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of those over whom they have been fet by the Almighty, in order to promote their happinefs: for then Moraddin began to confider that as the only end of government. Thus the reflections made by the prince, whilft he wandered unknown and diftreffed through an empire where he had once been the fecond in power, led him to the knowledge of an emperor's duty to his fubjects. Moraddin now wished to be reftored to his former grandeur, only that he might have it in his power to do good to mankind; for the cruel reverfe of fortune which he had experienced, made him conclude, that true happiness is to be found neither amongst the higheft of mankind, who by their exceffes turn abundance into a curfe, nor amongst the loweft, who groan under the preffure of real calamities, but in the middle ftation of life, which is neither fubje&t to be ruffled by the afpirings of ambition, nor to be depreffed by the rigours of want. When he was almost upon the borders of Perfia, and exulted in the hopes of foon arriving in the country which gave him birth, and whofe inhabitants he was deftined to govern, he repaired one night for lodging and refreshment to an obfcure cottage, where he was very kindly received by an old man of a venerable afpect, who furprized him agreeably by fpeaking the language of Indoftan: but his furprize was greatly increafed when, upon examining the features of his hoft, he difcovered in, him Chorafmin, one of the most faithful fervants of the Mogul his father. Chorafmin almoft at the fame inftant recollected the face of Moraddin, and they embraced with a transport of joy which was equal on both fides; for the prince, whom Chorafinin would have

approached with awe at Delly, was fo delighted at feeing a domeftic attached to his interefts, that he then loft fight of his fuperiority, and treated his vaffal as his equal. This joy was foon clouded by the information which Chorafmin gave the prince concerning the affairs of Indoftan. He gave him to understand that his father had been depofed and murdered by the ufurper Manouri, and that he had fled to Perfia in order to efcape the rage of that cruel tyrant, who had butchered all those whom he knew to be attached to the Mogul whom he had depofed. The prince did not at this relation lofe his courage, but formed a refolution worthy of him: he determined to go over to Delly in the fame difguife, and, difcovering himfelf only to his friends, form a party and pull the tyrant from the throne which his iniquity had raised him to. When arrived in the dominions which were his by hereditary right, he raised a numerous army before the ufurper knew he was in Indoftan. At the head of this army he marched to Delly; and no fooner had he declared himself, but the gates were opened to him, and the tyrant murdered in his palace. The Indians, without exception, declared themselves in favour of their lawful fovereign; and Moraddin, who in the rigid fchool of adverfity had perfectly learned the art of government, made his fubjects bleft by his fway. Poverty fled from the happy plains of Indoftan; the Mogul remembered that he himself had been poor, and a fugitive, and confidered the loweft of his fubjects as in a pe◄ culiar manner committed to his care. Chorafmin, whom he raised to the dignity of vifir, followed his example; for Chorafmin, as well as the

prince,

prince, had learned to pity the woes of the lowest of mortals, by partaking of them. Moraddin, convinced by his experience that adverfity is often advantageous to mortals, and fearing left the delights and pomp of a court should again fill his foul with unfeeling pride, ordered one of the officers of his court to repeat to him every morning, when he arofe, thefe words; O, Emperor of Indoftan, remember thou hast known Adverfity!

Such was the mildness of his reign, and fo happy were his fubjects during his life, that when he died, the Indians lamented him as their common father; and all thofe who fpoke of him gave him the appellation of Moarddin the good emperor. Adverfity must therefore be allowed to be productive of high advantages, fince from its bitter exacerbations a monarch may learn to command.

An Original Letter from Lord Bolingbroke to Mr. Pope, on the univerfal Depravity of Mankind; and the Poetry of Addifon.

Dear Pope, Do not know how it is, but the air of Twickenham agrees with me confiderably better than a refidence in town; and I find a greater fhare of fatisfaction at the bottom of your little garden, than ever I experienced in the buttle of a court. Poffibly this may proceed from a proper eftimation of your worth, and a juft opinion of all the ambitious coronets, or fawning fycophants I am furrounded with. Certain it is, however, the dignity of human nature leffens in my notion of things, according to the knowledge I have of mankind; and the more intimate I become with the generality of people, the greater occafion I have to defpife them.-The felon at the bar, and the judge upon the bench, are stimulated by the fame motives, though they act in different capacities; for the one but plunders through a hope of gain; and let me ask if the other would take any pains in the administration of justice without a reasonable gratuity for his labour.

