officers, who are generally pretty acute as well as active on such occasions, soon perceived that the man was endeavouring to avoid them. "We must keep him in sight," said they, "all is not right there;-walk on-walk on-or we shall lose him." Accordingly, they hastened their steps-the man went faster too;-they began to run-the man ran also ;-till at length the hue and cry of "stop thief" put an end to the race, and the criminal was secured.

"So we have got you at last, have we?" said Master Gripe. "Aye-and who would have thought it, after so many years?" returned the trembling culprit. "And how did you know me? for there wash nobody there but myshelf when I did it; and I went off the very next morning, and should have been abshent from my country twelve years had I stayed another month;-but, mine Cot! what will they do with me now?" "Why make a public example of you, to be sure," said they. Upon which the man, concluding he was known, made a full confession of his guilt. The atrocious act was brought home to him by that inward monitor from which there is no appeal; and the self-convicted villain, betrayed by his own conscience, was brought to trial, and at last suffered the awful sentence of the law; though he had so many years defeated the vigilance of justice, by absenting himself from the scene of action.

Thus do the guilty accuse and condemn themselves; and thus does the all-powerful Avenger of human crimes, by placing this celestial spark in the heart of man, bring to light the hidden deeds of darkness. Conscience, ever on the watch, and faithful to disclose the murderer's guilt, when no earthly testimony could reveal the perpetrator of the atrocious act, presents the trembling self-condemned culprit to the indignant eye.

NUMBER XXI.

ON CONSCIENCE.

What conscience dictates to be done,

Or warns me not to do,

This-teach me more than hell to shun,
That-more than heav'n pursue.

CONSCIENCE, when it points out the good or evil of the action premeditated, may be considered as the warning voice of God; and ought so to operate on our reason and conduct, as to resolve us to do that which seemeth right, and to leave undone that which we disapprove. But man is prone to evil from his birth; and, as St. Paul saith, “the good that he would, he doeth not; but the evil which he would not, that he doeth."

Though the dictates of reason be never so strong to turn him from his purpose, he will sometimes assent to the matter in deliberation, and in spite of his better judgment, do a thousand things that afterwards he would give the world, if he had it at his disposal, to have undone. Then

it is, that this faithful monitor becomes a troublesome companion. The ill-affections that she cautioned you against, by neglecting her counsel, are turned into voluntary errors; and the sting they leave behind, can never be eradicated. How deplorable that man, the noblest work of the creation, should war against his senses thus-degrade his nature and disdain the honest precepts of his guardian Angel !-'tis strange !-'tis wond'rous strange!

But, while we comment on the conduct of others, let us not forget to look into the diary of our own life, and set a guard upon our actions. We are too apt to place all to the account of the Devil, and to excuse ourselves by saying-he instigated me to this, or urged me on to that. Should this be the language of a rational being, made after the likeness of his Great Creator? Ought he not rather to maintain his dignity, and endeavour to resist this declared foe to mankind? He is endued with reasonable faculties to see the good from ill; and shall he only make use of them to discover that he is going wrong, and not exert them to deter him from falling into errors which he would fain persuade himself he cannot avoid? Fatal delusion! that thus misleads the image of Perfection, against the conviction of his senses; and brings him to the level of a brute, that is guided only by instinct.

How reasonably this simple endowment seems to operate on the senses of the latter. Without

judgment, without rationality, without being tutored; he is grateful to his protector, he is tender to his kind, and is seldom spiteful without a cause. Instinct seems to teach him, what man is unwilling to be taught by reason. Man is too fond of his vices to give them up; and then pretends that he cannot, without once making the experiment. He looks upon them as inseparable from his nature, and tamely submits to the delusion. Depending, perhaps, on the mercy of his Creator, or the mediation of his Redeemer to pacify the wrath of Heaven. Vain dependance! we are taught to believe, but upon certain conditions. Heedless of those conditions, fruitless will be the attempt to substantiate our claims when, at the last great and awful day, we must render up an account of our deeds before the tribunal of that omniscient Judge who is to pronounce our sentence. And yet we are so stupid as to disregard His timely warnings, though He inspires us with a hatred to the very thing we are about to do, or an admiration for that which we omit doing. If then necessity, or rather our nature, compel us to act in direct opposition to what we feel and know to be right; let us at least, when we have violated the dictates of conscience, set ourselves to work, and endeavour to relieve the anguish of the sting. Though it may be difficult to cure the wound, the torture of it may be abated by palliatives; and the mind may be relieved from the horrors of the threatening evil, if mortals, who are endowed with