nesday and Saturday; as, after that, I can call no period my own even till my return to Bath.

Surely your question is, "Is Miss Seward, who has criticised your poem, the celebrated poetess ?" It is impossible you should not have heard, with pleasure, of the almost divine woman who wrote the Elegy on Capt. Cook, and the Monody on André. Last night I received from her a stricture on the second book of Sympathy, with a very beautiful letter, desiring me to adjust her remarks to the paper, suppress particular appeals to the author, and publish the rest with her name.

She

is not like the Turk who can bear no rival near her throne. Q God, Sir! what an additional ornament to the examples of sympathy has your anecdote of the Carver family afforded me! I have worn your tale of the reformed highwayman to tatters, with reading it to 50 of my friends; and here is another stroke upon the soul as gloriously distressing. Your life seems to be like the late Countess of Coventry's beauty.

"A lovelier wonder soon usurps the place,

Chased by a charm still lovelier than the last."

Who is that first muse of the age which has made Grove Hill live in description, and look green in song?

A thousand tender reasons will not let me close this address till I have thanked you for the very delicate manner in which you have replied to the accounts of my correcter conduct, You have not

said “I am glad, friend, the day of thy reformation is beginning to dawn; may it shine more and more into perfect repentance!" The ice that

hangs about such remarks strikes a damp over the heart, and freezes the genial current of the soul. Far from Dr. Lettsom is such cold virtue. You rehail me as a man whom you wish to live. You invite me to your house. Your hand is again extended, your heart scarce trembles to come again into contact. In this there is a dignity, a softness that reaches the very source of my best feelings, and bathes my cheek as I subscribe myself

Your most grateful servant,

LETTER CCXXIV.

From the same.

S. J. PRATT.

Nov. 9, 1782.

I am very late come from a visit to the brilliant Miss Seward, with whom, and a circle of her chosen friends, I passed a most ethereal week. She is quite a monarch planet, and many stars of the first magnitude sparkle around her orb. I told to the constellation, in open sphere assembled, your stories of the Highwayman, poor Captain

Carver, and the Merchant. Forgive me, I could not help it. My hearers glowed, and the fair

Seward shed tears as fast as the Arabian tree its medicinal gums." She says she must see you, know, and tell you she adores you. She is to be on a visit in town next March, and will take that opportunity. I write to her to-morrow night, and will let her know I have communicated her passion for you. Thus it is that you kill by your worth, and cure by your skill. Miss Seward's father is the learned editor of Beaumont and Fletcher; she lives in great style at the Bishop of Lichfield's palace. Miss Seward is a very intimate friend of Mrs. Knowles's. You have read her charming poems on Cook and André. But she has still greater things in contemplation.

My comedy comes forth on the 5th of December. Put up your prayers, dear Friend, for my dramatic salvation; for narrow is the way, and mine enemies at hand.

S. J. P.

LETTER CCXXV.

RICHARD CUMBERLAND, Esq. to Dr. LETTSOM.

My Good Sir,

Dec. 13, 1797.

A thousand thanks to you for the present of your elegant book, and above all for your most kind and friendly letter, which I shall preserve as

a relick that does me honour, and marks your bounty and benevolence. Sir, I assure you, without flattery, I contemplate your character with love and respect; I know enough of it to know that your life has been employed in acts of philanthropy, most extensively disseminated. I reverence the simplicity of your sect, and if a pure and patient character would bear a scenic representation with good effect to the drama, and without offence to the feelings of that order of Separatists from our Establishment, who have as yet no obligations to the writers for the Stage, but much to accuse them of on the score of mummery and ridicule, I may in some future hour embrace your hint; but when I talk of future hours at my time of life, I know that every hour is a dispensation that I ought not to presume upon; and prepare myself to resign it, when the tenure of that trust, which I hold upon sufferance, shall, with or without a moment's warning, be recalled.

May you live for the benefit of your fellow creatures! and believe me, my good Sir, your friend in heart and affectionate

Humble servant,

RICH. CUMBERLAND.

LETTER CCXXVI.

VICQ D'AZYR to Dr. LETTSOM.

Monsieur & très-honoré Confrère,

J'ai reçu avec bien de la reconnaissance la notice rélative à Mr. Fothergill, que vous m'avez fait l'honneur de m'adresser, & je suis impatient de réçevoir l'édition que vous préparez des œuvres de ce grand homme. Permettez-moi de vous dire que, devant prononcer son Eloge dans cinq semaines précises, j'ai le besoin le plus pressant des renseignemens que vous pourrez me donner. Ainsi, je vous prie instamment de vouloir bien m'envoyer au plutôt une copie de ce que vous avez fait d'historique sur la vie & les ouvrages de M. Fothergill: ne pourriez vous point m'envoyer les feuilles déjà imprimées, qui y sont rélatives, où une copie manuscrite de ces mêmes feuilles? Dans quelque langue que ce soit, la chose m'est parfaitement indifférente. La Société Royale de Médecine de Paris réçevra avec empressement le Mémoire que vous lui destinez. J'ai communiqué à cette Compagnie vos Réflexions & Notes rélatives à diverses Plantes.

J'ai l'honneur d'être, avec la considération la plus distinguée, & l'attachement le plus véritable, Monsieur, & très-honoré confrère,

Votre très-humble &

très-obéissant serviteur, VICQ D'AZYR.