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dull mansion, her domestic employments, and the sober society of her husband, the pastoral vision vanished. She discovered, or rather he discovered, but too late, that the country had not only no charms for her, but that it was a scene of constant ennui and vapid dulness. She languished for the pleasure she had quitted, and he for the comforts he had lost. Opposite inclinations led to opposite pursuits; difference of taste however needed not to have led to a total disunion, had there been on the part of the lady such a degree of attachment, as might have induced a spirit of accommodation, or such a fund of principle as might have taught her the necessity of making those sacrifices, which affection, had it existed, would have rendered pleasant, or duty would have made light, had she been early taught self-go

vernment.”

Miss Stanley, smiling, said, "she hoped Sir John had a little over-charged the picture." He defended himself by declaring he drew from the life, and that from his

long observation he could present us with a whole gallery of such portraits. He left me to continue my walk with the two Miss Stanleys.

The more I conversed with Lucilla, the more I saw that good breeding in her was only the outward expression of humility, and not an art employed for the purposè of enabling her to do without it. We continued to converse on the subject of Miss Flam's fondness for the gay world. This introduced a natural expression of my admiration of Miss Stanley's choice of pleasure and pursuits, so different from those of most other women of her age.

With the most graceful modesty she said, "nothing humbles me more than compliments; for when I compare what I hear, with what I feel, I find the picture of myself drawn by a flattering friend, so utterly unlike the original in my own heart, that I am more sunk by my own consciousness of the want of resemblance, than elated that another has not discovered it. It makes me feel like an impostor. If I contradict this

favour

favourable opinion, I am afraid of being ac-cused of affectation; and if I silently swal low it, I am contributing to the deceit of passing for what I am not." This ingenu-ous mode of disclaiming flattery only raised her in my esteem, and the more as I told her such humble renunciation of praise could only proceed from that inward prin ciple of genuine piety, and devout feeling, which made so amiable a part of her cha-

racter..

"How little," said she, "is the human heart known except to him who made it! While a fellow creature may admire our apparent devotion, He who appears to be its object, witnesses the wandering of the heart which seems to be lifted up to him. He sees it roving to the ends of the earth, busied about any thing rather than himself;; running after trifles which not only dis-honour a Christian, but would disgrace a child. As to my very virtues. if I dare ply such a word to myself, they sometimes lose their character by not keeping their proper place. They become sins by in-fringing

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fringing on higher duties. If I mean to perform an act of devotion, some crude plan of charity forces itself on my mind, and what with trying to drive out one and to establish the other, I rise dissatisfied and unimproved, and resting my sole hope, not on the duty which I have been performing, but on the mercy which I have been offending."

I assured her with all the simplicity of truth, and all the sincerity of affection, that this confession only served to raise my opinion of the pity she disclaimed, that such deep consciousness of imperfection, so quick a discernment of the slighest deviation, and such constant vigilance to prevent it, were the truest indications of an humble spirit; and that those who thus carefully guarded themselves against small errors, were in little danger of being betrayed into great ones.

She replied, smiling, that "she should not be so angry with vanity, if it would be - contented to keep its proper place among the vices; but her quarrel with it was, that

it would mix itself with our virtues, and rob us of their reward."

Vanity, indeed," replied I," differs from the other vices in this; they commonly are only opposite to the one contrary virtue while this vice has a kind of ubiquity, is on the watch to intrude every where, and weakens all the virtues, which it cannot destroy. I believe vanity was the harpy of the ancient poets, which they tell us tainted whatever it touched."

"Self deception is so easy," replied Miss Stanley, "that I am even afraid of highly extolling any good quality, lest I should sit down satisfied with having borne my testimony in its favour, and so rest contented with the praise instead of the practice. Commending a right thing is a cheap substitute for doing it, with which we are too apt to satisfy our selves."

"There is no mark," I replied, " which more clearly distinguishes that humility which has the love of God for its principle from its counterfeit, a false and superfi