ordered her to her landlady's bed, and giving strict charge to her, left her, having paid a little in advance. My impatience would not let me remain long before I returned to fee the poor creature. When I entered the room, the nurse told me she was in a fweet fleep, and had been for fome hours. I ventured, however, to approach the bed; and undrawing the curtain gently, fat down by her; where I gazed on her fome time with tender fimpathy. The interval of my abfence, though fhort, had made a wonderful alteration: instead of a pale death-colour, fhe had now a blooming countenance, She lay with one arm under her head, and the other extended on the bed-cloaths; and in this posture, exhibited to my view a finer picture than ever was drawn by the hand of a Titian, or the pen of an Ovid. The peculiar ftyle of languishment her lovely face expreffed, was infinitely more touching than the moft confirmed health: Ev'ry beauty foften'd, ev'ry grace THOMSON. What must be my fenfations at fo bewitching a scene, may be gueffed by any one who has relieved beauty in diftrefs; but what were the feelings of my foul, none but those of an exalted mind can form any conception of. Yes, tender unfortunate,' faid I, 'I will protect thee, I will be thy friend, I will watch over thee as thy guardian angel; and, if poffible, thy future • days F 5 6 days shall be as happy, as thy former ones were mi'ferable,' Ah, no,' faid she, (in faint, but the there is no penitence fweetest accent I ever heard) ⚫ will ever atone for my fins: they have been too great ' for pardon; and, though committed in the courfe of a few days, ages of repentance will not blot them ⚫ out,' Here she stopped, and gave way to fome tears that had been gathering from the time I began to speak. After having comforted her, I gave her a little money for prefent ufe; and promifed her a place for her fu ture living. I then left her, pleased to the heart at having rescued a fellow-creature from the jaws of death. HUMANITY, A REMARKABLE INSTANCE OF IT. See how yond' Juftice rails upon yond' fimple Thief, * * Through tatter'd cloaths small vices do appear : Arm it in rags, a pigmy's ftraw doth pierce it. SHAKESPEARE. As I was walking, the other evening, through a street not far from the Haymarket, I obferved a concourse of people collected together; joy was vifible in every coun countenance, which tempted me, though not naturally of a curious difpofition, to enquire the caufe. I was foon informed, by one of the mob, that they had catched a thief, and were going to take him before a justice. Being naturally of a humane difpofition, I can never fee an object of this kind without concern; and when 1 returned home, I could not help making it a fubject of meditation. • The poor man,' faid I, has many ' enemies; if he commits a fault, let it be ever so finall, every body is in arms against him; though want, 'that hungry, meagre fiend, might have forced him to be guilty of the crime. How many a well-meaning ⚫ perfon have we feen, driven by the distress of poverty to take part of his neighbour's fubftance; for which ⚫he is dragged before an unfeeling judge, who may perhaps, have been guilty of a thousand much worse 'crimes, and by him fent to prifon, there to wait for his trial, on which he will probably be tranfported, 'for endeavouring to relieve the diftrefs of a poor family ftarving in want, by means which the judge that 'condemned him would have been guilty of, had he felt the like diftrefs? Who, that is not loft to all the ⚫ feelings of humanity, can bear to fee famine prey upon his family; to hear his children calling for bread, ❝ while their mother, fcarce capable of fupporting herfelf under her troubles, in vain attempts to ftop their little cries; in vain calls on her husband for relief; ⚫ and even implores the affiftance of death, to relieve her from the miferies that furround her?' It is eafy for a perfon, whose wants are supplied, inimagination to hear diftrefs, and ftill act according to the ftricteft rules of juftice; but when, instead of the imaginary evil, he feels the real one, he will find that there is a much greater difference between fpeculation and action than he imagined. Human nature, in whatever situation it is placed, is human nature ftill; nor can there be any person whofe virtue is fo ftrong as to prevent him, when almoft ftarving, from commmitting the crime (if it may in this cafe be called a crime) of endeavouring to relieve his diftreffes, by robbing of his neighbour. For the prefervation of fociety, it is, I allow, neceffary that crimes, even of the fmalleft kind, fhould be punished. All that I would wish is, that they may be punished with mercy; that those who are in office would take pains to distinguish between the artful, designing villain, and those unhappy persons who are, by the numerous diftreffes that attend poverty, neceffitated to commit thofe crimes. In an affair of this kind it certainly cannot be inconfiftent with justice to forgive and to affift. How many inftances do we meet with every day in this metropolis, of perfons who are forced to rob, in order to relieve thofe diftreffes, from which they have, in vain, attempted to extricate themfelves by labour, and the affiftance of the charitable? Among the many that are to be found, I fhall mention one, that I met with not long ago. I was accosted in Piccadilly by a poor man, who defired charity, affuring me he was the father of a family, who were then ready to die for want. The manner in which the man asked my charity had fomething fo very particular, that it could not fail of exciting my attention. My reflection on it was the caufe of my being for fome time filent; which he interpreted as a refufal, heaved a figh, and left me. I called him back; a faint smile overspread his countenance at the hopes of being relieved. He was a good-looking man; young, though emaciated: I defired to know in what part of the town he lived: he answered me in the most grateful manner; and, upon my expreffing a defire to see his family, conducted me to a cellar near the Seven Dials. The first object that attracted my attention, upon entering the cellar, was the poor woman lying on the ground, not even a wifp of straw to cover her: her countenance was pale, her eyes funk, the cloaths which she had on were not able to preferve her from the cold. Upon my entrance fhe attempted to rife, and at last, with fome difficulty, got half up; her weakness however overcame her, and fhe fell back to the ground. Three or four children, I could hardly tell which (for there was no light but what came from an oyster-woman's lamp) were lying in different parts of the room, in the fame miferable fituation, I do not remember I was ever so much affected before: I gave the man some money, and ordered him to go and get fome neceffaries for his family: he went, and foon returned with what I ordered. It was, however, with no fmall difficulty that he got his wife or children to eat: they feemed to be paft human affiftance. When he had given each part of what he had bought, in which I offered him what |