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Till some strange Means afford a sudden view
Of some vile Plot, and every Wo adieu*!

Now should we grant these Beauties all endure
Severest Pangs, they 've still the speediest Cure ;
Before one Charm be wither'd from the Face,
Except the Bloom, which shall again have place,
In Wedlock ends each Wish, in Triumph all Disgrace ;
And Life to come, we fairly may suppose,

One light, bright Contrast to these wild dark Woes. These let us leave, and at her Sorrows look,

Too often seen, but seldom in a Book; Let her who felt, relate them :-on her chair The Heroine sits-in former Years, the Fair, Now ag'd and poor; but Ellen Orford knows, That we should humbly take what Heav'n bestows. "My Father died-again my Mother wed, "And found the Comforts of her Life were fled; "Her angry Husband, vex'd through half his Years "By Loss and Troubles, fill'd her Soul with fears: "Their Children many, and 'twas my poor place "To nurse and wait on all the Infant-Race; "Labour and Hunger were indeed my part, "And should have strengthen'd an erroneous Heart.

* As this incident points out the work alluded to, I wish it to be remembered, that the gloomy tenour, the querulous melancholy of the story, is all I censure. The language of the writer is often animated, and is, I believe, correct; the characters well drawn, and the manners described from real life; but the perpetual occurrence of sad events, the protracted list of teazing and perplexing mischances, joined with much waspish invective, unallayed by pleasantry or sprightliness, and these continued through many hundred pages, render publications, intended for amusement and executed with ability, heavy and displeasing:-You find your favourite persons happy in the end; but they have teazed you so much with their perplexities by the way, that you were frequently disposed to quit them in their distresses.

"Sore was the Grief to see him angry come, "And, teaz'd with Business, make Distress at home: "The Father's Fury and the Children's Cries "I soon could bear, but not my Mother's Sighs; "For she look'd back on Comforts and would say, “I wrong'd thee, Ellen,' and then turn away : "Thus for my Age's good, my Youth was tried, "And this my Fortune till my Mother died.

"So, amid Sorrow much and little Cheer"A common case, I pass'd my twentieth Year; "For these are frequent Evils; thousands share "An equal Grief-the like domestic Care.

"Then in my days of Bloom, of Health and Youth, “One much above me, vow'd his Love and Truth: "We often met, he dreading to be seen,

"And much I question'd what such dread might mean; "Yet I believ'd him true; my simple Heart

"And undirected Reason took his part.

"Can he who loves me, whom I love, deceive?

"Can I such Wrong of one so kind believe,

"Who lives but in my Smile, who trembles when I "grieve?

"He dar'd not marry, but we met to prove "What sad Encroachments and Deceits has Love: "Weak that I was, when he, rebuk'd, withdrew, "I let him see that I was wretched too; "When less my Caution, I had still the Pain Of his or mine own Weakness to complain. "Happy the Lovers class'd alike in Life, "Or happier yet the rich endowing Wife; "But most aggriev'd the fond believing Maid, "Of her rich Lover tenderly afraid :

"You judge th' Event; for grievous was my Fate, "Painful to feel, and shameful to relate :

"Ah! sad it was my Burthen to sustain,
"When the least Misery was the dread of Pain;
“When I have grieving told him my Disgrace,
"And plainly mark'd Indifference in his Face.
"Hard! with these Fears and Terrors to behold
"The cause of all, the faithless Lover cold;
"Impatient grown at every wish denied,
"And barely civil, sooth'd and gratified;
"Peevish when urg'd to think of Vows so strong,
"And angry when I spake of Crime and Wrong.
"All this I felt, and still the Sorrow grew,
"Because I felt that I deserv'd it too,

"And begg'd my infant Stranger to forgive

"The Mother's Shame, which in herself must live. "When known that Shame, I, soon expell'd from

