from her unjust charge against him, as he had not been her firft feducer. Just when Sophia is prepared to receive her lover in the most favourable manner, fhe is informed of his being drowned by falling overboard, and is filled with the deepest concern. While fhe is deploring, with the family, his untimely fate, fhe hears, by a letter from his brother, that he was faved by laying hold of a hen coop which was thrown out to him. In a few hours Charles himself arrives, and is foon afterwards made the happiest of men by marrying the mistress of his heart.

The Hiftory of Charles Wentworth is full of instruction: every page of it immediately relating to the hero is parti 'cularly fo: and thofe young men whofe lively paffions hurry them to dangerous indifcretions, may receive excellent leffons from bis letters: they may also receive the greatest encouragement to act upon every occafion with honour and with prudence. Charles Wentworth was punished for his follies; but as foon as he repented of them, and became defirous to atone for his past conduct by the propriety of his future behaviour, he was amply rewarded.

The account which is given of Guiana is curious. The editor affures us in the notes that it may be depended upon : adding that, every attempt to represent the felicity of a rural life, when all are deferting the country, and swarming to the capital, and when agriculture is on the decline, will, he apprehends, be confidered as laudable.'

There are two letters introduced, by a Mr. Gordon, which cannot be overlooked by any reader of attention. Mr. Gordon's fentiments feem to bear a strong refemblance to thofe of the fingular philofopher of Geneva, with regard to the dif advantages arifing from fociety. 'Tis the glory of civilization, fays he, to have congregated the fcattered inhabitants of the earth, and united them in towns and cities, those unnatural affemblies diftinguished by luxury and vice; happy, however, would it be if they were again difperfed in their fylvan cottages, and reftored to their primitive fimplicity and innocence: they have been assembled into cities to defraud, and into armies to murder each other; from hunters and fifhers of beafts, they have been converted into hunters and fifhers of men: they have been wifer, but not more virtuous; naturally innocent and ignorant, they have been inftructed how to perpetrate fraud and injuftice with greater at, fecrecy, and fuccefs; they have, indeed, formed a variety of laws to dif courage vice, but they first introduced it; and have invented many fevere punishments against the commiffion of crimes, but they first created the temptation to evil.'

Thefe

Thefe paffages are not unanfwerable; but we fhould go out of our way to animadvert upon them in this place.

VI. Conftantia, or, The Diftreffed Friend. A Novel. 12mo. Pr. 35. Johnston.

THIS novel opens very whimfically with three lines out of one of Hawthorn's fongs in Love in a Village. The first part of the story is fo perplexed, that we do not know what the author would be at: the winding up of it, however, is clear and commendable.

A brave officer, left among the wounded at the battle of Dettingen, falls into the hands of a count Lacy, who entertains him as one of his family till he can be exchanged. During his refidence under his benefactor's hofpitable roof, he and the count's daughter became enamoured with cach other, and they are married. The count and countess only object to the Irish officer's being a proteftant; but he foon convinces them of the errors of the Romish church, and they become defirous that their daughter fhould conform to her husband's religion. A young Parifian, having been rejected by the parents of the young lady, jealous of his happiness, informs against him as a heretic, and as a man who has poisoned the minds of count Lacy and his family. They are all thrown into prifon during their confinement the countefs dies, and her daughter becomes ready to be brought to bed. They are tried count Lacy has his life and liberty given him, as he had been only guilty by countenancing the apoftacy of his children, who are commanded back to prifon. They are foon afterwards brought to the ftake. Mrs. is there delivered of Conftantia, who is fnatched from the flames, and given to her grandfather the count.

This part of the ftory is pathetically related, and the pe rufal of it will ferve to ftrengthen every true proteftant's abhorrence of popery.

Conftantia, thus refcued from the flames, is educated by her grandfather with the young count Lacy, and his fifter Bella, grand-children alfo to the old count, who dies when the is nine years of age. While Conftantia lives with her coufins, Sir Thomas Trevor and Mr. Eafeby, on their tour, come to Paris, and get acquainted with her and Bella. Sir Thomas fails in love with Bella; but as he is afraid that his family will not confent to his union with her, he prevails on her to be married to him privately. Being fent for in a hurry, on account of his father's fudden and dangerous illness, he

i

leaves her, and in a fhort time ceafes to correfpond with her. Alarmed at his neglect, the refolves to come to England, and to find out the caufe of it, having engaged Conftantia to accompany her. They arrive in London, and are thrown into bad hands. One Green, a pimp to a lord, decoys them to his lordship's feat fucceflively. Bella makes her efcape in a man's drefs, and is difcovered by Mr. Eafeby afleep in a wood, near his houfe. He does not know her, but brings her home as a fick ftranger. While Green is carrying Conftantia after her friend to lord Langfton's feat, the chaife is overturned, he therefore fets her behind him on his horfe; in attempting to cross a river the horfe plunges; fhe catches hold of a tree, and recovers herself; the horfe and rider are carried down the ftream. Mr. Trevor, Sir Thomas's brother, finds her, and conducts her to Mr. Eafeby, who afterwards marries her. Sig Thomas also discovers Bella; and hears that her brother count Lacy, who is come to England in fearch of the two fugitives, had stopped, from a pique, all his letters to Bella, and detained them from her. The count attacks Sir Thomas, and dangerously wounds him; he recovers, however, and all mat⚫ters are amicably adjufted. Conftantia finds her grandfather in an old clergyman, who has long lamented the death of a wife, and the lofs of a fon. [The fon was the Irish officer above mentioned, who died a martyr to the 'proteftant religion.] This worthy old divine writes an excellent letter to the young people going to be married, which ought to be attentively perufed by every young perfon, as it contains precepts which cannot be too much commended. The following extract from it, for the whole is too long to be inferted in this article, will, we imagine, juftify what we have faid of it.

