bus.' Avaricious! he is not fo,' replied the Dutchman; he is not folicitous for riches. Never, I am well affured, did he defire the wealth of another; he is only careful of his Own. But in the management of it he exhibits fuch an ingenious and refined frugality, that the Dutch themfelves are aftonished at it.' And yet there is nothing about him,' I obferved, that betrays a felfifh difpofition. He talked to me about your opulence, and the riches of Holland; but he talked of them without envy.' Oh! no; I told you he was not envious. He feems to want even that defire of acquifition which is the very foul of commerce. I have often propofed to him to venture the profits of his induftry in my fhips." No;" he would fay, "I have nothing to rifk. The little I poffefs, I cannot do without."-And when he has fometimes yielded to my perfuation, and expofed fmall fums to the dangers of the fea, I have feen him fo much agitated, till the fafe return of the veffel, that he has loft his nightly reft. This is exactly the difpofition of the ant. Satisfied with what he can accumulate by labour, he never regrets his not acquiring more; and, preferving in his economy an air of eafy circumftances, and of dignity, he appears, in refraining fror every thing, to be in want of nothing. For inftance, you fee he is decently dreffed. Well, that blue coat, upon which was never feen a grain of duft, is the fame he has worn for fix years together, and is the only coat he poffeffes. He did me the favour to dine with me today; this is what he feldom does; and yet it is his own fault if he does not make my table his own; but he chooses rather to difpofe of that article of his expences in his own way, in order to reduce it to what is barely neceffary. And in every want of life, his frugality ftill finds out methods of faving. But what moft furprifes me is, the fecrecy with which he conceals, even from me, the ufe he makes of his money, I imagined, at firft, that he had fome miftrefs that faved him the trouble of hoarding it up; but the propriety of his conduct foon removed that fufpicion. I can now form no other conclufion, than that being impatient to return to his own country, he remits his little fortune thither as faft as he makes it, and conceals from me his intention of going and enjoying it there.' As nothing was more natural, or more likely, I was quite of the same opinion: but, before my departure, I became better acquainted with this uncommon and virtuous young man. 6 My dear countryman,' faid I, the day I was taking my leave of him, I am going back to Paris. Shall I be fo unfortunate as to be of no fervice to you there? I have given you the pleasure of obliging me as much and as often as you pleafed; do not refufe me an opportunity of returning the obligation. No, fir,' faid he, you shall have it; and, in exchange for the little fervices which you are pleafed to over rate, I will come this evening, and requeft one from you, which is of the moft material confequence to me. I must observe, that it is a fecret which I am going to communicate to you; but I can be under no apprehenfions on that account. Your name alone is a fufficient guarantee.' I promised to keep it faithfully; and, that very evening, he called upon me, with a casket full of gold in his hand. Here,' faid he, are five hundred louis d'ors, arifing from three years favings, and a paper figned by my hand that will indicate the ufe to which I wish them to be put. It was figned Oliver Salvary. How great was my furprise to find it was deftined for nothing but objects of luxury! A thoufand crowns to a jeweller; a thousand to a cabinet-maker; a hundred louis for millinery; as much for laces, and the reft to a perfumer. I furprise you,' faid he; Yet you do not fee all. I have already paid, thank heaven, three hundred louis for the like fooleries; and I have much much yet to pay before every thing will be discharged. Muft I tell it you, fir? Alas! I am a difgraced man in my own country, and I am labouring here to wipe away a ftain I have brought upon my name. In the mean while, I may die; and die infolvent. I wish to make you a witnefs of my good intentions, and the efforts I am making to repair my misfortunes and my shame. What I am going to relate to you may be confidered as my teftament, which I request you to receive, that, in cafe of my death, you may take the neceffary pains to restore my character.' 