I have also cast an eye over the gentry within ray knowledge: but have not met with one whom I could wish to be the husband of my Emily. So tender, so gentle, so ductile, as she is, a fierce, a rash, an indelicate, even a careless or indifferent man, would either harden her heart, or shorten her life: and as the latter would be much more easy to be effected than the former, what must she suffer before she could return indifference for disrespect; and reach the quiet end of it!

See what a man Sir Walter Watkyns is! My sister only could deal with such an one. A supe-riority in her so visible, he must fear her: yet a generosity so great, and a dignity so conspicuous, in her whole behaviour, as well as countenance, he must love her: every body’s respect to her, would oblige love and reverence from him. But my weak-hearted, diffident Emily, what would she do with such a man?

What would she do with a Sir Hargrave Pol-lexfen? What with such a man, as Mr, Greville, as Sir Hargrave describes him? I mention these men; for are there not many such?

I am not apt to run into grave declamations against the times; and yet, by what I have seen abroad, and now lately since my arrival, at home, and have heard from men of greater observation, and who have lived longer in the world, than I have, I cannot but think, that Englishmen are not what they were. A wretched effeminacy seems to prevail among them. Marriage itself is every day more and more out of fashion; and even virtuous women give not the institution so much of their countenance, as to discourage by their contempt the free livers. A good woman, as such, has there-fore but few chances for happiness in marriage. Yet shall 1 not endeavour, the more endeavour, to save and serve my Emily?

I have one encouragement, since my happy ac-quaintance with Miss Byron, to think that the age is not entirely lost to a sense of virtue and goodness. See we not how every-body reveres-Zierf Even a Sir Hargrave PoUexfen, a Greville, a Fenwick, men of free lives, adore her. And at the same time she meets with the love of all good men, and the respect of women, whether gay or serious. But 1 am afraid, that the first attraction with men, is her beauty. I am afraid, that few see in that admirable young lady what 1 see in her: a mind great and noble: a sin-cerity beyond that of women: a goodness unaf — fected, and which shews itself in action, and not merely in words, and outward appearance: a wit lively and inoffensive: and an understanding solid and useful: all which render her a fit companion, either in the social or contemplative hour: and yet she thinks herself not above the knowledge of those duties, the performance of which makes an essential of the female character.