love, if it had been well employed; but envy is a more unmixed and genuine evil; it purfues a hateful end by defpicable means, and defires not fo much its own happipefs as another's mifery. To avoid depravity like this, it is not neceffary that any one fhould afpire to heroifm or fanctity; but only, that he fhould refolve not to quit the rank which nature affigns, and wish to maintain the dignity of a human being.

Nancy Collins:

S I walked one evening through St Andrew's A Square, I obferved a girl, meanly dreffed, coming along the pavement at a flow pace. When I paffed her, the turned a little towards me, and made a fort of halt; but faid nothing. I went on a few fteps before I turned my eye to obferve her. She had, by this time, refumed her former pace. I remarked a certain elegance in her form, which the poornefs of her garb could not altogether overcome: Her perfon was thin and genteel, and there was fomething not ungraceful in the ftoop of her head, and the feeming feebleness with which fhe walked. I could not refift the defire, which her appearance gave me, of knowing fomewhat of her fituation and circumftances: I therefore walked back, and paffed her with fuch a look as might induce her to speak what fhe feemed defirous to fay at firft. This had the effect I wifhed." Pity a poor orphan !" faid fhe, in a voice tremulous and weak. I ftopped, and put my hand in my pocket: I had now a better op

portunity

portunity of observing her. Her face was thin and pale; part of it was fhaded by her hair, of a light brown colour, which was parted, in a disordered manner, at her forehead, and hung loofe upon her shoulders; round them was caft a piece of tattered cloak, which with one hand she held across her bofom, while the other was half outstretched to receive the bounty I intended for her. Her large blue eyes were caft on the ground: She was drawing back her hand as I put a trifle into it; on receiving which he turned them up to me, muttered fomething which I could not hear, and then, letting go her cloak, and preffing her hands together, burst into tears.

It was not the action of an ordinary beggar, and my curiofity was strongly excited by it. I defired her to follow me to the house of a friend hard by, whofe beneficence I have often had occafion to know. When fhe arrived there, fhe was so fatigued and worn out, that it was not till after fome means used to restore her that fhe was able to give us an account of her misfortunes.

Her name, fhe told us, was Collins; the place of her birth one of the northern counties of England. Her father, who had died feveral years ago, left her remaining parent with the charge of her, then a child, and one brother, a lad of seventeen. By his industry, however, joined to that of her mother, they were tolerably fupported, their father having died poffeffed of a fmall farm, with the right of pafturage on an adjoining common, from which they obtained a decent livelihood: that, last summer, her brother having become acquainted with a recruiting ferjeant, who was quartered in a neighbouring village, was by him enticed to enlist as a foldier, and foon after marched off, along with some other recruits, to join his regiment: That this, the believed, broke her mother's heart, for fhe had never afterwards had a day's health, and, at length, had died about three weeks ago: That, immediately after her death, the steward, employed by the 'fquire of whom their farm was held, took poffeffion of every thing for

the

the arrears of their rent: That, as fhe had heard her brother's regiment was in Scotland when he enlisted, she had wandered thither in queft of him, as she had no other relation in the world to own her! But she found, on arriving there, that the 'regiment had been embarked feveral months before, and was gone a great way off, fhe could not tell whither.

"This news,” said fhe, "laid hold of my heart; " and I have had something wrong here," putting her hand to her bofom, "ever fince. I got a bed and some “victuals in the house of a woman here in town, to "whom I told my story, and who feemed to pity me. "I had then a little bundle of things, which Í had "been allowed to take with me after my mother's "death; but, the night before laft, fomebody stole it "from me while I flept; and the woman faid the "would keep me no longer, and turned me out into "the street, where I have fince remained, and am al"moft dying for want."

She was now in better hands; but our affiftance had come too late. A frame, naturally delicate, had yielded to the fatigues of her journey and the hardships of her fituation. She declined by flow but uninterrupted degrees, and yesterday breathed her laft. A fhort while. before the expired, the asked to fee me; and taking from her bofom a little filver locket, which fhe told me had been her mother's, and which all her diftreffes could not make her part with, begged I would keep it for her dear brother, and give it him, if ever he should return home, as a token of her remembrance.

I felt this poor girl's fate ftrongly; but I tell not her story merely to indulge my feelings; I would make the reflections it may excite in my readers useful to others who may fuffer from fimilar causes. There are many, I fear, from whom their country has called brothers, fons, or fathers, to bleed in her fervice, forlorn, like poor Nancy Collins, with "no relation in the world to 66 own them." Their fufferings are often unknown, when they are fuch as moft demand compaffion. The

mind that cannot obtrude its diftreffes on the ear of pity, is formed to feel their poignancy the deepest.

In our idea of military operations, we are too apt to forget the misfortunes of the people. In defeat, we think of the fall, and in victory, of the glory of commanders; we feldom allow ourfelves to confider how many, in a lower rank, both events make wretched! How many, amidst the acclamations of national triumph, are left to the helplefs mifery of the widow and the orphan, and, while victory celebrates her feftival, feel, in their diftant hovels, the extremities of want and wretchedness!