efore him, when the great transaction was
irretrievably over, that retirement and indolence did not constitute the
situation for which either nature or habit had fitted him. It has been
observed by some of those philosophers who have made the human mind the
object of their study, that idleness is often the mother of love. It might
indeed have been supposed, that Mr. Hartley, for that was his name, by
having attained the age of sixty, might have outlived every danger of this
kind. But opportunity and temptation supplied that, which might have been
deficient on the side of nature.

Within a little mile of the mansion in which he had taken up his retreat,
resided two ancient maiden ladies. Under cover of the venerable age to
which they had attained, they had laid aside many of those modes which
coyness and modesty have prescribed to their sex. The visits of a man were
avowedly as welcome to them, and indeed much more so, than those of a
woman. Their want of attractions either external or mental, had indeed
hindered the circle of their acquaintance from being very extensive; but
there were some, as well as Mr. Hartley, who preferred the company of
ugliness, censoriousness and ill nature to solitude.

Such were the Miss Cranley's, the name of the elder of whom was Amelia,
and that of the younger Sophia. Miss Amelia was nominally forty, and her
sister thirty years of age. Perhaps if we stated the matter more
accurately, we should rate the elder at fifty-six, and the younger
somewhere about fifty. They both of them were masculine in their
behaviour, and studious in their disposition. Miss Amelia, delighted in
the study of theology; she disputed with the curate, maintained a godly
correspondence with a neighbouring cobler, and was even said to be
preparing a pamphlet in defence of the dogmas of Mr. Whitfield. Miss
Sophia, who will make a much more considerable figure in this history, was
altogether as indefatigable in the study of politics, as her sister was in
that of theology. She adhered indeed to none of our political parties, for
she suspected and despised them all. My lord North she treated as stupid,
sleepy, and void of personal principle. Mr. Fox was a brawling gamester,
devoid of all attachments but that of ambition, and who treated the mob
with flattery and contempt. Mr. Burke was a Jesuit in disguise, who under
the most specious professions, was capable of the blackest and meanest
actions. For her own part she was a