this as fo indifpenfible, that they prefs down, and even eradicate the hair, bind it with ribbons and fillets, and use every other art to expand the brows. A low forehead, and an abundance of hair, near the temples is, of course, deemed a grand perfonal defect. The females of North Holland, have alfo a beauty, which the other Provinces rarely fhew us; that of good teeth, which is, in any of the great towns, a rarity in either fex, and feemingly one but little defired.

Their complexion is almost invariably fair. A Dutch Brunette, is fcarce to be feen, and when feen, not either envied by one fex, or admired by the other. They partake, however, in a very high degree, the defects as well as beauty of that fine colouring-extreme indolence.

We are told that lovers are more conftant, husbands more obfequious in North Holland, than in any other part of the Republic, which even in general has the reputation of being under the government of the petticoat. This must be understood to extend only to houfehold affairs: In matters of public concern, the North Hollander is the most independent afferter of his rights, and the Amor Patriæ is

here more vitally felt, and has been more ftrenuously maintained, than in any other parts of the Provinces.

indu

Enough, has now been faid to induce every reader of these our Gleanings, to make the tour of this very fingular and beautiful little Province.

Adieu, my loved friend. Here and every where may bleffings attend you."

YOU tell me I have too long neglected

the Mufe; accept then a poetical Gleaning in the form of a Sonnet, which breathes a fadness that will reach your affections.. It is the effufion of a melancholy moment, and entirely confutes the affertion of the ingenious bard, who faid

"What mourner ever felt poetic fires?

Slow comes the verfe that real grief infpires."

for it was written as faft as the pen could move along the paper, and when the writer's heart was wrung with fenfations of greater forrow than either verfe or profe could defcribe.

SONNET.

SONNET.

I.

WHEN every charm of life is fled,

And every thought is fill'd with care;
When peace, and hope, and health, are dead,
And nothing lives but dire defpair;

II.

When fleep, the wretch's last relief,
Tho' potent drugs invite his power;
Denies one little paufe to grief,

The balmy refpite of an hour:

III.

Ah! what can PITY's felf devife,

(From farther ills the wretch to fave), But with his death; with tender fighs, And drop a tear upon his grave!

Grief, is not more various, my friend, in its causes, than in its effects upon the minds of different fufferers. There are many who endure in a filence, at once dreadful and profound, the first stages of their diftrefs, and burst forth into the loudeft paroxyfms in the Jecond. And there are others, who begin with violence and clamour, which, fo far from not remaining in force, decreafes only in found, but fettles afterwards into a tremendous calm, which remains fixed, for the rest of life, in the melancholy anguifh of unfpeakable defpair. This, I know, inverts the popular idea, that the deepnefs of grief, like that of waters, "makes

"makes the leaft noife," but there is no afcer taining by a standard the diverfified effects of agony or joy. Every human being must feel in his own way; and, perhaps, no two ever yet felt exactly alike, even the fame pain or pleafure; because temper, conftitution, age, fex, or circumftance, with miriads of combinations, will make an alteration, fome where or other, in the occafion, or in the fufferer.

I have gleaned the heart of man in many countries, my friend, and though every where, it is true,

"The flesh will quiver where the pincers tear,
"And fighs and tears by nature grow on pain;"

as well as that happiness has its general characteristicks, I do not remember ever, yet, to have found the effects of either-no, not even when the causes have been precifely the fameexactly, or even, nearly, fimilar, as to the manner of receiving them, at firft, or bearing them afterwards, in any two human creatures.

For my own part, I have been a thousand times fatisfied, that our minds are yet more diftinct and appropriate than our perfons, and that no man ever refembled his neighbour fo much in the former as the latter, Something

renders

renders each being original; and though we are all of one fpecies, were the diffimilarities of each individual to be laid open, in a candid hiftory of his peculiar fenfations, they would. be, perhaps, numerous enough for every mortal to exclaim" Although I am of the fame kind, "and resemble you, neighbour, in fome things, "I differ from you fo effentially in others, that I am myself alone': nor do I deny that you may lay claim to like original traits.”

I believe, with refpect to the ordinary effects of pleasure and pain, (I am speaking of neither in their extremes) it is common for the first to render men voluble, and the latter filent. I confine myself to mental, not bodily pain. The reverse happens to myfelf. In pleasure, efpecially if it be fudden, I hardly know what to do with my felf-a letter which describes the health or wealth of an abfent friend, the conciliation of an enemy, or of any thing like conciliation of the latter, the view of a happy countenance, the found of a happy voice, the fmiling face of general nature in the fpring, diffufing general felicity, on animal as well as human life, the fight, or even the relation of a generous action, the soft remembrance of kindness received in years long paft, the recollection even of places where I have feen, or converfed with, VOL. II. I i thofe