marriage took his wife to England, to see his mother,
who was soon reconciled to him and her Irish daughter-in-law,
whose gentle manners and willing obedience overcame
her unreasonable dislike. Old Mrs. Stafford declared
to her son, when he was returning, that she had so
far got the better of what he called her prejudices,
that, if she could but travel to Ireland, without
crossing the sea, she verily believed she would go
and spend a year with him and the Grays at Rosanna.
[Footnote: Having heard, from good judges, that
the language used by Farmer Gray in this story
appears superior to his condition, we insert a letter
which we lately received from him; matter, manner,
and orthography his own.
“To R. L. EDGEWORTH, ESQ.
“HON. SIR,
“I have read your valuable present with care,
so has also the whole family; its design is excellent,
it breathes forth a spirit of virtue and industry
and in a word all the social virtues which constitute
human happiness—Its other characters are
admirably adapted to expose vice in all its hideous
forms, and gives us a view of those baneful principles
which terminate in certain misery and proves beyond
a doubt that many of mankind are the authors of their
own calamities and frequently involve others in the
same or similar unhappy circumstances—
“Thrice happy are they who in affluence endeavour
thus to amend the morals of mankind; it’s they
only who enjoy true felicity—their example
and their precepts have a powerful influence on all
around them, and never fail to excite a virtuous emulation,
except, among the utterly abandoned and profligate—
“On the contrary, families in elevated situations
of life who devote their time to dissipation and its
sensual allurements are the pest of society—the
vices and crimes of the great are frequently imitated
by the lower ranks—they all die, and no
memorial is left behind but that of folly and an ill-spent
life.
“May that life of virtue so strongly recommended
be long the shining ornament of you and your family,
and its end be rewarded with a crown of eternal happiness,
which is the joint wish of the family of—
“FARMER GRAY.”
“July 1st, 1804.”]
It is well known that the grand seignior amuses himself
by going at night, in disguise, through the streets
of Constantinople; as the caliph, Haroun Alraschid,
used formerly to do in Bagdad.
One moonlight night, accompanied by his grand vizier,
he traversed several of the principal streets of the
city, without seeing any thing remarkable. At
length, as they were passing a rope-maker’s,
the sultan recollected the Arabian story of Cogia-Hassan
Alhabal, the rope-maker, and his two friends, Saad
and Saadi, who differed so much in their opinion concerning
the influence of fortune over human affairs.
