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because a contemporary, asserts that Hawkesworth -"resided at Bromley in Kent, where his wife kept a boarding school, which they relinquished in order to accommodate two women of fortune who came to reside with them."-The following extract from a letter addressed by Hawkesworth to the Rev. John Duncombe, of the date of Feb. 10th, 1758, is now before the writer.

"I would sooner have acknowledged the favour of your's of the 3d of Feb. which however did not reach ine here 'till the 8th, if it had not been for the loss of a most tender, faithful, and intimate friend, who has been domestic with us more than ten years. The loss of those who perfectly know, and yet perfectly love us, is irreparable, and such a loss we have now sustained. Those who do not perfectly love us, our infirmities may gradually alienate, as they are gradually discovered; those who do perfectly know us, it is odds but they have in some degree alienated already but such was the kindness of the friend we have lost, that she was in every respect another self; whose pleasures which became double by being shared between Mrs. Hawkesworth and myself, became treble to both by being shared also with her. Instead of this pleasure, I have now the

relations of domestic society.”—By favor of this elegant writer, we would presume rather that Hawkesworth's" then profession was " ostensibly" that of an author:-that it is not isual in Great Britain to have male "governors" of "female," or to speak more correctly and gallantly, of ladies' schools ;and that the composition of one of the most elegant collections of essays in any language, was a strange method for a governor of a school to make choice of, as the means of displaying his talents for qualifying " young females" for the "relations of Alomestic life." The whole account is absurd, and Hawkesacail's inducement for undertaking the Adventurer obvious,

soothing remembrance of having long sheltered the gentle and blameless life of a most amiable woman from the insults of those who are without virtue, and the neglect of those that are without feeling. I yesterday followed her to the grave, and those who can follow her beyond it will be happy !”—

If this lady were one of those alluded to by the writer of the Biographia Dramatica, Mrs. Hawkes.. worth must have resigned her school previously to the year 1748, and four years at least before the commencenient of the Adventurer.

By the favor of the same kind friend who furnished us with the above extract, three letters are now on our table written by Miss Highmore, afterwards better known as the wife of the Rev. J. Duncombe, to her father an 1 Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, during a residence in the family of Dr. Hawkesworth, in the summer of the year 1759, Nothing is said in any part of these of the existence of the school, and it is reasonable to infer from such silence that it did not then exist. The following extracts from these letters, display the private character of Dr. Hawkesworth and his lady, to great advantage. In the first, dated July 25th, Miss Highmore remarks to her father-" My friends are so kind as to express themselves obliged by your consenting without limits to my continuance among them, but I must set bounds to their indulgence, and resolve on leaving them after I have made a decent second visit here.-Miss H.

From private information of unquestionable anthority, we have been since assured that Mrs. Hawkesworth, after the death of her mother, kept a boarding house for ladies, rather than a boarding school for children, to the latter of which, although of a superior order, the Doctor always expressed a great dislike, and never interfered in the management of it.

and her brother, are now at home, and make a pleasing addition to our happy society. She is more than a favorite, she is a friend of Dr. H.'s; she, he says, has a soul, has sense and sensibility; which last is with him the charm of womanhood, and what he would name as such, and enforce by repetition, as heretofore action was declared the soul and spring of oratory. I have just passed a most agreeable afternoon with Miss H., and she expresses regret for having lost so much of the time I was here, as she had heard of my visit, and wishes to be a party in all the improving philosophical conversations she supposes fill up the hours

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pass with the master of this house. Sometimes, nay often, we do philosophise, and in a manner worthy the attention of the wise; at least so much I may say of my instructor, for it is probable I may appear in the dialogue but as a humble scholar, learning as Epictetus describes his hearers, though I have a very different tutor from that stoic. For he is always saying that 'It is the duty of man not to labour after a kind of negative happiness, by quenching his sensibility both of pleasure and pain, and affecting content under circumstances in which content is impossible ;—but to make that sensibility the means of enjoyment, by avoiding whatever can give it pain, and seeking and enjoying without fear, every delight not injurious to others, which the bounteous author of his being has given him faculties to taste.' I wish you would point out to me the subject of that Adventurer to which we made objections, I should be glad to talk of it, and enter into some explanations."

The second letter is addressed to Miss Elizabeth Carter, and bears the date of Aug. 12th,-this we shall transcribe nearly at full.

"Perhaps, dear Madam, you will wonder when I inform you that I have passed almost a month with your friend Dr. Hawkesworth. I came by his and his lady's invitation, as I thought for a few days, but they have been so kind, and I so happy, that I have gone on far beyond the bounds of a decent first visit; yet methinks we are like very old acquaintance already. Mrs. H. so charmingly easy, so constantly placid, and cheerful, and he a companion so agreeable, an instructor so capable, and a friend so estimable, how can I refuse their repeated requests to tarry with them, when I see openness and sincerity seem to direct all their conduct. I am among a little knot of friends I love, and I assure you Dr. H. is a very gay philosopher, and associates very much with neighbours, who are all desirous of his company, and not a little proud of it. I am afraid when I return home I shall lament the not having sufficiently improved my time, where such opportunities are afforded for enriching the mind; a regret I generally feel when I have taken a farewell of you. Yet I have the satisfaction of acknowledging that your friendship and instructions have never been lost upon me, for I am sensible of the fruit produced by the seed you have sown, and most grateful is my heart.

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"I suppose you are not much acquainted with Bromley though it is in your own beloved county. It has every charm that a rural spot can boast, which is neither adorned by sea nor river, for the river is so inconsiderable, that I am ashamed to own it for more than a ditch; however, pleasant walks and fine prospects abound, and while at Mrs. K.-'s I got on a large lake, which I easily fancied a river, and was rowed in a boat to a little island so pretty and decorated, that it

looks like an enchanted place, and there we found coffee, tea, &c. but it inspires all who land on it with too much mirth; it resembles not Circe's, nor yet Armida's, or Calypso's island, but if Euphrosyne ever possessed an isle, I would almost suppose it her's, or appertaining almost to Comus's rabble rout. You may guess we go in what is called jolly parties by what I have said. I have been much happier in a gentleman's garden hard by, where I was allowed to take the key and lock myself in with Plutarch, and there retire with his lawgivers and heroes; seated myself in a bower of flowering shrubs, every thing tranquil around me, and my mind almost given up to unmixed felicity. But of all the great men whose characters I read, how very few complete one's hopes, from their high qualities, of a uniform life of virtue; ambition, revenge, or oppression, sully almost every one :-and is it still the same with every human being? I fear not even the light of christianity, the want of which excuses in some measure former ages, has shielded many since from the influence of those and other enormous vices. How it humbles human nature in general, and yet consoles each individual, to see what weakness universally mixes with the brightest souls..

"I have read Caractacus, and it gave me pleasure, but still I was not quite satisfied with the performance, and could not help thinking something more might have been given from such a character, and something less of the Druids would have perhaps shewn a better judgment,-yet it has great merit in its sentiments, and some descriptive parts; and I will not, more than you, give up a piece that really afforded me entertainment, notwithstanding I have been also tempted by the art of ridicule, from

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