PHINEAS FLET- disturbing thofe daily Lectures fhe read to her- "Limning true Sorrow in fad filent Heart. Light Grief floats on the Tongue; but heavy Smart The Laft of the Old Squires at Home-His Children-How he and his Lady taught them. "No Man can tell but he that loves his Children, how many delicious Accents make a Man's Heart dance in the pretty Conversation of those dear Pledges; their Childishness, their Stammering, their little Angers, their Innocence, their Imperfections, their Neceffities, are fo many little Emanations of Joy and Comfort to him that delights in their Perfons and fociety." MORE joyous Home and Home ftead than that of THE LAST OF THE OLD SQUIRES could hardly be found in merry England. His Means, which were ample, allowed him, when he chofe, to keep open House, and he chofe to do fo as a Lover of Hospitality, whenever it did not interfere with his own or his Family's Privacy and Retirement, and Seasons when it is good to be alone; and he often faid, in old TUSSER'S Words, "Let Lent, well kept, offend thee not." At the fame time he was Anything but a Pre JER. TAYLOR, The Marriage Ring." Vol. v. P. 269. Heber. FOSTER, Mahometanifm Unveiled, i. 358; ii. 105. cifian, and could not bear, as we have seen before, the Names of PURITAN, PRESBYTERIAN, or SHAVELING. They had been abused to bad Purposes, and he scarcely admitted them into his Vocabulary. His great Notion of a Faft even, (GOOD FRIDAY always excepted,) ended in fending Portions and Gifts to the Poor, and when the Old Vicar was inclined to speak fomewhat more closely on the Point, the good old Man always rounded off what he had to say with an ARABIAN PROVERB which he had picked up, he never knew where, but evidently to his Satisfaction. "How many feast, while they faft, How many fast, while they feast." These and many other like Traits in his Character fhowed THE LAST OF THE OLD SQUIRES to be a Man of Thought. Up with the Lark, and the first in the Field, not always measured in his Language, and always ready to explode when thwarted in his Squirearchy, he not only could, but did, look inward continually, and amongst the noble Folios, of County Hiftories especially, that graced his Library, he rarely turned to any on a wet Day with more Satisfaction than to that Portion of JEREMY TAYLOR'S Life of Chrift which speaks of ME P. 123. DITATION as "the Tongue of the Soul, and the Works, Vol. ii. Language of our Spirit; and our wandering Thoughts in Prayer are but Neglects of Meditation and receffions from that Duty; and according as we neglect Meditation, so are our Prayers imperfect; Meditation being the Soul of Prayer, and the Intention of our Spirit. But, in all other things, Meditation is the Inftrument and Conveyance; it habituates our Affections to Heaven, it hath permanent Content, it produces Conftancy of Purpose, defpifing of Things below, inflamed Defires of Virtue, Love of God, Self-denial, Humility of Understanding, and univerfal correction of our Life and Manners." Such were the inner Thoughts of the Man who could throw his Fly into the Fish's Mouth, was a dead Shot, and always in at the Death. THE LAST OF THE OLD SQUIRES at Home was certainly a most enviable Person! Next, let us look to him as the GOOD PA RENT. In his own younger Years, as before reported, he had had fome Difadvantages, which he endeavoured to repair, and without Pedantry or Of tentation became one of the best-informed Men in the Neighbourhood, if not the best. But, what had been a Difadvantage to him he took Prov. xxii. 6. good Care fhould not be such to his Children, and he therefore gave them the best and foundeft Education in his Power. And firft, or ever they were sent to School, they were well grounded in that HOLY FEAR which is the only Introduction to HAPPINESS here and hereafter. At their Mother's Knees they faid their Prayers, and by her Side they read their Bibles. Two plain Texts were indelibly impreffed upon her own Heart, and they were these, " Train up a Child in the Way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it ;" and " Bring them up in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord." Straightforward in her own Course of Duty, this excellent Lady ftrove to mould her Children to a like heavenly Pattern, making their Religion a Part and Parcel of their Lives. AS BEN JONSON fays in his beautiful Lines on PENSHURST, "They are, and have been taught Religion; thence Their gentler Spirits have fuck't Innocence. PIETY WITHOUT ASCETICISM, was the study of |