agement, the business of story-telling makes in itself a profeffion, which, as it is acquired by study and profecuted with art, is followed with confiderable profit. One day a friend (a French gentleman) who escorted me through the town, called to draw me out with him for a walk; he said he wished to fhew me fome of the caravanferas, obferving that he thought I fhould be entertained with a view of them. I agreed to go; and he brought me to two, which, after he had shewn to me and explained their principle, police, and etiquette, I could not help admiring and approving. To both thefe were attached eating-houses and coffee-houses, and every appendage that could render them convenient and comfortable. As we were about leaving the lafst, 1 observed my friend stop and liften attentively. "Come hither," said he, after a minute's paufe" come into this coffee-house, here is fomething going forward that may amuse you."

We accordingly entered the coffeehoufe, where we faw a number of people, fome feated in the Turkish fashion, fome on low ftools, and some standing; and in the middle a man walking to and fro, speaking in an audible voice, fometimes flowly, fometimes with rapidity, varying his tones occafionally with all the inflexions of a correfponding fenfe. I could not understand him, but he feemed to me to speak with "good emphafis and good difcretion;" his action was eafy to him, though expreffive and emphatical; and his countenance exhibited ftrong marks of eloquent expreffion. I could not help ftaring with aftonishment at a scene so new to me, and felt great approbation of the tones and manner of this extraordinary orator, though I could not understand a single word he faid. He was liftened to by all with great attention, and the Turks (albeit not ufed to the laughing mood) frequently betrayed ftrong fymptoms of rifibility: but in the height and torrent of his speech he broke fuddenly off, fcampered out of the door, and disappeared. I fet it down that he was a maniac or lunatic of an ingenious kind, and was for going away. "Stay,"

fays my friend," rest where you are for a few minutes, let us hear further."

The orator had fcarcely been gone three minutes, when the room was filled with the buzz of converfation, a word of which I could not understand, but which my guide liftened to very attentively. At length the buzz began to grow loud, and foon increafed into cla mour; when a scene enfued of so very Judicrous a kind as forced me to cram my handkerchief into my mouth to fupprefs a laugh, or at least so to stifle it as to avoid obfervation. In fhort, they were difputing violently; and the beards were, as I once before mentioned to you, all wagging. I became more convulfed with mirth; and my friend feeing that I was likely to give offence, took me under the arm and hurried me out of the coffeehoufe; we retired into a porch in the caravanfera, where I gave vent to my fuppreffed laughter till my fides were fore and my eyes ran tears.

"In the name of God, my friend !" faid I, "tell me what is the meaning of all that extravagant fcene to which we have just now been witness: who is that madman that spoke so much? and why did they all quarrel after he went away?"

"Come, come," faid he, " let us retire to my houfe, and I will there explain the whole of it to you, from beginning to ending."

1 accordingly accompanied him home, where we found a very gay circle affembled, to whom he defcribed my aftonishment; recounting my immoderate laughter, till they all laughed very nearly as immoderately as myself. "You must know," faid he, addreffing himself to me," that he whom you took to be a madman, is one of the most celebrated compofers and tellers of stories in Afia, and only wants the aid of printing to be perhaps as eminent in reputation for making Contes, as Marmontel or Madame D'Anois. As we paffed along I heard his voice, and, knowing it, refolved to let you fee him, and brought you in for that purpose. He was entertaining the company with a very curious, interefting, and comical ftory; the fubje a

·ject of which was avarice; the hero a
mifer of the name of Caffem. His mifery
and avarice are reprefented in it as bring
ing him into a variety of scrapes, which
wafte his wealth; and his character is
drawn with fuch ftrength of colouring,
and marked with fuch grotefque lines
of humour-he related it moreover with
fo much wit, in fuch admirable language,
and embellished and enforced it with
fuch appropriate action, utterance and
emphafis that it riveted, as you faw,
the attention of all his auditors, and ex-
torted laughter even from Turkish gra-
vity.".
"But how came he to break off

fo fuddenly faid I.

"That," returned my friend," is a part of the art of his profeffion, without which he could not live: juft as he gets to a moft interefting part of the ftory, when he has wound the imagination of his auditors up to the highest climax of expectation, he purpofely breaks off to make them eager for the reft. He is fure to have them all next day, with additional numbers who come on their report, and he makes his terms to finish the story."—" Why then," interrupted I, "why did they who remained behind fall difputing?"

he.

declare, that he was well affured in his confcience that Caffem would be brought to the baftinado or the flake, or else hanged, in the fequel."

"And is it poffible," said I, " that a group of twenty or thirty rational beings can be fo far bereft of all common fenfe, as to dispute upon the result of a contingency, which abfolutely depends on the arbitrary fancy of an acknowledged fabricator of falfehoods ?”

