this pulse I foresee, before I have done with it,

Shall temperately keep time, and beat

More healthful music.

Those eyes have I see still the spirit of life in them, and this heart shall yet bound with renovated enjoyments."

The emotions of AMELIA during these favourable prognostications, no words can tell you. The merchant was strongly affected. The doctor perceived that his patient was recoverable both in the maladies of body and mind; and as he was no less a philosopher and philanthropist than a physician, he could with equal skill prescribe for each. He was one of the people called Quakers; and to a perfect knowledge of the world, of his profession, and of the human heart, united all the honest plainness of the character. The merchant's disorder was, as I have said, a fever on his spirits, of which the symptoms were, as usual, want of appetite, lassitude, watchfulness, and dejection of mind: a pulse slow and creeping, difficulty of respiration, and a dread, yet hope of death.

I need not tell you that in this disease the cathartics of the mind, such as exhilarate, enliven, and amuse the patient, are the most effectual remedies, and such were administered with uncommon success on the present occasion. In less than a fortnight, the sick man not only was in a condition to leave his bed, but his chamber, and play his part in the cottage parlour, in a thousand little frolics that AMELIA and the Doctor devised to entertain him. In the course of the third week he resumed his accustomed exercises; and under the cordial supports of his friend and child, he could ascend the mountains that environed his habitation. In the middle of the fourth week, his spirits and strength were so well restored, that in returning home to dinner after a walk of some miles, he jocularly proposed to

run

run against the doctor and AMELIA for a wager; which being agreed upon by the other parties, he set off and outran them both. It was in the afternoon of this victorious day, that the good Doctor intimated the necessity of his return to town; good humouredly observing, that, although by a lucky arrangement, he had left his sick and wounded in very good hands with a brother physician in London, he could not trespass any longer without fear of being set down by the college as a deserter, and he must therefore repair to head-quarters in the morning.

The reasonableness of this was admitted: yet the merchant sighed, and AMELIA wept. The doctor knew it must be done, and he saw that his prophecy, as to his friend's recovery, was fulfilled to his heart's content; but there is a sympathy in generous regret, and his eyes were not more dry than AMELIA's. In despite of exertions the evening past heavily away; the morning did not rise without casting clouds on every countenance. The hour, the almost instant, that was to separate the cottagers from their preserver, approached.

"Friend," said the doctor to his patient, as he heard the wheels of his carriage advancing, "since I saw thee last in the great city, I have prospered exceedingly. All those families to whom thou tookest me by the hand, were more for thy sake than mine on my list. Some merit, however, or infinite good fortune, I must needs have had, since, from a yearly gain of one hundred, I have increased my income to several thousands per annum; and yet I do not take fees for one in forty of my prescriptions.-My house is too large for my family.-Wilt thou come once again, into the busy world with this mountain blossom, and occupy some of my apartments?-This as thou wilt-At present I must give thee a few words of parting advice, and must rely on this damsel to see that it is adopted.

Thou

Thou art so much thy former self, friend, that I fear not a relapse; but to fortify and strengthen thee in my absence, I have written and made up a prescription which I am convinced hits thy case exactly. Hearing something of thy maladies from the friend who conveyed to me thy AMELIA'S message, and forming a judgment soberly thereupon, I brought with me such drugs as I thought could not. be readily procured in thy neighbourhood. They lie, however, in a small compass, even in this little box, yet being compounds of peculiar strength, they will last thee, I judge, for at least a year to come, probably more-if they should not, thou knowest where to address the prescriber, for a fresh supply. There, friend, take it, but do not open it till thou shalt seem to wish for something of a cordial nature. It will then, I have no doubt, do thee good."

He received their tearful embraces, and departed. You are impatient to lift up the lid of the box. When it was opened by the merchant and his daughter, they discovered two separate pieces of paper; the one a present from a physician in London, the other from the stranger who had given him an account of this little family.

the

I must not deny you the gratification of knowing that the father recovered, and the child added to his blessings and her own many years; in the smiling course of which, young lady's virtues attracted the affections of a very wealthy and worthy gentleman, whose power and inclinations not only enabled the merchant to make restitution of the generosity received from the physician; but to make also the residue of that man's life, from whom he derived the best and loveliest of wives, as happy in prosperity as it had been respectable in misfortune.

Although "there is an air of romance," as the author observes, "about this little history better suited to the days

Cc

of

of chivalry than to the present times," he nevertheless premises, "that every sentence records an unadorned, unassisted truth," and concludes the narration in the following words, which at once remove our surprise, and can leave no doubt as to its authenticity. "Indeed, I am persuaded, that the wonder will cease and die away in every heart you think fit to make partaker of these facts, when given to understand, that they proceeded from a physician who was the means of converting an highwayman, who had violated the public faith, into a man who was afterwards chosen to guard the public faith, by holding a place of the highest trust in one of the public treasuries of his country; and that the doctor's colleague in the bounty shewn to our merchant and his AMELIA, was no less a benefactor to human kind than the late Mr HOWARD, who hap pened, on the day that he was driven for shelter into the village inn, which was then graced with the presence of AMELIA, to be returning to England from one of his usual tours of benevolence to the different prisons of Ireland and Wales.

Natural Appearances in July.

E.

JULY is the hottest month in the year. The direct influence of the sun, indeed, is diminishing; but the earth and air have been so thoroughly heated, that the warmth which they retain, more than compensates for the gradual diminution of the solar rays.

The effects of this weather upon the face of nature soon become manifest. All the flowers of the former month lose their beauty, and the whole plant hastens to decay. Many plants, however, do not begin to flower till July.

While the animal creation seem oppressed with languor during this hot season, and either seek the recesses of woods, or resort to pools and streams, to cool their bodies

and

and quench their thirst, the insect tribe are peculiarly active and vigorous. These minute creatures are for the most part annual; being hatched in the spring, and dying at the approach of winter.

The excessive heats of this period of the year, cause such an evaporation from the surface of the earth and waters, that, after some continuance of dry weather, large heavy clouds are formed, which at length let fall their collected liquor in extremely copious showers, which frequently beat down the full-grown corn, and sometimes deluge the country with sudden floods. Thunder and lightning generally accompany these summer storms.

The effects of the great heat on the human body are agreeably allayed, by the various wholesome fruits which Providence offers at this season for the use of man. Those which are now ripe are of all the most cooling and refreshing; as currants, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, and cherries. These are no less salutary and useful than the richest products of the warmer climates.

The luxury of cooling shades is now peculiarly grateful; and multitudes flock from all quarters to enjoy the invigorating effects of sea-bathing; while others of the debilitated and valetudinarian tribe assemble at the medicinal well, in order to allay the feverish heat in their blood, or improve their constitution, by drinking the cooling and reanimating draught at the spring.

Thunder Storms.

AT a season wherein nature presents to our eyes none but pleasing cheerful scenes, there are some people, notwithstanding, who still complain and murmur. Summer, they say, would indeed be delightful, if storms did not come to

CC 2

disturb