I figh not for beauty, nor languish for wealth,
But grant me, kind Providence, virtue and health;
Then richer than kings, and as happy as they,
My days fhall pafs fweetly and fwiftly away.

When age shall steal on me, and youth is no more,
And the moralift, Time, fhakes his glafs at my door;
What charm in loft beauty or wealth shall I find?
My treasure, my wealth, is a sweet peace of mind.

That peace I'll preserve, then, as free as 'twas giv'n,
And tafte in my bofom, an earnest of heav'n;

For virtue and wisdom can warm the cold fcene,
And fixty may flourish as gay as fixteen.

When long I the burden of life shall have borne,
And death, with his fickle, fhall cut the ripe corn,
Refign'd to my fate, without murmur or figh,
I'll bless the kind fummons, and lie down and die.

FROM MISS MIDDLETON TO MISS PEMBERTON,

CIVING HER THE MELANCHOLY ACCOUNT OF
HER SISTER'S DEATH.

Dear Mifs Pemberton,

Just as I was fetting out for Worcestershire, in order to follow my fifter, who, you know, has been fome time there, I received a letter from my aunt, acquainting me that she was taken ill last Friday, and died in two days after.Yes, that lately fo much admired, that splendid beauty, is now reduced to a cold lump of clay;-for ever closed are thofe once sparkling eyes ;— hushed is that voice that gave so much delight ;-thofe limbs, which art has ranfack'd to adorn, have now no other covering than a fimple fhroud, and in a few days will be confined within the narrow compass of a tomb.Ah! what is life!-What all the gaudy pride of youth, or pomp, or grandeur! What the vain adoration of a flattering world!-Delufive pleasures,-fleeting nothings, how unworthy are you of the attention of a reafonable being! -You know the gay manner in which we have always lived, and will no doubt, be surprised to find expreffions of this kind fall from my pen ;-but, my dear Pemberton, hitherto my life has been a dream;

but

but I am now, thank heaven, awake:-My fifter's fate
has rouzed me from my lethargy of mind, made me
fee the ends for which I was created, and reflect that
there is no time to be loft for their accomplishment.-
Who can affure me, that in an hour, a moment, I may
not be as fhe is!—And if so, oh! how unfit, how un-
prepared to make my audit at the great tribunal!-In
what a strange stupidity have I paffed fourteen or fifteen
years; (for thofe of my childhood are not to be reckon-
ed.)-I always knew that death was the portion of mor-
tality, yet never took the leaft care to arm against the
terrors of it.-
-When ever I went a little journey, I
provided myself with all things neceffary, yet have I
got nothing ready for that long, laft voyage, I muftone
day take into another world:-What an infatuation to
be anxious for the minuteft requifites for eafe and pica-
fure, in a dwelling where I proposed to stay a few weeks
or months, perhaps, yet wholly regardless of what was
wanting for making my felicity in an eternal fituation.
Reafon, juft kindled, fhudders at the recollection of that
endlefs train of follies I have been guilty of:-Well
might the poor Berinthia feel all their force; vain, gay,
unthinking as myself, I tremble at the bare imagination
of thofe ideas, which her last moments muft infpire, for
I now faithfully believe with Mr. Waller, that,

Leaving the old, both worlds at once they view,
Who ftand upon the threshold of the new.

Whether it was the fuddennefs of her fate, or a letter the wrote to me not two hours before her death, I know

not, that has made this alteration in me; but of this I am certain, that I can never enough acknowledge the goodness of that Divine Power, without whose affistance it could not have been brought about.

I en

I fhall make no apology for this melancholy epiftle, because I am very fenfible that whatever concern you may feel for my fifter, it will be greatly alleviated, by finding I am become at last a reasonable creature. clofe you the letter fhe fent, to the end you may judge. with what kind of fentiments fhe left this world.Heaven has, I hope, accepted her contrition, and will enable me, as you will find she defires, to be more early in mine.

I am, dear Mifs,

Your most afflicted humble Servant,

PEMBERTON,

ENCLOSED IN THE FOREGOING.

MISS MIDDLETON'S LETTER TO HER SISTER,

WROTE A FEW HOURS BEFORE HER DEATH,

ADVISING HER NOT TO DEFER MAKING THE NECES SARY PREPARATIONS FOR FUTURITY.

My dear fifter,

BEFORE this can poffibly reach you, the unchanging hat will be paffed upon me, and Ishall be either happy er miferable for ever.None about me pretend to

fatter me with the hopes of feeing another morning.Short space to accomplish the mighty work of eternal falvation!- -Yet I cannot leave the world, without admonishing, without conjuring you to be more early in preparing for that dreadful hour, you are fure not to efcape, and know not how shortly may arrive: We have had the fame fort of education,-have lived in the fame manner, and though accounted very like, have refembled each other more in our follies than our faces. Oh! what a waste of time have we not both been guilty of! To dress well has been our study,-parade, equipage, and admiration our ambition,-pleasure our avocation, and the mode our God.-How often, alas! have I profaned, in idle chat, that facred name, by whose merits alone I have hopes to be forgiven? How often have I fat and heard his miracles and sufferings ridiculed by the falfe wits of the age, without feeling the leaft emotion at the blafpemy !-Nay, how often have I my. felf, because I heard others do fo, called in question that futurity I now go to prove, and am already convinced of!-One moment, methinks, I fee the blifsful feats of Paradife unveiled;-I hear ten thousand myriads of myriads of celestial forms tuning their golden harps to fongs of praife, to the unutterable name.-The next a fcene all black and gloomy, fpreads itself before me, whence iffues nought but fobs, and groans, and horrid fhricks.My fluctuating imagination varies the profpect, and involves me in a fad uncertainty of my eternal doom :-On one hand beckoning angels fmile upon me, while on the other, the furies ftand prepared to H 3 feize