*

the lady to whom he addresses it (his wife, we presume), he amused himself while absent from her. The stories were imitated, he says, not translated, from the French. "And now, madam," he concludes, “I must only ask your pardon for entitling you to the disastrous chances of love and fortune. You will not be displeased, since I thereby entitle you to my whole life, which has hitherto been composed of nothing else; but whilst I am yours I can never be unhappy, and shall always esteem fortune my friend, as long as you shall esteem me your servant." As Lady Temple was a great reader of romances, she probably devoured these: had the pages of Austin, or Scott, or Hook, or the Listers been then opened to her, even the zest of affection had scarcely made these palatable.

Temple had always a predilection for the country, and made frequent excursions, especially to Moor Park, in Surrey, then the residence of his friend Richard Franklin, who married a relation of his future wife. Some lines which he wrote upon a window there, opposite to a statue of Leda, are mentioned by Lady Giffard as indicating the unquietness of his mind at this period:

"Tell me, Leda, which is best,

Ne'er to move, or ne'er to rest?
Speak, that I may know thereby,
Who is happier, you or I."

"The

* Their names may give some indication of their character: Labyrinth of Fortune. The Fate of Jealousy. The Constant Desperado. The Force of Custom. The Generous Lovers. The Brave Duellists. The Incautious Pair. The Maid's Revenge. The Disloyal Wife." The stories are just what one would expect under these titles in a circulating library of pamphlet novels.

During his residence in London and the neighbourhood, he had communication and occasional intercourse with Dorothy Osborne. If he had not, when on the Continent, brought her to confession, he certainly now obtained an unreserved avowal. But the attachment was for a long time fruitless. "The accidents for seven years, says Lady Giffard, "of that amour, might make a history, and the letters that passed between them a volume. Though I cannot venture on it myself, I have often wished that they might be printed; for, to say nothing of his writing, which all the world has since been made judge of, I never saw anything more extraordinary than hers."

Of the letters on the side of the lady, many are still extant. It may be doubted whether Paternoster Row would confirm the judgment of Lady Giffard, in favour of the publication of the whole collection; but the life of Sir William Temple would be imperfectly related, without some notice of his correspondence with this amiable and intelligent woman, the object of his early and continued affection. It is difficult to make a selection from loveletters. Many of them are not to be distinguished in their topics from the hundreds which have been written or invented: they contain abundant evidence of a faithful and passionate attachment; much allusion to the persecution of friends; the difficulties of the correspondence, the impatience with which the letters were expected, and the blush with which they were received. There are thanks for long letters,

reproaches for short; rings, pictures, and hair requested or bestowed; company despised, and the world abjured; tears amidst parties of pleasure, and delight in the solitary ramble; rivals rejected, and cruel brothers defied. There is the usual variety of matter, and rapidity of transition; some fashionable gossip, and much serious reflection; now and then a very little scandal; often, the warm commendation of a friend.

All these ordinary topics are handled by Dorothy Osborne with a confident frankness, and an ease that is delightful; in a style correct and graphical, evidently conceived in purity and truth. There is much to show the gentlewoman and the Christian, with an occasional appearance of the simple woman. She writes much of books, but generally of romances, sometimes of poetry; scarely at all of works of a graver cast. Criticism, rather remarkable, upon style, and upon the prevalent affectation of language. A few political allusions appear; refreshing, in these republican times, to a friend of our ancient monarchy.

It is much to be lamented, that the almost entire absence of dates, and of references that might indicate a date, makes it impossible to trace historically the circumstances under which the letters were written.

Sir John Temple from the beginning discouraged the match, and ordered his son from St. Maloes to Paris when he heard of the attachment. And he, at some period, planned for William Temple an advantageous match, which there

is some reason for believing to have been that which Henry, the younger brother, afterwards made.

The Osbornes were violently set against the marriage, as one very disadvantageous in point of fortune; and some of them had apparently a personal dislike of Temple. For six or seven years were the lovers kept in suspense. It is not known whether, during the earlier part of that time, they met freely, or what were their respective residences and movements during the period, or even that over which the correspondence extends. Dorothy Osborne was much at Chicksands, where her father was in ill health; and she was there much tormented, not only by the opposition made to her choice, but by the intrusion of other suitors, or servants as she styles those who addressed her. The list of these, with which in some of her letters she entertains the true lover, is as long as that enumerated by Don Juan's Leporello. It is a curious circumstance, almost certainly proved, that of all her suitors, that one to whom (excepting Temple) the daughter of Sir Peter Osborne was most inclined, was Henry Cromwell, the son of the Lord Protector. He was a man, indeed, of whom all historians speak well; but it is strange that he should fall in with a family, so distinguished for their attachment to the royal cause. Of this Henry Cromwell, as of all her suitors, Mrs. Osborne writes with perfect frankness: sometimes she quizzes them, sometimes speaks of them almost too kindly for a lover's ear. Her preference of

Temple grew with time; for having in one letter almost promised that she would never marry any other man, she afterwards made that engagement with great solemnity. Still, although it is beyond a doubt that her devotion to Temple was intense, the lady was assuredly that one of the two, who admitted more readily the reasonableness of the opposition. Her notions were rather peculiar; she herself believed, that she and her lover would furnish one of the very few exceptions which the world affords, to the rule which involves in misery the parties to a poor marriage, but she had an inordinate apprehension of the scorn of the world. Nobody, she thought, would believe that she and her husband were happy, and she had not courage to marry, "to be called a ridiculous woman."

This language, probably, and her unwillingness to exclude her brother from the treaty of marriage, and perhaps the resort of numerous suitors, whom she sometimes, though fear of her family, did not at once reject, induced Sir John Temple to believe that Mrs. Osborne did not care for his son. William Temple, whose own constancy, considering his youth and situation, was admirable, never doubted her good faith; but he communicated to her, with the frankness that was common to them, his father's suspicion, and received a characteristic reply.

“I would fain tell you," she answers indignantly, "that your father is mistaken; and that you are not, if you believe that I have all the kindness and tenderness for you my heart is capa