a

Grace never happened to be at home when I did myself the honour of calling on him.

Chagrined and mortified, I returned to Scotland. When I had got within a hundred miles of my own house, I observed, from the road, a gentleman's seat, the beauty and elegance of which struck me so much, that I stopped the carriage, and asked the post-boy to whom it belonged ? “ To Mr. Manly," said he.

” . “ What, Charles Manly ?" Before I could receive an answer, my friend appeared in a field at a little distance. Manly and I had been educated at the same school, at the same university, and had set out together to make the tour of Europe. But after we had been some time in France he was called home, by accounts that his father lay dangerously ill. From that time a variety of accidents had prevented our meeting. We now met as if we had parted but yesterday; with the same freedom, the same warmth, the same glow of friendship, heightened, if possible, by our long separation.

• During my stay at his house, I told him all my distresses, all my disappointments. When I had done,“ To be plain with you, my friend,” said he, “ I cannot help thinking that most of your disappointments must be imputed to yourself. Your long residence abroad, and your attachment to foreign manners, has led you to judge rather hastily of your countrymen. Had you been less rash, you might have discovered virtues in your neighbours that would, in some measure, have made up for the want of that high polish and refinement which they cannot be expected to possess. From what you saw at Edinburgh in the hurry of a race week, and from the behaviour of a set of men, who think that fashionable distinction consists in indulgence in low pleasures and gross amusements, you have drawn conclusions equally unfavourable and unjust. I know

from experience, that nowhere are to be found men of more agreeable conversation, or women more amiable and respectable. Your late disappointment, in the reception you met with from your foreign friends, proceeds from a mistake not uncommon, from confounding that companionship, so apt to produce a temporary union among young men, when engaged in the same pleasures and amusements, with real friendship, which seldom or never has been found to subsist between men differing much in rank and condition, and whose views and objects in life do not in some measure coincide.”

'I am now, Mr. Mirror, fully convinced of the truth of Manly's observations, and am every day more and more satisfied, that it is a misfortune for a private gentleman, who means to pass his days in his native country, to become attached to foreign manners and foreign customs, in so considerable a degree, as a long residence abroad, in the earlier period of life, seldom fails to produce. M.

&c. Alonzo.'

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I am,

N° 58. SATURDAY, AUGUST 14, 1779.

Veniam damus petimusque vicissim.--Hor. The mutual complaints of Mr. and Mrs. Gold, which have been communicated in a former paper, together with some complaints of similar family distresses, which I have received from other correspondents, often remind me of the happy effects which my friends Horatio and Emilia have experienced from an opposite temper and conduct.

Horatio, though he obtained a very liberal education, lived till the age of twenty-five almost entirely in the country. The small fortune which he inherited from his father being about this time increased by his succeeding to a distant relation, he afterward spent some years in this city, in London, and in making the usual tour on the continent. Soon after his return, he married the

young

and beautiful Emilia, to whom he had become warmly attached, not so much on account of her beauty, as from an expression of a sweet, though lively temper, which marked her countenance--which, when admitted to a more intimate acquaintance, he found to be justified by her conversation and manners.

Émilia's father was addicted to pleasure and expense, and her mother, though more accomplished, of a similar disposition.—In their family she had been accustomed to a life of more than ordinary gaiety.

Though Horatio felt, in all its extent, that passion which is nowise favourable to a just estimation of character, these circumstances had not escaped his notice, and he failed not to observe that Emilia had acquired a stronger attachment to the pleasures of a town life, than was either right in itself, or agreeable to that preference for domestic society, and the quiet of a country life, which he had always felt, and which he still wished to gratify.

In place, however, of acquainting Emilia with his taste in these particulars, he judged it better to let her enjoy that style of life to which she had been accustomed, not doubting, from the natural good sense and sweetness of her disposition, that her own taste might gradually be corrected; and that as his should from time to time fall under her observation, it might contribute to the change.

He took up his residence, therefore, in town; and, though Emilia went into company, and frequented public places more than he could have wished, he complied with her inclination in these particulars, partook of her amusements when he was not necessarily engaged, and, when he did so, carefully avoided betraying that indifference or disgust which he often felt.

While Horatio, however, gave way to the taste of Emilia, he never lost the inclination, nor neglected the means, of reforming it.

Amidst the gaiety to which she had been accustomed, Emilia had early formed a taste for the elegant writers, both of this country and of France ; and the same sensibility and delicacy of mind, which led her to admire them, made her no less sensible of the beauties of a polished and refined conversation. It was this which had first gained the affections of Horatio ; it was to this he trusted for effecting the reformation he desired.

He was at pains, therefore, to cultivate and encourage this literary taste in Emilia.--He frequently took occasion to turn the conversation to subjects of literature, and to dwell on the beauties, or mention the striking passages, of this or that author and would often

engage

Emilia in a fine poem, an affecting tragedy, or an interesting novel, when, but for that circumstance, she would have been exhausting her spirits at a ball, or wasting the night at cards.

Nor was he less studious in forming her taste for company than for books. Though he had never aimed at an extensive acquaintance, Horatio enjoyed the friendship of several persons of both sexes endowed with those elegant manners, and that delicate and cultivated understanding, which render conversation at once agreeable and instructive.

Of these friends he frequently formed parties at his house. Emilia, who had the same disposition to

oblige, which she, on all occasions, experienced from him, was happy to indulge his inclinations in this particular; and, as she was well qualified to bear a part in their conversation, and of a mind highly sensible of its charms, these parties gradually became more and more agreeable to her.

In this manner, her books, the conversation of select companies, and the care of her children, which soon became a most endearing office to the tender and feeling heart of Emilia, furnished her with a variety of domestic occupations; and as these gradually led her to go less into mixed company and public amusements, she began to lose her habitual relish for them. As she easily observed how agreeable this change was to the taste of Horatio, that circumstance gave her mind more and more a domestic turn.

The same delicacy from which he at first gave way to her taste for company and public amusements, made Horatio avoid shewing that preference which he entertained for a country life.

For some time he was entirely silent on the subject. Though he now and then made excursions to the country, it was only occasionally when his business rendered it necessary; and, though Emilia could not but observe that the manner in which he passed his time there, in adding to the beauties of his place, and in an easy intercourse with a few neighbours, was highly agreeable to him; he never expressed an inclination of fixing his general residence in the country, or even of her accompanying him in his occasional visits to Rosedale.

His visits become, however, gradually more frequent; and as they generally continued for some weeks, those little absences gave a sort of pain to Emilia, to whom no society was now so agreeable