fifth heaven. Bozaldab looked earnestly, and faw the countenance of his fon, on which he had been used to behold the placid fmile of fimplicity and the vivid blushes of health, now distorted with rage, and now fixed in the infenfibility of drunkennefs: it was again animated with difdain, it became pale with apprehenfion, and appeared to be withered by intemperance; his hands were stained with blood, and he trembled by turns with fury and terror: the palace fo lately shining with oriental pomp, changed fuddenly into the cell of a dungeon, where his fon lay stretched out on the cold pavement, gagged and bound, with his eyes put out. Soon after he perceived the favourite Sultana, who before was feated by his fide, enter with a bowl of poison, which she compelled Aboram to drink, and afterwards married the fucceffor to his throne. "Happy," faid Caloc, "is he whom Providence " has by the angel of death fnatched from guilt! from "whom that power is withheld, which, if he had pof"feffed, would have accumulated upon himself yet 66 greater mifery than it could bring upon others." "It is enough," cried Bozaldab; "I adore the "infcrutable schemes of Omniscience!-From what "dreadful evil has my fon been rescued by death, "which I rafhly bewailed as unfortunate and premature; a death of innocence and peace, which has "bleffed his memory upon earth, and transmitted his spirit to the skies!" 66 "Caft away the dagger," replied the heavenly mefsenger," which thou waft preparing to plunge into "thine own heart. Exchange complaint for filence, "and doubt for adoration. Can a mortal look down, "without giddinefs and ftupefaction, into the vast a byfs "byfs of Eternal Wisdom? Can a mind that fees not "infinitely, perfectly comprehend any thing among an "infinity of objects mutually relative? Can the chan"nels, which thou commandeft to be cut to receive "the annual inundations of the Nile, contain the wa"ters of the Ocean? Remember, that perfect happi"nefs cannot be conferred on a creature; for perfect "happiness is an attribute as incommunicable as per"fect power and eternity." The Angel, while he was fpeaking thus, ftretched out his pinions to fly back to the Empyreum; and the flutter of his wings was like the rufhing of a ca, taract. No. LXXVII. Tuesday, July 31. 1753. -Peccare docentes Pallax biftorias monet. To tint th' attentive mind she tries To the Adventurer. HO I SIR, SHALL make no apology for the trouble I am about to give you, fince I am fure the motives that induce me to give it, will have as much weight with you as they have with me: I fhall therefore, without farther preface, relate to you the events of a life, which, however infignificant and unentertaining, affords a leffon of the highest importance; a leffon, the value of which I have experienced, and may, therefore, recommend. I am the daughter of a gentleman of good family, who, as he was a younger brother, purchased with the portion that was allotted him, a genteel poft under the government. My mother died when I was but twelve years old; and my father, who was exceffively fond of me, determined to be himself my preceptor, and to ake care that my natural genius, which his partiality made made him think above the common rank, fhould not want the improvements of a liberal education. He was a man of fenfe, with a tolerable fhare of learning. In his youth he had been a free-liver, and perhaps for that reason took some pains to become what is called a free-thinker. But whatever fashionable frailties he might formerly have allowed in himself, he was now in advanced life, and had at least worldly wisdom enough to know, that it was neceffary his daughter fhould be restrained from those liberties, which he had looked upon as trifling errors in his own conduct. He, therefore, laboured with great application to inculcate in me the love of order, the beauty of moral rectitude, and the happiness and self-reward of virtue; but at the fame time profeffed it his defign to free my mind from vulgar prejudices and fuperftition, for fo he called Revealed Religion. As I was urged to choofe virtue, and reject vice, from motives which had no neceffary connexion with immortality, I was not led to confider a future ftate either with hope or fear: my father indeed, when I urged him upon that fubject, always intimated that the doctrine of immortality, whether true or falfe, ought not at all to influence my conduct or interrupt my peace; because the virtue which fecured happiness in the prefent state, would alfo fecure it in a future: a future ftate, therefore, I wholly difregarded, and, to confefs a truth, disbelieved: for I thought I could plainly discover that it was disbelieved by my father, though he had not thought fit explicitly to declase his fentiments. As I had no very turbulent paffions, a ductile and good disposition, and the highest reverence for his understanding, as well as the tenderest affection for him, he found it an easy task to make me adopt adopt every sentiment and opinion which he propofed to me as his own; especially, as he took care to fupport his principles by the authority and arguments of the best writers against Christianity. At the age of twenty, I was called upon to make use of all the philofophy I had been taught, by his death; which not only deprived me of a parent I most ardently loved, but with him all the ease and affluence to which I had been accustomed. His income was only for life, and he had rather lived beyond than within it; confequently, there was nothing left for me but the pride and help leffness of genteel life, a tafte for every thing elegant, and a delicacy and fenfibility that has doubled all my fufferings. In this distress, a brother of mymother's, who was grown rich in trade, received me into his house, and declared he would take the fame care of me as if I had been his own child. When the firft tranfports of my grief were abated, I found myself in an eafy fituation, and from the natural cheerfulness of my temper, I was beginning once more to taste of happiness. My uncle, who was a man of a narrow understanding and illiberal education, was a little disgusted with me for em ploying fo much of my time in reading; but ftill more fo, when, happening to examine my books, he found by the titles that fome of them were what he called blafphemy, and tended, as he imagined, to make me an Atheist. 1 endeavoured to explain my principles, which I thought it beneath the dignity of virtue to dif guife or difayow; but as I never could make him conceive any difference between a Deift and an Atheist, my arguments only served to confirm him in the opinion that I was a wicked wretch, who, in his own phrafe, believed neither God nor devil. As he was really a good |