from Fergus I. to King William, they are paltry daubings, mostly by the same hand, painted either from the imagination or porters hired to sit for the purpose. All the diversions of London we enjoy at Edinburgh in a small compass. Here is a well-conducted concert in which several gentlemen perform on different instruments. The Scots are all musicians. Every man you meet plays on the flute, the violin or violoncello, and there is one nobleman whose compositions are universally admired. Our company of actors is very tolerable, and a subscription is now on foot for building a new theatre; but their assemblies please . me above all other public exhibitions. We have been at the hunters' ball, where I was really astonished to see such a number of fine women. The English who have never crossed the Tweed imagine erroneously that the Scotch ladies are not remarkable for personal attractions, but I can declare with a safe conscience I never saw so many handsome females together as were assembled on this occasion. At the Leith races the best company comes hither from the remoter provinces; so that I suppose we had all the beauty of the kingdom concentrated, as it were, into one focus, which was, indeed, so vehement that my heart could hardly resist its power. Between friends, it has sustained some damage from the bright eyes of the charming Miss R―n, whom I had the honor to dance with at the ball. The countess of Melville attracted all eyes and the admiration of all present. She was accompanied by the agreeable Miss Grieve, who made many conquests; nor did my sister Liddy pass unnoticed in the assembly. She is become a toast at Edinburgh by the name of the Fair Cambrian, and has already been the occasion of much wine-shed; but the poor girl met with an accident at the ball which has given us great disturbance. A young gentleman the express image of that rascal Wilson went up to ask her to dance a minute, and his sudden appearance shocked her so much that she fainted away. I call Wilson a rascal because, if he had been really a gentleman with honorable intentions, he would have ere now appeared in his own character. I must own my blood boils with indignation when I think of that fellow's presumption, and Heaven confound me if I don't- But I won't be so womanish as to rail time will perhaps furnish occasion. Thank God, the cause of Liddy's disorder remains a secret. The lady-directress of the ball, thinking she was overcome by the heat of the place, had her conveyed to another room, where she soon recovered so well as to return and join in the country-dances, in which the Scotch lasses acquit themselves with such spirit and agility as put their partners to the height of their metal. I believe our aunt, Mrs. Tabitha, had entertained hopes of being able to do some execution among the cavaliers at this assembly. She had been several days in consultation with milliners and mantuamakers, preparing for the occasion, at which she made her appearance in a full suit of damask so thick and heavy that the sight of it alone at this season of the year was sufficient to draw drops of sweat from any man of ordinary imagination. She danced one minute with our friend Mr. Mitchelson, who favored her so far in the spirit of hospitality and politeness, and she was called out a second time by the young laird of Balymawhaple, who, coming in by accident, could not readily find any other partner; but, as the first was a married man and the second paid no particular homage to her charms, which were also overlooked by the rest of the company, she became dissatisfied and censorious. At supper she observed that the Scotch gentlemen made a very good figure when they were a little improved by travelling, and therefore it was pity they did not all take the benefit of going abroad. She said the women were awkward, masculine creatures; that they had no idea of graceful motion and put on their clothes in a frightful manner; but if the truth must be told, Tabby herself was the most ridiculous figure, and the worst dressed, of the whole assembly. The neglect of the male sex rendered her malecontent and peevish; she now found fault with everything at Edinburgh and teased her brother to leave the place, when she was suddenly reconciled to it on a religious consideration. There is a sect of fanatics who have separated themselves from the Established Kirk under the name of Seceders. They acknowledge no earthly head of the Church, reject lay patronage and maintain the Methodist doctrines of the new birth, the new light, the efficacy of grace, the insufficiency of works and the operations of the Spirit. Mrs. Tabitha, attended by Humphry Clinker, was introduced to one of their conventicles, where they both received much edification; and she has had the good fortune to become acquainted with a pious Christian called Mr. Moffat, who is very powerful in prayer and often assists her in private exercises of devotion. company at any races in England as ap- I am not, however, so much engrossed by the gayeties of Edinburgh but that I find time to make parties in