neither to suppose that what is merely the result of endeavouring to do what they have observed in others, forms a necessary part of their real character. A child in a religious family, when not exposed to temptations from without, will imitate with accuracy all the forms of religion which it sees practised, and will assume without difficulty its language and manner. A judicious parent, however, will be anxious to explain to such a child that all this may be done without one single spark of divine grace, and will strive to make him understand that the same imitative spirit would lead him to acquire the ways and language of the world with as much facility as he has acquired those of the Christian Church. Had those who were about me laboured to open my mind in this way to my real state, they had perhaps succeeded in saving me many hours of anguish, through which it became needful for me to pass in order to bring me to this knowledge.

"It perhaps matters not much, with respect to the harm it does, in what way the pride and vanity of youth are excited; and yet, am inclined to think, that if there be one way worse than another, of inflating the youthful mind with high notions of self, it is when vain thoughts are excited upon a religious account; and if any one sort of pride ought to be dreaded more than another, it is spiritual pride: and for this reason, because that which must be applied for the remedy of every other vain thought, (namely, religion,) cannot so easily be employed in a case, where by mismanagement it has already served to promote the evil complained of. And thus that Gospel, which is a savour of life unto life to sinners of most denominations, becomes a savour of death unto death unto the individual who is spiritually proud. But more of this hereafter.

"I was allowed, when about six years of age, to taste of a little variety, and to acquire some few new ideas which had a more lasting and important effect on my life than might have been at first imagined. I was taken by my mother to visit my grandfather, who resided in that corner of Staffordshire before alluded to. I had hitherto seen nothing of country life, and I was consequently a total stranger to the various charms of rural scenery.

I

had seldom seen flowers but in a low pot, or trees but in the small smoky gardens which I had visited in the town. Sheep and lambs, cattle and the feathered tribes I had never beheld but in the market-place; while of all the charming varieties of hill and dale, gushing brooks, wild woods and forests, verdant meadows and thymy uplands, I had as little conception as of the glories of the upper world. Great, therefore, was my delight when I found myself emancipated from the dusty environs of my native town, and perceived that my view was bounded only by trees and hills, by fields extending beyond fields, where animals of several descriptions were feeding in green pastures, or reposing by brooks of water.

"My grandfather's house was an irregular old building, bordering on a small common covered with purple heath, on which a few sheep and many geese found a scanty provision, but which suggested to my young imagination the idea of immeasurable extent and boundless liberty: for here I was allowed to range at pleasure, and here I first acquired a relish for pure air and rural sounds.

"The back of the farm-house, which was towards the common, was covered with ivy which had climbed nearly to the roof, and from amid whose dark green and shining foliage peeped a few small casement windows, arranged without order, as it suited the convenience of the little nooks and closet-like apartments within. On one side of the farm-house was the high road, and on the other a farm-yard and duck-pond; and in the front there was a trim garden encircled by a quick-hedge, the garden being furnished with certain trees curiously trimmed and tortured so as to represent various monstrous figures of peacocks, pyramids, and lozenges. I say nothing of the quincunxes and heart-shaped beds of tulips, pinks, carnations, and ranunculuses, which were my grandmother's pride; nor of the espaliers which were equally the boast of my grandfather; but passing by these, I proceed to speak of the mode of life adopted in this family; which differing greatly from any thing to be seen in the present day, may perhaps afford some little amusement to such persons as hereafter may favour this narrative with their perusal. And here I cannot but observe, that many

stories, in themselves infinitely more interesting than any thing I have to relate, lose much of their interest from the failure of descriptive powers in the historian. For since narrative is nothing else than a moving picture, if the figures are presented to the eye without their proper costume, and the foregrounds and backgrounds of the piece be wanting, the performance must needs lose much of its power to charm, while the uninstructed reader is perhaps led to supply circumstances utterly contradictory to the real situations of the characters exhibited.

"My grandfather and grandmother, though in affluent circumstances, lived always in a large yet neat kitchen, their superiority to their domestics being only observable by their situations at the head of their hospitable board, with the patchwork cushions and elbows which marked their chairs. My grandmother, when I recollect her, was old and shrivelled, but had lost none of her activity, as was evident by the strength and piercing shrillness of her voice, together with the bustle which she made at four o'clock every morning when she called up her maidens to milk.