This you will fay may be carrying things too far, and poffibly it

may be fo-yet, though a particular inftance or two may be brought to contradict an obfervation of this kind, they can by no means be produced as arguments against the univerfal depravity. I am greatly pleafed with a remark which Swift made a few days ago in a converfation which we had upon this very fubject. I need not tell you how four the dean is in his fentiments of the world; but I think the following declaration is not more diftinguifhed for its feverity, than fupported by its juftice. "Were we, faid he, to make a nice examination. into the actions of every man, we fhould find one half of the world to be rogues, and the other half to be blockheads; the latter half may be divided into two claffes, the goodnatured blockhead and the fenfible; the one, through an eafinefs of temper, is always liable to be ill-used; the other, through an excels of vanity, is frequently expofed to be wretched. Mutual confidence and real friendship are very pretty words, but feldom carry any meaning; no man will entertain an opinion of another, which is oppofite to his

Own

own intereft; and a nod from a great man, or a fmile from a ftrumpet, will fet a couple of blockheads by the ears, who a moment before would have ventured their lives for each other's reputation."

Lord Peterborough dined with me yesterday. I have a high idea of the goodness of this nobleman's heart, though it may be brought as a proof against my favourite fyftem; but he is of a turn fo exceffively romantic, that I cannot be equally prejudiced in favour of his underftanding. I have no notion of a man's perpetually expofing himself to unneceffary dangers for the mere fake of being talked of; or, through a ridiculous thirst for military glory, venturing a life which fhould be preserved for the fervice of his prince, and the intereft of his country. My motive for faying this you know is neither founded upon pique, nor directed by ill-nature. My lord is a man for whom I have the moft perfect regard, and my efteem alone is the reason why I may be fo extremely fenfible of his errors.

I faw Addifon this morningSomehow or other, Pope, I can by no means think that man an excellent poet; his profe is very well -but there is a heaviness about his verfification, which is totally inconfiftent with elegance and spirit, and which, though it may in the thoughts of fome people carry much judgment, is in my opinion a proof of very little genius. I am far, you know, from being fond of eternal epithets in poetry, or endless endeavours at fublimity of expreffion; but I would have it exalted a little above profe in the most humble

fpecies, and carry an air of fome dignity and importance.

Trivial as the remark may appear, it was very well for a boy of fourteen, who was reading Cato, and coming to that tag which is fo highly celebrated by fome of the author's friends;

"So the pure limpid ftream

when foul with ftains ;" the lad burst into a fit of laughing, aud cried, Here is a bull! who ever thought that a ftream could be pure and limpid, yet at the fame time foul with ftains? I could not help joining the laugh at the archness of the boy's obfervation, though the criticism might feem too low for judgments of more experience and maturity.-But why do I entertain a fellow of your abilities in this manner, who are so greatly a fuperior master of the fubject.-I am fomehow fond of fcribling, and become trifling for the fake of spinning out a letter.-If poffible, I fhall take an airing down your way on Saturday, and pray let me have a little leg of lamb, with fome fpinnage and plain butter, to regale on. Where I dine in town they ftarve me with luxury; and I have fat at many a table where I had not a bit of any thing to eat, because I had too much of every thing. You and I can go down to the bottom of the garden, and manage a bottle or two of that excellent ale after dinner, and enjoy what you are goodnaturedly pleafed to call,

"The feaft of reason, and the flow of foul."

66

Farewel, dear Pope, And believe me to be your own, BOLINGBROKE.

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HISTORY

of CLARINDA.

To the Authors of the BRITISH MAGAZINE.

GENTLEMEN,

T

HERE can be no greater or more common injustice committed by any man, than that of making an ill return to a woman's confidence in him. The guilt is aggravated by the inability of the injured perfon to revenge it; and it were to be wished that our laws were not so very defective in inflict ing an adequate punishment on the man who is base enough to confign the whole life of a woman to forrow and shame, merely to procure to himself one hour of happiness and triumph. Commerce with a woman, without affection to her, or concern for her, is the most inhuman and bestial action a man can be guilty of. The woman's vice, in that cafe, is human frailty; but the man's is the fame, improved with diabolical malice. The perfon deceived and perfuaded is an innocent, in comparison of the feducer, and the feducer advances to the temper of a dæmon, as he is negligent of the welfare of her he has enfnared. Thefe were the reflections which occurred to me on revolving the folJowing melancholy ftory of Clarinda, a very amiable, though unfortunate, young lady, into whofe company I accidentally fell not long ago, and which, as it may probably prove not only agreeable, but ufeful, to the female part of your readers, I fhall here fubjoin it, as near as I can recollect, in the lady's own words.

