fection. I, added fhe, choose to have every kind of flower in my garden, as the fucceffion enables me to vary my daily profpect, and gives it the charm of variety; yet thefe tulips afford me lefs pleasure than most others I cultivate-and I will tell you why-they are only beautiful. Listen to my diftinctions ;-good features, and a fine complexion, I term bodily beauty. Like the ftreaks of the tulips they please the eye for a moment; but this uniformity foon tires, and the active mind flies off to fomething else. The foul of beauty, my dear children, confifts in the body gracefully exhibiting the emotions and variations of the informing `mind. If truth, humanity, and knowledge inhabit the breaft, the eyes will beam with a mild luftre, modesty will fuffufe the cheeks; and fmiles of innocent joy play over all the features. At first fight regularity and colour will attract, and have the advantage; because the hidden fprings are not directly fet in motion; but when internal goodnefs is reflected, every other kind of beauty, the fhadow of it, withers away before it as the fun obfcures a lamp. You are certainly handfome, Caroline; I mean, have good features; but you muft improve your mind to give them a pleafing expreffion, or they will only ferve to lead your understanding aftray. I have feen fome foolish people take great pains to decorate the outfide of their houses, to attract the notice of ftrangers, who gazed, and paffed on; while the infide, where they were to receive their friends, was dark and inconvenient. Apply this obfervation to mere perfonal attrac tions; they may, for a few years, charm the fuperficiał part of your acquaintance, whofe notions of beauty are not built on any principles. Such perfons might look at you, as they would glance their eye over thefe tulips, and feel for a moment, the fame pleasure that a view of the variegated rays of light would convey to an uninformed mind. The lower clafs of mankind, and children, are fond of finery; gaudy, dazzling appearances catch their attention; but the difcriminating judgment of a person of sense, requires, befides colour, order, proportion, grace and usefulness, to render the idea of beauty complete. Obferve that rofe, it has all the perfections I speak of; colour, grace, and sweetness-and even when the fine tints fade, the smell is grateful to those who have before contemplated its beauties. I have only one bed of tulips, though my garden is large, but, in every part of it, rofes catch your fight. You have feen Mrs. B. and think her a very fine woman; yet her complexion has only the clearness that temperance gives; and her features, strictly speaking, are not regular: Betty, the house-maid, has, in both these respects, much the fuperiority over her. But, though you cannot at once define in what her beauty confifts, your eye follows her whenever she moves; and every perfon of tafte liftens for the modulated founds which proceed out of her mouth, to be improved and pleased. It is conscious worth, truth, that gives dignity to her walk, and fimple elegance to her converfation, She has, indeed, a most excellent understanding, and and a feeling heart; fagacity and tenderness, the refult of both, are happily blended in her countenance; and taste is the polish, which makes them appear to the best advantage, She is really beautiful; and you fee her varied excellencies again and again, with increasing pleasure. They are not obtruded on you, for knowledge has taught her true humility: fhe is not like the flaunting tulip, that forces itself forward into notice; but resembles the modeft rofe, you fee yonder, retiring under its elegant foliage. I have mentioned flowers-the fame order is obferved in the higher departments of nature. Think of the birds; those that fing best, have not the finest plumage; indeed just the contrary; God divides His gifts, and amongst the feathered race the nightingale (fweeteft of warblers, who pours forth her varied strain when fober eve comes on) you would seek in vain in the morning, if you expected that beautiful feathers should point out the fongstress: many who inceffantly chatter, and are only tolerable in the general concert, would furpass her, and attract your attention. I knew, fome time before you were born, a very fine, a very handsome girl; I faw fhe had abilities, and I faw with pain that the attended to the most obvious, but least valuable gift of heaven. Her ingenuity flept, while she tried to render her person more alluring. At last she caught the fmall-pox-her beauty vanished, and fhe was for a time miferable; but the natural vivacity of youth overcame her unpleasant feelings. In confequence of the diforder, her eyes became fo weak that the fhe was obliged to fit in a dark room; to beguile the tedious day she applied to mufic, and made a surprising proficiency. She even began to think, in her retirement, and when she recovered her fight grew fond of reading. Large companies did not now amufe her, fhe was no longer the object of admiration, or if she was taken notice of, it was to be pitied, to hear her former self praised, and to hear them lament the depredation that dreadful disease had made in a fine face. Not expecting or wishing to be observed, she lost her affected airs, and attended to the conversation, in which she was soon able to bear a part. In fhort, the defire of pleafing took a different turn, and as she improved her mind, she discovered that virtue, internal beauty, was valuable on its own account, and not like that of the perfon, which resembles a toy, that pleases the obferver, but does not make the poffeffor happy. She found, that in acquiring knowledge, her mind grew tranquil, and the noble defire of acting conformably to the will of God fucceeded, and drove out the immoderate vanity which before actuated her, when her equals were the objects the thought moft of, and whofe approbation fhe fought with fuch eagernefs. And what had the fought? To be ftared at and called handfome. Her beauty, the fight of it did not make others good, or comfort the afflicted; but after fhe had loft it, the was comfortable herself, and fet her friends the most ufeful example. The The money that formerly the appropriated to ornament her perfon, now clothed the naked; yet the really appeared better dreffed, as fhe had acquired the habit of employing her time to the beft advantage, and could make many things herself. Befides, the did not implicitly follow the reigning fashion, for she had learned to distinguish, and in the most trivial matters acted according to the dictates of good sense. The children made fome comments on this story, but the entrance of a vifitor interrupted the converfation, and they ran about the garden, comparing the roses and tulips. THE IMPROBABILITY OF A RAKE FROM RICHARDSON'S SIR CHARLES GRANDISON. The woman who chufes a take, does not confider, that all the sprightly airs for which the preferred him to a better man, either vanish in matrimony, or are fhewn to others, to her mortal difquiet. The agreeable will be carried abroad; the difagreeable will be brought home. If he reform, (but alas, bad habits are very, very difficult to shake off) he will probably, from the reflections on his paft guilty life, be an unfociable companion, fhould deep and true contrition have laid hold of him; if not, what has the chosen ? he |