had swallowed up the greater part of my fortune.......still I had enough left on my landed estate at Parium to supply a moderate man's wants......... I felt no regret at the privation my folly occasioned, by the disposition of the bulk of my riches......I left Kerinthus, with a consciousness that my error sprang from the purest motives, and that I was right in disengaging myself from his artifices the moment I discovered the fraud......... But I had formed....during my bigotry to his sect and principles.......one attachment.........which my heart still claimed kindred with, and panted to repossess. I mean the good.....the benevolent, artless, family, whom I became acquainted with in the forest between Pitane and Pergamos. My ambition......nay, my hopes..... had suffered a dreadful shipwreck...... and to this solitary plank my almost expiring expectations clung...it seemed to offer safety to my agitated frame .......I therefore proposed returning to Parium.....converting all my property into cash....and then joining with this peaceful.....innocent family......to end my days in the earthly Paradise, where one heart......one soul......one inclination......would give a pure enjoyment to this life............afford me blissful expectations of the future;......and, in this blest seclusion, still attain the ultimate object of my desires. How this might have answered my expectations....Heaven only knows.... Destiny.......for this once.......opposed my inclinations........and diverted my pursuits into a different channel. A very unexpected meeting with an old acquaintance, whom I had not heard of for some years, occasioned this change. I was waiting at Licidas for a ship to take me across to Mitylene......and one day....as I was walking along the quay..........anxiously expecting some véssel to enter the port bound for my destination.......a Man......hanging on the arm of his friend.....accosted me. I was at first surprised.......but my astonishment was soon converted into pleasure, when I recognised my old friend Dionysius of Sinope, whom I had left at Iconium, when I set out on my mission for Syria. We were mutually delighted at this meeting.....and, introducing me to his friend......we all three retired to his house, where he most pressingly offered me all the rites of hospitality. I believe I have already said, that this amiable young man carried a key about him which admitted him....... without ceremony.....to the hearts of all who knew him.......We recovered our former familiar intimacy.......and soon had no secret between us. I should however tell you......that as soon as our agitation at the unlooked-for pleasure of seeing each other had subsided.........I began to peruse the friend of Dionysius, who was an inmate at his table, and appeared to possess his whole esteem. I was singularly prepossessed in his favor.......his figure was uncommonly elegant......his countenance noble and intelligent......and his manners those of a man of the world........But my esteem increased when Dionysius smilingly said......" In my friend Agathon ........Peregrine will find a mind as "enthusiastic as his own.......he has "been,....like him......the victim of "illusion......and fondled in the fleeting joys of imagination.....Though you are both dear to me......and I 66 66 tempers and characters to say thus ❝ much.......still I am ignorant of the "particulars of your romantic lives, "and should feel myself delighted in "the detail, if you entertain friendship enough for me to grant me "the indulgence." I readily assented......Agathon did the same. I told my story....and Dionysius, being a declared enemy to enthusiasm, heard me with incredulous wonder.... He seemed perfectly satisfied that Nature might make one woman a Mamilia Quintilla.....another a Theoclea ....and that Art might be able to form a Kerinthus....or an Hegesias ;.....but, how Nature or Art.....individually or combined.....could construct a Peregrine Proteus, he was altogether at a loss to conceive. He congratulated me, however, on the experience I had gained.....though |