'You will live long enough,' faid I; you will have time to efface the remembrance of the misfortunes of your youth. But, if, in order to make you eafy, you want nothing but a faithful witness of your fentiments and conduct, I am better informed on that fubject than you imagine, and you may with all confidence lay open your heart to me.' A reputable family, an unfullied reputation, the esteem of the public, tranfmitted from my ancestors to their children; my youth; fome fuccefs in which I had been much favoured by circumftances; all feemed to promife that I fhould make a rapid fortune by my profeffion. This was the very rock on which I split. Monf. d'Amene, a man of fortune, and who confidered my profpects as infallible, ventured to build his daughter's happiness upon thefe delufive hopes. He offered me her hand; and as foon as we were acquainted, we formed a mutual attachment.-She is no more! Were fhe ftill living and I were again to choose a wife, she alone fhould be the object of my choice. Yes, my dearest Adrienne, I would choose thee from among a thousand. Others might have more beauty: but who can ever equal thy worth, thy tendernefs, thy charming temper, thy good fenfe and thy amiable candour?' " Im • In this address, his eyes, raised to heaven, as if looking for her spirit, were fuffufed with tears. pute not," he continued, "impute not to her any thing that I have done. The innocent cause of my misfortune, fhe never even suspected it. And in the midft of the illufions with which fhe was furrounded, fhe was far from perceiving the abyfs to which I was leading her, over a path ftrewed with flowers. Enamoured of her before I married her, more enamoured after poffeffion, I thought I could never do enough to make her happy; and compared to my ardent love for her, her timid tenderness, and her fenfibility, which were tempered by modefty, had an appearance of coldness. To make myself beloved as much as I loved her-Shall I declare it ?—I wanted to intoxicate her with happinefs. Good heavens! what paffion ought not a man to indulge with diftruft, if it be dangerous, to devote himself too much to the defire of pleaíing his wife. 'An elegant house, expensive furniture, whatever fashion and taste could procure in the article of drefs, to flatter in young minds the propenfities of felf-love, by affording new fplendour or new attractions to beauty; all this anticipated my wife's defires, and poured in upon her, as it were, fpontaneously. A felect fociety, formed by her own inclination, thewed her the moft flattering attentions, and nothing that could render home agreeable was ever wanting. My wife was too young to confider it neceffary to regulate and reduce my expences. Ah! had the known known how much I rifked to please her, with what refolution would fhe not have oppofed it? But as fhe brought me a handfome fortune, it was natural for her to conclude, that I was alfo in affluent circumftances. She imagined, at least, that my fituation in life allowed me to put my establishment upon a genteel footing. She perceived nothing in it that was unfuitable to my profeffion; and, on confulting her female friends, all this was highly proper, all this was no more than decent. Alas! I faid fo too, and Adrienne alone, in her modeft and fweetly ingenuous manner, afked me if I conceived it neceffary to incur fuch expences to render myself amiable in her eyes. "I cannot be infenfible," faid the," to the pains you take to render me happy; but I fhould be fo without all that. You love me, and that is enough to excite the envy of thefe young women. What fatisfaction can you find in increafing it, by wifhing me to eclipse them? Leave them their advantages, which I fhall not envy. Let the frivolity of tafte: let whim and vain fuperfluity be their delight. Love and happineis fhall be mine." Her delicacy, though it gave her new charms, did not alter my conduct; and 1 answered, that it was on my own account that I complied with cuftom; that what appeared as luxury to her, was nothing but a little more elegance than ordinary; that good tafte was never expenfive, and that whatever I might do, I fhould never tranfgrefs the bounds of propriety. I deceived her. I deceived myfelf; or, rather, I banifhed all reflection. I was fenfible that I was living beyond my prefent income; but in a fhort time the emoluments of my profeffion would make good the deficiency; and, in the mean while, every one approved of my affectionate care to make my wife happy. Could I do 1:fs for her? Could I even do enough? This was the public voice. At leaft it was the language of our friends, My father-in-law looked with concern upon thefe anticipated expences, upon this emulation of luxury," which ruins, faid he, the greateft fortunes. He expreffed his difapprobation of it with fome degree of feverity. I calmly anfwered, that this emulation