than the prospect of the broadest expanse of water, or mountains rising above the clouds.*

I pass over common occurrences to embrace again Mr. George, who had left the Academy at George-town, and, like a true poet, was without a settled habitation. I procured him lodging under the roof of Major Howe; and, the better to enjoy a freedom from interruption, I took my friend to King's little tavern, near the Presbyterian Church, where we drank, and smoked, and chatted, and laughed till midnight.

I introduced Mr. George to Colonel Burr, whom I had not neglected; and I also presented him to Bishop Moore, who had procured me a salary of a hundred guineas. I have ever felt the highest veneration for the dignified office of Prelate. There are many different feelings. But as the English soldier detested a Frenchman because he wore wooden shoes; so many cannot endure a Bishop because he wears lawn to his sleeves.

**When I mentioned this reply of Mr. Brown to one of the most distinguished literary characters now living.—Sir, said he, this American Author cannot, I think, be a man of much fancy. [Cf. Bernard, Retrospections of America, pp. 250252 "One of the most agreeable acquaintances I formed was with Charles Brockden Brown, the first, and for many years the only, novelist America had produced. Few men have united talent and worth in a larger proportion. Edgar Huntly' appears to me to be one of his most pleasing productions. Arthur Mervyn' contains the most powerful descriptions (the ravages of the Plague, etc.), but 'Wieland' taken on all points, must be considered his chef d'œuvre."]

It was the custom of Mr. Ludlow every summer to exchange the tumult of the city for the quiet of his rural retreat; or, in other words, to remove his family from New-York to a place called West Chester. But knowing that Mr. George was in some solicitude for his future support, and being myself engaged by Caritat, on liberal terms, to compile a volume of modern Poetry,* I presented my friend to the family, extolled the multiplicity of his attainments, and resigned to him my place. In truth I was weary of setting boys their copies, and I wanted some remission to my fatigue.

Mr. George a few days after followed the family into their retreat, which he has described, together with the state of his own feelings, in a familiar epistle.

"No prospect can be more enchanting than "that from our mansion. Two tufted islands at a distance, leave a vista between them, แ 'through which gleam the turrets of New"York, rising like a new creation from the sea. But my time rolls heavily along. Let

This volume of modern Poetry was to be a royal octavo, of one thousand pages. It was to contain all the poems of all the modern Poets. Caritat made a voyage to England with no other purpose than to collect all their works. He bought up all the modern poetry that London could furnish; and when I say this, I need not observe that the ship which contained his cargo drew a great depth of water. The pumps were kept constantly going.

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casuists reason as they will; a vigorous mind "6 can derive no satisfaction from retirement. "It is only on the great theatre of the world "that we can be sensible of the pleasures of existence. The solitary mind is its own sepulchre; and where variety is unknown, or the passions are suppressed, the noblest energies are lost for want of pleasures to " sooth, or ambition to excite them. I have แ one consolation; the delight of your correspondence; which will alone sooth my mind 66 to tranquillity in these regions of solitude. Really friendship includes something in its แ essence that is divine; and I begin to per"suade myself ours is not of that frail structure whose fabric may be overthrown by "the collision of interest, or the competition "of vanity.

"I have again read over your epistles from Coosohatchie, and am now travelling with "you through the swamps of Pocotaligo, and "the woods of Asheepoo. There is certainly a pleasure in retracing our former footsteps, and pursuing our adventures through the wilds of Carolina. I can now behold you "sitting with the driver in the front seat,

and smoking your segar, while the solitary vehicle rolls slowly through the "forests.

"I return to domestic occurrences. Yes"terday we had the breakfast table placed in

แ

the piazza, and a number of ladies from "New-York, formed a circle around it. None แ were remarkable for taste, but all for Tea"table-talkativeness (a long word to spell),

and I overheard a fair damsel say to another, "that the Tutor was a keen young fellow. "Had I been a Prince instead of a Tutor, I "would have told her, as Hamlet did Ophelia, that it would have cost her a groaning to "take off my edge.

Women know not what to be at. In the "evening they were contending who should "first take the telescope to look at the full แ moon, which arose from the distant hills with unusual beauty. The telescope was brought,—and I shewed each lady in regular "" succession, the Polar Hemisphere, together "with the constellations of Arcturus and Orion; repeating at the same time their de"scription from the eighteenth Iliad.

I went down to the Sound to swim awhile ago, and, during my stay in the water, some "fellow threw in my shirt; so I came up like

one of Falstaff's men. This lamentable ac"cident brought the servants about me; and "the gardener's wife made no scruple to lend me one of her husband's shirts.

"I knew not when I entered on the office of "Tutor in this family, that one part of my

duty would be to teach my pupils to swim. "Is not this a work of supererogation? How

ever, I never fail to duck most fervently "these enemies to silence and reflection.

Apropos of my pupils. This morning I was roused from slumber (for I sometimes "teach school before breakfast in bed), by "the vociferation of the eldest boy, who, "laughable to relate, construed rauca palum"bes,* into roasted wood-pigeons. Risum "teneas Amice?

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"After dismissing these lads, I walked to the water-side, and sat down under a spreading tree, not as Tityrus, to play on my pas"toral reed, but as a miserable Tutor; tired with the ennui of a solitary life, and en"deavouring to sooth a restless imagination "by the objects of nature.

"You enjoy many advantages over me. I แ presume you have access to the libraries of "Caritat, and of the city, and wander through "the shelves of literature with poetica licentia.

"I fear this letter will be tedious; but only "writing to you, dear fellow, can make my "situation supportable. How shall I escape "from this cursed obscurity? I have been "here three days, of which every minute has "been passed in brooding over my misfor"tunes!"

My readers will, perhaps, be ready to exclaim, as the inhabitants of the subterranean abode did to Gil Blas, that Mr. George was *Vide Virgil, Eclogue I.