confirmation of the reality of my apprehensions about my dear Miss Talbot, that I cannot forbear writing you some account of myself. I am tolerably well, and my spirits, though low, are very composed. With the deepest feeling of my own unspeakable loss of one of the dearest and most invaluable blessings of my life, I am to the highest degree thankful to the Divine goodness for removing her from the multiplied and aggravated sufferings which, in a longer struggle with such a distemper, must probably have been unavoidable. The calm and peaceful sorrow of tenderness and affection, sweetly alleviated by the joyful assurance of her happiness, is a delightful sentiment compared with what I have endured for the last two or three months.

"Two or three days before her death, she was seized with a sudden hoarseness and cough, which seemed the effect of a cold, and for which bleeding relieved her; but there remained an oppression from phlegm which was extremely troublesome to her. On the 9th this symptom increased, and she appeared heavy and sleepy, which was attributed to an opiate the night before. I stayed with her till she went to bed, with an intention of going afterwards into her room, but was told that she was asleep. I went away about nine, and in less

than an hour after she waked; and after the struggle of scarcely a minute, it pleased God to remove her spotless soul from its mortal sufferings, to that heaven for which her whole life had been an uninterrupted preparation. Never surely was there a more perfect pattern of evangelical goodness, decorated by all the ornaments of a highly improved understanding, and recommended by a sweetness of temper, and an elegance and politeness of manners, of a peculiar and more engaging kind than in any other character I ever knew.

"I am just returned from seeing all that was mortal of my angelical friend deposited in the earth. I do not mean that I went in ceremony, which, had it been proper, would have been too strong a trial for my spirits, but privately with two other of her intimate friends. I felt it would be a comfort to me, on that most solemn occasion, to thank Almighty God for delivering her from her sufferings, and to implore his assistance to prepare me to follow her. Little, alas! infinitely too little, have I yet profited by the blessing of such an example. God grant that her memory, which I hope will ever survive in my heart, may produce a happier effect.

"Adieu, my dear friend, God bless you, and

conduct us. both to that happy assembly, where the spirits of the just shall dread no future separation! And may we both remember that awful truth, that we can hope to die the death of the righteous only by resembling their lives."*

Shortly after the death of Miss Talbot, her mother placed in Mrs. Carter's hands her daughter's manuscripts, leaving it to her judgment to select what might be thought proper for the public eye. The pieces which she chose reflect the highest credit upon Miss Talbot as the author, and upon Mrs. Carter as the selector. The first is entitled "Reflections on the Seven Days of the Week," a pamphlet which, from its ardent piety and good sense, the elegant simplicity of its language, and the benevolent spirit that animates every line, has been circulated very widely, and forms one of the numerous works distributed by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, It was given to the public in 1770; and in the December of the same year Mrs. Carter, writing to Mrs. Talbot, says, "I imagine by this time a good part of a third edition is sold off. What a comfort it is to think on the diffusive good which that dear angel has communicated to the world, of which she is now enjoying the reward! What

Pennington's Memoirs of the Life of Mrs. Elizabeth Carter, p. 277, 278.

a blessed change to herself from the suffering state of the last sad year!"*

To this valuable devotional manual Mrs. Carter added, in the year 1772, two volumes in duodecimo of "Essays on Various Subjects." These are written with Miss Talbot's uniform attention to the interests of virtue and religion; the style is spirited and easy, and both the subjects and the mode in which they are treated, are such as to possess a large share of attraction. They have consequently been popular, and have passed several times through the press. In 1795, the whole of what Mrs. Carter had selected appeared together in one volume, including the Reflections, twentysix Essays, five Dialogues, Occasional Thoughts, three Prose Pastorals, a Fairy Tale, three Imitations of Ossian, two Allegories, and a few Poems.

To complete the collection, however, two pieces are wanting; a "Letter to a New-born Child," and No. 30 of the Rambler," dated June 30th, 1750. This last is a well-supported Allegory recommending the proper observance of Sunday; the execution of which is so ingenious, as to induce a regret that Dr. Johnson was not favoured with more essays from the same pen.

* Pennington's Memoirs of Mrs. Carter, p. 281. 4to. edition.

SAMUEL RICHARDSON was born in the year 1689, the son of an ingenious and very respectable mechanic in Derbyshire. Of his family he has himself related the following particulars, in a letter to Mr. Stinstra, a Dutch Minister, and the translator of Clarissa. "My father was a very honest man, descended of a family of middling note, in the county of Surry; but which having for several generations a large number of children, the not large possessions were split and divided, so that he and his brothers were put to trades, and the sisters were married to tradesmen. My mother was also a good woman, of a family not ungenteel; but whose father and mother died in her infancy, within half-an-hour of each other, in the London pestilence of 1665.

"My Father's business was that of a joiner, then more distinct from that of a carpenter than now it is with us. He was a good draughtsman, and understood architecture. His skill and ingenuity, and an understanding superior to his business, with his remarkable integrity of heart and manners, made him personally beloved by several persons of rank, among whom were the Duke of Monmouth and the first Earl of Shaftsbury, both so noted in our English history. Their known favour for him having, on the Duke's attempt on the crown, subjected him to be looked