how he had advanced him above the princes and fervants of the king. He faid, moreover, Yea, Efther the queen fuffered no man to come in with the king, to the banquet that: fhe had prepared, but myself; and to-morrow also am I invited to her with the king." After all this preamble, what is the conclufion?" Yet all this availeth me nothing, fo long as I fee Mordecai the Jew fitting at the king's gate."

The fequel of Haman's hiftory I fhall not now purfue. It might afford matter for much inftruction, by the confpicuous juftice of God in his fall and punishment. But contemplating only the fingular fituation, in which the expreffions juft quoted prefent him, and the violent agitation of his mind which they difplay, the following reflections naturally arife: how miferable is vice, when one guilty paffion creates fo much torment! how unavailing is profperity, when, in the height of it, a fingle difappointment can deftroy the relifh of all its pleafures how weak is human nature, which, in the absence of real, is thus prone to form to itself imaginary woes!

SECTION IV.

Ortogrul; or, The Vanity of Riches.

BLAIR

As Ortogrul of Bafra was one day wandering along the streets of Bagdat, mufing on the varieties of merchandise which the fhops offered to his view; and obferving the different occupations which bufied the multitudes on every fide, he was awakened from the tranquillity of meditation, by a crowd

that obftructed his paffage. He raised his eyes, and faw the chief vizier, who, having returned from the diyan, was entering his palace.

Ortogrul mingled with the attendants; and being supposed to have fome petition for the vizier, was permitted to enter. He furveyed the fpacioufnefs of the apartments, admired the walls hung with golden tapestry, and the floors covered with filken carpets; and defpifed the fimple neatness of his own little habitation.

"Surely," faid he to himself, "this palace is the feat of happiness; where pleasure fucceeds to pleasure, and difcontent and forrow can have no admiffion. Whatever nature has provided for the delight of sense, is here spread forth to be enjoyed. What can mortals hope or imagine, which the maf ter of this palace has not obtained? The difhes of luxury cover his table; the voice of harmony lulls him in his bowers; he breathes the fragrance of the groves of Java, and fleeps upon the down of the cygnets of Ganges. He fpeaks, and his mandate is obeyed; he wishes, and his wifh is gratified; all whom he fees obey him, and all whom he hears flatter him. How different, Ortogrul, is thy condition, who art doomed to the perpetual torments of unfatisfied defire; and who hast no amusement in thy power, that can withhold thee from thy own reflections! They tell thee that thou art wife; but what does wisdom avail with poverty ? None will flatter the poor; and the wife have very little power of flattering themselves. That man is furely the most wretched of the fons of wretchednefs, who lives with his own faults and follies always before him; and who has none to reconcile

him to himself by praise and veneration. I have long fought content, and have not found it; I will from this moment endeavour to be rich."

Full of his new refolution, he fhut himself in his chamber for fix months, to deliberate how he fhould grow rich. He fometimes purposed to offer himfelf as a counfellor to one of the kings of In dia; and fometimes refolved to dig for diamonds in the mines of Golconda. One day, after fome hours paffed in violent fluctuation of opinion, fleep infenfibly feized him in his chair. He dreamed that he was ranging á defert country, in fearch of fome one that might teach him to grow rich; and as he stood on the top of a hill, shaded with cyprefs, in doubt whither to direct his fteps, his father appeared on a fudden standing before him. "Ortogrul," faid the old man, "I know thy per plexity; liften to thy father; turn thine eye on the oppofite mountain." Ortogrul looked and faw a torrent tumbling down the rocks, roaring with the noise of thunder, and fcattering its foam on the impending woods. "Now," faid his father, "behold the valley that lies between the hills." Ortogrul looked, and efpied a little well, out of which iffued a small rivulet. "Tell me now," faid his father, "doft thou wifh for fudden affluence, that may pour upon thee like the mountain-torrent; or for a flow and gradual increafe, refembling the rill gliding from the well?" "Let me be quickly rich," faid Ortogrul; "let the golden Atream be quick and violent." "Look round thee," faid his father, "once again." Ortogrul looked, and perceived the channel of the torrent dry and dufty; but following the rivulet from the

well, he traced it to a wide lake, which the supply, flow and conftant, kept always full. He awoke, and determined to grow rich by filent profit, and perfevering industry.

Having fold his patrimony, he engaged in merchandise; and in twenty years purchased lands, on which he raised a houfe, equal in fumptuoufnefs to that of the vizier, to which he invited all the minifters of Pleasure, expecting to enjoy all the felicity which he had imagined riches able to afford. Leifure foon made him weary of himself, and he longed to be perfuaded that he was great and happy He was courteous and liberal; he gave all thats approached him hopes of pleafing him, and all who should pleafe him, hopes of being rewarded. Every art of praise was tried, and every fource of adulatory fiction was exhausted. Ortogrul heard his flatterers without delight, because he found himself unable to believe them. His own heart told him its frailties; his own understanding reproached him with his faults. "How long," faid he, with a deep figh, "have I been labouring in vain to amafs wealth, which at laft is ufelefs! Let no man hereafter wifh to be rich, who is already too wife to be flattered !"

DR. JOHNSON.

SECTION V.

Lady Jane Grey.

THIS excellent perfonage was defcended from the Royal Line of England by both her parents. She was carefully educated in the principles of the Reformation; and her wisdom and virtue ren

dered her a fhining example to her fex.

But it

was her lot to continue only a short period on this ftage of being; for, in early life, fhe fell a facrifice to the wild ambition of the Duke of Northumber land; who promoted a marriage between her and his fon, Lord Guilford Dudley; and raised her to the throne of England, in oppofition to the rights of Mary and Elizabeth. At the time of their marriage, fhe was only about eighteen years of age, and her husband was also very young: a feason of life very unequal to oppofe the interefted views of artful and afpiring men; who, inftead of expofing them to danger, fhould have been the protectors of their innocence and youth.

This extraordinary young perfon, befides the folid endowments of piety and virtue, poffeffed the moft engaging difpofition, the most accomplished parts; and being of an equal age with king Edward VI., fhe had received all her education with him, and feemed even to poffefs a greater facility in acquiring every part of manly and claffical literature. She had attained a knowledge of the Roman and Greek languages, as well as of several modern tongues; had paffed most of her time in an application to learning; and expreffed a great indifference for other occupations and amusements ufual with her fex and ftation. Roger Afcham, tutor to the Lady Elizabeth, having at one time paid her a vifit, found her employed in reading Plato, while the reft of the family were engaged in a party of hunting in the park; and upon his admiring the fingularity of her choice, fhe told him, that the "received more pleafure from that. author, than the others could reap from all their