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had made upon the minds of the notary and his daughter, I could not refrain from viudicating the honourable absent man; but without mentioning his retreat. "You have been hearing," said I, "this unmerciful father-in-law speak of his son with the most cruel contempt. Well, every thing he has said about him is true; and it is not less true, that this unfortunate man is innocence and probity itself.” This exordium seemed very strange to them, it rivetted their attention, and the father and daughter remaining silent, I related what you have heard.

NERVIN is one of those uncommon characters, that are difficult to be comprehended. Never was there a cooler head or a warmer heart. It was a volcano beneath a heap of snow. His daughter, on the contrary, was a girl of a tender and placid disposition, equally partaking of the ardour of her father's soul, and of the sedateness of reason.

"This estimable girl paid as much attention to my words as her father, and at each trait that marked the integrity of SALVARY, his strong sensibility, his firmness under misfortune, I perceived them look at each other, and thrill with that sweet delight which virtue ever excites in the breasts of all her votaries. But the father became imperceptibly more thoughtful, and the daughter more affected.

When I came to these words in which OLIVER had addressed me: "Ah! Sir, how sweet and consolatory is the idea that the esteem of my fellow citizens will be restored to grace my old age, and crown my grey hairs."—I saw NERVIN lift up his head, his eyes all suffused with tears; "No, virtuous man," he exclaimed, in the effusion of his generosity, "you shall not wait the tedious decline of life, in order to be free and honoured as you deserve. "Sir," added he to me, 66 you are in the right, there is not a

nobler man in the world.

As to the common and strait forward

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forward duties of life, any one may fulfil them; but to preserve this resolution and probity, while hanging over the precipices of misfortune and shame, without once losing sight of them for a moment! this is rare indeed! this is what I call possessing a well tempered mind. He will commit no more follies. I will be answerable for it. He will be kind, but he will be prudent; he knows too well what weakness and imprudence have cost him, and with D'AMENE's good leave, that is the man I should like for a son-in-law. And you, daughter, what think you of it?" I Sir!" answered JUSTINA. "I confess that such would be the husband I should choose." "You shall have him," said her father: "Write to him to come to Paris; tell him that a good match awaits him here, and tell nothing more."

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I wrote; he answered, that situated as he was, he was condemned to celibacy and solitude; that he would involve neither a wife nor children in his misfortune; nor would he set foot in his own country, until there should be none before whom he should be ashamed to appear. This answer proved a farther incitement to the impatience of the notary. "Ask him," said he, "to give in a specific account of his debts; and inform him, that a person who interests himself. in his welfare will undertake the care of adjusting every thing."

SALVARY consented to intrust me with the state of his debts, but replied, that it was his intention to discharge them fully, and to the last livre; and all that he required was time. "Time, time," says the notary, "I have none to spare him. My daughter will grow old before he pays his debts. Leave this list of them with me. I know how to act for an honourable man. Every body shall be satisfied." Two days after he came to me. "All is settled," "Look here are his bills, with receipts to them.

said he.

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Send them to him, and give him the choice of being no longer in debt to any one by marrying my daughter, or of having me for his sole creditor, if he refuses to accept me for a father-in-law; for this does not bind him to any thing."

I leave you to imagine the surprise and gratitude of SALVARY at seeing all the traces of his ruin done away, as it were by the stroke of a pen; and with what eagerness he came to return thanks to his benefactor. He was, nevertheless, detained in Holland longer than he wished, and the impetuous NERVIN began to complain, that this man was tardy and very hard to be worked upon. At last he arrived at my house, not yet daring to persuadé himself but that this happiness was only a dream. I introduced him soon to his generous benefactor, with a mind impressed with two sentiments equally grateful, deeply sensible of the father's goodness, and every day still more captivated with the charms of the daughter; for finding in her all he had so much loved and so much regretted in ADRIENNE, his mind was, as it were, ravished with gratitude and love. He was no longer able, he said, to décide which was the more inestimable gift of heaven; a friend like NERVIN, or a wife like JUSTINA.

This is an instance of a species of species of courage that many unfortunate people are in want of, that of never forfeiting their own esteem, and that of never despairing so long as conscious of their own integrity.

REFLECTION.

No man should DESPAIR, because God can help him in every difficulty; and no man should PRESUME, because God can blast his fairest prospects in an instant.

G. G. 2

Natural Appearances in August.

Fair plenty now begins her golden reign;
The yellow fields thick wave with ripen'd grain.
Joyous the swains renew their sultry toils,

And bear in triumph home the harvest spoils. WHAT remained to be perfected by the powerful influence of the sun, is daily advancing to maturity. The farmer now sees the principal object of his culture, and the chief source of his riches, waiting only for the hand of the gatherer.

Every fair day is now of great importance; for, when the corn is once ripe, it is liable to continual damage while standing, either from the shedding of the seeds, from the depredations of birds, or from storms. The utmost diligence is therefore used by the careful husbandman to get it in, as soon as cut down, and labourers are hired from all quarters to hasten the work.

This pleasing harvest scene is beheld in its perfection only in the open-field countries, where the sight can take in at once an uninterrupted extent of land waving with corn, and a multitude of people engaged in the various parts of the labour. It is a prospect equally delightful to the eye and the heart, and which ought to inspire every sentiment of benevolence to our fellow-creatures, and gratitude to our Creator.

The rural festival of harvest home is an extremely natural one, and has been observed in almost all ages and all countries. The jovial harvest supper cheers the heart of the poor labourer, and prepares him to begin without murmuring the labours of another year.

This month is the season of another kind of harvest in some parts of England, which is the hop-picking. The hop is a climbing plant, sometimes growing wild in hedges,

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and is cultivated on account of its use in making malt fiquors. It is planted in regular rows, and poles are set for it to run upon. When the poles are covered to the top, nothing can make a more elegant appearance than one of these hop-gardens. At the time of gathering, the poles are taken up with the plants clinging to them; and the scaly flowering heads, which are the part used, are carefully picked off. Kent, Sussex, and Worcestershire, are the counties most famous for the growth of hops.

THE WISDOM OF GOD IN THE CONSTRUCTION AND VEGETATION OF CORN.

THE wisdom which appears in the construction and

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tation of corn, is very striking. The leaves, for example, which surround it, before it has attained its full growth, even those leaves have their use; and it seems as if the wisdom of the Creator had placed them round the blade for the same reason that an architect raises a scaffolding about a building, which when the building is finished he takes away. For as soon as the blade has attained its full length and consistency, the leaves which protected it dry up and fall off. Whole months pass away, before the ear of corn ventures to appear and expose itself to the air; but as soon as every thing is prepared for the formation of the blossoms and fruit, they all appear in a few days. With what skill also are the stalks and the ear of corn constructed! If the former were higher, the nutritive juice could not so well penetrate into them; if, on the contrary, the corn had been placed lower, the moisture would have made it spring up before it was reaped; birds and other animals would get at and destroy it. If the stem was weaker and smaller, the wind would break it; and if it was stronger and thicker,

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