been a liberal friend to this interesting young woman, and, at different times, made her a present of two very elegant dresses. She has been much noticed, and made herself many friends at Bath. Mrs Falconer, of this place, good-naturedly sent her father a billet the other day, to the following purport:

"I lately heard a lady in this neighbourhood read a letter from one of her correspondents at Bath. It had this paragraph. Our concerts are very good this winter. We have a Mrs Smith who pleases extremely.”

The expression," a Mrs Smith," is more gratifying than if it had been Mrs Smith from Lichfield; proving that the observation was made without an idea that the person to whom it was addressed, might, being of Staffordshire, be interested in Elizabeth's success.

I do not apologize to you, my dear bard, for the prolixity of these circumstances. Friendship finds nothing trivial which relates to its object; and you are not less alive than myself to the welfare of the sweet Syren whose virtues have engaged your esteem, whose melting songs have "wrapt your spirit in Elysium."

LETTER XXII.

TO MRS MOMPESSAN*.

Wellsburn, near Warwick, Dec. 31, 1785.

BEHOLD, dear Mrs Mompessan, the promised minutes of that curious conversation which once passed at Mr Dilly's, the bookseller, in a literary party, formed by Dr Johnson, Mr Boswell, Dr Mayo, and others, whom Mrs Knowles and myself had been invited to meet, and in which Dr Johnson and that lady disputed so earnestly. It is, however, previously necessary that you should know the history of the very amiable young woman who was the subject of their debate.

Miss Jenny Harry that was, for she afterwards married, and died ere the first nuptial year expired, was the daughter of a rich planter in the East Indies. He sent her over to England to receive her education, in the house of his friend, Mr. Spry, where Mrs Knowles, the celebrated quaker,

* Miss Seward's most intimate and most deservedly valued friend. She died unmarried at Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, in 1802, far advanced in years.

was frequently a visitor. Mr Spry affected wit, and was perpetually rallying Mrs Knowles on the subject of her quakerism, in the presence of this young, gentle and ingenuous girl; who, at the age of eighteen, had received what is called a proper education, one of modern accomplishments, without having been much instructed in the nature and grounds of her religious belief. Upon these visits Mrs Knowles was often led into a serious defence of quaker-principles. She speaks with clear and graceful eloquence on every subject. Her antagonists were shallow theologists, and opposed only idle and pointless raillery to deep and longstudied reasoning on the precepts of Scripture, uttered in persuasive accents, and clothed with all the beauty of language. Without any design of making a proselyte she gained one.

Miss Harry grew pensively serious, and meditated perpetually on all which had dropt from the lips of Mrs Knowles on a theme, the infinite importance of which she then, perhaps, first began to feel. At length, her imagination pursuing this its primal religious bias, she believed quakerism the only true Christianity. Beneath such conviction, she thought it her duty to join, at every hazard of worldly interest, that class of worshippers. On declaring these sentiments, several ingenious clergymen were commissioned to reason

with her; but we all know the force of first impressions in theology. This young lady was argued with by the divines, and threatened by her guardian, in vain. her splendid expectations for what appeared to her the path of duty.

She persisted in resigning

Her father, on being made acquainted with her changed faith, informed her that she might choose between an hundred thousand pounds and his favour, or two thousand pounds and his renunciation, as she continued a churchwoman or commenced a quaker.

Miss Harry lamented her father's displeasure, but thanked him for the pecuniary alternative, assuring him that it included all her wishes as to fortune.

Soon after she left her guardian's house, and boarded in that of Mrs Knowles; to her she often observed, that Dr Johnson's displeasure, whom she had seen frequently at her guardian's, and who had always appeared fond of her, was amongst the greatest mortifications of her then situation. Once she came home in tears, and told her friend she had met Dr Johnson in the street, and had ventured to ask him how he did; but that he would not deign to answer her, and walked scornfully on. She added, you are to meet him soon at Mr Dilly's-plead for me."

Thus far as prefatory to those requested minutes, which I made at the time of the ensuing conversation. It commenced with Mrs Knowles saying," I am to ask thy indulgence, Doctor, towards a gentle female to whom thou usedst to be kind, and who is uneasy in the loss of that kindness. Jenny Harry weeps at the consciousness that thou wilt not speak to her."

"Madam, I hate the odious wench, and desire will not talk to me about her."

you

"Yet what is her crime, Doctor?"—" Apostacy, Madam; apostacy from the community in which she was educated."

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Surely the quitting one community for another cannot be a crime, if it is done from motives of conscience. Hadst thou been educated in the Romish church, I must suppose thou wouldst have abjured its errors, and that there would have been merit in the abjuration."

"Madam, if I had been educated in the Roman Catholic faith, I believe I should have questioned my right to quit the religion of my fathers; therefore, well may I hate the arrogance of a young wench, who sets herself up for a judge on theological points, and deserts the religion in whose bosom she was nurtured."

"She has not done so; the name and the faith of Christians are not denied to the sectaries."