"No," faid de Clerville, "I will wait for him; your company will prevent my thinking the time tedious." Angelica, with the moft enchanting grace, thanked him for his politeness. The marquis afked her, if her stay at her father's would be long; fhe answered, fhe intended, in a few days, to return to the convent? "What! fo fuddenly!" replied de Clerville" Do you voluntarily intend to fhut yourself up in a cloifter. Should not you like better to ftay in the world?" "If that were my choice," faid fhe, "my father's fondness for me would not let him oppofe my inclinations; but I have been brought up from my infancy in this convent. The nuns daily give me fresh proofs of their love, my long acquaintance with the place; and the tranquility I enjoy in that favourite retreat, fufficiently atone for the lofs of other amufements." "This is very prudent in you," faid the marquis, but fpeak freely; does your choice of a fequettered life proceed from your natural inclination or from fome other motive which determines your reafon." If you found yourself in a better fituation, would you fill preferve the fame fentiments" "I cannot anfwer that queftion," replied the; but I will own, the defire I have for retirement flows merely from comparison: I prefer it to the life I lead here; but if I had the leaft hopes of living in a different manner, perhaps the balance would not preponderate towards a cloyfter."" It would" returned the marquis, "be a lofs to fociety, if fo amiable a girl as yourfelf thould facrifice the remainder of her days to obfcurity.-Beautiful Angelica," continued he, " you feem not to un-. derftand me; and yet methinks you muft, for fome time patt, have read in my eyes the fentiments of my toul. I adore you. Fortune has put it in my power to repair the injuftice he has done to you and it was not : 'till this moment I felt the full value of her gifts. -Can you refufe to do fomething for that love which car do every thing for you?" In faying thefe words the marquis would have embraced her, but the retired from him with an air of disdain. "I am very unhappy," faid fhe; "that my poverty expofes me to offers of this nature. It is not acting the part of a man of honour, thus to take advantage of the meannefs of my condition, which I never felt with fuch poignant anguish before, to abufe and infult me." While fhe spoke, her eyes were filled with tears; and de Clerville, believing her virtue alarmed only by an attack fhe had never before experienced, would foon be overcome in the arms of an ardent lover, again declared he adored her; and hoping lefs from perfuafion by his words than from actions, would have carried the affair to still greater lengths. "We defend ourfelves as well as we are able from an affaffin," faid Angelica, feizing a knife which lay on a table," and I look on that man as fuch who would rob me of my honour."-At this the marquis retreated. Approach me not," faid fhe, "left I make you fenfible of the injuftice you have done me, by thinking me capable of fuch infamy." Aftonished at a refiftance he little expected, de Clerville changed the attack in an inftant. "If it is a crime" faid he " to love you; if my paffion is thus offenfive, do not delay your revenge. I feel I must always be culpable; for I can never ceafe to love you." "Your friendship does me honour," replied Angelica," and I will endeavour to merit your esteem: my heart is noble, though my extraction is otherwife: deficiency of fortune is not incompatible with honour; nor thould it have exposed me to your contempt. The On the Love of our native Country. The aftonishment of the marquis encreased at every word; efteem, refpect, and love, took place of thofe fentiments which at firft actuated his heart. "You judge very wrong," faid he, "of my manner of thinking: the most violent love occafioned my crime; for I look on myself as criminal, fince I have offended you. I entertain the moft fincere efteem for you your heart is furely no stranger to fenfibility?" "It would perhaps have been weak enough to have felt too much for one who had lefs injured me," anfwered Angelica; "but you have rendered me infinite fervice, by difcovering your way of thinking."De Clerville could not anfwer her. He perceived Boiffart, at whofe approach he made an effort to conceal his agitation, and deferred talking of bufinefs till the next day. The firit fentiments with which Angelica had infpired the marquis, were not the most delicate, and they could be justly attributed to nothing more than that attraction we always experience, when in the company of 59 a beautiful woman. He fought for amufements to fill up his vacant hours; and thought he had found one which would enable him to pass his time in the country very agreeably. Naturally indolent, he was delighted with the thoughts of an intrigue,where money, in his opinion, would be the only thing neceffary to fuccefs, and confequently fave him a thousand little cares, and prevent that refiitance which the fex always make the prelude to those favours they intend to grant. But he was now convinced of his mistake, the esteem he conceived for Angelica had refined his fentiments, the heart now spoke. "What wit! what grandeur of foul! what virtue!" exclaimed he often to himself, "but he is not infenfible; and I may ftill hope to gain her over to my opinion. Her laft words convince me of this, and still more of her fincerity: you have rendered me infinite fervice in difcovering your