fading remembrance of new-born delight, than you, my child,
could feel in the perusal, I will not entice you to stray with me into
the verdant meadow, to search for the flowers that youthful hopes scatter
in every path; though, as I write, I almost scent the fresh green of
spring--of that spring which never returns!

"I had two sisters, and one brother, younger than myself; my brother
Robert was two years older, and might truly be termed the idol of his
parents, and the torment of the rest of the family. Such indeed is the
force of prejudice, that what was called spirit and wit in him, was
cruelly repressed as forwardness in me.

"My mother had an indolence of character, which prevented her from paying
much attention to our education. But the healthy breeze of a neighbouring
heath, on which we bounded at pleasure, volatilized the humours that
improper food might have generated. And to enjoy open air and freedom,
was paradise, after the unnatural restraint of our fire-side, where we
were often obliged to sit three or four hours together, without daring to
utter a word, when my father was out of humour, from want of employment,
or of a variety of boisterous amusement. I had however one advantage, an
instructor, the brother of my father, who, intended for the church, had
of course received a liberal education. But, becoming attached to a young
lady of great beauty and large fortune, and acquiring in the world some
opinions not consonant with the profession for which he was designed, he
accepted, with the most sanguine expectations of success, the offer of a
nobleman to accompany him to India, as his confidential secretary.

"A correspondence was regularly kept up with the object of his affection;
and the intricacies of business, peculiarly wearisome to a man of a
romantic turn of mind, contributed, with a forced absence, to increase
his attachment. Every other passion was lost in this master-one, and
only served to swell the torrent. Her relations, such were his waking
dreams, who had despised him, would court in their turn his alliance, and
all the blandishments of taste would grace the triumph of love.--While he
basked in the warm sunshine of love, friendship also promised to shed its
dewy freshness; for a friend, whom he loved next to his mistress, was the
confident, who forwarded the letters from one to the other, to elude the
observation of prying relations. A friend false in similar circumstances,
is, my dearest gi