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He immediately discovered in her a mind so congenial with his own, so enlightened, so refined, and so tender, that their mutual attraction presently joined them in the closest union that purity could possibly admit of. He loved her as his friend, and prided in her as his pupil. All her concerns became presently his; her health, her circumstances, her reputation, her children, were his; his fortune, his time, his country, were at her disposal, so far as the sacrifice of all or any of these might, in his opinion, contribute to her real happiness.

It is very much to be lamented, that Eliza's modesty was invincible to all the editor's endeavours to obtain her answers to these Letters: her wit, penetration and judgment, her happiness in the epistolary style, so rapturously commended by Sterne, could not fail to furnish a rich entertainment for the public. He could not help telling her, that he wished to God she was really possessed of that vanity with which she was charged; to which she replied, that she was so far from acquitting herself of vanity, that she suspected that to be the cause why she could not prevail on herself to submit her letters

to the public eye; for although Sterne was partial to every thing of her's, she could not hope that the world would be so too. With this answer the editor was obliged to be contented.

The reader will remark that these Letters have various signatures; sometimes he signs Sterne, sometimes Yorick, and to one or two he signs her Bramin. Although it is pretty generally known who the Bramins are, yet lest any body should be at a loss, it may not be amiss to observe that the principal cast or tribe among the idolatrous Indians are the Bramins, and out of the chief class of this east come the priests so famous for their austerities, and the shocking torments, and frequently death, they voluntarily expose themselves to, on a religious account. Now as Sterne was a clergyman, and Eliza an Indian by birth, it was customary with her to call him her Bramin, which he accordingly, in his pleasant moods, uses as a signature.

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sermons came all hot from the heart; I wish that could give them any title to be offered to yours; the others came from the head I am more in

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I know not how it comes about, but I am half in love with you· I never valued (or saw more good qualities to value) or thought more of one of your sex than of you-So adieu.

I ought to be wholly so; for

Yours faithfully, if not affectionately,

L. STERNE,

I

LETTER II,

CANNOT rest, Eliza, though I shall call on you at half past twelve, till I know how you do may thy dear face smile as thou risest, like the sun of this morning! I was much grieved to hear of

your alarming indisposition yesterday, and disappointed too at not being let in << Remember, my dear, that a friend has the same right as a physician. » — The étiquette of this town (you will say) says otherwise; no malter, delicacy and propriety do not always consist in observing their frigid doctrines.

I am going out to breakfast, but shall be at my lodgings by eleven, when I hope to read a single line under thy own hand, that thou art better, and wilt be glad to see

I

Nine o'clock.

THY BRAMIN.

LETTER III.

GOT thy letter last night, Eliza, on my return from lord Bathurst's, where I dined, and where I was heard (as I talked of thee an hour without intermission) with so much pleasure and attention, that the good old lord toasted your health three different times; and tho' he is now in his eighty-fifth year, says he hopes to live long enough to be introduced as a friend to my fair Indian disciple, and to see her eclipse all other Nabobesses as much in wealth, as she already does in exterior, and (what is far better) in interior merit I hope so too.

This nobleman is an old friend of mine. You know he was always the protector of men of

wit and genius, and had those of the last century, Addison, Steele, Pope, Swift, Prior, etc. always at his table. The manner in which his notice of me began, was as singular as it was polite : he came up to me one day, as I was at the princess of Wales's court — « I want to know you, Mr.Sterne; but it is fit you should also know who it is that wishes this pleasure. You have heard, continued he, of an old lord Bathurst, of whom your Pope's and Swift's have sung and spoken so much; I had lived my life with geniuses of that cast, but have survived them; and despairing ever to find their equals, it is some years since I have closed my accounts, and shut up my books, with thoughts of never opening them again; but you have kindled a desire in me of opening them once more before I die, which I now do-so go home and dine with me. >>

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This nobleman, I say, is a prodigy; for at eighty-five he has all the wit and promptness of a man of thirty a disposition to be pleased, and a power to please others, beyond whatever I knew ; added to which, a man of learning, courtesy and feeling He heard me talk of thee, Eliza, with uncommon satisfaction; for there was only a third person, and of sensibility, with us and a most sentimental afternoon, till nine o'clock, have we passed. But thou, Eliza, wast the star that conducted and enlightened the discourse; and when I talked not of thee, still

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