Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

fee me till I was quite near her. She feemed then in great amazement. She could not be much more furprized, if I had dropt from the clouds. But this was foon over, upon my asking her, if he was not the daughter of Mr. John Bruce, as I fuppofed from a fimilitude of faces, and informing her, that her father, if I was right, was my near friend, and would be glad to fee his chum in that part of the world. Marinda replyed, you are not wrong, and immediately afked me in. She conducted me to a parlour that was quite beautiful in the rural way, and welcomed me to Hali-farm, as her father would have done, fhe fayed, had I arrived before his removal to a better world. She then left me for a while, and I had time to look over the room I was in. The floor was covered with rushes, wrought into the prettyeft matt, and the walls decorated all round with the fineft flowers and fhells. Robins and nightingales, the finch and the linnet, were in the neateft reed cages of her own making; and at the upper end of the chamber, in a charming little open grott, was the

with this paffage. Yet Rymer is the man. Apt, clear, natural, fplendid, and numerous as the lines are, this bypercritic, in his fhort view of tragedy, blafphemes their vifible excellence, as he does many other noble flights and matchless beautys in the incomparable Shakespear. In this respect, to be fure Rymer deferves the highest contempt.

finest

[ocr errors]

fineft ftrix capite aurito, corpore rufo, that I have feen, that is, the great eagle owl. This beautiful bird, in a nich like a ruin, looked vaftly fine (a). As to the flowers which adorned this room, I thought they were all natural at my first coming in, but on infpection it appeared, that feveral baskets of the finest kinds were inimitably painted on the walls by Marinda's hand.

These things afforded me a pleafing entertainment for about half an hour, and then Mifs Bruce returned. One of the maids brought in a fupper, fuch fare, fhe fayed, as her little cottage afforded; and the table was covered with green peas and pigeons, cream cheese, new bread and butter. Every thing was excellent in its kind. The cyder and ale were admirable. Difcretion and dignity appeared in Marinda's behaviour; fhe talked with judgment; and under the decencys of ignorance, was feen a valuable knowledge. After fupper, fhe gave me the history of her father from the time he and I had parted, and concluded with faying,

(a) The eagle-owl is as big as a goofe, and its head very like the head of a beautiful cat, The eyes are very large, and extremely fierce. The feathers elegant and large; and the colour a reddish brown, variegated with black and white, in fpots and clouds. Among the high cliffs of Northumberland this bird is frequently feen, and loves to lodge or build in a ruin, rather than a tree, or any other place. It feizes rabbits and hares.

B 3

that

that by his death, a year before my arrival, she became the folitary thing I faw her, in the midít of untravelled mountains, and had not in the whole world one friend, excepting the poor ruftics of her house, and neighbourhood; who were uncomfortable companions, but could not love and refpect her more, if the had been their fovereign: that he was however very far from being melancholy, or thinking herself in the least unhappy. The little farm her father left her, and all he had to leave her, about two hundred acres of bottom, good and bad, among the mountains, afforded her fufficient food and raiment; and the management of the farm was no disagreeable employment. She had but little time to fpare from the bufinefs of it; and the few leifure hours in her difpofal, fhe gave to mufic and painting, which her father took great pains to teach her. Or fometimes fhe turned over an antient or modern book; for her fond Preceptor had enabled her to read the Iliad of Homer, the Georgics of Virgil, and a play of Terence in the original languages, with as much eafe as he did a fpectator : and all things being well.confidered, that the had, in the main, more real happyness than the greatest ladys in high life in any metropolis. She would not make an exchange, if it was offered. Where her lot was thrown,

fhe

fhe was fatisfyed. Charming creature! I could not enough admire her.

of Mr.

of Marinda.

As to her father, he was a moft extraordina- The story ry man, and therefore I will tell you his story. John Bruce, When I was fent to the univerfity in the 16th the father year of my age, to be made a parfon, according to the refolution of an orthodox parent, Mr. John Bruce, the father of this lady, was then a master of arts, and juftly efteemed the brightest and most learned young man in the college. His father was a man of good eftate, but kept him at a hard allowance in the univerfity, because he refused to go into prieft's orders. Under his private tuition I was put, on account of his admirable character, and in four years time that we lived in the fame chamber, in the greatest unity, notwithstanding the difparity in our ages, I learned more than I should have done in treble the time, if I had heared no more than the college lectures, and the wranglers. Exclufive of his letting me into the fecrets of the claffics, he fpared no labour to give me a juft idea of rational pure religion. He exposed to my view the nonfenfe and inventions, the old prejudices and prepoffeffions of the church-men, and convinced me, that if many of them were fincere in their fyftems, yet they were far from being clear in their understandings. He fet the cafe of natural religion and revelation in the cleareft light B 4 before

before me, and made me fenfible, that whatever is contrary to the eternal immutable law of moral truth and righteoufnefs, can only be ascribed to the artifice and imposture of the priest, or to the fuperftition and hypochondriafm of the prophet, though they may pretend to difcover it in the name of the Lord, and to fupport it by dreams, visions, and voices. This charmed me. I was all ear to my preceptor and governor. Religion, would Jack Bruce fay, as we paffed an evening over a little bowl of nectar, for he never taught in the dry, fower method. -Religion confifts in a fteady belief of the exiftence of a God, and a discharge of the various dutys which refult from the several relations which we ftand in, to a creator, our neighbour, and ourselves, as we expect a future reckoning, and muft account for all our actions. We must love infinite perfection for itself, and its own amiability; we must adore and praise him; and offer him free and voluntary acts of obedience, by trust and refignation, and by crucifying the flesh with all its affections. We must do every thing in our power to promote the common felicity; be generous to the utmost of our ability, always civil, ever good humored and by deeds of munificence, mercy, and charity, ftrive to imitate the imitable perfections of the Deity. This is the religion

« AnteriorContinuar »