cial politeness, than that, while this last flatters, in order to extort in return more praise than its due, humility, like the divine principle from which it springs, seeketh not even its own."

In answer to some further remark of mine, with an air of infinite modesty, she said, "I have been betrayed, Sir, into saying too much. It will, I trust, however, have the good effect of preventing you from thinking better of me than I deserve. In general, I hold it indiscreet to speak of the state of one's mind. I have been taught this piece of prudence by my own indiscretion. I once lamented to a lady, the fault of which we have been speaking, and observed how difficult it was to keep the heart right. She so little understood the nature of this inward corruption, that she told in confidence to two or three friends, that they were all much mistaken in Miss Stanley, for though her character stood so fair with the world, she had secretly confessed to her that she was a great sinner."

I could

I could not forbear repeating, though she had chid me for it before, how much I had been struck with several instances of her indifference to the world, and her superiority to its pleasures. "Do you. know," continued she, smiling, "that you are more my enemy, than the lady of whom I have been speaking? She only defamed my principles, but you are corrupting them. The world, I believe, is not so much a place as a nature. It is possible to be religious in a court, and worldly in a monastery. I find that the thoughts may be engaged too anxiously about so petty a concern as a little family arrangement; that the mind may be drawn off from better pursuits, and engrossed by things too trivial to name, as much as by objects more apparently wrong. The country is certainly favourable to religion, but it would be hard on the millions who are doomed to live in towns if it were exclusively favourable. Nor must we lay more stress on the accidental circumstance than it deserves. Nay I almost doubt if it is not too

pleasant to be quite safe. An enjoyment which assumes a sober shape may deceive us, by making us believe we are practising a duty when we are only gratifying a taste."

"But do you not think," said I," that there may be merit in the taste itself? May not a succession of acts, forming a habit, and that habit a good one, induce so sound a way of thinking, that it may become difficult to distinguish the duty from the taste, and to separate the principle from the choice? This I really believe to be the case in minds finely wrought and vigilantly watched."

I observed that however delightful the country might be great part of the year, yet there were a few winter months, when I feared it might be dull, though not in the degree Sir John's Richmond lady had found it,

With a smile of compassion at my want of taste, she said, " she perceived I was no gardener." "To me," added she, "the winter has charms of its own. If I were

not

not afraid of the light habit of introducing providence on an occasion not sufficiently important, I would say that he seems to reward those who love their country well enough to live in it the whole year, by making the greater part of the winter the busy season for gardening operations. If I happen to be in town a few days only, every sun that shines, every shower that falls, every breeze that blows seems wasted, because I do not see the effect upon my plants." "But surely," said I, "the winter at least suspends the enjoyment. There is little pleasure in contemplating vegetation in its torpid state, in surveying

The naked shoots, barren as lances,

plied she.

as Cowper describes the winter shrubbery." "The pleasure is in the preparation," re"When all appears dead and torpid to you idle spectators, all is secretly at work; nature is busy in preparing her treasures under ground, and art has a hand in the process. When the blossoms of summer are delighting your mere amateurs,

then

then it is that we professional people," added she, laughing; "are really idle. The silent operations of the winter now produce themselves the canvass of nature is co

--

vered, the great artist has laid on his colours, then we petty agents lay down our implements, and enjoy our leisure in contemplating his work."

I had never known her so communica-tive; but my pleased attention, instead of drawing her on, led her to check herself. Phoebe, who had been busily employed in trimming a flaunting yellow Azalia, now turned to me and said,- Why it is only the Christmas month that our labours are suspended, and then we have so much pleasure, that we want no business; such in-door festivities and diversions, that that dull month is with us the gayest in the year." So saying, she called Lucilla

assist her in tying up the branch of an orange tree which the wind had broken.

I was going to offer my services when Mrs. Stanley joined us before I could obtain an answer to my question about these Christmas

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