"C'eft vrai, monfieur !" and thereby they demonftrate the power of the poet (for poet we may well call him); : and entre nous, I doubt whether it is not more rational, as well as more fair, to difpute what the denouement ought to be before, than after the inventor of the piece has difpofed of it, as is the prac tice with us. When he has once finished his fable, you will find them all content, and the voice of criticism filent. Now in France or England, our critics lie perdue, in order to attack the poet, let him finish his performance how he may. But you will recollect, monsieur, that in Turky criticifm is the honeft fpontaneous iffue of the heart, and with us is a trade, where fometimes lucre, fometimes vanity, but oftener than both, envy and malice direct the decifion, and difpofe to cavil and cenfure." But we will go again to-morrow;" continued he, "probably he will be there to conclude or proceed further with his ftory;" I agreed to this, and we parted.

"That I will explain to you" faid "Juft as he broke off. Caffem, the mifer (who, as far as I heard, feems as well done as Moliere's Avare) having already fuffered a thousand whimfical misfortunes and dilapidations of fortune, is brought before the cadi for digging in his garden, on the prefumption that he was digging for treafure. As foon as the hiftorian was gone, they firft applauded him, and then began to difcufs the ftory-which they one and all agreed in praifing highly; and when they came to talk of the probable iffue of the fequel of it, there were almost as many opinions as there were men in the company; cach mentioned his own, and they went to loggerheads, as you faw, about itwhen the chance is a thousand to one, that not one of them was near the mark. One in particular furmifed that Caffem would be married to the cadi'sdaugh ter; which gave great offence to fome, and roufed another of the company to enjoy them.

On the next day we went, and not feeing the orator in his place, lounged about the caravanfera, and going to another coffee houfe found him declaiming with all his might. My friend told me that the story he was now on was quite different from the former: however we watched his motions fo effectually that we got the conclufion of the ftory of Caffem, which completely disappointed the prognoftics of the two conflicting Turkish critics; for Caffem was neither baftinadoed, staked, nor hanged, nor married to the cadi's daughter, but lived to fee that extreme avarice was folly; and to be fenfible that to make the proper ufe of the goods of this life is to

2

THE DELUSIONS OF THE HEART.A TALE.

BY ANNA MARIA PORTER.

Celeftial Happinefs, whene'er the ftoops.
To vifit earth, one fhrine the goddess finds,
And one alone to make her sweet amends
For abfent heaven-the bofom of a friend,
Where heart meets heart, reciprocally foft,
Each other's pillow to repose divine!

MIRANDA was born of parents, whofe fortune and rank in England obliged them to mix too much with the gay and diffipated. Her own mother died, when he was but, an infant :---her father, fhortly after, was married to a lady of beauty and diftinction. Lady Handfon, her mother-in-law, had just attained that time of life, when youth, blending with age, produces a certain majefty, that, perhaps, is as pleafing as the softness of tenderer years;-fhe was four and thirty, of a tali ftature, a graceful eafe in her shape that was ir refiftible. As her education had been principally in the grand monde, her no tions of female charms were alone confined to the body; and as nature had fo lavishly endowed her, fhe made no fcruple of fecuring as many hearts as fhe could allure; although her attractions were upon the wane, and her hand the property of a deferving huf. band.

Miranda, her daughter in-law, was whatever the most brilliant fancy could Conceive. The general expreffion of her figure, and face, was feminine fweetnefs, angelic purity, and manly fenfe. The beauty of her form was in harmony with the loveliness of her mind; where a brilliant imagination gathered fresh animation from an extenfiye knowledge, and a fenfibility that foftened all her manners. To this fhe added a fublimity of foul, an unbounded candour and generofity, purified by the most rational and ardent devotion.

Such a being was Miranda Hundfon, at the age of eighteen. Solitude was her greateft defire, and fashionable life her mother's; who, appearing to give up to her daughter's inclinations, permitted her to abfent herself from the giddy circles whenever the pleafed. To VOL. LVIII.

Young. the eye of Lord Hundfon, (whofe characteristic was eafy good nature,) it feemed indulgence in his wife, who, in reality, allowed it from no other motive, than the apprehenfion of his child's commencing her rival: and thinking it more to her advantage to bury fuch attractions in obfcurity-fhe rather encouraged, than repreffed her ardent love of the filent pleasures of nature. In fhort, this thoughtless woman had no more than a habitual regard for a daughter whofe worth made her to be adored by every one elfe. His Lordship loved her above all the world, his wife excepted.--Would to heaven he had loved her even above her!-But giving up to the strong power of his lady, he was often obliged to quit his old manfion for the capital; and while he was running the glittering maze of licentious revelry with his partner, the mild Miranda was penfively ftraying amid the romantic and fublime beauties of Hundfon Castle.

As her ideas were rich and exalted, the delighted in that fort of reading which was congenial with the purity of her own mind. The moft celebrated poems and romances were ever in her hand, amongst the latter, Sir Philip Sidney's Arcadia held a distinguished place. Secluded as she was from the world, she formed an imaginary one of her own, itill more refined than that in her favourite authors. She confidered, that, as every thing is in a state of improvement, it muft alfo advance in excellence; little dreaming, that this earth, contrary to all other things, degenerates every day from that unfullied innocence of heart and manners, which prevailed in the early years of our first fathers. In the creation of her brain, vice was a monfter feldom beheld, against which the с whole