PAUL AND VIRGINIA. lôl 



*' call life. It is in the fleep of death, that the 

 " difeafes, the griefs, the vexations, and the fears, 

 *' which inceflantly agitate unhappy mortals, re- 

 " pofe for ever. Examine ihofe men who appear 

 " the moft happy, and you will find that they have 

 *' purchafed their pretended enjoyments very 

 "dearly; public refpeclability, by domeftic di- 

 *' ftreffes ; fortune, by the lofs of health; the 

 *' rare pleafure of being beloved, by continual fa- 

 *' crifices; and, often, at the clofe of a life de- 

 '* voted to the interefts of another, they fee no- 

 " thing around them but falfe friends, and un- 

 *' grateful relations. But Virginia was happy to 

 '* the laft moment of her's. She was fo, whilft' 

 *^ among us, by thofe bleffings which Nature be- 

 " flows ; at a diftance from us, by thofe of vir- 

 "^tue: even in that dreadful moment when we 

 " faw her perifh, (lie was ftill happy ; for, whe- 

 " ther (lie caft her eyes on a colony, in which Ihe 

 " was going to caufe univerfal defolation, er upon 

 " you, who rufhed, with fuch intrepidity, to her 

 *' affiftance, fhe clearly perceived how dear fhe 

 " was to us all. She was prepared to meet the 

 '^ future, by refleding on the innocence of her 

 " paft life, and (lie then received the reward, 

 " which Heaven referves for virtue, a courage fu- 

 " perior to danger. She encountered death with 

 " a ferene countenance. 



N 3 " My 