fhould never lead me into any indifcretion, and he might fafely depend upon my prudence. I have fince learnt what an impreffion this manner of refpectfully evading his advice, made upon his mind, and what bitter refentment it produced. The moment of my becoming a father drew nigh; but this moment, which promised to be the happiest I had ever experienced, proved to be the most fatal. It deprived me both of the mother and the child. This ftroke plunged me into an abyss of forrow. I will not tell you how heart-breaking it was. None but those who experience fuch forrows can imagine what they are. I was ftill in the height of my affliction, when my wife's father fent his notary with the information, accompanied with a few words of flight condolence, that the writings were drawn up to transfer back into his hands the fortune* I had received from him. Indignant at this indecent precipitation, I answered, that I was quite prepared; and the next day the fortune was returned. But the jewels that I had given his daughter, and the other articles of value for her own particular ufe, became alfo his property. He had a legal right to them. I reprefented the inhumanity of requiring me, after eighteen months marriage, to fubmit to fo fevere a law; but he infifted upon his right with all the impatience of a greedy claimant. I fubmitted; and this fevere exaction made fome noise in the world. Then did the envy my happinefs had excited, haften to punish me for my fhort-lived felicity, and, under the difguife of pity, took great *By the laws of France on the death of the mother and iffue, her fortune reverts back to her family. care care to divulge my ruin, which it feemed to deplore. My friends were lefs zealous to ferve, than were my enemies to injure me. They agreed that I had been too much in hafte to live away. They were very right, but they were fo too late. It was at my entertainments that they fhould have made fuch obfervations. But you, fir, who know the world, know, with what indulgence fpendthrifts are treated until the period of their ruin. Mine was now made public, and my creditors, being alarmed, came in crowds to my houfe. I was determined not to deceive them, and, making them acquainted with my fituation, I offered them all that I had left, and only required them to give me time to discharge the reft. Some were accommodating; but others, alleging the wealthy circumftances of my father-in-law, obferved, that he was the perfon who ought to have given me indulgence, and that in feizing the fpoils of his daughter, it was their property he had plundered. In a word, I was reduced to the neceffity of efcaping from their purfuits by fuicide, or of being hut up in a prifon. This night, fir, which I paffed in the agonies of fhame and despair, with death on one hand, and ruin on the other, ought to ferve as an eternal leffon and example. An honeft and inoffenfive man, whofe only crime was his dependence upon flight hopes; this man, hitherto esteemed and honoured, in an eafy and fure way to fortune, all on a fudden branded with infamy, condemned either to ceafe to live, or to live in difgrace, in exile, or in prifon; difcountenanced by his father-in-law, abandoned by his friends, no longer daring to appear abroad, and defirous of finding fome folitary and inacceffible retreat that could conceal him from purfuit. It was in the midst of these horrible reflections, that I paffed the longest of nights. Ah! the remembrance of it ftill makes me fhudder! and neither my head nor my heart have yet recovered the fhock I felt at this dread ful reverfe of fortune. At la, this long conflict having overcome my fpirits, my exhausted strength funk into a calm ftill more dreadful. I confidered the depth of the abyss into which I had fallen; and I began to conceive the cool refolution of putting an end to my existence. Let me weigh,' faid I, my laft determination. If I fubmit to be dragged to prison, I must perish there difgraced, without refource and without hope. It is doubtless a thousand times better to get rid of an infupportable life, and to throw myself upon the mercy of God, who will perhaps pardon me for not being able to furvive misfortune combined with difhonour. My piftols were cocked, they lay on the table, and as I fixed my eyes upon them, nothing appeared to me at this moment more eafy than to put an end to every thing. But, ah! how many villains have done the fame! How many worthlefs minds have poffeffed the fame desperate courage! And what can wash away the blood in which I am going to imbrue my hands! Will my infamy be the lefs infcribed upon my tomb, if, indeed I am allowed a tomb? And will my name, ftigmatized by the laws, be buried with me? But what am I faying? Wretch that I am! I am thinking of the fhame, but who is to expiate the guilt? 