"I was born, fays fhe, in a county town of this kingdom, famous from the university in it, which is not only renowned, but the nursery of

renown, and is called Oxford. My father was a citizen of good reputation in that place, but had the miffortune to bury my mother, when I, his only child, was arrived at the age of fourteen. I foon fancied myfelf a very happy woman, in being made, as I was, the mistress of the houfe, and living with my father with the authority of a wife. But that fatisfaction vanished in a fhort time, for my father alfo was, within two years after, taken from me by fudden death, and left me in money and effects a fmall eftate of one thousand pounds. This portion, little as it was, added to my beauty, drew the eyes of several deserving men (that thought of fettling in a country parfonage) upon me. I, forfooth, liked nothing which I had feen from my infancy; but having read plays and romances, my imagination was full of gaieties, that prevented my entertaining so moderate defires, as being the partner and wife of a scholar. I was, from the early lofs of my mother, and converfing with my father and his friends more than with any of my own fex, grown, as I believed, very judicious in my opinion of men, and began to look out for an object of love fuitable to my understanding.

But

"There came down to Oxford, about that time, a man of the town, by way of retirement from it; a gentleman well made, well behaved, and (which was then above all with me) well dreffed. But had I known the world then, as well as he has fince made me do, I had thought his habit tawdry,

tawdry, his behaviour imitation, his
discourse repetition. This indigent
follower of people of condition and
understanding was foon admired for
a fine gentleman among the young
people of both fexes, who had never
feen fuch as he mimicked in his fe-
cond-hand deportment. To be fhort,
this fine gentleman condefcended to
take most notice of me, and I very
gratefully fell in love with him; but
we called our regard for each other
friendship; friendship, that most
fpecious word, which never yet ended
well between a young man and a
young woman. In the midft of this
friendly paffion, or paffionate friend.
hip, my flaming beau was arrefted
and clapped into gaol by creditors
from London. I brought him my
all, half of it procured him his li-
berty; and in great generofity he
immediately took me into his arms,
called me his wife, and pretended to
let me into his true hiftory; owned
to me that he had run out, and had
much difobliged an excellent mo-
ther, a lady of great wealth, whom
he had highly offended, because he
would not take up and marry; but
I, however unequal in fortune,
hould be the happy woman; and
he would the very next day carry
me to town, and present me to his
mother and relations, who would be
highly exalted at his refolution of
abandoning a loose single life.

He wrote up letters to prepare for our reception, and accordingly we foon after arrived at his pretended lady's mother's, who was a notori

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fuch fine ladies, kneeled with my precious confort, and received the blefling of the beldam. It is the manner of thofe houfes to give each other the names and titles of fuch women of beauty and quality as they refemble in air, fhape and ftature; and upon novices and foreigners they impofe them as the real perfons: but I remember there was my lady dutchefs of fuch a place, a charming huffey; then the countefs of elfewhere; then my lady dowager of a third town; then a fuperannuated volunteer, an old bully, who was called Sir John, and his tawdry confort, one after another, deigned to falute me: these civilities over, 1 ftood in the utmoft diftrefs how to behave, when my good mother would beg leave to have me apart, where [ received a lecture indeed, but bid me, however, not be afraid; my fon, faid fhe, is a gentleman of a tender temper, and smiled. To be hort, I can't tell whether it was the dutchefs, the countefs, or which of them; but I, that evening, pledged one of thofe great ladies in a cup, which I have often lamented was not poifon. I waked in the morning and found myself alone; and being ashamed to enquire whether I was married laft night, twenty thoufand different thoughts came into my head: I was immediately told by a covey of thefe huffeys, who were to attend the business, that the bridegroom would be with me immediately, but never faw him from that hour to this; and what heaven covers, what earth bears, what air feeds the villain, who thus deceived, robbed, and destroyed me, I know not. Me, a ftranger, helpless as I was, they kept in a continual round of jollities, of fiddles, new gallants: the mother of the family threatened,

Kk 2

Aattered,

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