"The family meals were always taken in the kitchen, and at such hours as are now grown unfashionable even in our cottages. Their dinner was always ready at twelve o'clock, and their supper at seven. The old people were however exceedingly hospitable, even in the best acceptation of the term, as no poor person ever went unsatisfied from their door.

"My grandfather and grandmother had never had more than two sons, of which my father was the younger. The elder was settled in business in the neighbouring town, where having married, he had now several daughters, who not seldom came over to the farm to pay their duty to their grandmother and to play with me, although they were by no means suited to my taste, having been brought up in a common boarding-school, and in consequence having acquired that sort of information and those habits which I could neither understand nor was in a situation to participate. In the mean time, I greatly enjoyed the kind of life which I passed at my grandfather's, and the liberty which was permitted me of exploring all odd corners in and about the farm-house. And I re

member that I always enjoyed these amusements most when my cousins were not with me, their manners, as I before said, differing widely from mine.

"Immediately on the other side of the high road, opposite my grandfather's house, was a small green, near to which stood a large house, which even in those days looked old. It was encircled by a walled garden, over which I could only distinguish the higher windows, the sloping roof, and upper parts of the gable ends. In this house dwelt a widow lady, whose history was little known; but from the extreme retirement in which she lived, and the seriousness if not solemnity of her manner when she paid her annual afternoon visit to my grandmother, it was supposed that she had known better days and seen many sorrows. This lady had one son, a little older than myself, whom I shall call Theophilus; this being the only name by which I knew him for many years. This widow lady's family had formerly consisted of several children, as appeared from a family picture placed over the high mantlepiece in her old-fashioned parlour, in which a number of fine children were grouped together around a lamb, whose white fleece they were decorating with flowers. I know not the merit of this picture, but I remember that the colours were bright when I saw it, that the little figures represented therein were fair and ruddy, with lips of coral and eyes of heavenly blue, and that the baby, who was no other than Theophilus, had ringlets of very fair hair, shading, though not concealing his beautiful features.

"As the lady never spoke of the children she had lost, or of the husband from whom she had been separated by death, no one could form an idea of the nature of that storm by which her earthly happiness had been so rudely assailed, and so little left her of all she had held dear in this world. Nevertheless, it appeared that she had borne her trials as a Christian, and, though cast down, was not yet without those hopes of which infidelity only can deprive us.

"It may be supposed, that in such circumstances as I have described, Theophilus was the darling of his tender mother; and there was no room to doubt but that he had been brought up with the utmost care, in the nurture

and admonition of the Lord, and that her pious instructions had been attended with a peculiar blessing: for this child, even at that tender age in which I first became acquainted with him, was an example of early piety, discovering that purity and simplicity, which can be attributed only to the work of the Holy Spirit.

"I had several times seen little Theophilus sitting in a projecting window of his mother's house, when playing in my grandfather's garden, and had conceived an earnest desire of becoming acquainted with him some time before an opportunity served for this purpose, as the little boy seldom played beyond the garden-wall. But one morning, as I was pursuing the young lambs on the common before mentioned, I met the little boy, who was returning from a cottage on the other side of the little heath, with an empty basket on his arm; and as he drew near to me, I stopped and stood quite still till he came up.

"Do not frighten the lambs, little girl,' said he to me; 'pray do not. My mother has told me that it hurts them to be driven about.'

"I will not do it again, then,' I answered; 'but I did not know it hurt them.'

"Stop one minute,' said the little boy, putting down his basket and feeling in his pocket, 'I will give you a ball if I can find it, and then you may roll it before you and run after it.' So saying, he began to unload his little pocket, producing a piece of entangled packthread, a knife, and a little book, but no ball. This last circumstance seemed to perplex him; and standing for a moment, as if to recollect himself, he at length said, 'O!! know where it is; it is at home: stay one minute, and I will fetch it.' So saying, he ran off like an arrow from a bow, leaving me in the middle of the common to keep guard over his treasures; which I did very faithfully, though I thought there could be no harm in my looking at the book; for which purpose I sat down on the ground, and putting the packthread and the other precious articles in my lap, I began to examine the little gilt volume with such attention that I did not remark the return of Theophilus, who was by my side with his ball before I was by any means aware of it.