for female infpection; he therefore humbly made a motion, that the company would unani moutly enter into a voluntarily fubfcription, to make up fuch a fum as would purchase a compleat fuir of cloaths (not forgetting a little fparkle of tinfel in the French ftyle) that the Deity might, in future, appear in the drefs of a gentleman,

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.“ In fupport of this vein of ridicule, the youth was juft holding his hat to Amelia for her fubfcription, as we came into the room, and Amelia was parrying off the stroke, partly by blufhes and partly by arguments. is it not very strange, gentlemen (faid fhe) that a woman cannot be one moment unprotected, in any corner of the globe, how.. ever fanétimonious, but the must be infulted by the rudeness of her own countrymen? She had no time to go on the rage of the Francncan, at the fight of the crucifix, over which the wit had thrown Itis

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pocket-handkerchief, was worked into a pious enthufiafm, and his heart dictated to our firiplings a very severe and feasonable leffon.

"Be covered in the blufhes of confufion, gentlemen! (faid he). What principle is it by which you are thus directed to difgrace yourfelves and your country? We are taught to believe, that, on your fide of the fea, the feminaries of education are governed by laws that are wife, prudent, liberal and amiable. We are taught, that the education of an English gentleman is attended with a very confiderable expence: morals and humanity, it is faid, are particularly cultivated in your univerfities. We gather thefe things, I fay, from the report of thofe who would emblazon the institutions of your country; but, if report is to be confronted by experience, what doth experience tell us on this fubject? This town of Calais hath been but too often a witness to your libertinifm. Hither you come over with youth, high spirits, and a fum of money, for the most part too large for the feelings of a moderate man. The British empire is fo truly refpectable, as a nation, that we, who are your neighbours, with to admire your politeness as much as we venerate your genius. But how is this poffible, when the fpecimens which are exhibited to us of your manners, are to frequentty cruel and unmanly? You enter our country without one generous idea relating it. You call our courtesy, which is faid to contraft your bluntness, infincerity. You lock at the face of our country, and feem to wonder, that the fmile of Providence is extended from the clift of Dover to that of Calais. You look at our cuftoms, and, because they differ from your cuft ms, you turn from them with difguft, or affected difdain. You enter our churches, and turn into the basest ridicule objects most facred. You have not even the difcretion to keep filence, while we pay our paifing obeifance to the fhrine of the Omnipotent. God himself is the fport and paftime or your leifure and laughter. Our citizens, artizans, women, children, as well as the braveft of our foldiers, come, at all convenient hours, to their devotion; and, though they come without any compulfion, you call it hypocrify. We lay before you our curiofities, and you defpife them: we take many wrongs patiently; we allow largely to the impreffions made by our lingularifies, and then you ill-treat us beyond bearing. Ah, ungenerous travellers! Is it to laugh at your fellow creatures, and fcoff at your Creafor, that you make fuch inroads upon us? Is fuch the motive that urges a young Englishman to migrate? Is fuch the conduct of thofe who ought to be the patterns and examples of a free and noble country? You teach our traders to believe, that you value nothing to little as money, and yet you pretend to wonder, that they fix a price upon what they hold in the flighteft eftimation. If the favage is taught, by the more mechanical European, that the gun can do more execution than the bow-firing, and at the fame time fhews him how to pull the trigger, can you wonder if he directly puts his first experiment in practice immediately? Fie upon it, gentlemen. It is not doing justice. either to one kingdom or to another. It is not doing as you would be done by. Tell me, I beseech you, seriously tell me

"Here the Francifcan raifed his voice, extended his right arm, fixing Aimfelf more firmly on his centre. 3 B 2

