few works of that kind which are poffeffed of merit, her reading is now chiefly confined to works of a graver caft.

Mifs Umphraville, though he has not fo much learning, poffeffes, perhaps, no less ability as a woman than her brother does as a man; and, having lefs peculiarity in her way of thinking, has, confequently, a knowledge better fitted for common life. It is pleafing to obferve how Mifs Umphraville, while fhe always appears to act an under part, and, fometimes, indeed, not to act a part at all, yet watches, with a tender concern, over the fingularities of her brother's difpofition; and, without betraying the smallest consciousness of her power, generally contrives to direct him in the most material parts of his conduct,

Mr. Umphraville is the best mafter, and the beft landlord, that ever lived. The rents of his eftate have undergone fcarce any alteration fince he came to the poffeffion of it; and his tenants too are nearly the fame. The an

cient poffeffors have never been removed from motives of intereft, or without fome very particular reafon; and the few new ones he has chofen to introduce are, for the most part, perfons who have been fervants in his family, whofe

H 4

whofe fidelity and attachment he has rewarded by a small farm at a low rent.

I have had many a pleasant converfation, about fun-fet in a fummer evening, with those venerable gray-headed villagers. Their knowledge of country-affairs, the fagacity of their remarks, and the manner, acquired by a refidence in Mr. Umphraville's family, with which they are accustomed to deliver them, have afforded me much entertainment.

It is delightful to hear them run out in praises of their landlord. They have told me there is not a perfon in his neighbourhood, who ftands in need of his affiftance, who has not felt the influence of his generofity; which, they fay, endears him to the whole country. Yet, fuch is the effect of that referved and particular manner which my friend has contracted, that, while his good qualities have procured him great efteem, and the difinterestedness of his difpofition, with the opinion entertained of his honour and integrity, has always prevented him from falling into dif putes or quarrels with his neighbours, there is fcarcely one of them with whom he lives on terms of familiarity.

Mr.

Mr. Umphraville, in the earlier part of his life, had an attachment to an amiable young lady. Their fituation at that time might have made an avowal of his paffion equally fatal to both; and, though it was not without a fevere ftruggle, Mr. Umphraville had firmness enough to fupprefs the declaration of an attachment he was unable to fubdue. The lady, fome time after, married; fince that period, Mr. Umphraville has never feen her, or been known so much as once to mention her name ; but, I am credibly informed, that, by his interest, her eldest fon has obtained high preferment in the army. The only favour which Mr. Umphraville ever asked from any great man was for this young gentleman; but neither the lady herself, nor any of her family, know by whose influence his advancement has been procured.

Though it is poffible, that, if Mr. Umphraville had married at an early period of life, his mind, even in a ftate of retirement, would have retained a polish, and escaped many of those peculiarities it has now contracted; yet, I own, I am rather inclined to believe his remaining fingle a fortunate circumftance. Nor have my fair readers any reason to be offended at the remark: great talents, even in a ge

nerous and benevolent mind, are fometimes attended with a certain want of pliability, which is ill fuited to the cordialities of domeftic life. A man of fuch a difpofition as Mr. Umphraville has now acquired, might confider the delicacy, the vivacity, and the fine fhades of female character, as frivolous, and beneath attention; or, at leaft, might be unable, for any length of time, to receive pleafure from those indulgences, which minds of a fofter mould may regard as the great and amiable perfection of what Mr. Pope calls

"The last beft work of Heaven."

With all thofe refpectable talents which Mr. Umphraville poffeffes, with all that generosity of fentiment, and goodness of heart, so conspicuous in every thing he says or does, which fo ftrongly endear him to his friends, I ain apt to think, that, in the very intimate connection of the married life, a woman of delicacy and fenfibility might often feel herself hurt by the peculiarities of character to which he is fubject.

The fituation of a wife is, in this respect, very different from that of a fifter. Mifs Umphraville's

Umphraville's obfervation of her brother's peculiarities, neither leffens her efteem, nor her affection for him; thefe peculiarities ferve only to increase her attention to him, and to make her more folicitous to prevent their effects. But in that ftill clofer connection, which fubfifts between husband and wife, while the perception of his weakness might not have leffened the wife's affection, it might have given her a distress which a fifter will not be apt to feel: a fifter may obferve the weaknesses of a brother without a blufh, and endeavour to correct them without being hurt; a wife might be able to do neither.

Thefe views which I have given of Mr. Umphraville, and his family, may, perhaps, appear tedious to my readers. In giving this detail, I am afraid I have not fufficiently remembered, that, as they have not the fame intimate acquaintance with that gentleman which I have, they will not feel the fame intereft in what relates to him.

L S