He that hath Nature in him must be grateful: << "Tis the Creator's primary great Law,

"That links the chain of being to each other,

66

Joining the greater to the leffer nature,

Tying the weak and ftrong, the poor and powerful, "Subduing men to brutes, and even brutes to men."

On my recovery I alfo learnt that Mifs Dorcas Turton (the young woman that kept the house, and of whom I then rented the fhop, parlour, kitchen and garret) having out of kindness to my wife, occafionally affifted her during her illness, had caught the fame dreadful diforder, fhe was then very dangeroufly ill, and people fhunned the house as much as if the plague had been in it. So that when I opened my fhop again, I was stared at as though I had actually returned from the other world; and it was a confiderable time before many of my former customers could credit that I really was in exiftence, it having been repeatedly reported that I was dead.

Mifs Dorcas Turton, was a charming young woman, and you must now be made 0 4 farther

farther acquainted with her. She is the daughter of Mr. Samuel Turton of Staffordfhire; her mother by marriage, ftill retained her maiden name, which was Mifs Jemima Turton, of Oxfordshire. Mr. Samuel Turton had a large fortune of his own, and about twenty thousand pounds with his wife Mifs Jemima, but by an unhappy turn for gaming he diffipated nearly the whole of it, and was obliged to have recourfe to trade to help fupport his family.

" 'Tis loft at dice, what ancient honour won,
"Hard, when the father plays away the fon!

He opened a fhop as a faddler's ironmonger, but as he was but little acquainted with trade, and as his old propenfity to gaming never quitted him, it is no wonder that he did not fucceed in his bufinefs; and to crown all his other follies, he was bound for a falfe friend in a large fum; this completed

his ruin.

His wife died in Jan. 1773, and his final ruin enfued a few months after; so that from

that

that time to his death he was partly fuppor ted by his daughter Mifs Dorcas Turton, who cheerfully fubmitted to keep a school, and worked very hard at plain work, by which means fhe kept her father from want. The old gentleman died a few months after I came into the fhop. Being partly açquainted with this young lady's goodness to her father, I concluded that fo amiable a daughter was very likely to make a good wife; I alfo knew that he was immoderately fond of books, and would frequently read until morning; this turn of mind in her was the greatest of all recommendations to me, who having acquired a few ideas, was at that time reftlefs to increase them: fo

that I was in raptures with the bare thoughts of having a woman to read with, and alfo to read to me,

"Of all the pleasures, noble and refin'd,

"Which form the taste and cultivate the mind,
"In every realm where fcience darts its beams,
"From Thale's ice to Afric's golden ftreams,
"From climes where Phoebus pours his orient ray,
To the fair regions of declining day,

"The

"The "Feaft of Reason" which from READING fpringe

"To reas'ning man the higheft folace brings.

"'Tis Books a lafting pleasure can fupply,

"Charm while we live, and teach us how to die.”

LACKINGTON's Shop Bill.

I

I embraced the first opportunity after her recovery to make her acquainted with my mind, and as we were no ftrangers to each others characters and circumstances, there was no need of a long formal courtshi prevailed on her not to defer our uni in zonger than the 30th of January, 1776, when for the second time I entered into the holy state of matrimony.

"Wedded Love is founded on esteem,
"Which the fair merits of the mind engage:
"For those are charms that never can decay,

"But Time, which gives new whiteness to the fwan,

"Improves their lustre."

FENTON.

I am,

Dear Friend,

Yours.

LETTER

LETTER XXV.

"Reason re-baptiz'd me when adult :

Weigh'd true from false, in her impartial scale. "Truth, radiant goddess! fallies on my foul!

"And puts delufion's dusky train to flight."

YOUNG.

"All the myftic lights were quench'd."

LEE,

DEAR FRIEND,

I Am now in February 1776,

arrived at an important period of my life. Being lately recovered from a very painful, dangerous, and hopeless illness, I found myfelf once more in a confirmed state of health, furrounded by my little ftock in trade, which was but just faved from thieves, and which to me was an immense treasure. Add to the above, my having won a fecond time in a game where the odds were fo much against me; or to use another fimile, my having drawn another prize in the lottery of wedlock, and thus like John Buncle repaired the

lofs