with tears. The prefence and tendernef's of her lover, yet fupports the flame; accident, perhaps, feparates them; fhe is now at a distance from thofe agitations and tremors, which his appearance ever occafioned, and which are fo inimical to reflection. Cooler and more frequent reafonings take place; fhe grows every day more calm, more convinced that he ought to obliterate her love for an object that can bring her but little happiness to counterbalance its mifery. The task grows every day more eafy, and fhe at length has totally forgotten all ideas of him, and marri age.

She no longer draws flattering pictures of that state with him alone :-but what fentiments take poffeffion of the heart! Love is dead in fadnefs and difappointment; every thing now wears a darkened aspect; that feeling is extinguished, from which she used to receive fo much pleasure; that feeling which, like the fun, radiated for her eyes the whole creation. Plunged in the night of the foul, fhe feels the world a blank, and all the ener gies of her mind expiring. This moment is the most dangerous of her life.-Should fhe

in that description of people. It is, however, much tinged with fuperftition, and the belief in fpirits and apparitions is very general. The names of many mountains and rocks evince, that they are confidered as the refidences of fubordinate intelligences; and this is accounted for, not fo much, perhaps, from the credulity natural to ignorant people, as from the circumstances of the scenery wherein they refide, the gloon and defolation of which, added to its being liable to fingular and striking variations in appearance, have a strong tendency to affect the human mind (naturally timid) with fuperftitious fears and whimsical notions. Similar fituations will produce fimilar manners; and hence it appears that their brethren of the Scotch Highlands entertain the fame opinions, in this refpect, with the inhabitants of Wales. The ghofts of the departed, and the fpirits of the mountains, rocks, and winds, make a confpicuous figure in the poetry of the North; and fome of the fublimeft paffages of Offian have their origin in thefe popular prejudices. These notions are, probably, unfounded; but they are not uninterefting, nor do we feel

Thus does an early indulgence of this natural with, lead many women into fituations, the effect of which muft embitter the whole courfe of their lives. It is then, against giving way to first impressions, that I so ardently write. I would have them watch every emotion of their hearts with an anxious care; and, by doing fo, they will, perhaps, not find this refiftance fo hard as they fear. A virtuous heart, and a reafonable head, will feel this all-powerful inftinct-but if that virtue does not rush into a blind enthufiafm, and that reafon does not give way before the prefs of imagination and credulity, that inftinct will never mislead them. The affection which will

grow from a contemplation and conviction of merit, will be as warm as all the ardours of youth and philanthropy can make it; and from thofe ardours it will acquire fpirit to fupport all the duties, all the cares which a married life cannot fail of involving woman,

CAROLINE,

OF THE NUTMEG TREE.

THE nutmeg-tree is found in the Eaft-Indies, and is faid to resemble a pear-tree; the fruit is inclofed in four covers; a thick flefly coat, fomething like that of the walnut, contains the whole, which opens of itself when ripe: under this lies a thin reddish kind of network, of an agreeable fmell and aromatic tafte, which we call mace, and is as valuable as the fruit itfelf: the fhell is the third covering, and is hard, thin, and blackish; under this is a greenish film, of no ufe, and in it is found the nutmeg. According to Tavernier, birds are the inftruments of propagating these trees by eating the nutmegs, and afterwards dropping them undigefted upon the ground, and being foftened and prepared for growth by the heat of the ftomach, they readily take root. Thefe birds are not permitted to be killed, on account of this circumftance, as the productions of this tree afford a very lucrative

ftocking; and even if they have these luxuries, the latter, in general, has no foot to it. The man's attire is a jacket, waistcoat, and breeches, of their country flannel, the laft of which are open at the knees, and the ftockings (for the men generally wear them) are bound under the knees with red garters. Both men and women are vivacious, cheerful, and intelligent, not exhibiting that appearance of torpor and dejection which characterizes the labouring poor of England. Their wants being few, are eafily fupplied: a little milk, which their own mountain-goat, or the benevolence of a neighhouring farmer affords them, an oaten cake, and a few potatoes, furnish the only meal they defire. Unvitiated by communication with polifhed life, they continue to think and act as nature dictates. Confined to their own mountains, they witness no fcenes of profuffion and extravagance to excite envy and malignity, by a comparifon between their own. penury and the abundance of others. They look round, and fee nothing but active induftry and unrepining poverty, and are content.