I am now rejoiced at the diftreffes you were involved in ; they have taught you more than all the fchools of philofophy put together: you have feen here Heaven at the fame time it it is fcourging us for our faults, may be promoting not only our real good, but our earnest defires. Acquiefce in the dif penfations of Providence with a faithful and true heart, cafting all your care on him who cares for you, fince you are fatisfied, that no forefight, no defign of your own, could ever bring your affairs to the prefent happy conclufion.'

We have quoted thefe paffages entirely for the fentiments conveyed in them, which might have been much more happily expreffed; and hope, that the author of Conftantia will, in his next novel, if he is encouraged to proceed, tell his tale with lefs perplexity, and make his good things appear in a more graceful light. We have been often puzzled to find out his

mean

meaning, but are ready with candour to own, that his intertions as a man fufficiently apologize for his irregularities as a writer.

VII. Lucilla; or the Progress of Virtue: Tranflated from the French. 12mo. Pr. 3s Lowndes.

THE

"HE defign of this novel is more to be commended than the execution of it: fome of the characters are engaged in romantic, and rather unnatural adventures, but notwithstanding the extravagance in feveral parts of the volume, the whole may be safely put into the hands of that class of readers, for whofe perufal it seems to be calculated.

Lucilla is a fine young girl, whose parents lived at Auxerne, in Burgundy. While fhe is very dutifully and affectionately endeavouring to confole them for the lofs of an only fon, who had not been heard of, after having fignalized himself in a battle in the favage defarts of the New World, they prefs her in fuch a manner to marry a man every way disagreeable to her; that she, to avoid him, makes her escape to Paris, with Dangeot, her father's clerk. When they have refided about a month in Paris, during which they occupied feparate apartments, Lucilla's father, accompanied by Fifiomon, the man defigned for her, difcovers the house in which they lodge. Lucilla elopes before they can get a fight of her. Dangeot is taken, but is released by his mafter, who accufes himself for having acted in fo arbitrary a manner to his child. Dangeot throws himself into the army, and goes to the Weft-Indies. Lucilla is met by a Mrs. la Courton, who, delighted to find fuch a young innocent, carries her home, in order to difpofe of her to the best bidder. In order to make her the fitter for her purpose, she keeps her from the fight of men, and does every thing in her power to corrupt her mind. By loose books, and licentious converfation, the ftudiously tries to shake her virtuous principles; gives her proper inftructions for making the most of her perfon, and lays a becoming ftrefs on her deceiving and plundering the dupe who takes her into keeping. A M. Durichmont is the man who pays la Courton the money demanded for her, believing her to be her daughter. This young gentleman has a very prudent tutor who endeavours, at the fame time, to reclaim his pupil, and to extirpate the wrong sentiments which la Courton had infused into Lucilla's mind. Durichmont is fo charmed with Lucilla's beauty and talents that he almoft wishes to find her virtuous, though he had actually purchased her for a miftrefs. In time,

by

by his refpe&ful behaviour, and the unwearied affiduity of his tutor, fhe becomes a very amiable character, and feels a real affection for her lover. Durichmont now thoroughly fatisfied with Lucilla's conduct, intends to marry her: D'Anville opposes his pupil, fuppofing her to be really the daughter of la Courton. Lucilla relates the hiftory of her family, and by that relation finds that Mr. D'Anville, her lover's preceptor, is her uncle. Her father and mother are then fent for, and the feels no anxiety but for having driven her parents to despair by running away from them. In the mean time, Dangeot returns very rich from Martinico, and makes a most unexpected discovery, for he returns as a woman, and in a narrative, accounts for the disguise in which he appeared as clerk to M. Fume erre, Lucilla's father. Soon afterwards young Fumeterre returns to the great joy of them all. He had been taken prisoner in Canada; from thence he made his escape to Martinico: at that place he was condemned to be hanged for a murder, but he proves innocent, and was faved by the intereft of Dangeot he marries her. Fifiomon, hearing of the departure of Monfieur and Madam Fumeterre from Paris, con-, cludes that Lucilla is the cause of their journey, and follows them privately but not being able to find them he is carried by love and pleasure to la Courton's: in her house he contracts a diftemper which renders him eager to be revenged. He goes again to the house in search of the girl who had injured him. The noife of a quarrel between them brings la Courton to them. He draws his fword, and wounds her. While he is attempting to run off, the girl alarms the family. He is seized and committed to prifon; and dies there from the loathsomeness of the place in which he is confined, fuperadded to his other disorders.

The outline of this ftory will, we doubt not, fufficiently corroborate what has been already obferved concerning the extravagance in it. The facts on which this work is founded have the merit of deviating from the common track. This paffage is extracted from the preface; with the author's leave we will venture to affirm, that he should have written fiЯions inftead of facts: nor will we fcruple to add that his fictions often revolt against probability. The novelift who deviates from the track of nature merits little praife.

VIII. A