meanwhile, he had made too real an impression on the affections of his first friends, to let absence of

[pg 110]

sight produce absence of mind. with mr. and mrs. greville he was always in correspondence; though, of course, neither frequently nor punctually, now that his engagements were so numerous, his obligations to fulfil them so serious, and that his own fireside was so bewitchingly in harmony with his feelings, as to make every moment he passed away from it a sacrifice.

he expounds his new situation and new devoirs, in reply to a letter that had long been unanswered, of mr. greville’s, from the continent, with a sincerity so ingenuous that, though it is in rhyme, it is here inserted biographically.