into the body of a ferpent. Many of thefe are found in the Thebais, which are harmless; and he had taught one to obey his voice. He appeared with his ferpent, dazzled the vulgar by his furprifing tricks, and pretended to cure all diforders. Some lucky inftances of fuccefs, due to nature alone, and fometimes to the imagination of the patients, gave him great celebrity. He foon confined his ferpent Haridi to the tomb, producing him only to oblige princes and perfons capable of giving him a handfome recompence. The fucceffors of this prieft, brought up in the fame principles, found no difficulty in giving fanction to fuch an advantageous error. They added to the general perfuafion of his virtue that of his immortality. They had the boldness even to make a public proof of it. The ferpent was cut in pieces, in prefence of the Emir, and placed, for two hours, under a vafe. At the inftant of lifting up the vafe, the prieft had the addrefs to fubftitute one exactly refembling it. A miracle was proclaimed, and the immortal Haridi acquired a fresh degree of veneration. This knavery procures them great advantages. The people flock, from all quarters, to pray at this tomb; and if the ferpent crawls out from under the ftone, and approaches the fuppliant, it is a fign that his malady will be cured. It may be imagined that he does not appear, till an offering has been made, proportioned to the quality and riches of the different perfons. In extraordinary cafes, where the fick perfon cannot be cured without the prefence of the ferpent, a pure virgin muft come to folicit him. She is decked in her beft clothes, and crowned with flowers. She puts herfelf in a praying attitude; and, as the priests are inclined, the ferpent comes out, makes circles round the young fuppliant, and goes and repofes on her. The virgin, accompanied by a vaft multitude, carries him in triumph, amid the general acclamations. No hu-. man reafoning could perfuade thefe ignorant and credulous Egyptians, that they are the dupes of a few artful impoftors they believe in the ferpent Haridi as firmly as in the prophet. Hib. Mag. 1793. The Imprudent Fair. (A True Story.) THE colou the male part of the hucolourings of vice, however man fpecies, are yet infinitely more abhorrent when displayed in the opposite fex. Man, from the robuft texture of his organization, as well as from the fuperiority of his ftrength, affumes, and is indeed capable of debaucheries which women are in general afhamed of, and unequal to. Say what modern refined philofophers may, the fairest of creation' never looked fo fair nor fo defirable as when, by foft and gentle qualities, they are contrafted to the rougher manners of mankind. The whip the cap-the mafculine attire,' may poflibly fuit the depraved taste of fome modern Nimrods; but thofe celestial attributes, fuch as we find delineated in the beautiful fable of the Pelican and the Spider, are those alone which can afford laking enjoyment in general fociety. The fate of the once-lovely subject of thefe memoirs fhould, with many other fimilar catastrophes, warn the gentle fex from thofe mafculine courfes, by which many of them lose their virtue and their fame. She is the only daughter, though not born in wedlock, of a gentleman who left between her and her mother about 1000l. per annum in Ireland. She had not only an elegant female education, but was well inftructed in the claffics; and in her earlier days, as much admired on account of her erudition as her beauty. As fhe found men alone were capable of diftinguifhing, fo they were alone generous enough to acknowledge her judg ment and learning: the women were all jealous; and envy, in the shape of difcretion, foon left her, even before the deviated from the paths of honour, to the fole fociety of the former. Her mother, a high-fpirited dame, and a ftickler for equality, had always treated the deceased father rather as a fubordinate, than a fuperior character; and we believe this precedent had a wonderful bad effect upon our young heroinc. Being left entirely to the companionfhip of men, the foon affumed their almost entire manner; laughed loud, talked much; drank, alas! too much, and played, alas too deeply; in fhort, by infenfible degrees in a variety of extravagance, the foon diffipated her fortune, and was foon obliged to afk affiftance from thofe whom the had, in fact, fupported. Among this number was a villain, a private fharper, and a fellow who, with a fpecious face, poffeffed the heart of a reptile. He had long entertained a la fcivious paffion, and actually won her money with a defign as much to enjoy her perfon, as from pecuniary motives. Upon her firft and fecond application he readily affifted her, but upon the third demand he not only 'refufed her, but compelled her to give him a judg ment upon her house and furniture for what he had already lent her. With this judgment in a very fhort time he entered, and would actually have fold all, if the blooming object of his fenfuality had not, upon folemn promife of marriage, confented to purchafe a redemption of her fortune, by the facrifice of her virtue. What rendered this immolation the more fhocking was, that the mother was actually privy to it, and actually affifted in ufing her endeavours to induce her daughter's compliance. This guilty intercourfe having continued for fome time,' the lover began, as is ufual, to grow cool, from cool to indifferent, and from indifferent, the fair victim of his luft and villainy became irkfome to his fatiated fenfuality. He now faw in Paulina (fuch we fhall call our heroine) that the latent embers of virtue were ftill alive. She often preffed him for a completion of his promife, but as marriage was a ceremony which he never meant fhould pafs between them, he was determined to put an end to every hope of that kind, and at the fame time to juftify himfelf by the appearance of criminality in his miftrefs. Agreeably to this infernal purpose, one night having engaged a large party to play at her houle, and afterwards to fup there, he confpited with one of his moft debauched intimates, whom he knew to be in a flate of health unfit to mention; the plan was laid, that he fhould give her a certain quantity of laudanum, and at the fame time engage himself to fleep with her the confede rate was to be concealed in the apartment, and as foon as the candle was put ont, he was to take the place of his friend, and fpend the night with her. All this was actually perpetrated. The mother, fufpecting nothing uncommon, went to bed at her ufual hour; and our heroine having drank, as was too often her cuftom, feveral glaffes of champaign, and taken the premeditated dofe, expreffed a defire of following her venerable parent's example. In this difpofition fhe was no doubt immediately