ances may be made for that phrenfy, which feizes. the mind, when impelled to great and arduous undertakings; when the wound is gangrened the incifion must be deep, and if that is to be done by coarse inftruments and unfkilful hands, who can wonder if the gash more resembles the stab of an affaffin than the operation of a furgeon? An æra is now opened, awful, interefting and fo involved in mystery, that the acuteft fpeculation cannot penetrate to the iffue of it: In fhort, my friend in his laft moments hath put a vast machine in motion, and left a task to futurity that will demand the ftrongest hands and ableft heads to compleat; in the mean time I fhall hope that my countrymen, who have all those bleflings of inheritance, which lefs-favoured nations are now ftruggling to obtain by force, will fo ufe their liberty, that the reft of the world, who are not fo happy may think it an object worth contending for, and quote our peace and our profperity as the best proofs exifting of its real value.

Whilft my thoughts have been thus employed in reflecting upon the laft day of an ever-memorable year, I have compofed a few elegiac lines to be thrown into the grave, which time is now opening to receive his reliques.

"The year's gay verdure, all its charms are gone,
"And now comes old December chill and drear,
"Dragging a darkling length of evening on,

"Whilft all things droop, as Nature's death were near.

"Time flies amain with broad-expanded wings,
"Whence never yet a single feather fell,

"But holds his speed, and through the welkin rings
"Of all that breathe the inexorable knell.

"Oh! for a moment ftop- a moment's space
"For recollection mercy might concede,

"A little

"A little paufe for man's unthinking race

"To ponder on that world, to which they speed.'

"But, 'tis in vain; old Time difdains to rest,
"And moment after moment flits along,
"Each with a fting to pierce the idler's breast,
"And vindicate its predeceffor's wrong.

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Though the new-dawning year in its advance "With hope's gay promise may entrap the mind, "Let memory give one retrospective glance

Through the bright period, which it leaves behind.
"Era of mercies! my rapt bofom springs
“To meet the transport recollection gives;
"Heaven's angel comes with healing on his wings;
"He shakes his plumes, my country's father lives.

"The joyful tidings o'er the diftant round
"Of Britain's empire the four winds proclaim,
"Her fun-burnt iflands fwell th' exulting found,
"And fartheft Ganges echoes George's name.

"Period of blifs! can any British mufe
"Bid thee farewell without a parting tear?
"Shall the hiftorian's gratitude refute
"His brightest page to this recorded year?

"Thou Freedom's nurfing mother shalt be stil'd,
"The glories of its birth are all thine own,
"Upon thy breafts hung th' Herculean child,
"And tyrants trembled at its baby frown.

"A fanguine mantle the dread infant wore,
"Before it roll'd a ftream of human blood;

Smiling it frood, and, pointing to the shore, "Beckon'd the nations from across the flood.

"Then at that awful fight, as with a spell,
"The everlafting doors of death gave way,
"Prone to the duft Oppreffion's fortrefs fell,
"And refcu'd captives hail'd the light of day.

"Meanwhile Ambition chas'd its fairy prize "With moonftruck madnefs down the Danube's ftream, "The Turkish crefcent glittering in its eyes, And loft an empire to pursue a dream.

"The

"The trampled serpent (Superstition) wreath'd
"Her feft'ring fcales with anguifh to and fro,
"Torpid fhe lay, then darting forward fheath'd
"Her deadly fangs in the unguarded foe.

"Oh Auftria! why fo prompt to venture forth,
"When fate now hurries thee to life's laft goal?
"Thee too, thou crowned eagle of the north,
"Death's dart arrefts, though tow'ring to the pole.
"Down then, Ambition; drop into the grave!
"And by thy follies be this maxim fhewn-
""Tis not the monarch's glory to enflave
"His neighbour's empire, but to blefs his own.

"Come then, fweet Peace! in Britain fix thy reign,
"Bid Plenty fmile, and Commerce crowd her coast;
"And may this ever-bleffed year remain
"Her king's, her people's, and her mufe's boaft."

N° CXXVII.

I AM under promife to refume the hiftory of my friend Ned Drowfy, for which I was obliged to break off in my laft volume, No 122. The events which have fince occurred, fhall now be related.

The reader will perhaps recollect that the worthy Hebrew, who affumes the name of Abrahams, had just concluded the narrative of his adventures, and that the next morning was appointed for a conciliatory interview between Mrs. Goodifon and her father. Ned, whofe natural indolence had now began to give place to the most active of all paffions, had been fo much agitated by

the

the events of the day, that we had no fooner parted from honeft Abrahams, than he began to comment upon the lucky incident of our rencontre with the old gentleman at the comedy; he seemed strongly inclined to deal with destiny for fome certain impulfes, which he remembered to have felt, when he was so earnest to go to the play; and declared with much gravity, that he went thither fully prepoffeffed fome good fortune would turn up: "Well, to be fure," faid he, "1 ought to rejoice "in the happy turn affairs have now taken, and "I do rejoice; but it would have given me infi"nite delight to have fulfilled the plan I had "in defign for Mrs. Goodifon's accommodation; "fhe will now want no affiftance from me; my "little cottage will never have the honour of receiving her all thofe fchemes are at an end; "Conftantia too will be a great fortune, fhe will "have higher views in life, and think no more of

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me; or, if the did, it is not to be fuppofed her "grandfather, who fo bitterly refented his daugh"ter's match, will fuffer her to fall into the same "offence." I must confefs I thought fo entirely with my friend Ned in the concluding part of these remarks, that I could only advise him to wait the event of time, and recommend himself in the mean while as well as he could to Mr. Somerville, the grandfather of Conftantia. Art and educa tion, it is true, had not contributed much to Ned's accomplishments, but nature had done great things in his favour; to a perfon admirably, though not finically, formed, fhe had given a moft interefting fet of features, with such a striking character of benevolence and open honefty, that he might be faid to carry his heart in his countenance : VOL. IV.

D

though

though there was a kind of laffitude in his deportment, the effect of habits long indulged, yet his fenfibility was ever ready to ftart forth upon the firft call, and on thofe occafions no one would have regretted that he had not been trained in the fchool of the graces; there was fomething then difplayed, which they cannot teach, and only nature in her happiest moments can bestow.

The next morning produced a letter from honest Abrahams, full of joy for the happy reconciliation now established, and inviting us to celebrate the day with Mrs. Somerville and the ladies at his houfe. This was an anxious crifis for my friend Ned; and I perceived his mind in fuch a state of agitation, that I thought fit to ftay with him for the rest of the forenoon: he began to form a varie ty of conjectures as to the reception he was likely to meet from the old gentleman, with no lefs a variety of plans for his own behaviour, and even of fpeeches with which he was to ufher in his first addreffes; fometimes he funk into melancholy and despair, at other times he would fnatch a gleam of hope, and talk himfelf into tranfports; he was now, for the first time in his life, ftudiously contriving how to fet off his perfon to the best advantage; his hair was fafhionably dreft, and a handfome new fuit was tried on, during which he furveyed himself in the glafs with fome attention, and, as I thought, not entirely without a fecret fatisfaction, which, indeed, I have feen other gentlemen beftow upon their perfons in a much greater degree, with much lefs reason for their excufe.

When he was compleatly equipt, and the time approached for our going, "Alas!" he cried,

"what