gree of resentment which I often heard the very man whose honour it guarded treat as affectation in any woman who should pretend it. He would frequently repeat from the letters of Lord Chesterfield, that a declaration of love to a woman was always to be ventured, because, even though it was rejected, she would accept of it as a compliment to her attractions. I had soon opportunities of knowing that Mr. M- was as loose in his practice as in his principles. His infidelities, indeed, he was not at much pains to conceal; and while I continued to up. braid him, was at almost as little pains to excuse.

In such circumstances, was it to be wondered at if my virtue was not always proof against the attacks to which it was exposed? With a husband unequal in years, lost to my affection, as I was cast from his, and treating me as one from whom no love or duty was to be expected; a husband whose principles were corrupt, whose conversation was loose, whose infidelity gave a sort of justice to mine; surrounded at the same time by young men whose persons were attractive, whose manners were engaging, whose obsequious attentions were contrasted with my husband's neglect, and whose pretended adoration and respect were opposed to his rudeness and contempt: -Was it wonderful, that thus situated, exposed to temptation, and unguarded by principle, I should forget first the restraints of prudence, and then the obligations of virtue?

Resigned as I now am to my situation, I can look on it as a kind interposition of Providence, that detection soon followed my first deviations from virtue, before I had lost the feelings of shame and contrition, before I had wandered an irrecoverable distance from duty, from principle, from religion. Here, in this place of banishment which the mercy of my husband allotted me, I have met with some benevolent

guides, who have led me to the only sources of comfort for misery and remorse like mine; who have given me a station in which, amidst the obloquy of the world, amidst the humiliation of repentance, I can still in some degree respect myself; who have taught me to cultivate my mind, to improve its powers, to regulate its principles; who have led me to a juster value of this life, to a sincere hope of the

next.

Humbled, and I trust improved by affliction, I will not indulge either vindication or resentment; the injuries I have done my husband I am willing to expiate (as, alas! he knows I do) by penitence and by suffering; yet, for his own sake, and for the warning of others, let me ask him, If for these injuries to him, and sufferings to me, he never imputes any blame to himself? I am told he is loud in his charges of my ingratitude and perfidy. I again repeat, that I will not offer to apologise for my weakness or my crimes. But it would be more dignified in him, as well as more just, were he to forget rather than to reproach the woman whose person he bought, whose affections he depised, whose innocence he corrupted,-whose ruin he has caused!

V

SOPHIA M

N° 76. SATURDAY, JULY 15, 1786.

THIS day's Paper I devote to correspondents. The first of the following letters I was particularly desirous to insert soon, as its subject is of that transient kind which might suffer from delay. In dress, as well as in character, there is often, in these times of change, the Cynthia of the minute.'

SIR,

To the AUTHOR of the LOUNGER.

Brown Square, Edinburgh,
July 6, 1786.

I UNDERSTAND that gentlemen who formerly held the same sort of office which you now exercise among us, were in use to appoint certain deputies, to whom they committed particular departments. As you, Sir, seem now to be so well established in yours, that you may possibly think of following their example, I make bold to solicit an appointment, or, failing of that, your patronage at least to an undertaking, of which this town seems to stand much in need, and for which I flatter myself I am tolerably well qualified.

One of your extensive observation, Mr. Lounger, must have remarked how defective we are in point of general or early information in dress, and how long it is before we accommodate ourselves universally to that perfect standard which the metropolis of England affords. We are often miserably in the rear of

the fashion; and except one or two favoured ladies, who have been accidentally in London, the bulk of our fine women don't get into the mode till it is quite upon the wane among our southern neighbours. The Ostrich head did not make its appearance here till half a season after it had been worn in London. The other end of the ostrich was still later of reaching us. That was indeed partly owing to an accident; the first set (as it is a bulky article) was coming down by sea in a ship that was wrecked, and a friend of mine, who had the merit of the first commission, lost considerably in bottomry on the vessel. At this very moment I see pass my door a great many Brimstone ribbons, though it is two months since my letters from London inform me they were quite out there. As long ago as the Commemoration, there were none but Celestials present, not a single Brimstone in the Abbey.

This inconvenience, Sir, might easily be remedied by a speedier communication of intelligence between the capitals of England and of Scotland, more espe cially if a public appointment were made of some person from whom such intelligence could here be obtained, and who should be answerable for its authenticity. 'Tis for this office, Mr. Lounger, I venture to propose myself. I have been at a good deal of pains, Sir, to establish such a correspondence at London, and even at Paris, as I trust will enable me to supply myself, not only with intelligence, but with models of every article of Dress, as soon as it grows into confirmed fashion; and I will take care to exhibit at certain stated seasons a set of Poupées, which I flatter myself will convey from my shop! window a perfect idea of the reigning dress and undress of the fashionable world. At present, the little figures which are stationed there, are looked on merely as toys for c'aildren; but I hereby give

notice that, with your leave Mr. Lounger, I shall on the first day of the ensuing race-week, convert them to a more dignified as well as a more useful purpose, that they will then represent, on one side of my window, a set of fashionably dressed gentlemen, and on the other a party of fashionably dressed ladies.

There never, I imagine, Sir, was a period when such a standard was of so much importance in this country. The proportion of the value of dress to that of the wearer, particularly in the Fair-sex, is wonderfully increased of late years in Edinburgh. Of the first I think I am a tolerably good judge, and can estimate, I believe, within a few shillings (supposing the underworks to be of the ordinary materials), the value of any lady's apparel. Of the value of the lady herself I do not pretend to be a judge; in some instances within my little experience, I have observed the estimate to differ considerably at two different periods, as it happened to be made by the lover or the husband; at the first, they bore a premium, as we say in business; at the latter, there was rather a discount. But taking things at an average, I am told, our mothers and grandmothers were as precious in themselves as our wives and daughters. But as for their covering, there is, in all ranks, a great increase of cost, even in my time: for though the old Points and Brocades came high at first, they went through generations, like an entailed estate: our dress has much the advantage in variety as in elegance; it does not outlast a lady's fancy. 'Twas but t'other morning I sold some of my Bloom of Roses to the wife of a grocer of my acquaintance, who looked at some of my toys from beneath a bonnet that must have stood her in a couple of guineas at the least; yet were she to be set up to auctionbut I wish to avoid all personal reflections, Mr. Lounger.