child's spirit. Too tight a rein will check her generous ardour, and curb her genius. I would not subdue the independence of her mind, and make a tame, dull animal, of a creature, creature, whose very faults give indications of a soaring nature." Even Lady Belfield, to whose soft and tender heart, the very sound of punishment, or even privation, carried a sort of terror, asked Mr. Stanley, "if he did not think that he had taken up a trifling offence too seriously, and punished it too severely."

"The thing is a trifle in itself," replied he," but infant prevarication unnoticed, and unchecked, is the prolific seed of subterfuge, of expediency, of deceit, of falsehood, of hypocrisy."

"But the dear little creature," said Lady Belfield, “is not addicted to equivocation. I have always admired her correctness in her pleasant prattle.”

"It is for that very reason," replied Mr. Stanley, "that I am so careful to check the first indication of the contrary tendency. As the fault is a solitary one, I trust

the

the punishment will be so too. For which reason I have marked it in a way, to which her memory will easily recur.-Mr. Brandon, an amiable friend of mine, but of an indolent temper, through a negligence in watching over an early propensity to deceit, suffered his only son to run on from one stage of falsehood to another, till he settled down ina most consummate hypocrite. His plausible manners enabled him to keep his more turbulent vices out of sight. Impatient when a youth of that contradiction to which he had never been accustomed when a boy, he became notoriously profli gate. His dissimulation was at length too thin to conceal from his mistaken father his more palpable vices. His artifices finally involved him in a duel, and his premature death broke the heart of my poor friend.

"This sad example led me in my own family to watch this evil in the bud. Divines often say, that unbelief lies at the root of all sin. This seems strikingly true in our conniving at the faults of our chil

dren.

dren. If we really believed the denuncia tions of Scripture, could we for the sake of a momentary gratification, not so much to our child, as to ourselves, (which is the case in all blameable indulgence,) overlook that fault which may be the germ of unspeakable miseries? In my view of things, deceit is no slight offence. I feel myself answerable in no small. degree for the eternal happiness of these beloved crea tures whom Providence has especially committed to my trust."

"But it is such a severe trial," said Lady Belfield, "to a fond parent to inflict voluntary pain !"

"Shall we feel for their pain and not for their danger?" replied Mr. Stanley. "I wonder how parents who love their children as I love mine, can put in competition a temporary indulgence, which may foster one evil temper, or fasten one bad habit, with the eternal welfare of that child's soul.-A soul of such inconceiv able worth, whether we consider its nature, its duration, or the price which was

paid for its redemption! What parent, I say, can by his own rash negligence, or false indulgence, risk the happiness of such a soul, not for a few days or years, but for a period compared with which the whole duration of time is but a point? A soul of such infinite faculties, which has a capacity for improving in holiness and happiness, through all the countless ages of eternity ?"

Observing Sir John listen with some emotion, Mr. Stanley went on; "what remorse, my dear friend, can equal the pangs of him, who has reason to believe that his child has not only lost this eternity of glory, but incurred an eternity of misery, through the carelessness of that parent who assigned his very fondness, as a reason for his neglect? Think of the state of such a father, when he figures to himself the thousands and ten thousands of glorified spirits that stand before the throne,. and his darling excluded !-excluded perhaps by his own ill-judging fondness.-Oh, my friends, disguise it as we may, and

deceive

deceive ourselves as we will, want of faith is as much at the bottom of this sin as of all others. Notwithstanding an indefinite, indistinct notion which men call faith, they do not actually believe in this eternity; they believe it in a general way, but they do not believe in it practically, personally, influentially."

While Mr. Stanley was speaking with an energy which evinced how much his own heart was affected, Miss Sparkes, by the im patience of her looks, evidently manifested that she wished to interrupt him. Good breeding, however, kept her silent till he had done speaking: she then said, "that though she allowed that absolute falsehood. and falsehood used for mischievous purposes, was really criminal, yet there was a danger on the other hand of laying too severe restrictions on freedom of speech. That there might be such a thing as tacit hypocrisy. That people might be guilty of as much deceit by suppressing their sentiments if just, as by expressing such as were pot quite correct. That a repulsive treatment

was