judge for yourself".....and as soon as the desert was removed he arose, asking me to follow him.

We passed a gallery...supported by a double colonnade of Egyptian marble, and superbly illuminated by gilt sconces ......At the extreme end was a small closet, containing....simply.....a wriing table.......a book-case.......a few chairs.......and a full-length Portrait, which at first escaped my notice.

He requested me to be seated..... And....considering the Painting with motion......addressed me........

"Your youth.....amiable stranger .....the singularity of our acquaintance.......your accomplishments..... and, more than,all, the irresistible "affection my heart owns towards you......will I hope justify my anxiety to know your Name and His

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❝tory.

"Consider me as a friend, to whom

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you may unbosom yourself......and who,......notwithstanding our short knowledge of each other..........is prompted by nobler motives than curiosity, for intreating this con"fidence."

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I was very much affected by the manner in which my noble-minded host delivered this friendly speech.... and immediately informed him of every circumstance that had befallen me, to the moment of our meeting.......reserving alone the secret of my love for Psyche, which all my natural ingenuousness could not prevail on me to disclose.

Stratonicus........my host.....listened eagerly to my tale.....and, when I had concluded, he sprang from his seat..... and folding me to his heart, exclaimed, My dearest Agathon, embrace "thy father!.....Behold,"....added he, turning me gently round........" the

resemblance of thy Mother!........ "The similarity of your features "to that beloved face, struck me the

first moment I saw you..........I was

pleased with the emotion....which I "now find to have been the voice of "Nature."

Nor language......nor metaphor,...... nor fancy....can find words....imagery .....or coloring.......to represent such a

moment.

Our happiness was mutual and perfect....When our transports had a little subsided.....

"Listen, my beloved son, said my "father, while I impart to you my "reasons for having apparently neg"lected so amiable a child.

"I became accidentally acquainted "with your Mother, before I was "master of my own will or actions.... "Your Grandfather was chief of one "of the most illustrious houses in

"Athens....your Mother, when I first

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saw her, was in the full bloom of youth.....beauty.....and virtue....and "lived under the guardianship of an " elderly female, who passed for her "parent.

"The recluse life they led.....the poverty which surrounded them.... " and the difficulty they found to supply the necessaries of life by

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hard labor.......shielded the young "Musarion from the treacherous ar"tifices of young men of fashion...... "who too frequently consider de"fenceless beauty, the lawful prey "of unfeeling affluence.

"A circumstance,.....however,...... which I shall pass in silence.................... introduced me to her hovel.

My good moral character disMy tinguished me from the generality "of Athenian youths..........but my sensibility was not proof against the

"charms of the sweet Musarion....I “loved............and my passion was pure....virtuous.......unpresuming.

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My rank........and the delicacy of my behavior to the innocent object "of my affections......justified these private visits, which...by degrees.... "her mother suffered me to repeat. "To see the object of our love

pining in want, harrows every ge"nerous sentiment of the soul........ "and yet the unfeeling world casts "so decided an odium on this species "of benevolence........that the deli"cate mind shudders to present the "relief it is agonized to withhold.

"The censorious will not be per"suaded, that a present can be offered "by a young man to a young woman, without unbecoming motives. "....Superior beauty ever attracts the envy of Malevolence.

"To obviate these difficulties, I