"The uncommon fufceptibility and "delicacy of her character would make "her feel painful alarms, while I fee "you only indulge a fine frenzy.' In "a conversation you lately had with "her, even fome of your guarded ex"preffions have caufed her the most "diftreffing agitation.”

Lady Monteith recollected that the was talking to a lover, and determined to endure a little puerility. She acknowledged, that it was natural for Arabella to feem depreffed immediately after the lofs of a friend who had acted the part of an adopted mother to her, and The promised to be very cautious in fu"But," continued fhe, " I must "own that the invifible agency of fe

ture.

parated fpirits is a very favourite theme "with me; and though, contrary to "the opinion of the Abyffinian fage, I "could affirm, that we never have any

" certain

"

86

"certain evidence that the dead are permitted to become objects of our fenfes, I have long rejoiced in the hope that our departed friends are "the agents employed by over-ruling "Providence to perform offices of care "and tenderness to their furviving con"nexions. This thought has most fre

quently occured to me, as I have "bent over my fleeping children, and I "have fancied glorified beings watched

our unconscious hours with fimilar

"attention. When I was once threat"ened with the lofs of my eldest darling, "I found fenfible confolation in the idea "of its becoming a guardian cherub to "fuftain the innocence of its fifters

through a dangerous world, and to " receive my parting fpirit at the hour "of my diffolution."

While the countefs fpoke, her radiant eyes were fuffufed with tears. Fitzof

borne,

lapfed into his old misfortune of want of leifure; and Fitzofborne would have found it more difficult to avoid than to felect opportunities for private converfation with Geraldine.

CHAP. XXVII.

In difcourfe more fweet

Others apart fat on a hill retir'd,

In thoughts more elevate, and reason'd high
Of Providence, fore-knowledge, will, and fate,
Fix'd fate, free will, fore-knowledge abfolute,
And found no end, in wandering mazes lost,
Of good and evil much they argued, then,
Of happiness and final mifery,

Paffion and apathy, glory and shame,
Vain wisdom all, and false philofophy.

MILTON.

READING was one of Lady Monteith's conftant amusements; and among her favourite writers the moral pages of Johnfon held a diftinguifhed pre-eminence. His inftructive romance of Raffelas occupied her one morning. She ftopped at the part which feemed to intimate the author's belief in the poffibility of spectral appearances. The idea ftrongly engroffed her imagination. She 1 6

rumi

ruminated on the arguments which might be adduced on either fide, and continued in a profound reverie when Fitzofborne entered the room.

After a pause, in which lady Monteith was trying to difengage her ideas from the train of reflection which they had pursued, Edward politely expreffed his fears that he had interrupted an agreeable study; and, with an intimation that he would immediately withdraw, inquired what fubject occupied her attention. She delivered to him the unclofed volume without any comment. He read the paffage to which her finger referred, and restored it with an obfervation, that the British cenfor was perfectly confiftent. Geraldine, miftaking this remark for approbation, replied, that he had ever thought him fo, and therefore ftrove to form her mind by the exalted ftandard his works prescribed. "I agree