CHARACTERS. 



SS7 



try lad seldom carries on a love 

 adventure without an assisting con- 

 fidant. I possessed a curiosity, zeal, 

 and intrepid dexterity, that recom- 

 mended me as a proper second on 

 these occasions ; and I dare say I 

 felt as much pleasure in being in 

 the secret of half the loves of the 

 parish of Tarbolton, as ever did 

 statesman in knowing the intrigues 

 of half the courts of Europe. '1 he 

 very goose feather in my hand 

 seems to know instinctively the well- 

 known path of ray imagination, the 

 favourite theme of my song ; and, 

 is with difficulty restrained from 

 giving you a couple of paragraphs 

 on the love-adventures of my com- 

 peers, the humble inmates of the 

 farm-house and the cottage; but 

 the grave sons of science, ambition, 

 or avarice, baptize these things by 

 the name of follies. To the sons and 

 daughters of labour and poverty 

 they are matters of the most serious 

 nature ; to them the ardent hope, 

 the stolen interview, the tender 

 farewell, are the greatest and most 

 delicious parts of their enjoy- 

 ments. 



Another circumstance in ray life, 

 which made some alteration in my 

 mind and manners, was, that I 

 spent my nineteenth summer on a 

 smuggling coast, a good distance 

 from home, at a noted school, to 

 learn mensuration, surveying, dial- 

 ling, &c. in which I made a pretty 

 good progress. But I made a greater 

 progress in the knowledge of man- 

 kind. The contraband trade was 

 at that time very successful ; and it 

 sometimes happened to me to fall in 

 with those who carried it on. Scenes 

 of 6waggering,riot,and roaring dissi- 

 pation, were till this time new to 

 mc, but I was no enemy to social 

 life. Here, though I learnt to fill 



my glass, and to mix without fear 

 in a drunken squabble, yet I went 

 on with a high hand with my geo- 

 metry, till the sun entered Virgo, 

 a month which is always a carnival 

 in my bosom, when a charming 

 Jilette, who lived next door to the 

 school, overset my trigonometry, 

 and set me off at a tangent from the 

 sphere of my studies. I, however, 

 struggled on with my shies and co- 

 sines iov a few days more; but step- 

 ping into the garden one charming 

 noon to take the sun's altitude, 

 there I met my angel. 



Like Proserpine galhenng flowers, 

 Herself a fairer floiver. 



It was in vain to think of doing 

 any more good at school. The re- 

 maining week I stayed I did no- 

 thing but craze the faculties of my 

 soul about her, or steal out to meet 

 her ; and the two last nights of my 

 stay in the country, had sleep been 

 a mortal sin, the image of this 

 modest and innocent girl had kept 

 me guiltless. 



I returned home very considera- 

 bly improved. My reading was en- 

 larged with the very important ad- 

 dition of Thomson's and Shenstone's 

 works; I had seen human nature in 

 anew phasis; and I engaged seve- 

 ral of my school-fellows to keep up 

 a literary correspondence with me. 

 This inipi'oved me in composition. 

 I had met with a collection of let- 

 ters by the wits of queen Anne's 

 reign, and I pored over them most 

 devoutly. I kept copies of any of 

 my own letters that pleased me, and 

 a comparison between them and the 

 composition of most of my corres- 

 pondents, flattered my vanity. I 

 carried this whim so far, that though 

 I had not three farthings worth of 

 business in the world, yet almost 



