The wonders of the _house of Astragon_ are not yet exhausted. To Astragon heaven for succession gave One only pledge, and BIRTHA was her name. This maid, her father’s humble disciple and assistant, educated in the bosom of rural simplicity, is rendered a more charming object than even the renowned Rhodalind upon her throne. Courts she ne’er saw, yet courts could have undone With untaught looks and an unpractis’d heart; Her nets the most prepar’d could never shun, For Nature spread them in the scorn of Art. But I check my desire of copying more from this exquisitely pleasing picture. My intention is to excite curiosity, not to gratify it. I hope I have already done enough for that purpose; and since the rest of this unfinished story may be comprized in a short compass, I shall proceed, with but few interruptions, to conclude a paper already swelled to an unexpected bulk. That the unpractised Birtha should entertain an unresisted passion for the noblest of his sex; and that Gondibert, whose want of ambition alone had secured him from the charms of Rhodalind, should bow to those of his lovely hostess and handmaid, will be thought a very natural turn in the story; upon which, however, the reader may foresee the most interesting events depending. The progress of their love, though scarcely known to themselves, is soon discovered by the sage Astragon. This is expressed by the poet with a very fine turn of a common thought. When all these symptoms he observ’d, he knows, From Alga, which is rooted deep in seas, To the high Cedar that on mountains grows, No sov’reign herb is found for their disease. The remainder of this poem, consisting of a third book, written during the author’s imprisonment, is composed of several detached scenes, in which the main plot lies ripening for future action. Rivals are raised to Birtha. Flattering advances from the court, and more open declarations of love from Rhodalind, are in vain employed to assail the constancy of Gondibert. Various conflicts of passion arise, and interesting situations, well imagined, and painted in lively colours. Much is given, as in the former parts, to the introduction of elevated sentiment; with one example of which I shall finish my quotations. Several well-born youths are placed about the person of Gondibert as his pages, whose education consists of the following great lessons from their lord: But with the early sun he rose, and taught These youths by growing Virtue to grow great, Shew’d greatness is without it blindly sought, A desperate charge which ends in base retreat. He taught them shame, the sudden sense of ill; Shame, nature’s hasty conscience, which forbids Weak inclination ere it grows to will, Or stays rash will before it grows to deeds.