"At

"At what time did you ever behold one of this country fo behave himfelt in Britain? He comes to your fhore with eyes to fee, and heart to admire. He beholds large tracts of your land in the highest state of vigorous cultivation, and he thinks well of your peafantry by the fweat of whole brows, and the diligence of whofe hands, it is procured. He pafles through your towns of bufinefs, and is forcibly ftruck with the fpirit of commerce, which feems to be the genius of your climate. He infpects the various manufactories extended along the banks of your fruitful rivers, and conceives highly of your Eng lith ingenuity. He goes into the capital of the kingdom, and, if he draws at all the line of comparifon betwixt the two great cities of London and Paris, he draws it in favour of the former. He readily allows to it all that is due to fuperiority of uniform buildings, admirable accommodation for foot-paffengers, and for the convenience of ample ficets, in which there is fufficient fcope for trade and fashion, for the car and for the coach. Gratified abundantly, he either fixes among you, or returns into his native country: if the former, it is not always what, it is faid, you Englishmen imagine it to be, because he cannot live fo well in France, but for more amiable reafons. If he returns, and, where is the man to whom fuch a return is not, fooner or later, defireable? He brings not over with him any bafe ideas, that are unworthy to travel half a league in the heart of any man breathing, but he speaks of your nation as it were to be wifhed you would have the equity to fpeak of ours. What, then, gentlemen, are we to fuppote? Are we to believe that only the flightest, lighteft, and moft fuperficial part of you, addict yourselves to travel? I fhould be forty to think that this was the cafe; nay, my own experience tells me, that it is not always fo.

"Here he took Amelia by the hand, and bowed to me with refpect, "This lady and that gentleman (to go no farther) have given me no reafon to believe they crofied the fea to defpife the Deity, or any of his poorer ministers, becaufe, perhaps, there is fome difference in the exterior ceremonies of a national devotion. Nay, I have seen other exceptions to a deplorable general rule, and thofe exceptions are the only things which faved England from the contempt into which it would inevitably fall without them. Excufe my wrath, gentlemen. I have fpoken as an injured man. I have spoken as a brother of the holy fo ciety, to whofe ufe this church is allotted. I have fpoken as the faithful fervant of a mafter, whofe facred image you have wantonly of fended."

"With this noble climax, the offended Francifcan finished his ex• hortation and remonftrance. Never, furely, was there obferved ten minutes (for he spoke with deliberation) of profounder filence.

"Saint Paul, at the time of his making Felix tremble, could not poffibly have commanded a more perfect attention. There was, indeed, many favourable circumstannces to heighten the folemnity of the whole tranfaction. Pale as were the features of the Francifcan at his outfet, his eyes kindled with his argument, and his heart gave fuch animation to his face, and fuch eloquence to his tongue, that he led his hearers into implicit captivity. The little apartment was, in itself, an object of awe, having a fable hanging of daik tapestry, wrought with trails

of

of facred figures, and a cloud which fuddenly paffed the surface of the fun, threw a gloom into the place, that put, as it were, into the power of the friar the attractions of magic. Amelia was bound, as if by enchantment, to the bed of straw, on which the fat; and, as the declaimer ended, fhe took the hem of his coarfe and humiliating tunic, and, in the compleateft fincerity of her heart, preffed it to her bofom. Even the wits forgot their jocularity, and were unufually ferious; that is to fay, they looked about for a good joke, and could not find it: yet they were both afhamed, if I may fo exprefs myself, of their being afhamed. They blushed at the novelty of a keen fenfation, and they wifhed the friar in Heaven, for having fmitten fire frou the flint. This awkward kind of confcioufnefs was well illuftrated, when the youth, who had thrown the handkerchief over the crucifix, stole it, as it were, imperceptibly away, forcing a fad half fimile into his face, as much as to infinuate, that he did not know what he was about."

Long as our laft quotation is, we cannot refift the temptation of giving our readers the fucceeding fhort chapter on Blushes.

THE BLUSH E S.

