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pages extraordinary of letter-press, ful prints curiously coloured from na Thus, then, though I cannot pro entertainment, or as much elegance done, yet the reader may be affured much of both as I can.

He fhall, at

alive while I ftudy his entertainment ; affure him, I was never yet possessed of writing and fleeping.

During the course of this paper, the wit and learning I have are heartily a which if, after fo candid a confeffion, h withstanding, fill find intolerably dull, ftuff, this I proteft is more than I kno elear confcience, and am entirely out o

Yet I would not have him, upon the fingle paper, pronounce me inrrigible a fecond, which, as there is a fludied. fubject and ftyle, may be more fuited to this alfo fails, I muft refer him to a thir fourth, in case of extremity.. If he shou tinue refractory, and find me dull to the inform him, with Bays in the Rehearsal, him a very odd kind of a fellow, and de of his acquaintance. But ftill, if my rea the general tenor of my subject to me a muft beg leave to tell them a ftory.

A traveller, in his way to Italy, found a country where the inhabitants had ea excrefcence depending from the chin: a which, as it was endemic, and the people

rial, to look upon them as the greateft beauty. Ladies grew toafts from the. fize of their chins; and no men were beaux whofe faces were not broadeft at the bottom. It was Sunday; a country church was at hand; and our traveller was willing to perform the duties of the day. Upon his first appearance at the church-door, the eyes of all were naturally fixed upon the ftranger: but what was their amazement, when they found that he actually wanted that emblem of beauty, a purfed chin? Stifled. bursts of laughter, winks, and whispers, circulated from vifage to vifage: the prismatic figure of the ftranger's face was a fund of infinite gaiety. Our traveller could no longer patiently continue an object of deformity to point at. "Good folks," faid he, "I perceive that I am a very ridiculous figure "here; but I affure you, I am reckoned, no way deformed at HOME."

ESSAY

The Story of Alcander and Septimius Friends. Taken from a Byzantine

THENS, long after the decline of

A empire, ftill continued the feat

politeness, and wisdom. Theodoric, th repaired the schools which barbarity v to fall into decay, and continued thofe men of learning, which avaricious go monopolized.

In this city, and about this period, A Septimius were fellow-students together the most fubtle reafoner of all the Lyce ther,the moft eloquent speaker in the acad Mutual admiration foon begot a friends fortunes were nearly equal, and they wer the two most celebrated cities in the wor cander was of Athens, Septimius came f

In this ftate of harmony they lived for together, when Alcander, after paffing of youth in the indolence of philosophy, length of entering into the busy world step previous to this, placed his affection tia, a lady of exquifite beauty. The d

nies were performed; and nothing now remained but her being conducted in triumph to the apart ment of the intended bridegroom.

1

Alcander's exultation in his own happiness, or being unable to enjoy any fatisfaction without making his friend Septimius a partner, prevailed upon him to introduce Hypatia to his fellow-ftudent; which he did with all the gaiety of a man who found himself equally happy in friendship and love. But this was an interview fatal to the future peace of both; for Septimius no fooner faw her, but he was fmitten with an involuntary paffion; and, though he used every effort to fupprefs defires at once fo imprudens and unjuft, the emotions of his mind in a short time became fo ftrong, that they brought on a fever, which the phyficians judged incurable.

During this illness, Alcander watched him with all the anxiety of fondness, and brought his mistress to join in those amiable offices of friendship. The fagacity of the phyficians, by these means, on dif covered, that the caufe of their patient diforder was love; and Alcander being apprized of their discovery, at length extorted a confeffion from the reluctant dying lover..

It would but delay the narrative to defcribe the conflict between love and friendship in the breast of Alcander on this occafion: it is enough to fay, that the Athenians were at that time arrived at fuch refinement in morals, that every virtue was carried to excefs. In fhort, forgetful of his own felicity, he gave up his intended bride, in all her charms, to the

young

young Roman. They were married privately by his connivance; and this unlooked-for change of fortune wrought as unexpected a change in the conftitution of the now happy Septimius. In a few days he was perfectly recovered, and fat out with his fair partner for Rome. Here, by an exertion of those talents which he was fo eminently poffeffed of, Septimius, in a few years, arrived at the higheft dignities of the ftate, and was conftituted the city Judge, or prætor.

In the mean time, Alcander not only felt the pain of being feparated from his friend and his mistress, but a profecution was alfo commenced against him by the relations of Hypatia, for having bafely given up his bride, as was fuggefted, for money. His innocence of the crime laid to his charge, and even his eloquence in his own defence, were not able to withftand the influence of a powerful party. He was caft and condemned to pay an enormous fine. However, being unable to raise so large a fum at the time appointed,his poffeffions were confifcated, he himfelf was stripped of the habit of freedom,expofed as a flave in the market-place, and fold to the highest bidder.

A merchant of Thrace becoming his purchafer, Alcander, with fome other companions of diftrefs, was carried into that region of defolation and sterility. His flated employment was, to follow the herds of an impericus mafter; and his fuccefs in hunting was all that was allowed him to supply his precarions fubfiftence. Every morning waked him to a renewal of famine or toil, and every change of feafon ferved but to aggravate his unfheltered diftrefs.

After