descend to live with a prince but on terms of equality. The verse he most admired in his own productions, was the image of his mind.

And scorn to bow before the sons of pride!

For my part, I thought differently on this subject. I thought a few sacrifices might be made for every elegance of accommodation, and a hundred guineas a year; and I was glad to resume the place, because my salary was a good one. Nor could I perceive that my friend had any real cause for complaint; on the contrary, I was of opinion that he had been disgusted without offence, and alienated without enmity.

Mr. George was now on Long Island, and I had received a very polite letter from Mrs. Ludlow, who entreated me to hasten my return to her family. For my part, I obeyed her orders with alacrity, for I was weary of the cant and carping of Parson Vandyke, who so overflowed with scripture, that he cudgelled his men-servants and maid-servants with the Bible.

I therefore drove Mr. George in a chair to the water-side, and at the house of Mr. Berian, hired a canoe to cross the Sound. But first, I smoked a segar with my friend in the porch, and left him weeping and laughing; weeping to lose his company, and laughing at his absence; for, nescio quid meditans

nugarum, he forgot I had not paid for the chair, which he would unavoidably have to do.*

[*' Nulla mihi,' inquam

'Religiost. Hor: Sat., 1, 9; v. 2, v. 70.]

After an hour's Towing, the boatmen reached West Chester, and landed me at Mr. Ludlow's. Of the family the children were only at home, who received me with every demonstration of joy; but not long after Mrs. Ludlow returned in her chariot, whose elegant and conciliating manners soon reconciled me to my situation.

I sent my friend his trunks by the return of the canoe, and a short note produced from the impulse of the moment. In a few days I was favoured with an epistle from Mr. George.

แ After your departure from Berian's in "the canoe, I resumed I resumed my station with the "old fellow on the porch; here I awaited with "impatience the return of the boat with my "trunk. Berian I found to be a plain, honest, sensible, old navigator, and I drank tea with "him.

"At night-fall the boat returned with my แ trunk and a letter from my beloved comแ panion in adversity; it is only by the absence "of persons who are dear to us, that we can "estimate truly their value; and I now began แ sensibly to feel the privation of your com

pany. I left Berian's at seven; the night was very dark, and the moon (though con

siderably above the horizon) was entirely "obscured by clouds. I was in no small "danger of breaking my neck over the rocks "which obstructed my passage, but my horse not being of a disposition to run away with "his burden, I escaped the danger of an over"throw. After opening and shutting several

gates that impeded my journey, and passing over many rocky hills, I descended to the shore, of which the waves were covered by a thick mist, that obscured their agitation, "and rendered their fury more awful; the "tide had usurped much of the road, and the "left wheel of the chair rolled through the water. Hence, after travelling along the beached verge of the salt flood, I ascended

a high hill, and turning into a different road "from that through which you were my comแ 'panion, I drove into a thick spreading wood of oak: here I was fearful of entirely losing my way through the trees; but the clouds dispersed, and the moon arose to light me "on my journey. At nine I reached the par"son's, where I found the family peaceably "occupied with their needles; they received "me with kindness, but the rustic silence "which prevailed among them, and the (( tedious reverberations of the clock, com

"

pelled me to retire to my room, where I

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indulged myself in uninterrupted reflection, " and in pondering over your curious epistle." During my abode at West Chester, I wrote a little Novel entitled, The Farmer of New Jersey; the publication of which inflamed the wrath of the Mohawk Reviewers. In my preface I had disdained to deprecate the severity of their censure, and they besieged me from their attic stories with the javelins of criticism. What these fathers of American criticism chiefly objected to, was the style of the book, in which I had been purposely unambitious of ornament. That they could spy a mote in the eye of their neighbour, and not perceive the beam in their own, the following passage from the Mohawk Review will, I am of opinion, evince. "The slightest acquaintance with the history of literature is sufficient to convince the most ardent admirer of simplicity and of unadorned truth of the necessity of a good style, and of the advantages of an occasional use of its highest ornaments.

Americans! rejoice! the Augustan age of your country cannot surely be remote, when you possess such Reviewers!

I turn from the unpleasing sounds of the

*New-York Review, Vol. 1, page 16.

[This may have been a very short-lived monthly magazine. There was no such periodical, and no monthly magazine, in New York in 1805. See, citation of Longworth's Directory for that year, in Old New York, Vol. I, No. 3, p. 159. The title New York Review was revived in 1825.]

warhoop of these Mohawks, to the mild strain of friendship exhibited in the graceful negligence of the epistles of Mr. George. The following letter will not be without its use. It will exemplify, that tranquillity depends not in change of place, but must have its source in the mind; and that a man, by crossing in a boat from one shore to another, cannot leave his cares and vexations behind him.

"In this out-of-the-world village, I live "neither pleasing, nor pleased; for a rustic "cannot receive much gratification from the society of a man of letters; and surely the man of letters cannot derive any pleasure "from the company of a rustic. It is only แ by a collision of minds of the same tendency, "that inquietude can be soothed and the in"tellect invigorated.

แ My condition, is, however, more tolerable "than it was. Here I have no mincing, imperatrix to say to me, "Mr. George, my "children do nothing, I must insist, Sir, you "will be more attentive to Bobby and Neddy." "Deo Gratias! O thou eater of broken "meats! Thou lilly-livered, super-servicea"ble rogue of a Tutor! Avaunt!

"I was lately at New-York. But I went แ not to pay my respects to Members of Congress, but with the hope of encountering the "friend of my heart, and the companion of my adversity.