PAUL AND VIRGINIA. IO9 



him the moft : at times, mournful recolledions 

 flriking his mind, he loft the power of utterance, 

 and tears guflied from his eyes. He thought he 

 could trace the dignity and the wifdom of Antiope, 

 together with the misfortunes and the tendernefs 

 of Eucbaris, in his beloved Virginia. On the other 

 hand, he was quite (hocked at reading our fafhion- 

 able romances, fo full of licentious maxims and 

 manners ; and when he underftood that thefe ro- 

 mances difplayed a real pi(5lure of European na- 

 tions, he feared, and not without reafon, that Fir- 

 gitiia might be there corrupted, and caft him from 

 her remembrance. 



\n. truth, near two years had elapfed, before 

 Madame de la Tour heard any intelligence of her 

 aunt, or of her daughter : (he had only been in- 

 formed, by the report of a ftranger, that the latter 

 had arrived, fafely, in France. At length, how- 

 ever, fhe received, by a vefTel on her way to India, 

 a pacquet, together with a letter, in Virginia s own 

 hand-writing; and, notwithftanding the circum- 

 fpeiftion of her amiable and gentle daughter, (he 

 apprehended her to be very unhappy. This letter 

 fo well depided her fituation, and her charafler, 

 that I have retained it in my memory, almoft word 

 for word : 



''My 