manner of thinking;" "Was not this telling me her heart was wholly mine?" 66 [To be continued.] On the Love of our native Country. An Effay. ΤΗ has for his country, is not al ways the refult of reafon as duty: we are not to imagine, that every time we think on our native country, all our wishes regard the happiness of the government, the advantage of our fovereign, and the prefervation of our countrymen. This affection, which was fo much efteemed by the ancients, as to be remarked with ftatues, is very often no other than a phyfical or natural chain, which, as it were, binds us down, and fixes us to that fpot of ground on which we first fet our foot. It is the effect of education, of cuftom, and complex ion; a confequence of that prepoffeffion which our bodies receive from tranfplantation, which, like plants, cannot fuit themselves to every climate; and even often grow weaker, and lofe their good qualities in a foreign foil. "Tis certain that many people are troubled with what foreigners call, the disease of one's country, which confifts in the longing we fo often feel for returning to the place of our nativity. But the worft circumftance attending it is, the indifpofition of mind, which the fineft arguments cannot remove, and which triumphs over all the prefcriptions of the most able phyficians. We . We find in the most favage people, certain characteristics which form a natural love for their country, and by which this longing after it is difcovered. The ancients furnish us with inftructive inftances of the former; nor is modern history lefs fruitful of examples equally remarkable. If we caft our eyes on the Spanish conquefts of Mexico and Peru, we fhall there fee people facrificing their lives and fortunes for the love of their country, and fighting with all the intrepidity of a foldier who is brave but undifciplined, and who detefts the tyranny of thofe cruel conquerors. Why, therefore, fhould not we be as juft to the Americans, as to the Greeks, the Romans, the English, the French, the Swifs, the Dutch, and, in a word, to all thofe who have been immortalized by our hiftorians, for the glorious ftruggle they made in the fervice of liberty and their country. With regard to the other fpecies of love for one's country, which might, with more propriety, be called fickness or infirmity, no man of fenfe will ever pretend to call it a virtue. On the contrary, it is a dangerous indifpofition, which makes us cenfure unjustly the moft valuable things, prompts us to defpife the moft laudable qualities in foreigners, and is apt to raise the most unjuft prejudice in us against their fenfe and understanding. A man who is infected with this disease, is no longer a reafonable creature. He is difgufted and diffatisfied with every thing: the trees, the plants, the fruits of all other regions, are every way inferior to thofe of his native country. He tells us, that a foreign foil depraves and corrupts nature; that the elements contract quite different qualities, and fuch as are always noxious; that the air is infected with the most pernicious influences; that the manners of the inhabitants are odd and whimsical, and their customs extravagant and ridiculous. He will fcarce allow a foreigner the privilege of being a rational creature. Every thing that is not the growth of his own country, is clownifh, barbarous, and frightful. Nor is this disease confined to fingle perfons, whole nations, not excepting the most learned, have been affected with it. The ancient Greeks and Romans gave the epithet of barbarous to all but themfelves. The Chinese to this day think themselves' the only knowing people in the world. When the Spaniards firft began their conquefts in America, the Mexicans were prodigiously aftonished at the induftry and valour of these new-comers, and imagined that politenefs and knowledge were confined to Mexico only. The French and English boast their own merit, to the prejudice of that of foreigners, and contemn the manners and cuftoms of other nations. In a word, all nations prefer their own country to any other in the world; and however barren and unfruitful it may be, it is, in their eyes, inexpreffibly beautiful. Many a man is delighted with the croaking of frogs in his native fens; whofe ears, were he at fome diftance from his country, would be offended with the mufic of the nightingale. Another enjoys the utmost fatisfaction, tho' furrounded with wolves and bears, the tenants of his mountains, and is more delighted with the clowninefs of his peasants, than with the polite behaviour of the inhabitants of the capital. One would imagine that fuch people refemble thofe wild plants, which will not thrive out of their muddy bogs or mountains. After all, if the favages of Greenland, notwithstanding the kind treatment and civility they met with at the The Cafe of Salt, with its feveral Combinations. the Danish court, could not forbear regretting the poverty of their na tive country; or be kept from attempting, tho' at the peril of their lives, to revifit their frozen regions; we are not to wonder that the wild American, unpolished by trade and converfation with foreigners, fhould prefer his barren fields to those of his neighbours, tho' ever fo fmiling and fruitful; that he should chufe to inhabit among wolves, and under everlafting fnares, rather than in the neighbourhood of vines and orangetrees; in a word, that he should fondly applaud himself at home for the gloominefs of his