My brother was always very fond of music, and played tolerably well upon the violin. In the August of that year, he went to an Oratorio at Halifax; and on his return, the horse fell with him, he was thrown, and received a contusion upon his breast. He was again become very corpulent; and neglecting for some days to send for any advice, a fever ensued, which terminated his life on the second of September, 1787. He had written to my mother that he was confined by a cold; but we knew nothing farther of his illness, until an express was received with an account of his death. She happened to be out when it arrived, and I dreaded on her return, to acquaint her with the afflicting intelligence; but she heard the recital with the utmost composure. "God,"

she said, "is all-sufficient, his will be done. Your brother has been unfortunate rather than sinful; perhaps prosperity would not have been good for him. I trust we shall meet again: let him be brought here to be buried, and when I die, let me be laid by him." She then proposed that I should go immediately to Brotherton, and should request Mr. Cappe to accompany me, which I accordingly did. The whole scene was very affecting, yet I will not say, that the event itself was considered by me in the light of an affliction. From my earliest years, my brother had ever been a subject of anxiety rather than of comfort; and I found that if he had lived much longer, he would have been again involved in the greatest pecuniary distress.-He had died without a will, and of course his remaining pro

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perty devolved to me. I enquired of the apothecary who had attended him, if he had expressed any wish, during his short illness, respecting the disposal of any part of it; and he told me that he desired his faithful servant might have £100; and that a young lady, to whom he was attached, might have a legacy of £200. I considered the obligation as sacred on my part, and paid these legacies according to his desire.

After my return to York, debts came in to the amount of about £1000, and as I wished to pay them all as soon as possible, I thought it would be the best method to dispose of land to that amount. My aunt was on this occasion an excellent counsellor; and she advised me to go into Craven, and decide for myself what portions should be sold. I went accordingly, and was accompanied by Mr. Cappe and his eldest daughter.

When I saw more of the temper and disposition of the inhabitants of my native village, I was both grieved and disappointed. Far from finding these Statesmen adorned with the simplicity, and possessed of the integrity, which one might have expected in their retired situation, they appeared fraught with cunning and intrigue; and seemed to make it a common cause, to keep me in profound ignorance. Had I gone alone, they would infallibly have imposed upon me exceedingly, for added to all the rest, they have a supreme contempt for women; but the appearance and manner of Mr. Cappe, the knowledge on agricultural subjects, which I did not previously imagine he had possessed,-the questions he put

to them, and the further improvements he sug gested, inspired them with so much respect, that seeing me thus assisted, they gave up their de signs, and it became practicable for me to treat with them on equitable terms.

CHAPTER 31.

Investigation of pecuniary resources....Doubts respecting a projected union....Objections whence arising... In what way overcome....The Author's marriage....Illness and death of Dr. Joseph Cappe....His sufferings from an unfortunate attachment... His uncommon talents....His father's fortitude and resignation.

My first business, after returning to York, was to investigate thoroughly the state of our affairs; and I found at length, that after paying the whole of the debts and legacies, amounting to about £2000, sufficient would still remain, to make my mother tolerably comfortable, and to leave me at liberty, to enter with prudence and with honour into any new engagement which I might wish or desire. It was not difficult to foresee what this engagement would be. But attached as I had long been to Mr. Cappe, and preferring his society to that of any other person,

this was not the sole cause of my becoming his wife. I had long deeply regretted, in common with many others, that his invaluable Scripture researches, and other fine compositions, should for ever lie buried in a short-hand, which had been composed by himself, and which was unintelligible to every other person. I knew but too well, that his health was not such, had he been disposed to it, as should enable him to transcribe them himself, consistently with the other duties which necessarily arose out of his situation; and I hoped that if I became a member of his family, I might in this respect, be of use to him, and at the same time, eventually confer an important benefit on the rising generation. There are those perhaps, who will find it difficult to believe that this motive had any weight in the scale, and others, who will deem it altogether romantic and visionary-it is however the simple truth; and I have long esteemed it a kind and merciful arrangement of that wise and good Providence, which alone foresees the coming event, that my mind should have been thus influenced.

But there still remained some formidable objections to our union. I was by no means certain how far I could be comfortable with six young people, most of them grown up, and whose previous ideas and habits were in many respects, very different from my own. I knew they had been educated in good principles, and that their conduct had always been virtuous, yet having lost their mother in the year 1773, when they were

all very young, there might be defects both of habit and temper, having been necessarily left a great deal to themselves, which might lead to much unhappiness, and which, at their age, it would not be practicable to rectify. On this subject, I had some confidence in my own temper, which had never been reckoned capricious or fretful, and in the long accustomed habit of making allowance for, and exercising forbearance, in respect to the defects in temper, or the caprice of others. I had always been accustomed to conform cheerfully to the will of those with whom I associated, in those trifling, every day occurrences, which have in themselves no moral character, but which notwithstanding, are frequently the most prolific source of domestic altercation; habits, which were partly the effect of a naturally happy temperament, and partly perhaps, the result of having spent much time in visiting different families, where conformity of this kind is essentially necessary to comfort. It is true, that in matters of importance, I had always held it a sacred duty, to act steadily according to the dictates of my own conscience, regardless of erroneous opinion, ill-founded censure, or malignant sarcasm; but in matters of importance, I could have no opposition to fear from these young people; and knowing that much of the unhappiness of second marriages is usually incurred by the real or apprehended diminution of fortune to the children of the first, and by the consequent existence of seperate interests, I was determined to take effectual means of preventing