it is added, is to go off in wedlock to the best bidder, the heaviest purse being the object in view. Eh bien ! What is that to me, or to any one else but the party concerned? But to return to our soirée: I was dressed in a robe à la vierge of white taffetas, richly trimmed with expensive lace, my hair all in simple ringlets, kept back by a costly comb, which, by the way, is not paid for yet; white satin shoes completed my artless appearance, for which I was idolized by a legion of lovers. Every one with some two or three orders dangling from their button-holes. Dear, delightful creatures! how well they do understand the art of flattery. I did not dance with one Englishman the whole of the night, for which I gained much praise from the Paris beaux. The fact is, that an Englishman in Paris is a mighty insipid being; he looks like a fish out of water, and a queer fish too. The French militaires eclipse them completely, and place them in darkness visible. I had a pretty scolding from Mamma the next morning for what she terms levity; but, on the other hand, I was les delices of the French for my sprightliness and amiability; and I was assured that I might be mistaken for a French elegante du premier ton; that is just what I aim at; and I trust that if ever I return to Scotland I shall not be recognizable. But far from me be the horrid thought of quitting dear France; I could pass my life in this admirable metropolis; and, between you and I, I should have no objection to becoming the partner for life of some young colonel, with the title of count or baron tacked to his name. How the Scotch lasses would envy me! A propos, I have had one offer, but of this hereafter. One thing my intended must

make up his mind to, if he takes me, namely, that he will not have a tame, tasteless, British matron for a wife, but one, whose manners and habits will be all French: one who will flirt when and where she pleases, and have her own will in every thing, à la mode de Paris. To be sure, women were born to reign, instead of being the complying, obeying, sermonizing, household stuff, without a will, and as gentle as a petit mouton, like most of the English married dames. No faith, I have learned another lesson here: I am otherwise schooled however, this I shall keep to myself; it will be time enough for my caro sposo to know this when I have him in Hymen's chain-there's high spirit for you! Do not believe a word against the French; they are the best flirts, the most agreeable admirers in the world, and some of them very good husbands; and as matrimony is but a lottery, why should not I get a prize as well as another Now I think I see you looking grave, and shaking your head, and thinking that your poor Flirtilla is on the road to ruin. Not a bit-this is all mere sportiveness, aimable folie, a thing not understood in the Land of Thistles. Here we know only the roses of life's parterre, but-true-yes, 'tis he-I see my swain, and the hour of the post's departure approaches also. How pale I look; last night's dissipation has spoiled my complexion. I must away to my dressing room, and keep the dear man waiting for at least a quarter of an hour, that is bon ton; besides, my ringlets must be adjusted, and dear, how pale I look! Shall I borrow a blush from the countess's book? No, that won't do for a Demoiselle; it will be time enough to practise that attraction when I become Madame;

my admirer will, doubtless, find me bien interressante as I am. What a pity it is that the fatigues of pleasure should disfigure the bloom of youth! But n'importe, I hear my admirer taking up my guitar, and playing a romance,-I must away; once more farewell-My dear girl, believe me, with all my lightheadedness, as you are pleased to call it, still

Your unalterable friend,

FLIRTILLA.

P.S. I send you the Almanac des Modes. We have here an almanack for every thing: one for the Muses, one for gluttons, &c. &c. &c. so that one runs after a new fashion, and another after a new dish or a new You will, perhaps, say that I am saucy enough

sauce. without.

"Comme vous le voulez, ma bonne amie."

Encore, adieu.

Impossibility of forming an obscure Conception of a primary Cause until it be perfectly discovered. Obscure Ideas have no existence.

WHEN I first reflected on the difficulty of explaining how the same sensation should be at once pleasant and painful, I consulted several works on the subject before I discovered that Hume devoted one of his Essays to the resolution of this curious phenomenon. Du Bos, Lord Kaimes, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Blair, Knight, Lessing, Schlegel, Fontenelle, and almost all the writers who have attempted to explain it, may be more

properrly considered critics than philosophers; or, if this distinction should appear obscure, as criticism and philosophy sometimes glide into each other, they were better qualified to distinguish between impressions, and to point out the "rainbow hues" which connect them together, than to trace these impressions, and their voluble, impalpable connectives to their original source. The common observer perceives effects and impressions in the gross, but cannot ascertain their momentum, or the precise point to which they do, and beyond which they cannot, extend. This is the business of the critic: his duty is to point out where propriety ends, and where absurdity begins; and, therefore, the true critic never outsteps the modesty of nature. But the philosopher, not satisfied with marking the proper boundaries that distinguish impressions, and their immediate causes from each other, seeks to trace each of them distinctly to its primary source.

As the resolution of the present problem belongs to philosophy, and not to criticism, I was not much surprised to find the writers whom I have now mentioned, in their attempts to trace the pleasures resulting from Tragic Representation to its original cause, not only contradicting each other, but contradicting those first truths or principles of reasoning, which are admitted by themselves, and by all mankind. He who contradicts first truths, however, will frequently be found to contradict himself, because he is continually admitting these truths where they serve to support his collateral or incidental arguments. That this has been the case with the writers who have treated on the present subject, will manifestly appear from the following pages.

In detecting their inconsistencies and self-contradictions, I observed, that they invariably arose from not sufficiently generalizing the cause of the pleasure of which they were in pursuit; for nothing can be more easily demonstrated, than that many proximate causes co-operate in producing the pleasing emotions resulting from Tragic Representations, which no stretch or torture of reasoning can refer to any one of the causes to which these writers trace the agreeable effect. As critics, they have certainly displayed great ingenuity, penetration, and good sense; but not one of them has viewed his object from a sufficiently elevated situation to grasp it entirely, and examine it in all its parts. From not having sufficiently generalized, therefore, the cause of Tragic Pleasure, all they have written eventually amounts to nothing. Some of them, it is true, travelled farther than others, and consequently advanced nearer to their object; but he who is within a few paces of the place of his destination, is, with regard to his object, in the same situation with him who is a thousand miles off, if he can proceed no farther. A man of seven feet high cannot, without leaping, seize, with all his efforts, a ball placed half an inch above his reach; whereas, if he were half an inch taller, he could lay his hand upon it with ease. However trifling, therefore, half an inch may appear, the want of it baffles all the efforts of this tall man to seize the ball it is as safe from his attempts as from those of a dwarf. It is so in science: the philosopher, in tracing effects to causes, and consequences to premises, should pursue his chain of reasoning until he discovers the original cause of which he is in pursuit ;