 different from the rest of mankind, and what millions are doomed to endure, I am conscious I might have been enabled to support; but our distresses are accumulated, and beyond measure severe: not merely have we been deprived of a parent tender and revered, but to this calamity, of itself almost sufficient to overpower human nature, is superadded the agonizing aggravation of knowing that his best days have been overclouded by secret and acute sufferings —sufferings which have corroded his mind, undermined his constitution, and to which he has at length yielded himself a prey; yes, my Sophia, that ever honoured parent, whom we reverenced with enthusiastic affection, was a victim to remorse, and died of that most painful of all distempers—that distemper which admits of no cure, and

bids defiance to human skill—a broken heart.
His death, ever to be lamented, has brought to light a fatal, fatal story; but I shall endeavour to enter upon it with what composure I can summon to my aid; and from the soothing relief of confidential communication, perhaps my sorrows may derive some alleviation.
After being seized with the fit which proved, in its consequences, so dreadful, a short interval of ease succeeded, which my sister and I, unused to scenes of this alarming nature, vainly regarded as the certain symptom of recovery; but my father, who felt himself inwardly gone, perceived with pain our delusive error. My dear girls, said he, in a voice, ah! how exhausted! you must endeavour to reconcile yourselves to the shock which awaits you: the will of heaven must not only be obeyed, in that we have neither choice nor merit, but it must be obeyed

with submission and without a murmur. The Almighty is about to deprive you, as you must at present imagine, of your only surviving parent; but know, another yet remains, who, I trust, will be prevailed with, after I am gone, to supply the place and fulfil the duties of a father.
To this solemn address, which seemed to annihilate my senses, I was unable to reply; but Fanny's feelings found vent in tears. She burst into an agony of grief—oh dearest papa, cried she, who upon earth can to us supply your place? when you leave us, we shall be alone in the world; no one cares for us, no one loves us, we have no friend but you.
For the sake of heaven compose yourselves, my dearest children, replied my father. I leave you neither unprotected nor unfriended; and severe as is the first early stroke to
