mother, who had watched the dawning faculties of her child with unremitted attention, and had given her a relish for sublimer studies; so that she was not sufficiently read in romance to aspire to any celebrity in the way suggested by her wealthy kinswoman. Her Ladyship's advice, therefore, proved but a cold compliment to her abilities, without affording the least relief to her necessities, or any consolation to her feelings. But it too frequently happens in similar cases, that, while that which is solicited is withheld, what is not asked for is most liberally bestowed. It is little better than presenting a glass of cold water to those who apply for a bit of bread to satisfy the cravings of a hungry stomach;-at such a time, nature cannot but revolt at such an offering. Disclaiming, therefore, all pretensions to renown as a writer of novels, the wounded supplicant made her curtsey and withdrew, leaving her wealthy Cousin to meditate on the blessings of independence!"

To survey man as he is, and to censure the follies of the day, is said to be the most rational as well as the most probable means of bringing individuals acquainted with themselves. To expatiate on the resplendent qualities, as well as to reflect on the dark and faulty side of human nature, is equally just, however, and useful to the well-being of society. Few are so deformed as not to possess some excellent traits; and few are so fair as to be wholly free from blemish. The

world is made up of good, bad, and indifferent characters; and seldom does it happen that the Protean virtues bestowed on imaginary mortals in the pages of romance, fall to the lot of man. The fascinating charms of grace, wit, and beauty, for ever expose to danger those individuals who pos sess them; and they often fall a sacrifice to imprudence, where ugliness, stupidity, and awkwardness, secure from temptation, escape unin jured and unmolested. Honor, courage, and benevolence may likewise be infected with human infirmities; but, the god-like excellence, and angelic qualifications with which the heroes and heroines of fiction are usually gifted, so far exceed the endowments of nature, that while the imagination is bewildered in contemplating them, the moral is totally lost in impossibilities. Innumerable instances might be brought forward to shew young people the sad consequences of indulging too great a partiality for novel reading: and sound reasoning might, perhaps, induce them, when tired with the pages of history and philosophy, to seek amusements with the poets-with the tourist-or, if more inclined to private history, the memoirs of celebrated characters, traced out with all their beauties and deformities, will prove at once instructive and amusing. Such kind of reading will divert the thoughts, store the mind with noble virtues to reflect on, supply the memory with anecdote, and furnish interesting matter for conversation. Whereas, the romantic effusions

of a wild imagination, too often deceive the senses into false notions of honor, inflame the passions, and seminate the seeds of disobedience.

"Reality," says Madame de Lambert to her daughter, "should be preferred to fiction; and that kind of reading which enlarges the understanding and mends the disposition." That which is written from the heart, is best adapted to awaken sentiment.

.. What can equal the writings of Sterne ? they interest and put in motion all the tender feelings of humanity. It has been remarked, that his imitators could never reach his excellence; and why? because, to use his own words- they will not give up the reins of imagination."

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That there are many well-written novels, from which moral may be gleaned, cannot be denied ; but in the aggregate, they are dangerous books in the hands of the young and inexperienced; and more frequently contaminate than improve the mind. The false views they give of human events, lead the judgment astray; the romantic improbabilities with which they generally abound, bewilder the senses; and the marvellous exploits they depict, work at times so forcibly on the imagination of their votaries, that woful examples of the mischief they produce may be traced to the members of innumerable families of distinction in the British Isles. To recount the hapless fate of a few of these individuals, may prove salutary to some, and deter others from too great

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an indulgence in so baneful a pursuit. The recital is intended more as a caution to the weaker sex, than to expose the unhappy sufferers to further condemnation. They have heaped upon themselves humiliations and calamities, from which they can never escape; and must therefore be abandoned to the lot they have chosen.

NUMBER XXV.

MISCHIEVOUS EFFECTS OF INDULG

ING ROMANTIC PASSIONS.

Let not the young my precepts shun;
Who slight good counsels are undone.

YE thoughtless fair, who are entering the labyrinth of fiction, stop short and listen to the voice of truth. Let the hapless fate of those who are constantly roving among the flowery productions of a fanciful genius, warn you of the danger, and deter you from pursuing those alluring paths in which they were lost. Enchanted with romantic scenery, and charmed as it were with the artificial display of nature decorated in her best attire, they strayed through the deceptive avenues of the maze in which they were bewildered, unmindful of the path they should have taken. Thus infatuated, they plucked the gay blossoms of a poisonous root that withered in a day, and left but the venom of the thorn to rankle in their bosom.

To gratify her humour for exploits of chivalry and romance, Valentia would actually shut herself