You

cupied by a wide expanse of ocean, though the latter, when looked upon, appeared a boundless prospect; still, however, in the midst of this sunshine of the heart, I always bear in mind that its locality is the secret of its charm. would not agree with me, but I am assured that the sort of thing that delights where one feels no responsibility, would cease to fascinate in the moment that the surrounding world came to call one to account for one's country cousins: and these dear souls, perhaps, might make one blush at the west end. I ought not to say so from any thing that I have seen here; but the whole course of our thoughts and feelings is so subject to join the tide of opinion, that I hardly dare to assert how far my present impressions, vivid as they are, would stand the test of a Bond-street jury.

As Mrs. Malaprop says, however, “let us not have any retrospections as to the future" Viva, viva. I am so much better, that I hardly remember how I came here in the high road to Charon's ferry.

I am longing to hear from you. Don't for

get to let me know about Stanhope, as Mr. Otway will be anxious to learn whether you and he cement.

Adieu, dear Falkland. Am I not the very pine-apple, and quintessence of letter-writers?

Huzza!

Yours, ever affectionately,

ARTHUR HOWARD.

LETTER VIII.

MISS DOUGLAS TO MISS SANDFORD.

My dearest Julia,

Glenalta.

UNFORTUNATELY for me, I promised to write again without entering into any covenant with you; and were I prevented from performing my vow for half a year to come, I suppose that you would be a little female Shylock and insist upon your bond, before you put pen to paper. I do not know whether I shall do more wisely in refraining from all apology for my silence, or in attempting to account for it. If you have been able to settle into a regular track of daily employment since your return to Checkley, you will be able to comprehend how the day should often find us defaulters at its close, in at least half the amount of what we had to do at its commencement; but if the whirl of travelling be still in operation, you may wonder how peo

ple, who are stationary, should not have too much time, rather than too little, on hand. I will therefore keep on the safe side, and make no excuse, lest it should not be considered a valid one, till I know how far you can understand our habits of life; but as I am very certain of your heart, I will proceed to tell you, as I promised in my last letter, of the surprise which Frederick and I have prepared lately for our dearest mother.

On Wednesday next Arthur is to take a long ride with Mr. George Bentley, and Frederick, and I mean to take advantage of our cousin's absence to introduce mamma to the retreat, for so we have named the spot which is consecrated by our rural labours to this idol of our daily worship. Surely such worship cannot be idolatry, for through the finest mortal, as the most beautiful natural, object, we may pay homage to the God that created it. But do we really offer this tribute, or does not too much love-does not too large a share of adoration rest in the channel without reaching the source, like the worship of our poor Roman Catholic, which

is certainly given to the pictures and images, that adorn their altars rather than to the Divinity which they represent? This is a question which my conscience so often asks itself, that I believe the true answer would come against me; and yet with the half convicted sense of being a sinner, the sin of loving my mother beyond due bounds, borrows so much of her character from its object, that it appears like virtue, and so deludes.

Fred. and I talked the matter over yesterday evening, as we stole away to our hallowed bower.

When you were at Glenalta, I never told you of the discovery which my brother and I had made, because to have mentioned, without shewing you, a gem so worthy of your admiration, as I shall presently describe, would hardly have been kind. Your curiosity and feeling would have been awakened, and I should have feared to gratify them lest we might have disturbed the solitary genius of the place, who was at that time, a daily visitant at its rustic shrine. When first we came here, as I told you in my