We all prepared to depart; and, in paffing through the body of the church, the heart of Amelia was caught by the appearance of many females diftributed in different parts, at their devotions. She paufedfopped fhort-folded her hands together involuntarily, and went on tiptoe, as if fearful of interrupting their ceremonies. As the Francifcan bowed to the crofs in repaffing the high altar, I very believe, if it were not for fhame of doing a decent thing, the wits could both have found it in their hearts to have bowed alfo.

"At the great door of the church that led into the street, the friar bowed to the whole company, with a complacence which discovered. that he bore no remembrance of what was paft, fo as to affect his urbanity nay, to convince us farther that he did not, his bend to the ftriplings was more deep, more profound, and more refpectful even than that to Amelia. He feemed to know the true point of delicacy; and had a heart to treat thofe whom his tongue, however justly, had wounded. This was but an aukward crifis for the young men, one of whom, after fome irrefolute geftures, offered a liberal prefent to the friar.

"The air with which it was offered, and with which it was rejected, are two of those important trifles which neither pen nor pencil can do proper justice to. They both blushed; but the blood appeared in both for an oppofite reafon. The cheek of the perfon who offered the prefent, was coloured by a reproach which bore its commiffion from the heart: the face of the Francifcan was tinged by that natural paint of virtue, which always mounts at the offer of a bribe. He had forgiven the whole matter before, but this offer recalled the transaction; and, although a twentieth part of the fum would have been acceptable some time before, there were now many infuperable objections. The noble independency of his late eloquence was not the leaft of thefe:

instead,

inftead, therefore, of receiving it, he tarried awhile till the heart beat pacifically, and then declined it with a good grace. The interval, however, betwixt the making of the offer, and the final rejection, was beautifully interesting to lovers of nature. It was a filent tranfaction, in which the heart looked through the eyes, and the blood fpoke in the cheeks for about two or three minutes. The blufh of difgrace is deeper and more durable than the blush of virtue. There is alfo a like diftinction in the colour: difgrace is a full, difordered, fiery kind of fiufh, not without fome touches of the livid hue, that partakes of fear: the cheek of a virtuous man, under a fenfation of tranfient anger, is fet off by a bloom more delicate, pure, and lively. I ftood facing both par ties, and beheld the whole process. The colour of the friar foftened every moment more and more, like the traits in a rainbow in the fummer, till all that was called up from other quarters of the frame gently retired into the proper veffels, and only left a glow of dignity and con gratulation, as the fymptom of a recent excellence: while the young man, who had fhame upon his cheek, was much longer in getting rid of the tide that ran round his features. It burnt with the deftructive rage of the dog-ftar. It fettled in the centre, then mounted to his eye, then crimfoned his neck: nature feemed to have pride in it: it was a matter of ignominy: there actually came, from the lad's eyes, two or three tears. I faw them courfe along as if to quench the burning fuffufion, which, notwithstanding this, verged off, tardily; and I know not how long it would have continued, if, when all was well again with the friar, he had not tenderly taken the youth's hand, and, as he fhut the church-door gently, fimiled, like the angel of compaffion, upon our departure."

Like the angel of compaffion, let the Reviewer, alfo, fmile on his departure, from thefe two firft volumes of the Travels for the HEART.

W.

Second Thoughts: or, Obfervations upon Lord Abingdon's Thoughts on the letter of Edmund Burke, Efq; to the Sheriffs of Bristol. By the Author of the Anjwer to Mr. Burke's Letter. 8vo. 1s. 6d. Cadell.

Having given a pretty long account of Lord Abingdon's Thoughts in our Review for September laft, the fame attention may feem due, and the fame compliment expected to be paid, to the thoughts of his obferver. This is the lefs neceffary, however, as they are, for the moft part, what they are truly ftiled, fecond thoughts: we ourselves having first thrown out feveral of the more ftriking and important *, in the article above-mentioned. Though fecond thoughts, therefore, may

* In his anfwer to M. Burke's former letter, alfo, this ingenious writer appeared to take the text of his political termon from our Review.

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