er candour; they all extolled
her sensibility; they were all ambitious of the honour of her
acquaintance. The stings of envy were never pointed against
unconscious merit.

"Anjengo, it is to the influence of thy happy climate that she
certainly was indebted for that almost incompatible harmony of
voluptuousness and decency which diffused itself over all her person,
and accompanied all her motions. A statuary who would have wished to
represent Voluptuousness, would have taken her for his model; and she
would equally have served for him who might have had a figure of
Modesty to display. Even _the gloomy and clouded sky of England_ had
not been able to obscure the brightness of that aerial kind of soul,
unknown in our climates. In every thing that Eliza did, an
irresistible charm was diffused around her. Desire, but of _a timid
and bashful cast_, followed her steps in silence. Any man of
courteousness alone must have loved her, but would not have _dared_ to
own his passion.

"I search for Eliza every where; I discover, I discern, some of her
features, some of her charms, scattered among those women whose figure
is most interesting. But what is become of her who united them all?
Nature, who hast exhausted thy gifts to form an Eliza, didst thou
create her only for one moment? Didst thou make her to be admired for
one instant, and to be for ever regretted?

"All who have seen Eliza regret her. As for myself, my tears will
never cease to flow for her all the time I have to live. But is this
sufficient! Those who have known _her tenderness for me_, the
confidence she had bestowed upon me, will they not say to me--She is
no more, and yet thou livest.

"Eliza intended to quit her country, her relations, her friends, to
take up her residence along _with me_, and spend her days in
the midst of mine. What happiness had I not promised to myself? What
joy did I not expect, from seeing her sought after by men of genius,
and beloved by women of the nicest taste? I said to myself, Eliza is
young, and thou art near thy latter end. It is she _who will close
thine eyes_. Vain hope! Fatal reverse of all human probabilities! My
old age has been prolonged beyond the days of her youth. _There is now
no person in the world existing for me. Fate has condemned me to live,
and die alone._

"Eliza's mind was cultivated, but the effects of this art were never
perceived. It had done nothing more than embellish nature; it served
in her, only to