the family way. We have not only seen all the villas and villages within ten miles of the capital, but we have also crossed the Frith, which is an arm of the sea seven miles broad that divides Lothian from the shire, or, as the Scots call I never saw such a concourse of genteel it, "the kingdom of Fife." There is a num ber of large open seaboats that ply on this passage from Leith to Kinghorn, which is a borough on the other side. In one of these our family embarked three days ago, excepting my sister, who, being exceedingly fearful of the water, was left to the care of Mrs. Mitchelson. We had an easy and quick passage into Fife, where we visited a number of poor towns on the seaside, including St. Andrews, which is the skeleton of a venerable city, but we were much better pleased with some noble and elegant seats and castles, of which there is a great number in that part of Scotland. Yesterday we took boat again on our return to Leith, with a fair wind and agreeable weather, but we had not advanced halfway when the sky was suddenly overcast, and the wind, changing, blew directly in our teeth; so that we were obliged to turn or tack the rest of the way. In a word, the gale increased to a storm of wind and rain, attended with such a fog that we could not see the town of Leith, to which we were bound, nor even the castle of Edinburgh, notwithstanding its high situation. It is not to be doubted but that we were all alarmed on this occasion, and at the same time most of the passengers were seized with a nausea that produced violent retchings. My aunt desired her brother to order the boatmen to put back to Kinghorn, and this expedient he actually proposed; but they assured him there was no danger. Mrs. Tabitha, finding them obstinate, began to scold, and insisted on my uncle's exerting his authority as a justice of the peace. Sick and peevish as he was, he could not help laughing at this wise proposal, telling her that his commission did not extend so far, and if it did he should let the people take their own way, for he thought it would be great presumption in him to direct them in the exercise of their own profession. Mrs. Winifred Jenkins made a general clearance with the assistance of Mr. Humphry Clinker, who joined her both in prayer and ejaculation. As he took it for granted that we should not be long in this world, he offered some spiritual consolation to Mrs. Tabitha, who rejected it with great disgust, bidding him keep his sermons for those who had leisure to hear such nonsense. My uncle sat, re-collected in himself, without speaking; my man Archy had recourse to a brandy-bottle, with which he made so free that I imagined he had sworn to die of drinking anything rather than sea-water; but the brandy had no more effect on him in the way of intoxication than if it had been sea-water in good earnest. As for myself, I was too much engrossed by the sickness at my stomach to think of anything else. Meanwhile, the sea swelled mountains high; the boat pitched with such violence as if it had been going to pieces; the cordage rattled, the wind roared, the lightning flashed, the thunder bellowed and the rain descended in a deluge. Every time the vessel was put about we shipped a sea that drenched us all to the skin. When, by dint of turning, we thought to have cleared the pier-head, we were driven to leeward, and then the boatmen themselves began to fear that the tide would fail before we should fetch up our leeway; the next trip, however, brought us into smooth water, and we were safely landed on the quay about one o'clock in the afternoon. "To be sure," cried Tabby, when she "Yes," replied my uncle, "but I am much of the honest Highlander's mind. After he had made such a passage as this, his friend told him he was much indebted to Providence. Certainly,' said Donald; 'but I'se ne'er trouble Providence again so long as the brig of Stirling stands.'" You must know the brig, or bridge, of Stirling stands above twenty miles up the river Forth, of which this is the outlet. found herself on terra firma, "we must all | tivity it is not said of Tobias alone that he have perished if we had not been the par- copied not the conduct of his brethren, and ticular care of Providence." that he even fled from the danger of their commerce and society. See if, in those happy ages when Christians were all saints, they did not shine like stars in the midst of the corrupted nations, and if they served not as a spectacle to angels and men by the singularity of their lives and manners; if the pagans did not reproach them for their retirement and shunning of all public theatres, places and pleasures; if they did not complain that the Christians affected to distinguish themselves in everything from their fellow-citizens-to form a separate people in the midst of the people, to have their particular laws and customs; and if a man from their side embraced the party of the Christians, they did not consider him as for ever lost to their pleasures, assemblies and customs. In a word, see if in all ages the saints whose lives and actions