I leaned down and looked intently at her wedding-ring; my tears fell; -immediately fhe began to play the favourite, the divine air which has fo often enchanted me.-I felt comforted by it; but foon it recalled to my mind the times that are past Grief, difappointed hopes.-I began to walk with hafty ftrides about the room-I was choaked-At length I went up to her, and with eagerness faid, "For Heaven's fake play that no longer." She stopped, looked ftedfaftly at me, and faid, with a fmile that funk deep into my heart, Werter, you are indeed very ill; your most favourite food difgufts you. you. Pray go, and try to compofe yourself."-I tore myself from her.Great God! thou seeft my torments, and thou wilt put an end to them! LETTER LXXIV. December 6. How OW her image haunts me! Awake or asleep she is ever present to my foul!-Soon as I clofe my eyes, here in this brain, where all my nerves are concentred, her dark eyes are imprinted. Here- [ don't know how to defcribe it:-but if I fhut my eyes, hers are immediately before me like a fea, like a precipice, H 3 precipice, and they occupy all the fibres of my head.-What is man! that boasted demi-god! his ftrength fails him when moft he wants it; and whether he fwims in pleasure, or bends under a load of forrow, he is forced to ftop; and whilst he is grafping at infinity, finds he must return again to his first cold exift. ence. LETTER LXXV. December 8. FEEL, as thofe wretches must IFE have felt who were formerly supposed to be poffeffed by devils.. Sometimes Sometimes I am feized with ftrange starts and motions;-it is not agony, it is not paffion, it is an interior fecret rage which tears my bosom, and feems to feize my throatWretch that I am!-Then I run, and wander amidst the dark and gloomy fcenes which this unfriendly feafon exhibits. Last night I felt thus constrained to go out of the town. I had been told that the river, and all the brooks in the neighbourhood, had overflown their banks, and that my favourite valley was under water. I ran thither at past eleven. o'clock; it was a gloomy and awe ful fight! the moon was behind a cloud, but by means of a few scattered rays I could perceive the foaming waves rolling over the fields and meadows, and beating against the bushes; the whole valley was as a stormy fea, toffed by furious winds. The moon then appeared again, and rested on a dark cloud; the fplendor of her light encreased the diforder of nature. The echoes repeated and redoubled the roarings of the wind and the waters. I drew near to the precipice; I wished and fhuddered; I ftretched out my arms, I leaned over, I fighed, and loft myself in the happy thought of burying all my fufferings, all my tor ments, |