melancholy diffidence, which makes you fear the worst in every thing, and feldom indulge thefe pleafing hopes which fupport and nourish us. O, my dear Sir, how happy fhall I be, if I am able to refore you to your former gaiety! People that knew you fome years ago fay, that you was the most chearful man alive. How much beyond the poffeffion of any mistress will be the pleasure I shall experience, if, by marrying well, I can make you fuch once more. This is my wifh, my ambition, the prayer I make to heaven as often as I think on my future life. But, alas! I hope for it in vain, if you fuffer your cares and inquietudes to deftroy your health, what will avail my good intentions, if they are fruftrated by your death? You will leave this world without ever knowing whether the promises of your fon were the language of a grateful heart, or the lying protefta tions of a hypocrite: God in heaven forbid it should be fo! may he preferve your health, and prolong your days, to receive a thoufand proofs of the lafting love and duty of the most obliged of children! We are all bound to you, Sir, and will, I truft, repay it in love and honour of you. Let this fupport and comfort you, that you are the father of ten children, among whom there feems to be but one foul of love and obedience to you. This is a folid, real good, which you will feel and enjoy when other pleasures have loft their tafte: your heart will be warmed by it in old age, and you will find yourself richer in these treasures than in the poffeflion of all you have spent upon us. I talk, Sir, from the fullness of my heart, and it is not the ftyle of a diffembler. Do not, my dear Sir, fuffer melancholy to gain too far upon you: think lefs of thofe circumftances which difquiet you, and rejoice in the many others which ought to gladden you: confider the reputation you have acquired, the glorious repu tation of integrity, fo uncommon in this age! Imagine that your pofterity will look upon it as the nobleft fortune you can leave them, and that your children's children will be incited to virtue by your example. I don't know, Sir, whether you feel this; I am fure I do, and glory in it. Are you not happy in my dear mother? Was ever wife fo virtuous, fo dutiful, fo fond? There is no fatisfaction beyond this, and I know you have a perfect fense of it. All these advantages, well weighed, will make your misfortune. light; and, I hope, the pleasure arifing from them will difpel that cloud which hangs upon you, and finks your fpirits. I am, dear Sir, Your dutiful fon, Expreffing, in another letter, his dillatisfaction in the thought of returning to Luneville, he fays: G. L. Luneville was my school of breeding, and I was there more una voidably subject to quelques bevoies d'ecolier, as the politeffe practifed in that is fuller of ceremony than eliewhere, and has a good deal peculiar to itself. The memory of thefe miflakes, though loft perhaps in others, hangs upon my mind when I am there, and depreffes my fpirits to fuch a degree, that I am not like my felf. One is never agreeable in company, where one fears too much to be difapproved; and the very notion of being ill received, has as bad an effect upon our gaiety as the thing itself. This is the firft and strongest reafon, why I defpair of being happy in Lorrain. I have already complained of the fop pifh ignorance and contempt for all I have been taught to value, that is fo fashionable there. You have heard me describe the greater part of the English I knew there, in colours that ought to make you fear the infection of fuch company for your fon. But fuppofing no danger in this brutal unimproving fociety, it is no little grievance; for to what barbarous infults does it expofe our morals, and understanding? A fool, with a majority on his fide, is the greateft tyrant in the world. Don't imagine, dear Sir, that I am fetting up for a reformer of mankind, because I exprefs fome impatience at the folly and immorality of my acquaintance. I am far from expecting they should all be wits, much less philofophers. My own weakneffes are too well known to me, not to prejudice me in favour of other people's, when they go but to a certain point. There are extravagancies that have always an excufe, fometimes a grace, attending them. Youth is agreeable in its fallies, and would lofe its beauty if it looked too grave; but a reasonable head, and an honest heart, are never to be difpenfed with. Not that I am fo fevere upon Luneville, and my English friends, as to pretend there are not men of merit and good fenfe among them. There are fome undoubtedly; but all I know are uneafy at finding themfelves in fuch ill company. I fhall trouble you no farther on this head; if you enter into my way of thinking, what I have faid will be enough: if you don't, all I can fay will have no effect. I fhould not have engaged in this long detail, but that I love to open my heart to you, and make you the confident of all my thoughts. Till I have the honour and