have been transmitted down to us have resembled the rest of mankind. JEAN BAPTIST MASSILLON. I don't find that our squire has suffered in his health from this adventure, but poor Liddy is in a peaking way. I'm afraid this unfortunate girl is uneasy in her mind, and this apprehension distracts me, for she is really an amiable creature. We shall set out to-morrow or next day for Stirling and Glasgow, and we propose to penetrate a little way into the Highlands before we turn our course to the southward. In the mean time, commend me to all our friends round Carfax, and believe me to be ever yours, J. MELFORD. TOBIAS GEORGE SMOLLETT. THE JUST. THE CHARMED MAIDEN. "HE E does not come-he does not come,' she murmured as she stood contemplating the thick copse spreading before her FOLLOW, from age to age, the history and forming the barrier which terminated the of the just, and see if Lot conformed himself to the habits of Sodom, or if nothing distinguished him from the other inhabitants; if Abraham lived like the rest of his age; if Job resembled the other princes of his nation; if Esther conducted herself in the court of Ahasuerus like the other women of that prince; if many widows in Israel resembled Judith; if among the children of the Cap beautiful range of oaks which constituted the grove. How beautiful was the green and garniture of that little copse of wood! The leaves were thick, and the grass lay folded over and over in bunches, with here and there a wild flower gleaming from its green and making of it a beautiful carpet of the richest and most various texture. A small tree rose from the centre of a clump around eye with an incoherent sense of what she saw she lingered before the little cluster, seeming to survey that which, though it seemed to fix her eye, yet failed to fill her thought. Her mind wandered, her soul was far away, and the objects in her vision were far other than those which occupied her imagination. Things grew indistinct beneath her eye. The The rather slept than saw. The musing spirit had given holiday to the ordinary senses and took no heed of the forms that rose and floated or glided away before them. In this way the leaf detached made no impression upon the sight that was yet bent upon it; she saw not the bird, though it whirled, untroubled by a fear, in wanton circles around her head, and the black snake with the rapidity of an arrow darted over her path without arousing a single terror in the form that otherwise would have shivered at its mere appearance. And yet, though thus indistinct were all things around her to the musing mind of the maiden, her eye was yet singularly fixed-fastened, as it were-to a single spot, gathered and controlled by a single object, and glazed, apparently, beneath a curious fascination. her which a wild grape gadded luxuriantly, and sweetest, strangest power. | And now the leaves quivered and seemed to float away, only to return, and the vines waved and swung around in fantastic mazes, unfolding ever-changing varieties of form and color to gaze; but the starlike eye was ever steadfast, bright and gorgeous, gleaming in their midst, and still fastened with strange fondness upon her own. How beautiful with wondrous intensity did it gleam and dilate, growing larger and more lustrous with every ray which it sent forth! And her own glance became intense, fixed, also, but with a dreaming sense that conjured up the wildest fancies, terribly beautiful, that took her soul away from her and wrapped it about as with a spell. She would have fled, she would have flown, but she had not power to move. The will was wanting to her flight. She felt that she could have bent forward to pluck the gemlike thing from the bosom of the leaf in which it seemed to grow, and which it irradiated with its bright white gleam; but ever, as she aimed to stretch forth her hand and bend forward, she heard a rush of wings and a shrill scream from the tree above hersuch a scream as the mock-bird makes when angrily it raises its dusky crest and flaps its wings furiously against its slender sides, Such a scream seemed like a warning, and, though yet unawakened to full consciousness, it startled her and forbade her effort. More than once, in her survey of this strange object, had she heard that shrill note, and still had it carried to her ear the same note of warning and to her mind the same vague consciousness of an evil presence. But the starlike eye was yet upon her own—a small, bright eye, quick like that of a bird, now steady in its place and observant seemingly Before the maiden rose a little clump of bushes, bright tangled leaves flaunting wide in glossiest green, with vines trailing over them, thickly decked with blue and crimson flowers. Her eye communed vacantly with these, fastened by a starlike, shining glance, a subtle ray, that shot out from the circle of green leaves, seeming to be their very eye, and sending out a fluid lustre that seemed to stream across the space between and find its way into her own eyes. Very piercing and beautiful was that subtle brightness, of the |