good girl; I find you are perfectly qualified for "making converts; and fo go help your mother' "to make the gooseberry-pye." С НА Р. VIII. An amour, which promifes little good fortune, yet may be productive of much. THE 'HE next morning we were again vifited by Mr. Burchell, though I began, for certain reasons, to be displeased with the frequency of his return; but I could not refuse him my company and fire-fide. It is true, his labour more than requited his entertainment; for he wrought among us with vigour ; and, either in the meadow or at the hay-rick, put himself foremoft. Befides, he had always fomething amusing to say, that leffened our toil; and was at once so out of the way, and fo fenfible, that I loved, laughed at, and pitied him. My only diflike arofe from an attachment he difcovered to my daughter: he would, in a jefting manner, call her his little mif. trefs; and when he bought each of the girls a fet of ribands, hers was the fineft. I knew not how, but he every day feemed to become more amiable, his wit to improve, and his fimplicity to affume the fuperior airs of wisdom. yet Our family dined in the field, and we fat, or rather reclined, round a temperate repaft, our cloth cloth spread upon the hay, while Mr. Burchell feemed to give cheerfulness to the feaft. To heighten our fatisfaction, two blackbirds anfwered each other from oppofite hedges; the familiar red breast came and pecked the crumbs from our hands; and every found feemed but the echo of tranquillity. "I never fit thus," fays Sophia, "but I think of the two lovers, fo fweetly "described by Mr. Gay, who were ftruck dead "in each others arms, under a barley mow. "There is fomething fo pathetick in the defcrip"tion, that I have read it an hundred times with "new rapture." "In my opinion," cried my fon," the finest strokes in that description, are "much below thofe in-the Acis and Galatea of "Ovid. The Roman poet understands the use "of contraft better; and upon that figure, artful " ly managed, all ftrength in the pathetick de"pends." "It is remarkable," cried Mr. Bur chell," that both the poets you mention, have "equally contributed to introduce a falfe taste "into their respective countries, by loading all "their lines with epithet. Men of little genius "found them most easily imitated in their de"fects; and English poetry, like that in the later "empire of Rome, is nothing, at prefent, but a "combination of luxuriant images, without plot or "connection; a ftring of epithets, that improve "the found, without carrying on the fenfe. But ཟླ perhaps, Madam, while I thus reprehend o"thers, you will think it just that I should give them an opportunity to retaliate; and, indeed, "I have "I have made this remark, only to have an op portunity of introducing to the company a bal"lad, which, whatever be its other defects, is, I "think, at least, free from thofe I have men"tioned." " A BALLA D. "TURN, gentle hermit of the dale, "For here forlorn and loft I tread, "Forbear, my fon," the hermit cries, "For yonder phantom only flies, "To lure thee to thy doom. "Here, to the houseless child of want, "My door is open still; "And though my portion is but fcant, I give it with good-will. "Then turn to-night, and freely share "Whate'er my cell beftows; "My rufhy couch, and frugal fare, My bleffing and repose. "No flocks that range the valley free, "To flaughter I condemn ; Taught by that Power that pities me, "I learn to pity them. "But from the mountain's graffy fide, "A guiltless feaft I bring; "A fcrip with herbs and fruits fupply'd, "Then, pilgrim, turn, thy cares forego; Soft as the dew from heav'n descends, The grateful ftranger lowly bends, Far fhelter'd in a glade obfcure No ftores beneath its humble thatch Requir'd a master's care; The door juft opening with a latch, And now, when worldly crowds retire The hermit trimm'd his little fire, VOL. I C And And fpread his vegetable store, - But nothing could a charm impart His rifing cares the hermit fpy'd, "From better habitations fpurn'd, "Or grieve for friendship unreturn'd, "Or unregarded love? "Alas! the joys that fortune brings, "Are trifling, and decay : "And those who prize the paltry things, "And what is friendship, but a name, "And |