library remained in that room; but continue a solemn memorial in his family, to perpetuate his memory, and be a memento mori to the living.

"This is the history of Basil Groves, and the late owner of this seat, and his daughter STATIA. We live a happy, religious life here, and enjoy every blessing that can be desired in this lower hemisphere. But as I am not very far from a hundred years, having passed that ninety-two which Sir William Temple says, he never knew any one he was acquainted with arrive at, I must be on the brink of the grave, and expect every day to drop into it. What may become of STATIA, then, gives me some trouble to think, as all her relations, except myself are in the other world. To spend her life here in this solitude, as seems to be her inclination, is not proper; and to go into the world by herself, when I am dead, without knowing any mortal in it, may involve her in troubles and distresses. Hear then, my son, what I propose to you. You are a young man, but serious. You have got some wisdom in the school of affliction, and you have no aversion to matrimony, as you have just buried, you say, a glorious woman, your wife. If you will stay with us here, till STATIA is two and twenty, and in that time render yourself agreeable to her, I promise you, she shall be yours the day

she enters the three and twentieth year of her age, and you shall have with her fortune, all that I am owner of, which is no small sum. What do you

say to this proposal?"

Sir," I replied, "you do me vast honour, much more I am sure than my merits can pretend to. I am infinitely obliged to you, and must be blind and insensible, if I refused such a woman as Miss HENLEY, were she far from being the fortune she is. But I have not vanity enough to imagine, I can gain her affections; especially in my circumstances; and to get her by your authority or power of disposing of her, is what I cannot think of. I will stay however, a few months here, since you so generously invite me, and let Miss HENLEY know, I will be her humble servant, if she will allow me the honour of bearing that title." This made the old gentleman laugh, and he took me by the hand, saying, This is right. Come, let us go and take

a walk before dinner."

There I passed the winter, and part of the spring, and lived in a delightful manner. The mornings I generally spent in the library, reading, or writing extracts from some curious MSS. or scarce books; and in the afternoons Miss HENLEY and I walked in the lawns and woods, or sat down to cards. She was a fine creature indeed in body and soul, had a

beautiful understanding, and charmed me to a high degree. Her conversation was rational and easy, without the least affectation from the books she had read; and she would enliven it sometimes by singing, in which kind of music she was as great a mistress as I have heard. As to her heart, I found it was to be gained; but an accident happened that put a stop to the amour.

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1728. In the beginning of March, the old gentleman, the excellent Mr. HENLEY, STATIA'S grandfather and guardian, and my great friend, died, and by his death a great alteration ensued in my affair. I thought to have had Miss HENLEY immediately, as there was no one to plead her father's will against the marriage, and intended to send O'FIN for friar FLEMING; but when STATIA saw herself her own mistress, without any superior, or controul, and in possession of large fortunes, money, and an estate, that she might do as she pleased; this had an effect on her mind, and made a change. She told me, when I addressed myself to her, after her grandfather was interred, " that what she intended to do, in obedience to him, had he lived, she thought required very serious consideration now she was left to herself: that, exclusive of this, her inclination really was for a single life; and had it been otherwise, yet it was not proper, since her guardian was

dead, that I should live with her till the time limited by her father's will for her to marry was come; but that, as she had too good an opinion of me to imagine her fortune was what chiefly urged my application, and must own she had a regard for me, she would be glad to hear from me sometimes, if I could think her worth remembering, after I had left the Groves of Basil." This she said with great seriousness, and seemed by her manner to forbid my urging any further.

"I assured her, however, that time only could wear out her charming image from my mind, and that I had reason to fear, she would long remain the torment of my heart. She had a right to be sure to dismiss me from her service; but in respect of her inclination to live a single life, I begged leave to cbserve, that it was certainly quite wrong, and what she could not answer to the wise and bountiful Father of the Universe, as she was a Christian, and by being so, must believe, that baptism was a memorial of the covenant of grace.

"The Catholies, and the Vision-mongers of the protestant side, the Rev. Wm. Law, and others of his row, may magnify the excellence of celibacy as high as they please, and work it into Christian perfection, by sounding words and eloquent pens; but most surely, revelation was directly against them,

and required the faithful to produce in a regular way.

"Consider, illustrious STATIA, that when the Most High gave the Abrahamic covenant in these words, I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, and in thy seed shall all the families, or nations of the earth be blessed; which includes an interest in God, as a God, father and friend for ever, and a share in all the blessings wherewith the Messiah, in the gospel hath inriched the world; these inestimable blessings and promises of life and favour, were designed by the divine munificence for rising generations of mankind; and it was most certainly intended, not only that they should be received with the highest gratitude and duty, but that they should be strongly inculcated upon the thoughts of succeeding generations, by an instituted sign or memorial, to the end of the world.

"Circumcision was the first appointed token or memorial, and at the same time, an instruction in that moral rectitude to which the grace of God obliges and when the New Testament succeeded the Law, then was the covenant interest of infants, or their right to the covenant of grace, to be confirmed by the token or sign called baptism; that: action being appointed to give the expected rising