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guests, to their convenience, their sports, their amufements, which accommodates every one without the tax of feeing it bustled for. In the little circles at breakfast, where the plans of the day are laid, one never finds thofe faces of embarraffment, thofe whifpers of concealment, which may be obferved in fome houfes. Mamma is applied to in all arrangements, confulted in fchemes for excurfions, in the difficulty of interfering engagements, and is often preffed to be of parties, which fhe fometimes enlivens with her prefence.

Benevolus, in the fame manner, is frequently the companion of his fon's fports, and rides very keenly after an excellent pack of harriers, though they fay he has gone rather feldomer out this season than he ufed to do, having got fo good a deputy in me. He was difputing t'other day, with the clergyman of the parish, a very learned and a very worthy man, on the love of sport. "I allow, my good Sir, (faid "Benevolus,) that there are better ufes for "time; but, exclufive of exercise to the body, "there are fo many diffipations more hurtful "to the mind, (diffipations even of reading, "of thinking, and of feeling, which are never "reckoned on as fuch,) that if sport be harm"lefs, it is ufeful. I have another reason for "encouraging it in my fon. It will give him

an

"an additional tie to the country, which is to "be the chief scene of his future life, as a man

likes his wife the better that, befides more "important accomplishments, fhe can fing and "dance; and in both cafes, a man of a feeling

mind will connect with the mere amufement, "ideas of affection, and remembrances of tendernefs. Methinks I perceive an error in the "fyftem of education which fome country"gentlemen follow with their fons. They fend "them, when lads, to ftudy at foreign univer"fities, and to travel into foreign countries, "and then expect them, rather unreasonably, "to become country-gentlemen at their return. "My fon fhall travel to fee other countries, "but he fhall firft learn to love his own. "There is a polish, there are ornaments, I "know, which travel gives; but the bafis muft «be an attachment to home. My fon's ruffles .66 may be of lace, but his fhirt must be of more "durable ftuff."

In this purpose Benevolus has perfectly fucceeded with his fon, who is now eighteen, with much of the information of a man, but with all the unaffuming modesty of a boy. 'Tis his pleafure and his pride to acknowledge the claims which his native fcenes have upon him. He knows the name of every hamlet, and of its inhabitants; he vifits them when he can be of use, gives encouragement to their improvements, and diftri

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diftributes rewards to the industrious. In return, they feel the most perfect fealty and regard to him. The old men obferve how like he is to his father; and their wives trace the eyes and the lips of his mother.

The fame good fenfe in their management, and a similar attention to their happiness, is fhewn to every inferior member of Benevolus's household. His domestics revere and love him; yet regularity and attention are no where fo habitual. Attention to every gueft is one of the first leffons a fervant learns at this house, and an attention of that useful and benevolent fort which is exactly the reverse of what is practised at fome great houfes in the country, where a man is vaftly well attended, provided he has attendants of his own that make it needlefs; but a person of inferior rank may wait fome time before he can find a fervant whose province it is to take any care of him. At Benevolus's, it is every man's province to fhew a stranger kindnefs; and there is an afpect of welcome in every domestic one meets. Even the maftiff in the court is so gentle, so humanized by the children, and "bears his faculties fo meek," that the very beggar is not afraid of Trufty, though he bays

him.

In fuch quarters, and with such society, I do not count the weeks of my ftay, like your correfpondent Urbanus. The family talks of not vifiting

vifiting Edinburgh fooner than Christmas, and it is not improbable that I may stay with them till that time: fo if your coffeehouse-friend takes notes of arrivals this winter, he may poffibly mark me down in my feat in the coach deftined for N° 7. anfwering the questions of two cherub-faced boys, who are a fort of pupils of mine here in all the idle branches of their edu cation.

I am,

SIR,

Your most obedient fervant,

V

W. G.

N° 97. SATURDAY, December 9, 1786.

то

the feeling and the fufceptible there is fomething wonderfully pleasing in the contemplation of genius, of that fuper-eminent reach of mind by which fome men are diftinguished. In the view of highly superior talents, as in that of great and ftupendous natural objects, there is a fublimity which fills the foul with wonder and delight, which expands it, as it were, beyond its ufual bounds, and which, investing our nature with extraordinary powers and extraordinary honours, interefts our curiofity and flatters our pride.

This divinity of genius, however, which admiration is fond to worship, is beft arrayed in the darkness of diftant and remote periods, and is not eafily acknowledged in the present times, or in places with which we are perfectly acquainted. Exclufive of all the deductions which envy or jealousy may sometimes be supposed to make, there is a familiarity in the near approach of perfons around us, not very confiftent with the lofty ideas which we wish to form of him who has led captive our imagination in the triumphs

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