indulged-Her feducer led her nothing loth, and feeing her in bed, pretended to undress and follow; but as foon as he found the effects of his potion begin to operate, he refigned his place to his friend, and retired, exulting in the happy iffue of his device. The next morning at an early hour a loud rapping at the door awoke the old lady, whofe furprize was great at feeing her friend, who appeared to be in the utmoft agitation. He informed her that her daughter Paulina had the preceding night refufed to let him remain in the houfe; that he fufpected fome very extraordinary motive, and had accordingly watched till he faw Mr. enter; that he was confident of his being in the house, and that he would convince her of the truth immediately. Leading this abandoned old wretch to the apartment, he drew the curtains, and expofed her daughter in the actual embraces of his perfidious confederate. Nothing could exceed the horror and aftonifhment of the old woman, except that of Paulina, who being now thoroughly awake, fcreamed aloud with terror and confufion. Wringing her hands, and vowing her entire ignorance; tearing her hair, and curfing herfelf and mankind; it was with great difficulty fhe could be prevented from committing an act of violence upon herself. The quondam lover faw all with infinite compoture, and affecting to lament his own fictitious misfortune, paid no attention to the real mifery into which he had caft the unhappy object of his perfidious artifice He He now obferved that all promises, all engagements were at an end, and carried on his infernal farce so far as to challenge his fuppofed rival to give fatisfaction to his injured honour. The next morning, at eleven o'clock, the parties were to meet with piftols two miles from the city; but it was previously concerted that the piftols were to be loaded with powder only. With all the appearance of the moft rancorous indignation upon the part of our hero, they parted, not, however, before he had given peremptory orders that Paulina and her guilty mother fhould quit the houfe with all poflible expedition. of her complaint, and the reflection of her misfortune, in a fhort time broke her heart: the mother alfo fell a victim to confufion, grief, and remorfe; and they were buried in the fame grave within eight days of each other. Evening. A Maral Tale. THE Rillness of Evening is the ze nith of contemplation; it is then that Nature hears with religious filence the murmurs of difcontented mortality. The fetting fun funk behind the dif tant mountains, and tinged with rich crimson the grey walls of an old abbey, where hoary antiquity, crowned with a wreath of ivy, fat on his moffy throne, while from his long white beard the tears of regret dropped on his favorite pile; the breeze of autumn fhaded the foliage with more fober brown; the chorifters warbled forth ftrains of tender melancholy; every object was calculated to infpire the foul with a fenfe of its God, and to create a confidence in him fufficient to blunt the poignancy of misfortune. Having properly prepared the piftols, and to give the whole tranfaction the femblance of actual hoftility, they chose each a friend; the fuppofed combatants now met, our hero gave the firft fire; his antagonist demanded to know if he was satisfied, and obferved, that, if fo, he would not make any return; but the former pretending much wrath, infifted upon further extremities: the latter fired, in his turn, and here, reader, mark the juft vengeance, and the uner- In this gentle feafon, exhilarated by ring decree, of Providence! in the midft the charms of the creation, the ardent of fecurity, and exulting in the fuccefs Henry lately wandered, and felt his boof his impious device, the vile deceiver fom expand to the tendereft emotions fell a bleeding victim to his own turpi-, of nature. His whole ideas of human happiness were then comprized in the expected poffellion of his Anna; his features were animated with joy, is lips were pregnant with praises of the goodnefs of Providence. Alas! how prefumptuous are the fanguine withes of immaturity; how they glow in the boiùm to inflame the wounds of mifery ! tude. In terror and defpair, he cried out Treachery! Murder! but could no more; two flugs having paffed through his body, he died upon the inftant! The fact was, that the fervant of the furvivor, whole conftant practice it was to fee that his mafter's piftols were properly charged, had examined them that morning after the balls had been extracted: and being entirely ignorant of what was tranfacting, had loaded them again while his mafter was at breakfast. Chilled with borror and remorfe, the wretched accomplice in this villainous tragedy, confeffed the whole; and upon his trial, which took place in a fhort time, repeated his confeffion in abatement of his guilt. The miferable Paulina foon found herself afflicted with the complaint already hinted; and although now juftified in every refpect from the crime imputed to her by her undger, the feverity The blaft of winter now rocks the turrets of the venerable building, and mourns through the long alle; the folitary iparrow just chir is its wants; the molly wall drops unv holesome tears. There uo wanders the unhappy victim of pallion; he droops like the vain and forward flower, inat puts forth its weak buds, and perithes in the firit beaings of the rain; he drags his hivering frame along with loofe precarious steps, and on his uniheltered check the icarce paler fnows incefiantly deiccnd; no mort his eye rolls brilliant over each furroun ding object, his cheek no longer be with the ardent blush of hope, he Hiftories of the Tete-a-Tete. IZ Anna Demar was the orphan daugh- } But the founds of confolation were uncongenial to the ear of the wretched Henry like the dews of the evening on the bofom of the dead, they foftened without being felt he raifed his cheek of the most deadly palenefs from the odamp earth his eyes were no longer toinflamed with madnefs, the tears of fugalm melancholy fuffufed them; he folmeled his hands meekly over his heart, and newsthing a figh, in which his woes Jan. He paffed with a quick but irrefolute Time, faid I, after a melancholy To moderate the vanity of expectation, and check the impulfe of paffion, till we know it is confiftent with prudence to indulge it, is a task which the churlith mifanthrophift, as well as the kind inftructor, continually fets before the young and unwary; it is hard to learn, but it is a pity our ignorance and perverfenefs fhould prevent our attempting it; becaufe by fuch who are happy enough to be temperate in their wishes, half the diftreffes of life are either alleviated or averted. Memoirs of the Noble Dupe, and the IN the choice of a companion for life it is difficult to pronounce whether a the |