( i8. ) 



But we found that a happy fcene will not 

 always make happy inhabitants. At the door 

 flood two, or three fqualid children with 

 eager, familhed countenances flaring through 

 matted mair. On entering the hovel, it was 

 fo dark, that we ,could at firfl fee nothing. 

 By degrees a fcene of mifery opened. We faw 

 other ragged children within ; and were loon 

 flruck with a female figure, groveling at full 

 length by the fide of a few embers, upon the 

 hearth. Her arms were naked to her Ihoul- 

 ders ; and her rags fcarcely covered her body. 

 On our fpeaking to her, fhe uttered in return 

 a mixture of obfcenity, and imprecations. We 

 had never {Qen fo deplorable a maniac. 



We had not obferved, when we entered, 

 what now flruck us, a man fitting in a cor- 

 ner of the hovel, with his arms folded, and 

 a look of dejedlion, as if lofl in defpair. We 

 afked him, Who> that wretched perfon was ? 

 She is my wife, fa id he, with a compofed 

 melancholy ; and the mother of thefe children. 

 He feemed to be a man of great fenlibility ; 

 and it flruck us, what dillrefs he muft feel, 

 every evening, after his labour, when, inflead 

 of finding a little domeflic comfort, he met 

 the mifery, and horror of fuch a houfe — the 



N 3 total 



