displayed the excess of their affection and grief. The magistrate, who by chance was in a place from whence he could perceive them, was extremely surprised to see a criminal receive such marks of affection from the very men who had delivered him up to justice; he gave orders to one of his people to follow the two young men, and observe them narrowly. The servant obeyed, and reported to his master that he had followed the two young men to the door of their mother's apartment; that on entering, their first care was to give their mother the sum of money which they had received; that she, astonished at the sight of so considerable a sum, had shewn more uneasiness than pleasure at it, and had eagerly questioned them as to how they obtained it, and the cause of their brother's absence; that for a time the two youths could answer only by their tears, but that at last, threatened with the malediction of a mother so tenderly beloved, they had confessed the truth. At this dreadful recital the unfortunate woman, penetrated with gratitude, terror, and admiration, and abandoning herself to the most violent transports of despair, sprung towards the door to go out, with the intention of declaring every thing to the magistrate; but that restrained by her cruelly generous sons, overwhelming them with reproaches and bathing them with tears, overpowered at once by anger, and by the most passionate grief and tenderness, she had fallen senseless in their arms.

After this recital the judge repaired to the prison, and questioned the younger brother, who still persisted in his account, and nothing could induce him to retract. The magistrate at last told him, that he had wished to know to what excess of heroism filial piety could raise a virtuous heart, and declared to him that he was informed of the truth. The judge went to report this adventure to the sovereign, who, struck with an action so heroic, desired to see the three brothers, and the happy mother of such virtuous children: he loaded them with praises and marks of distinction, assigned to the youngest 1500 crowns a year, and 500 each to the other two.-(Histoire du Japan, par le P. Charle volt. Jodoh mladi

MAIDS.

OLD MAID

atol w

mitoly out ed ok sow dold woman con -We must apologize to the writer of the following letter for not having taken earlier notice of it. We had hoped that we should speedily be able to introduce it with a longer preface than our slow recovery will allow us to give; but it need not wait for an introduction; nor would this work be exactly the place for it. The authoress (for unfortunately, the prejudices of which she speaks compel us to suppose the writer of the female sex) is evidently too, well aware of all the ordinary points of the question, perhaps more; and to enter on others, upon which the main one turns, would involve a consideration of all

those selfish outrages done to the female sex, whether in dooming them to a life of celibacy or the other extreme, which require great nicety and preparation even in touching. So much sorer even than the misfortunes it creates, is false virtue sure to be, however it has bulled itself up into the place of true. One of the objects for which we hope to live and to have strength, is to endeavour, in a work by itself, to call the attention of society to the great question of sexual intercourse in general, we mean, to the actual amount of its happiness or misery, as gatherable from record and observation, to the prejudices which pollute it, and the principles on which, in our opinion, it ought to be regulated.

MR. INDICATOR,-To you I apply as to a person of known humanity, to take up your pen in a cause which would do you no dishonour, and which I do not fear that you should disdain; the defence of Old Maids.

Old Maid is, I am sorry to say it, commonly used as a term of reproach: an Old Maid is an object of general ridicule; and is there not injustice and even cruelty in this? Do people speak of curiosity, of prudery, of scandal, or of ill-temper, they speak of them as the common attributes of an Old Maid. From my own experience I have not found that these ill qualities are more common to Old Maids then to others: nay, one of the most amiable women whom I know is an Old Maid; and the most prying, scandal-loving, and ill-tempered woman that I know, or ever did know, has been twice married.

An Old Maid may have a kind and affectionate heart, she might have been an excellent wife and a tender mother, probably she may have survived her parents; her brothers and sisters may have married and dispersed about the world, and she be left alone; she has no power to make one human being happy, no one studies to make her happy. There is no one to whom she is the nearest and dearest; none take an interest in her pursuits; no one desires that she should take an interest in theirs: her heart is like the dove which Noah sent forth from the ark; it is lone and weary, and can find no place of rest.

She sees a mother smile upon the child she presses to her bosom ; and she at the happy sight smiles too, but she smiles sadly, for she has no dear child to press to her bosom. She sees the young mother present her new-born babe to the husband whom she loves, she smiles at their happiness, but oh how her heart sickens! she too has loved, loved deeply; he whom she loved is lost to her for ever: in that moment the sweetest dreams of early hope strike upon her heart, they never can be realized; the tears are in her eyes, she stoops to kiss the child and so she hides them; she would not obtrude her sorrows upon the happiness of such a moment. Great God! must the privation of domestic happiness be yet further embittered by prejudices? Must unkindness and scorn be heaped on her who has none to soothe her? How many unhappy unions have been formed from a fear of encountering the mortifications attendant on a single life! I have not found that the faults attributed to Old Maids are at more common to them than

to others; but were it so, we might believe that the stigma which rest s upon them may tend to injure the temper; and we might consider too, that they have not that strong incentive to the correction of natural foibles, which may influence happier women. Singleness of life in women should be respected as misfortune, for it is scarcely ever the effect of a free choice; it is almost always occasioned either by pecuniary difficulties, by an unfortunate attachment, or by such deficiency of personal attractions, as leaves it not to their choice at all.

You, Mr. Indicator, whose admiration of feminine beauty is yet surpassed by your love of human kindness, will not, I am convinced, refuse to consider a subject in which so large a portion of the female world are interested. I have but faintly hinted at the mortifications to which an Old Maid is exposed; but could I have found heart to do it, I could have related a history which would draw tears from sterner eyes than yours, and excite feelings of sympathy even for

AN OLD MAID,

MRS. B.

MR. INDICATOR,I am in a situation of unspeakable misery. You will perhaps believe that I am in some pecuniary distress, or that by death or by absence I have lost a beloved friend, or that I have been crossed in love: I have experienced some of these troubles, but it is not of these that I mean to complain to you.