1 want to fteal out of the world; but when I fhall cease to exift, who will make reftitution to thofe I have injured? Who will ask forgiveness for a young madman, the fquanderer of wealth that was not his own? Ah, let me die, if I can no longer hope to regain that efleem which I have loft! But is it not poffible, at my age, with labour and time, to repair the errors of my youth, and to obtain pardon for my misfortune? Then reflecting upon the refources that were left me, if I had the fortitude to contend with my ill fate, I fancied I faw at a diftance my honour emerging from behind the cloud that had obfcured it. I fancied I faw a plank placed at my feet feet to fave me from fhipwreck, and that I beheld a friendly port at hand ready to receive me. I retired into Holland; but before I fet off, I wrote to my creditors, informed them that having given up all I had left in the world, I was ftill going to devote my whole life to labour for their benefit; and entreated them to have patience. I landed at Amfterdam. On my arrival, my firft care was to enquire who, among the wealthy merchants of that city, was the man of the greatest character for honour and probity; and all agreeing in naming Odelman, I repaired to him. Sir,' faid I, a stranger perfecuted by misfortune flies to you for refuge, and to ask you whether he muft fink under its weight, or whether by dint of refolution and labour, he may be able to overcome it? I have no one to patronize or be anfwerable for me. I hope in time, however, to be my own fecurity; and in the mean while, I entreat you to employ a man, that has been educated with care, is not deflitute of knowledge, and is of a willing difpofition. Odelman, after having liftened to, and furveyed me with attention, afked who had recommended him to me?"The public opinion," faid I. "On my arrival, I enquired for the wifeft and beft man among the citizens of Amfterdam, and you were unanimously named." 'He appeared much ftruck with a certain expreffion of fpiritedness and franknefs in my language and countenance, which misfortune imparts to refolute minds, and which nature feems to have made the dignity of the unfortunate. He was difcreet in his questions, and I was fincere, but referved in my anfwers. In a word, without betraying myself, I faid enough to remove his diftruft; and prepoffeffed with a fentiment of efteem in my favour, he confented to put me to a trial, but without any fixed engageHe foon perceived that there was not in his counting-houfe a man of more affiduity, nor more emulous of gaining information. 7 ment. Oliver,' faid he, (for that was the only name I had taken) you have kept your word. Go on, I fee you will fuit me; we are formed for each other. There is one quarter of your first year's falary. I hope, and I forefee, that it will go on in a progreffive increase.' Ah! fir, I, who had never in my life known the value of money, with what joy did I fee myself mafter of the hundred ducats he had prefented me with? With what care did I lay by the greater part of this fum? With what ardour did I devote myself to that industry of which it was the fruits! And with what impatience did I wait for the other three quarters of my lary that were to increase this treafure? fa One of the happiest days in my life was that on which I was able to remit to Paris the first hundred louis d'ors of my favings. When the receipt came back, I kiffed the a paper hundred times, and bedewed it with my tears. I laid it upon my heart, and felt it like a balm applied to my wounds. Three years together I procured the fame gratification. This gratification is now heightened; for my perquifites being augmented and joined to fome gains, which I have acquired by commerce, double the amount of my favings. If this remittance has been tardy, I beg, fir, you will notice, that the delay has been occafioned by the death of the only truly correfpondent I had at Paris, and henceforth, I hope, you will be fo good as to fupply his place. Alas! I may yet labour fifteen years before I can difcharge all, but I am only five and thirty. At fifty I fhall be free; the wound in my heart will be healed. A multitude of voices will proclaim my integrity; and I fhall be able to return to my country with an unblushing countenance. Ah! fir, how fweet and confclatory is the idea, that the efteem of my fellow citizens will be reftored to grace my old age, and to crown my grey hairs. He had hardly finished fpeaking," rejoined |