"Home,

"With a frail Sister shar'd a Hovel's gloom; "There barely fed-(what could I more request?) "My infant Slumberer sleeping at my breast, "I from my window saw his blooming Bride, "And my Seducer smiling at her side; "Hope liv'd till then; I sank upon the Floor, "And Grief and Thought and Feeling were no more: "Although reviv'd, I judg'd that Life would close, "And went to rest, to wonder that I rose :

66 My Dreams were dismal, wheresoe'er I stray'd, 66 I seem'd asham'd, alarm'd, despis'd, betray'd; “ Always in grief, in guilt, disgrac’d, forlorn, "Mourning that one so weak, so vile, was born; "The Earth a Desert, Tumult in the Sea, "The Birds affrighten'd fled from Tree to Tree, "Obscur❜d the setting Sun, and every thing like me: "But Heav'n had Mercy, and my Need at length "Urg'd me to labour and renew'd my Strength.

"I strove for Patience as a Sinner must, "Yet felt th' Opinion of the World unjust: "There was my Lover, in his Joy, esteem'd, "And I, in my Distress, as guilty deem'd ; "Yet sure, not all the Guilt and Shame belong "To her who feels and suffers for the Wrong: "The Cheat at Play may use the Wealth he's won; "But is not honour'd for the Mischief done; "The Cheat in Love may use each Villain-Art, "And boast the Deed that breaks the Victim's Heart. "Four Years were past; I might again have found "Some erring Wish, but for another Wound: "Lovely my Daughter grew, her Face was fair, "But no expression ever brighten❜d there; "I doubted long, and vainly strove to make "Some certain Meaning of the Words she spake ; "But meaning there was none, and I survey'd "With dread the Beauties of my Idiot-Maid.

"Still I submitted;-Oh! 'tis meet and fit "In all we feel to make the Heart submit; "Gloomy and calm my Days, but I had then, "It seem'd, Attractions for the Eyes of Men: "The sober Master of a decent Trade "O'erlook'd my Errors, and his Offer made; "Reason assented:true, my Heart denied, "But thou,' I said 'shalt be no more my Guide.' "When wed, our Toil and Trouble, Pains and Care, "Of means to live procur❜d us humble Share; "Five were our Sons,-and we, though careful, found "Our Hopes declining as the Year came round: "For I perceiv'd, yet would not soon perceive, "My Husband stealing from my view to grieve; "Silent he grew, and when he spoke he sigh’d, "And surly look'd and peevishly replied:

"Pensive by nature, he had gone of late
"To those who preach'd of Destiny and Fate,
"Of things fore-doom'd, and of Election-Grace,
"And how in vain we strive to run our race;
"That all by Works and moral Worth we gain,
"Is to perceive our Care and Labour vain ;
"That still the more we pay, our Debts the more
"remain :

"That he who feels not the mysterious Call,
"Lies bound in Sin, still grov'ling from the Fall.
"My Husband felt not :—our Persuasion, Prayer,
"And our best Reason darken'd his Despair;
"His very Nature chang'd; he now revil'd
"My former Conduct, he reproach'd my Child:
"He talk'd of Bastard Slips, and curs'd his Bed,
"And from our Kindness to Concealment fled;
"For ever to some evil Change inclin❜d,

"To every gloomy Thought he lent his Mind,
"Nor Rest would give to us, nor Rest himself could

"find;

"His Son suspended saw him, long bereft

"Of Life, nor prospect of Revival left.

"With him died all our Prospects, and once more "I shar'd th' Allotments of the Parish Poor; "They took my Children too, and this I know "Was just and lawful, but I felt the Blow : "My Idiot-Maid and one unhealthy Boy "Were left, a Mother's Misery and her Joy.

"Three Sons I follow'd to the Grave, and one—

"Oh! can I speak of that unhappy Son?

"Would all the Memory of that time were fled,

“And all those Horrors, with my Child, were dead! "Before the World seduc'd him, what a Grace

"And smile of Gladness shone upon his Face;

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