то T. B. P.-- A. P. -- F. P. J. P. &c. MY DEAR CHILDREN, T HE little present which is now offered to your acceptance, if it have no other value, will at least evince the fincerity and warmth of my affection for you. It will fhew that have been the objects you of my fondest attention, and tendereft folicitude. The buf (8) my tle of the town, and the anxieties of an active profeffion, have indeed neceffarily diverted my thoughts, and at times excluded your image from mind; but, like the bird which you have hunted from her nest, my heart has foon returned to the place where all its pleafing cares are centred. In our delightful retirement at Hart-Hill, every thing around me has confpired to fuggeft ideas of your health, your happiness, or improvement. The setting fun, the fhady tree, the whispering breeze, or the fragrant flower, have alike furnished fome tale or (9) or analogy, which has been applied to your inftruction. When you recollect these Leffons of Wisdom and Virtue, I flatter myself you will affociate with them the paternal endearments with which they were delivered; and that I fhall live with honour in your memories, when forgotten by the world, and mouldering in the duft. Such immortality I am more ambitious to obtain, than all the fame which learning or philofophy bestows. Adieu ! my dear children. May you be wife, virtuous, and happy! happy! And hereafter may we meet, to part no more, in those regions of the bleffed, where our knowledge and felicity will be for ever increasing; and where we fhall enjoy together the glorious presence of our common Father, the Parent of the universe ! THOMAS PERCIVAL. HART-HILL, near MANCHESTER, |