avoured to
conceal a tear which trickled down her cheek. Afterwards she said,
'Now that I live entirely alone, I show Juno more attention than I had
used to do formerly. _The heart wants something to be kind to_; and it
consoles us for the loss of society, to see even an animal derive
happiness from the endearments we bestow upon it.'"

Such was Eliza Ryves! not beautiful nor interesting in her person, but
with a mind of fortitude, susceptible of all the delicacy of feminine
softness, and virtuous amid her despair.[77]

FOOTNOTES:

[76] This version of Lord Berners has been reprinted.

[77] Those who desire to further investigate the utter misery of
female authorship may be referred to Whyte's vivid description
of an interview with Mrs. Clarke (the daughter of Colley
Cibber), about the purchase of a novel. It is appended to an
edition of his own poems, printed at Dublin, 1792; and has
been reproduced in Hone's "Table Book," vol. i.--ED.

THE INDISCRETION OF AN HISTORIAN.

THOMAS CARTE.

"CARTE," says Mr. Hallam, "is the most exact historian we have;" and
Daines Barrington prefers his authority to that of any other, and many
other writers confirm this opinion. Yet had this historian been an
ordinary compiler, he could not have incurred a more mortifying fate;
for he was compelled to retail in shilling numbers that invaluable
history which we have only learned of late times to appreciate, and
which was the laborious fruits of self-devotion.

Carte was the first of our historians who had the sagacity and the
fortitude to ascertain where the true sources of our history lie. He
discovered a new world beyond the old one of our research, and not
satisfied in gleaning the _res historica_ from its original writers--a
merit which has not always been possessed by some of our popular
historians--Carte opened those subterraneous veins of secret history
from whence even the original writers of our history, had they
possessed them, might have drawn fresh knowledge and more ample
views. Our domestic or civil history was scarcely attempted till Carte
planned it; while all his laborious days and his literary travels on
the Continent were absorbed in the creation of a _History of England_
and of a _Public Library_ in the metropolis, for we possessed neither.
A diligent foreigner, Rapin, had compiled our history, and had
opportunely found in the vast collection of Rymer's "F