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propitious than ever was feigned by poets of their goddess of Beauty and Love: what was airy fiction there, was here all transporting reality. With an inimitable grace she received me in to her etherial chariot, which was sparkling sapphire studded with gold; it rolled with a spontaneous motion along the heavenly plains, and stopped at the Morning Star, our destined habitation. But how shall I describe this fair, this fragrant, this enchanting land of Love! the delectable vales and flowery lawns, the myrtles shades and rosy bowers; the bright cascades and crystal rivulets rolling over orient pearls and sands of gold, which here spread their silent waves into broad transparent lakes, smooth as the face of Heaven, and there break with rapid force through arching rocks of diamond and purple amethyst; plants of immortal verdure creep up the sparkling cliffs, and adorn the prospect with unspeakable variety.

O, my Beville! could I lead you through the luxurious bowers and soft recesses where Pleasure keeps its eternal festivals, and revels with guiltless and unmolested freedom! whatever can raise desire, whatever can give delight, whatever can satisfy the soul in all the boundless capacities of joy, is found here! every wish is replenished with full draughts of vital pleasure, such as elevate angelic minds, and gratify the noblest faculties of immortal spirits. Oh, Beville! my Almeria is as much

superior to her former self here as I thought her superior to the rest of her sex upon earth.

ALTAMONT.

LETTER III.

To the Countess of ****, from her only fon, who died when he was two years old

YOUR grief is an allay to my happiness: the only sentiment my infant state was conscious of was a fondness for you, which was then pure instinct and natural sympathy, but is now gratitude and filial affection. As soon as my spirit was released from its uneasy confinement, I found myself an active and reasonable being; I was transported at the advantage and superior manner of my existence the first reflection I made was on my lovely benefactor, for I knew you in that relation in my infant state; but I was surprised to see you weeping over the little breathless form from which I thought myself so happily delivered, as if you had lamented. my escape. The fair proportion, the agility, the splendor, of the new vehicle that my spirit now informed was so blessed an exchange, that I wondered at your grief; for I was so little acquainted with the difference of material and immaterial bodies, that I thought myself as visible to your sight as you was to mine. I was exceedingly moved at

your tears, but was ignorant why, unless because your's was the most beautiful face, next my guardian angel's, I had ever seen; and that you resembled some of the gay forms that used to recreate my guiltless slumbers, and smile on me in gen tle dreams: I was then ignorant of your maternal relation to me, but remembered that you had been my refuge in all the little distresses of which I had but a faint notion. I left you unwillingly in the height of your calamity, to follow my radiant guide to a place of tranquillity and joy, where I met thousands of happy spirits of my own order, who informed me of the history of my native world, for whose inhabitants I have a peculiar benevolence, and cannot help interesting myself in their welfare but as I never discerned between good and evil, nor experienced the motives that governed the race of men, I am, I confess, astonished at their conduct, and find their joys and sorrows to be all strange and unaccountable. I have made visits to the lower world since my decease; the first that I made was from a tender concern to know if you was satisfied with the disposal of Heaven in my early fate; but I was surprised to find, after several months were past, your grief oppressed every thought, and clouded all the joys of your life, which made me very inquisitive into my own history. I asked the Celestial who was your attend

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sequence my life would have been to the public or my own family, fince those fair eyes were yet drowned in tears for one that had made such a short and insignificant appearance below? As for the public, the gentle minister told me, there was a hazard I might have proved a blessing or curse; but that I was the only hope of an illustrious family, and heir to a vast estate and distinguished title; and pointing to a coat of arms, told me that was the badge of my dignity; the noble seat we had in view, with the gardens, fields, the woods and parks that surrounded it, were all my entailed possession. A goodly possession! I replied, and proper for the four-footed animals that I behold feeding on the verdant pasture! but of what use these fields and woods had been to one that had an immortal spirit I cannot conceive; and for a title, what happiness could an airy syllable, an empty sound, bring with it? The coat of arms I took for such a toy, that if burlesque had not been beneath the dignity of an angel, I should have thought the mentioning it a ridicule on mortal men. I cannot conceive wherein the charm, the gratification, of these things consist: if I were possessed of the whole earthly globe, what use could I make of this gross element, the dregs of the creation! I have no dependance on water, or fire, or earth, or air; it is unintelligible to me that hills, and vallies, trees and rivers, the mines and ca

verns under their feet, any more than the clouds that fly over their heads, should be the wealth of reasonable creatures; they may keep their possessions unenvied by me; I am glad I did not live long enough to make so wrong a judgment, nor to acquire a relish for such low enjoyments. I am so little concerned for the loss of such an inheri tance, that if the Black Prince of the airy regions claimed my share, I would not dispute his title, though he is my aversion and your foe.

So superior, Madam, are my present circumstances to that of the greatest monarch under the sun, that all earthly grandeur is pageantry and farce compared to the real, the innate, dignity which I now possess. I am advanced to celestial glory, and triumph in the heights of immortal life and pleasure, whence pity falls on the kings of the earth.

If you could conceive my happiness, instead of the mournful solemnity with which you interred me, you would have celebrated my funeral rites with songs and festivals. Instead of the thoughtless thing you lately smiled on and carressed, I am now in the perfection of my being, in the elevation of reason. Instead of a little extent of land, and the propriety of so much space to breathe in, I tread the starry pavement, make the circuit of the skies, and breathe the air of paradise. I am

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