traint. Literature in this
imaginative guise, would thus fulfil, in relation to the powers of
the soul, the same functions as the Hours, who yoked and conducted the
chariot of the Sun.

"Have recourse to your books, then, my son. The wise who have written
before our days are travellers who have preceded us in the paths of
misfortune, and who stretch out a friendly hand towards us, and invite
us to join in their society, when we are abandoned by every thing else.
A good book is a good friend."

"Ah!" cried Paul, "I stood in no need of books when Virginia was here,
and she had studied as little as myself; but when she looked at me, and
called me her friend, I could not feel unhappy."

"Undoubtedly," said I, "there is no friend so agreeable as a mistress
by whom we are beloved. There is, moreover, in woman a liveliness and
gaiety, which powerfully tend to dissipate the melancholy feelings of a
man; her presence drives away the dark phantoms of imagination produced
by over-reflection. Upon her countenance sit soft attraction and tender
confidence. What joy is not heightened when it is shared by her? What
brow is not unbent by her smiles? What anger can resist her tears?
Virginia will return with more philosophy than you, and will be quite
surprised to find the garden so unfinished;--she who could think of its
embellishments in spite of all the persecutions of her aunt, and when
far from her mother and from you."

The idea of Virginia's speedy return reanimated the drooping spirits of
her lover, and he resumed his rural occupations, happy amidst his toils,
in the reflection that they would soon find a termination so dear to the
wishes of his heart.

One morning, at break of day, (it was the 24th of December, 1744,)
Paul, when he arose, perceived a white flag hoisted upon the Mountain
of Discovery. This flag he knew to be the signal of a vessel descried at
sea. He instantly flew to the town to learn if this vessel brought any
tidings of Virginia, and waited there till the return of the pilot,
who was gone, according to custom, to board the ship. The pilot did not
return till the evening, when he brought the governor information that
the signalled vessel was the Saint-Geran, of seven hundred tons burthen,
and commanded by a captain of the name of Aubin; that she was now
four leagues out at sea, but would probably anchor at Port Louis the
following afternoon, if the wind became fair: at present there was a
calm. The pilot