gone. I sat in one parliament, in spite of all which would be called the aberrations of my habits; and I doubt not that I incurred the contempt of many of those, of whom I myself felt the greatest scorn.

"I have endeavoured to divert my unsettled mind, among other modes of amusement, by registering my views of the public life, which thus fell within my experience. But they are views, in which it is not probable the multitude would concur, if they could read my Memoirs. There are men, to whom I cannot give the applause, which the common voice assigns them; while to others less obtrusive I am willing to give credit for talents and acquirements, which the world does not suspect.

"In those hours, when a comparative calmness comes over me, I sometimes study the pages of History. But I am too apt to grow weary of them, as dull and trifling. How seldom do they let us into the springs of action, and the characters of those, by whom public affairs are conducted. They give us dry and unimportant facts; but they want genius to impart life to their narratives. I require something that can seize with violence on my imagination, or my feelings; and withdraw them a little while from the anxieties, the regrets, and the terrors that haunt me!

"From the course of ambition which I have been sometimes inclined to renew, in the hope that activity of employment may soften the diseases of my mind, I have shrunk again, after short efforts, with disgust

and abhorrence. The present state of society is ill adapted to my taste, to my hereditary predilections, and my habits. Rank is become a strange mixture of a new kind; the old opinions about illustrious descent are gone out of fashion; and a few new families, of at best two or three generations, are become the proud and insulting Aristocrats of the country. I have always thought that splendid birth is nothing, unless it brings with it a noble aspiration to be distinguished for high public qualities and public services, in preference to selfish interests and the purchased superiority of mere wealth and place. There is an elevated neglect of personal concerns in those, on whom Nature has conferred the aristocracy of talents and genius. In really great families this is often seen to prevail for generations, after the period when it first raised them into distinction. In other families raised by riches, intrigue, or accident, the same heavy and unfeeling propriety and self-regard keeps them unenviably stationary.

"From any intercourse with such people, I flew back with eagerness to the deepest solitude. There I could at least recover from the self-abasement as to talent and station, which such intercourse always produces. My forest-like park, my towers of old embattlement, my portrait-hung gallery, and the ancient shields that adorn my hall, soothed with momentary images of grandeur my offended pride: and the cottage near my Julia's grave now brings to my recollection angelic and overwhelming images, that make

all earthly ambitions fade away: ambitions, which once, alas! too much haunted me!

my

"I told you, at the outset of my first Letter, that I was about to describe to you the feelings, and some of the misfortunes of one, unlike in sentiments and habits to the generality of those who fill up the circles of society. It is in conformity to that promise, that I have described to you the state of my mind and the course of my conduct, subsequent to that melancholy and calamitous event which has brought my afflictions to their height. All is now a calm despondence, incapable of augmentation; and calm perhaps, because it cannot be augmented. You will perceive what a languor has grown upon me; and how enfeebled faculties have become in the two years, since I formerly addressed you. That ardour of language, which had not then left me, has now become faint and dull. When the scenes of Nature recurred to my fancy, I could then speak of them with some remaining enthusiasm. I could invocate the woods for the soothing quiet that they afforded to my dejected heart! But the woods themselves have no longer any charms for me. I then contrasted them with the scorn and contumely of the world: but the springs of my heart are broke, and the world no longer troubles me with its scorn and contumely. Sorrow and Joy begin to be alike indifferent to me. I am worn out with the long continued series of my struggles.

"It is a mystery, from which I shrink back with

becoming awe, whenever I am inclined to inquire into the apparent inequality with which misfortunes seem to fall on human beings. My cup from an early age has been filled to the brim, while many others scarce seem to have tasted of calamity. Had but a common portion of grief been mine; had my humble faculties been subjected but to an ordinary exhausture of their strength, and an ordinary diversion of their industry, I might perhaps have performed some task, which would not only have distinguished myself, but have tended to raise the fancy, and to exalt the heart, of an admiring public. But distracted as I am, utterly weighed down by my sorrows, with impenetrable clouds before and behind me, how can any ray of power remain unextinguished in my dark and miserable mind?

"Sometimes I have been so foolish as to flatter

myself, that if the world knew how pure and earnest has been my ambition of deserving well of them, they would lament the evil fate which has thus blighted my exertions! But I shall go to my grave (and, till I reach that resting-place, never shall I be at peace!) unmourned, and unnoticed. If I have gathered any treasures in my mind, they will be like 'the gems in the unfathomed waves of the ocean.' There they have lain buried: but not like them will they continue there. Alas! they have already vanished; and have no longer any existence!

"Any tests of talent I may have given, ought not to be compared with those of happier and less

embarrassed men. Never have I known what it was to seize the pen, but in agitation and distraction. The calm moments of collected inspiration, the power to meditate, and compare, and select, have been long unknown to me. The momentary flashes of a disturbed fancy, conveyed in the first rude words that presented themselves, have been all that I have been able to command!

"O Julia! perhaps these complaints profane the sublime and thrilling recollections that are due to thee! Thy image can soften my mind, Julia; and make it grateful, even for this state of mournful existence! I hear thee in the murmurs of the ocean! I see thy Seraphic form sometimes irradiating the thick clouds of night! I will console myself, that

yet a little while; and I perhaps may be with thee, joining the chorus of Angels in the realms of the Blest!

"And now let me address a few parting words to THE SYLVAN WANDERER!

I

"To you, Sir, I commit this hasty and sorrowful communication, not in hope, but in despair. know its defects, and am fully aware of its dulness. But I had promised: and should have acted dishonourably, if I had left your Work discredited by such an imperfect fragment, as my first Letter alone would have formed. That which I now send, has