PAUL AND VIRGINIA. 69 



tion ; I repeat it, information ; and though it 

 might be mingled with fome error, yet man, in a 

 ftate of purity, has no dangerous error to fe^r. 

 Thus did thefe two children of Nature advance in 

 life : hitherto, no care had wrinkled their fore- 

 heads, no intemperance had corrupted their blood, 

 no unhappy paffion had depraved their hearts ; 

 love, innocence, piety, were daily unfolding the 

 beauties of their foul, in graces ineffable, in their 

 features, in their attitudes, and in their motions. 

 In the morning of life, they had all the freflinefs 

 of it : like our firft parents, in the garden of JEdcn, 

 when, proceeding from the hands of their Creator, 

 they faw, approached, and converfed with each 

 other, at firft, like brother and fifter. Firginiat 

 gentle, modeft, and confident, like Eve; Paul 

 like Adam, with the ftature of a man, and all the 

 fimplicity of a child. 



He has a thoufand times told me, that fome- 

 times being alone with her, on his return from la- 

 bour, he had thus addrefled her : " When I am 

 " weary, the fight of thee revives me; when, from 

 " the mountain's height, I defcry thee at the bot- 

 *' tom of this valley, thou appeared like a rofe- 

 *' bud in the midft of our orchards ; when thou 

 *' walkeft toward the dweUing of our mothers, the 

 " partridge, which trips along to it's young ones, 

 " has a cheft lefs beautiful, and a gait lefs nimble^ 



F 3 *' than 