companion's converfation; and really prefer it to the sprightliness of genius, fo much prized by other nations. We naturally love to form to ourfelves the most advantageous ideas of our birth, our character, and our condition; we do our utmost to make foreigners fenfible of our pretended advantages, and endeavour, as far as the laws of decorum will permit, to 61 affume a fuperiority over them. Such perfons as have never feen any other country but their own, have generally this weakness. A young Frenchman, for instance, who has not yet feen the world, will tell you that France is the most potent kingdom in the univerfe; he fondly conceives that every knee muft bow to his monarch; and whenever he speaks of the advantages of his country, it is in the most pompous and emphatical terms. But let us lay afide this narrow way of thinking. Let us love our country, but not defpife the inhabitants and productions of another. fhould remember that all mankind are the workmanship of the fame almighty Being; he created, and he fupports them all. The distance of habitations makes no difference; we are all the children of one father, and confequently should confider all the human race as our brethren. D. N To the PROPRIETORS of the OXFORD MAGAZINE. GENTLEMEN, ATURE certainly is very fimple in her first principles, though every where very fruitful in their multiform variations: as a proof of which propofition, none can be plainer than the cafe of falt, with its feveral combinations. Originally then there is but one chief falt in the whole creation, of which all the reit are compounded. It is of an acid nature, diffused all over the air, thence fliding through the veins of the earth, infinuates itfelf into the pores of tones, which, after feveral years concoction, forms that falt there called foffile; whence it is, that from the mixture of acids with some alkali matter, a fubftance VOL. I. upon the land, and is the caufe of fertility to many places. Hence iron bars, the nearer the fea, the fooner and deeper do they ruft; and even walls and houses, palaces and castles, crumble and decay; for as it preferves fome bodies, others it destroys. Salt petre differs from thofe other falts I fpeak of, in that it contains more fpirit, or volatile parts, lefs fixed with terrene particles; fo that after fubftracting the more moveable atoms, what remains, as in fal prunel and fal polychreftum, is like fo much fal gem. If it be objected that fal nitre, or petre, is found in places where no acid liquor can be thought to come, we must tell them, that there is an acid in the air, which, though fingly by itself, is a very vague infenfible falt, is able enough to enter into ftones, metals, and earths; the truth of which is daily feen in earths that have loft their falts as far as could be drawn out by art, which, only by being expofed for a time to the open air, acquire new additions of falt, and thereby encreafe their weight confiderably. Hence we learn the reafon why wounds and ulcers fhould be expofed, whilft dreffing, as little to the air as poffible; because this volatile, keen acid, that element always abounds with, renders the extravafated animal juices ftill more corrofive and hurtful. Thus we can account for the exalted red colour of raw meat expofed to open air, from this univerfal acid comminuting the blood globules lodged in the fibres of the mufcles; for which reafon, alfo, the furface of blood, by phlebotomy, received into the porringer, foon becomes florid, though ever fo black at its exit, This fame cereal acid, this acidum wagum, blows up in our blood the vital flame,without which we could not live; and, by increafing the ftream of air on culinary fires, makes them burn the fiercer, by dividing the fulphureous particles of the red hot coals, and encreafing their rotatory motion. It caufes froft likewife, and many other phoenomena in nature, according to the various circumftances attending, too prolix here to enumerate. Whoever has a mind to fee what can be faid on nitre, may confult the late learned Dr. J. Mayow, who, in 1674, wrote a treatife, ex profeffo, on the subject. In fhort, this acidum univerfale, with different matrices, compofes eight feveral forts of falt in nature; while itself, when alone, is diffused in all parts of the earth and air, conftantly circulating through the globe. Now that acid liquor in the earth, which runs in fome places thereof, receives its acidity from this diffufed original acid fpirit, which condenses in fome places better than others, by reafon of the reit and coolness, and. fome other difpofing circumstances, It there meets with nitre, then is formed in ftones, and earth, by the faid acid fpirit floating in the air, in like manner as fal gem is in mines under the earth, by an acid liquor; this acidum vagum entering infenfibly into the body of ftones, produces a falt at firft much like fal gem; but afterwards fresh acid fpirits and fire, adding to, and mixing with it, makes nitre of a middle nature betwixt volatile and fixed. For this reafon, it is fo much fal petre is taken from old ruined buildings; for the tones there, having been long expofed to the air, receive a greater quantity of acid fpirits than any other ftones. It is likewife found in vaults and cellars, and other places, where the fun cafts no heat, because the fpirit of the air does in fuch fhades eafily condenfe, by reafon of the coolness, reft, and moisture, there to be met with. Thus |
