This good Curate not only preached twice every Sunday, but frequently vifited all his parifhioners, and taught them, not only by his precepts, but by his examples, true piety and benevolence. It fo happened, that at a time he was in fome diftrefs from the narrownefs of his circumstances, as he was walking and meditating in the fields, he ftumbled, and, looking down to fee the caufe, he efpied a purfe with fome what in it. On taking it up, he found it to be full of gold: but this truly conscientious man, notwithstanding the narrowness of his circumftances, had not one wifh (by fecreting it) to rob its owner of it; but looked round, and went backward and forward, in hopes to fee him but to no purpofe, as no object prefented itself to his view. He went home, and communicated to his wife what had happened: but fhe, not judging fo rightly as her husband, looked upon it as a gift Providence had fent them, and therefore wifhed him to employ part of it to extricate them out of their prefent difficulty: but he, in answer to her repeated folicitations, told her, that as he did not look upon it as his own property, whatever might be their wants, he would do his beft to find out its owner, adding, that HONESTY WAS THE BEST POLICY. : After After fome fhort time, he was fent for to a gen. tleman who lived at fome little diftance, who claimed the purfe; and to whom (after his giving an account of the pieces it contained) he restored it. But the gentleman gave him no other reward than thanks, his name and place of abode. On the good man's return, his wife could not help reproaching the gentleman with ingratitude, and infinuating that it would have been better to have kept the purfe, to fupply their wants, than to return it to fo ungrateful a perfon, who probably did not want the money it contained. To all her remarks and obfervations the Curate made no other reply, than that (notwithstanding all fhe urged, and all that had happened) ftill HONESTY WAS THE BEST POLICY. Some months ran on after this, when the Curate received an invitation to dine with the aforefaid gentleman; who, after he had entertained him with a friendly hofpitality, prefented him with the Prefentation to a Living of three hundred a year, to which he added a bill of fifty pounds for his prefent neceffities. The Curate, after making fuitable and mot grateful acknowledgments to his kind benefactor, returned with joy to his wife and family, acquaintB 2 ing ing them with the happy change in his circumftances; adding that he hoped now fhe would be convinced that HONESTY WAS THE BEST POLICY. To which the fully acquiefced. THE LOTTERY TICKET, A MORAL TALE. BY a train of difappointments, as unmeritted as they were unforeseen, Mr. Clinton, an eminent merchant, found himself reduced from an affluent fituation to very moderate circumftances. He was married, and had one child, a daughter. Mrs Clinton had a good understanding, and a good heart; and as fhe and her husband were neither young, nor madly attached to the pleasures of the world, they left the Metropolis to spend the remainder of their days in retirement, without murmuring at the difpenfations of Providence. Not a little cheared, indeed, were they in their retreat, bythe confcioufnefs of having done nothing to deserve the confiderable change in their affairs. Retrofpection, it is true, fometimes drew fighs from Mrs. Clinton's gentle bofom; but the philofophic confolations of him, who had from his wedding wedding-day made her happiness the principal objec of his attention, brightened her features with the fmiles of contentment as often as they were clouded. The place which they fixed upon for their retreat, was a spot extremely pleasant, within a few miles of London: their houfe was privately, but most agreeably fituated: they had charming landfcapes round them, whenever they threw up their windows; and the few friends, out of the herd of acquaintance, who crouded their routs in B Square, declared, whenever they came to fee them, that their little villa was delightful. Mrs. Clinton, having a paffion for plants and flowers, found great amufement in the garden, which, with the education of a very tractable daughter, and the fuperintendence of her fmall family affairs, fufficiently excluded any complaints against the tediousness of time, Fanny Clinton, when he was removed from London, was about twelve years of age; extremely pleafing in her perfon, fenfible and good-natured. She merited all the indulgence with which she was treated by her affectionate parents; but they certainly were too fond of her-too fond of her for their own felicity; for while they loved her to excefs, their fears, their anxieties about her, were beyond expreffion. Mr. Mr. Clinton's houfe was in a populous village; but it ftood at a diftance from the gay and fashionable part of it. Far from being difpleased, however, with the privacy of his fituation, it was on that very account, the more agreeable to him; for he wanted not to keep a great deal of company, as he lived not in the flyle to which he had been accustomed: with a few fober, regular people, like themselves, he and Mrs. Clinton chiefly affociated in a neighbouring way, without any ceremony or oftentation, and were determined to have no connections with the quality of D They might have been vifited by half the place, had they given cards. They were much refpected, indeed, by those who had, and those who had not routs; by the former they could not be loved; but they were fatisfied by the refpect and esteem of the latter. After having lived very happily at Dfor five years, the addreffes of a young gentleman to their Fanny give them a great deal of pleasure. Mr. Hadley was a man of unexceptionable baracter; but he had not a large fortune; yet, as he was defperately enamoured with Fanny, and genteely offered to marry her without a fhilling down, both Mr. and Mrs. Clinton thought him an object |