happiness of converfing with you in a nearer manner, indulge me, dear Sir, in this diftant way of conveying my notions to you; and let me talk to you as I would to my dearest friend, without awe, correctness, or referve. I believe there is no young man alive, who has more happiness to boast of than myfelf; being bleft with a found conftitution, affectionate friends, and an eafy fortune: but of all my advantages, there is none of which I have fo deep a fenfe, as the truft and amiable harmony between the beft of fathers and myself. This is fo much the dearer to me, as indeed it is the fource of all the reft, and as it is not to be loft by misfortune, but dependent on my own behaviour, and annexed to virtue, honour, and reputa tion. I am perfuaded that no weakneffes or failings, which do not injure them, will occafion the withdrawing of it from me; and therefore I confider it as fecure, because I have used my mind to look upon dishonesty and fhame as ftrangers it can never be acquainted with: fuch an opinion is not vanity, but it is fetting thofe two things at a neceffary distance from us; for it is certain, that the allowing a poffibility of our acting wickedly or meanly, is really making the nrit tep towards it.' We add the following letter, which exhibits a ftriking pattern of conjugal tendernefs and genuine piety, for the fake of fuch of our Readers as are difpofed to admire and imitate fuch kind of merit, Let others ridicule-it is impoffible they fhould despile it, LET. • Dear Sir, Jan. 17, 1747. It is a moft fenfible and painful addition to my concern and affliction for my dear wife, to hear of your being fo bad with the ftone; and loaded as my heart is with my other grief, I cannot help writing this, to tell you how much I feel for you, and how ardently I pray to God to relieve you. Last night all my thoughts were employed on you; for, when I went to bed, my poor Lucy was fo much better, that we thought her in a fair way of recovery; but my uneafinefs for you kept me awake great part of the night, and in the morning found fhe had been much worfe again, fo that our alarm was as great as ever. She has ince mended again, and is now pretty near as you heard laft poft; only that fuch frequent relapies give one more cause to fear that the good fymptoms which fometimes appear, will not be lafling. On the other hand, by her ftruggling fo long, and her pulfe recovering itself to well as it does after fuch violent flurries, and fuch great finkings, one would hope that Nature is ftrong in her, and will be able, at laft, to conquer her illness. Sir Edward Hulie feems now inclined to trust to that, and to trouble her with no more phyfic; upon which condition alone the has been perfuaded to take any food to-day. Upon the whole, her cafe is full of uncertainty, and the doctors can pronounce nothing pofitively about her; but they rather think it will be an affair of time. For my own health, it is yet tolerably good, though my heart has gone through as fevere a trial as it can well fuftain; more indeed, than i thought it could have borne; and you may depend upon it, dear Sir, that I will make ufe of all the supports that reafon or religion can give me, to fave me from finking under it. I know the part you take in my life and health; and I know it is my duty to try not to add to your other pains, that of my lofs, which thought has as great an effect upon me as any thing can; and I believe God Almighty fupports me above my own Itrength, for the fake of my friends who are concerned for me, and in return for the refignation with which I endeavour to fubmit to his will. If it please him in his infinite mercy, to reitore my dear wife to me, I shall moit thankfully acknowledge his goodneís; if not, I shall most humbly endure his chaftifement, which I have too much deferved. There are the fentiments with which my mind is replete but as it is till a molt bitter cup, how my body will bear it, if it muit not pafs from me, it is impoffible for me to foretel: but I hope the beft. I once more pray God to relieve you from that dreadful diftemper with which you are afflicted. Gilbert W- would be happy in the reputation his book has gained him, if my poor Lucy was not fo ill. However, his mind leans always to hope, which is an advantage both to him and me, as it makes him a better comforter. To be fure, we ought not yet to defpair; but there is much to fear, and a moft melancholy interval to be fupported, before any certainty comes-God fend it may come well at last! I am, dear Sir, Your molt amicted, but most affectionate fon, G. L.' We have not been able to peruse the work before us, without forming a comparison between these letters from a Son to a Father, and thofe from a Father to a Son, which have of late fo much engaged the public attention. The contrast between the spirit that breathes through each, is striking; and we have too good an opinion of human nature, and of the taste and principles of the prefent times, to doubt