Poverty I have never known; I lost my mother before I was old enough to feel the loss. It is true I suffered much in parting with my father, who left England a few years since for Jamaica, where he now resides. As to being crossed in love, I have only myself to blame for that, for my father positively forbade me, under pain of his severe displeasure, ever to fall in love without his permission; but the misery I now endure, Mr. Indicator, I did not bring upon myself. It is my misfortune to live in a country town. To you, Sir, I know it will appear the vilest heresy to say this; but have patience with me.

When my father left England, he placed me under the care of a widow lady, who, for my misfortune, has the reputation of being the most prudent of women. She is shocked beyond measure at what she calls my vicious propensities; and yet, Mr. Indicator, I am sure you, for whom I have the highest possible respect, would not object to any one of them. I would have your candid opinion now.

I delight in Shakspeare; I can only read him by stealth or open defiance (both very disagreeable to me), because Mrs. B. maintaius that he is a very immoral author, whom no modest young woman would find pleasure in. She is indeed so careful of my morals, that she will not allow me to read any book, without first looking over it herself; and if she finds any thing improper in it, she is not contented

with merely looking it over, but so fearful is she of doing the author an injustice, that she reads it quite through before she pronounces sentence against it, and in that case I see it no more.

I take great pleasure in rambling in the fields and green lanes in the neighbourhood, where I have rarely met any person but a woodcutter, a farmer, or some country labourer; but these rambles are forbidden me, because Mrs. B. insists that I take them for no other purpose than to meet "a certain person," as she denominates him whom she knows I should be most willing to meet, but that, alas! he is many miles from hence.

I have been taught music by an excellent master, and I have an absolute passion for this art; but I am not allowed to play or sing any thing but sacred music, because Mrs. B. says all profane music gives girls improper notions.

I have been taught French and Italian; but I am not allowed to read any book in either of these languages, because Mrs. B. who does not understand them, fears they might contain something improper.

Drawing, unfortunately I do not understand. There is a drawingmaster in the town; but as with the exceptions of an ill-natured countenance and vulgar manners, he is a 66 very comely man, and is not more than fifty," Mrs. B. thinks it would be improper that I should receive lessons from him.

The only occupation she allows me to pursue without interruption is needle work, and for this I have an unconquerable aversion. I would ask you, Mr. Indicator, if forbidding me in this manner all occupation of mind would be likely to destroy any vicious propensities? I would likewise ask you, Sir, if you consider as such the love of of the fields, of music, and of books? I hope I shall ever preserve, ove of Shakspeare, and one day be able to gratify these propensities; yet if you condema them, I will instantly sacrifice them all.

Having told you, Sir, what is forbidden me as improper, I will now add what is enjoined me as proper; needle-work as an occupation, and the society of female neighbours as a relaxation. Now, to my vicious taste nothing can be more unpleasant, or at the best insipid, than a company of females only, and those uneducated females, in a country town. I do not mean that a person may not be very amiable, without being what is called well educated; but the persons I mean are very illiterate people, who mix in very illiterate society, and who are so wrapped up in ignorance and prejudice, that while they admire excellence without knowing it, they hate it because they cannot attain it. With such people my evenings are passed; it is upon such people that I am to depend for amusement and for improvement. As to your papers, Sir, I can only read them by stealth, for you are particularly odious to Mrs. B.-I am, Sir, a respectful admirer, boum hur F. N.o

We return our best thanks to our fair Correspondent for her regard, and even to Mrs. B. for her dislike; only we wish for the latter's own sake, as well as her companion's, that she would look upon us with an eye of greater humanity. If Mrs. B. were to explode such things as "Shak

speare, the fields, and music, and books," she might as well explode Nature at once; which indeed, we are surprised, that some of these old ladies, female or male, do not propose to do. But as long as our fair correspondent understands these, and has one person that understands her, she may endure Mrs. B. C. and D. into the bargain.

LETTER FROM A DISTINGUISHED PERSONAGE.

The following letter from a personage to whom we owe great obligations, is inserted with the becoming gratitude of a sick author.→→ The secretary who held the pen for him (his Serenity not being in the habit of writing, or even of talking but by hints) is, we understand, a youth of nineteen. It is not among the least or pleasantest evidences of the extraordinary growth of literature, to see young gentlemen of this time of life expressing their thoughts and turning their round ivory sentences, with a look of ease, perhaps with the ease itself, that shews how intimately they must have handled some of our most classical writers. To put our gratitude in proper official style, we beg leave to return our best acknowledgment to his Serenity for this as well as all the other assistance he has been pleased to afford our wearied virtue," (not the least virtuous, as the infant proverb insinuates, when under his care) and to his amanuensis Mr. I. W. for the very handsome manner in which the letter was conveyed to us.

Mr. INDICATOR,-I date my existence from that memorable æra when the happiness of our first parent was soon to be completed by the society of that fair helpmate, who was the secondary cause of perfecting his short-lived bliss and subsequent disobedience. It was I who held him in a soft captivity while the partner of his future joys and sorrows was formed, and then released him to admire and love the most finished of his Creator's works.

Having thus established my authority over the first parent of mankind, I have uniformly maintained it through all succeeding ages; and such is the extent of my power, that not only man, but every inferior class of animated being, willingly bend beneath it.

The greatest heroes of ancient and modern times-men whom persuasion could not influence, nor force terrify-whose ambitious views, and active spirit, " strong walls of brass nor bolts of adamant," inhospitable deserts, nor unnavigable oceans could bound-solicit my fetters, and most willingly resign themselves to my authority. Nor am I less the desire of the peasant, for under my mild government he finds that comfort and repose which inspires him with new alacrity and vigour. I free him from the sensibility of his sorrows, take off the burthen of his cares, and open to his view new prospects of happiness.