frequent dulness. Maps were studied; but who could so well describe the various customs and manners of the natives of every climate? Their walks in the country were the same as usual; but where was Pneumanee's happy facility of blending instruction with all their amusements? Learning with her had lost all appearance of solemnity; her playfulness of manner infused a certain cheer of mind to all around her, and she took occasion, from every object and every circumstance, to enlarge their understandings and improve their hearts, while she amused their fancy and cultivated a gaiety of manner that diffused itself over all their words and actions, and made them universally admired and beloved.

Every day found fresh subjects of regret for Pneumanee's absence, and fresh expressions of impatience for her return.

Before the warm interest in her favour felt a moment's decrease, before a single spark of affection had died away, with the same angelic form, the same lovely countenance, and bright elastic air of youth and joy, she returned to the Parsonage. All was joy and gladness; she gave a new stimulus to the duties and exertions of the day; and as they took their evening walk by the sea, they had much to say, and more to inquire. The winds seemed laid to sleep, and the waves curled with a gentle murmur upon the beach, in a pleasing succession of sounds, that Charles protested had never before been so grateful to his ear; it had never been so pleasing while Pneumanee was absent. She was aware of that, she said; and for a compliment so gratifying to Neptune's civility and her influence, Charles should command a history of some of

the time she had spent in her absence, when they returned to tea. As soon as they finished their saunter on the beach, Charles claimed the promise, and Pneumanee said, her first visit was to a worthy couple whom she had long known; they were amiable, and had lived with great comfort upon a moderate income, very much respected and beloved in their neighbourhood; they had lately very large property unexpectedly left them, and their good sense was actually perverted, if not destroyed by it.

The gentleman had purchased a house much too large for his family to occupy; he had furnished it with most unbounded expense, had more carriages and horses than he could use; servants he knew not how to employ, and were the torment of his life; and was continually lamenting that the distance from the offices was so great, and it was so long before the servants came to the bell, that he was always obliged to wait upon himself. Then came a sigh and an ardent wish for his former contracted mansion, where every thing was under his eye and within his reach; with a just eulogium on the wisdom of Solomon, who had long since discovered that in great riches was great vexation.

The good lady his wife was entirely occupied in pinning up her curtains, covering her sofas, dusting the lustres, and shutting out the sun from the best rooms; opening the window-shutters only to show the size of the large glasses, and the colour of the damask, for the rooms themselves had never been used. She complained that they had lost all their acquaintance, and found few others but those who came to see the house; and she was so tired of telling them what every thing had cost, that she

was making an accurate inventory of it, and would have a copy placed in every show-room.

Here was a general laugh, which Charles, the eldest boy, could not keep within due bounds. "God bless the woman!" he exclaimed, "who cares what her things cost? did she mean to mortify the poor, or ingratiate herself with the rich?"

"What could you say to her, my dear Madam?" said Fanny, the eldest girl. "It is an awkward thing, my dear girl, to tell people they are acting foolishly; the human heart is so attached to its own foibles, that no advice is welcome that would expose them to the eye of Reason, or the smile of contempt.

"The proper management of great wealth is very difficult to those who have been bred up with contracted habits; but when the intoxication from such unexpected riches is worn off, I trust their natural good sense will return. At present there is such a mixture of penury and profusion, that it would be a task indeed to attempt any sort of regulation in their establishment. They repeatedly consulted me about what they should do to acquire the respectability of character to which they were entitled from their wealth, and to give the world a proper idea of its magnitude. I recommended an establishment consistent in all its parts, making comfort, rather than parade, their grand object; to omit no opportunity of assisting the distressed. They would be known by these means to the valuable part of society, who were not to be dazzled by splendid furniture; who saw no merit in laced liveries, grand fêtes, or services of plate; who valued no man's merit by the number of his horses, or

the rent-roll of his estates, but would respect and value such a generous use of talents so bountifully bestowed, and be proud to reckon them among their estimable friends.

"The consciousness of deserving the blessings of the distressed would chase ennui from their private hours, give a glow to their feelings, and breathe around them an incense, that, like the vivifying rays of the sun, would brighten, warm, and invigorate wherever it shone."

"Surely," said Charles," they began immediately to alter their plan: did the lady not open her window-shutters immediately, and give her lustres to the care of the house-maid?""Recollect, Charles, the strong force of habit upon the mind; to act greatly, you must be accustomed to think so too; and those who have been accustomed to value trifles, cannot easily forsake them for great objects or great events. My friends were greatly obliged by my advice; but upon only one footman attending the door, as I left it, the butler was severely reprimanded for not having a second to attend to such a necessary part of his duty, and in the same breath reminded that he was not to tread upon the milk-white rug at the door, that had actually cost a guinea.”

"I am afraid," said Charles, laughing, "the lady at least is incurable."-"O," said Fanny, "I hope they will rise or fall together; for if one only should reform, they would never respect each other." Pneumanee had hopes that all she had said would have great weight, and that upon her next visit she should easily discover the good effects of it. She went from thence, she said, to a very different scene, to some highly valued friends, whom she

found in the deepest distress: their beloved and only child had eloped with an officer, whose character they entirely disapproved. She had left a letter to beg forgiveness, to say all pursuit would be vain; that she should be married immediately upon her arrival in Scotland, and would soon return to claim their blessing, and bring to them a son equally deserving of the great indulgence she had ever experienced from parents so beloved.

"Never did I see," continued Pneumanee, "such agonizing distress: the child who, from her birth, had been the object of all their hopes and wishes, the constant theme of their gratitude to Heaven, the unremitting subject of their pride and joy; whose every wish had been anticipated, who was a part of their very existence, and mingled with every pulsation of their hearts; that such a child, so gifted by Nature, so carefully educated, so blessed with fortune, and so adored by her parents that such a child, in the most important act of her life, should throw off all sense of affection and obedience, and wilfully stab them so cruelly to the heart, could not be true-they could not believe it. The man, a vain and frivolous coxcomb, so likely to reproach her for the very act that would unite with her parents' unutterable sorrow her own future misery-it was too much to bear. They enumerated a thousand pleasant traits of her infancy, a thousand endearing expressions and cir-cumstances, that, having often repeated with transport, and hoarded up as the most darling treasure they possessed, would now be remembered with agonizing groans and the bitterest tears of unavailing grief. The father's manly spirit forsook him upon this reflection; he fell