whether the generality of our Readers will not be better pleafed with the young man, declaring to his father in unaffected language, his ftrong and hereditary averfion to vice and folly,' than with the father, prompting his fon to the purfuit of difhonourable and illicit pleafures; and we hope we may venture to prophefy, that the virtues of a LYTTELTON will be remembered with refpect, when the graces of a CHESTERFIELD fhall be forgotten. Our retired fituation affording us few opportunities of becoming acquainted with the characters of the Great, we are particularly happy in being informed by the Editor of these mifcellanies, in the dedication, that their noble Author, fo juftly admired and regretted, has left behind him a fon who has talents which are certainly equal to those which his father' poffeffed,' and who makes fuch good ufe of them, that the hopes of his friends are already foreftalled, and their wishes, even at this early period, nearly accomplished.' ART. V. A Tour in Scotland, and Voyage to the Hebrides, 1772. 4to. UR Readers have already feen ample fpecimens of this. ingenious Writer's very agreeable manner of journalizing his travels, in our account of his former excurfion*. We therefore think it unneceflary to fwell the prefent article with fuch copious extracts as thofe which were given from his preceding volume. Mr. Pennant again† takes his departure from Chester; and gives a fupplemental description of that very remarkable city. From thence he proceeded through the counties of Lancaster, Weftmoreland, and Cumberland; entering Scotland by the way of Liddefdale, a part of the county of Dumfries.-As he paffed through the abovementioned portions of the North of England, he vifited every place that afforded objects of curiofity or enter tainment, for the antiquary, the naturalift, or the man of taste, in the general acceptation of the word: defcribing, en paffant, See Review, vol. xlvi. two articles.-The Author hath now published the third edition of his Tour in 1769, in quarto, with large additions. Thefe additions may be had in a separate volume, in octavo, with 21 elegant copper-plates. + See his former Tour. among among a great variety of other particulars, the towns of Warrington, Wiggan, Prefton, Lancaster, Cockermouth, and Carlife, including the gentlemen's feats, &c. the meres, the fells, the mines, Kefwick, Wetherel cells; the Picts wall; and an account of the late memorable eruption of Solway-Mofs. The principal places vifited, and defcribed, by our Traveller, in Scotland previous to his voyage to the Hebrides, are Annan, in Annandale; Haddam, Caerlaveroc, and Morton caftles; Dumfries; Lincluden-abbey; Drumlanrig, a house of the Duke of Queensberry's; Douglas caftle; Hamilton; Bothwell; Glafgow, which is again I largely defcribed; Paifley; and Loch-lomond. At Greenock Mr. Pennant and his companions went on board a veffel of 90 tuns; and here commences his voyage to the Hebrides. The account of these islands, fo little known to us, yet in which, with a due attention to their improvement, fituation, &c. the national welfare is fo much concerned,-is extremely interefting and entertaining; fome of them may justly boat very confiderable natural advantages; which are, however, little regarded and none of them have experienced that degree of cultivation in which the ifle of Bute is fingularly happy. The following extract comprizes the greatest part of our Voyager's account of this little fortunate ifland: The ifle of Bute is about 20 miles long; its greateft breadth is not more than five miles; the number of acres is about 20,000; the inhabitants are estimated at 4000. only two parifhes, Kinggarth and Rothesay. It contains Mount Stuart, the feat of the Earl of Bute, is a modern house, with a handfome front, and wings: the fituation very fine, on an eminence in the midst of a wood, where trees grow with as much vi gour as in the more fouthern parts. Throftles, and other fong-birds fill the groves with their melody; nothing disturbs their harmony; for inflinct, often stronger than reafon, forbids them to quit these delicious fhades, and wander, like their unhappy mafter, into the ungrateful wilds of ambition. The country rifes into fmall hills, is in no part mountainous, but is the highest at the fouth end. The ftrata of ftone along the Vid. Tour in 1769. § Mr. Pennant was accompanied in this tour and voyage, by the Rev. Mr. Lightfoot of Uxbridge, to whom our Author acknowledges his obligations for the botanical remarks inferted in this work; and by the Rev. Mr. John Stuart of Killin: to the laft-named gentleman Mr. P. expreffes his gratitude for a variety of hints relating to the customs of the natives of the Highlands, and of the iflands, which, by reafon of our Author's ignorance of the Erje language, mutt, otherwife, have efcaped his notice. To both thefe gentlemen, he adds, I was indebted for all the comforts that arife from the fociety of agreeable and worthy companions.' fhore |