presented mean and unworthy views of man's relations and destiny, and degraded conceptions of the rewards promised to virtue,and if the style were poor, faulty, and unsuited to great themes,-these defects would exclude it from all claims to be regarded as Divine; would they not?"

"Yes, mother, of course."

"Are any of these suppositions true, with regard to it?"

No, mother, certainly not, it seems to me," said Fanny; " but I do not know how to express what I think about it."

"Neither do I," said James.

"Then I will read to you one or two passages, which will, perhaps, express for you what you wish to say. The first is one often quoted from Sir William Jones. He says that the 'Scriptures contain, independent of their Divine origin, more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, more morality, more important history, and finer strains of poetry and eloquence, than could be collected, within the same compass, from all other books that were ever composed, in any other age, or in any other idiom. The celebrated Burke says, in speaking of the power of the Deity, that the

Scripture alone can supply ideas answerable to the majesty of the subject. In the Scripture, wherever God is represented as appearing or speaking, everything terrible in nature is called up to heighten the awe and solemnity of the Divine presence. The Psalms and the prophetical books are crowded with instances of this kind. And now, if any of the passages you have found contain representations of the Divine majesty, you may read them."

After some rustling and turning of leaves, Fanny read a part of the eighteenth Psalm :

"In my distress I called upon the Lord,

And cried unto my God:

He heard my voice out of his temple,

And my cry came before him, into his ears.

Then the earth shook and trembled;

The foundations also of the hills moved,
And were shaken, because he was wroth.

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils,
And fire out of his mouth devoured:
Coals were kindled by it.

He bowed the heavens also, and came down:
And darkness was under his feet.

And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly;
Yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.

He made darkness his secret place;

His pavilion round about him were dark waters

And thick clouds of the skies.

At the brightness that was before him his thick clouds

passed;

Hail-stones and coals of fire.

The Lord also thundered in the heavens,

And the Highest gave his voice;

Hail-stones and coals of fire.

Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them;

And he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them;

Then the channels of waters were seen,

And the foundations of the world were discovered
At thy rebuke, O Lord,

At the blast of the breath of thy nostrils."

Fanny read this, as if she felt its grandeur. James next read several passages from the book of Job, ending with the twenty-sixth chapter; though he said, he had many more to read, if his mother had time to hear them.

She observed that one of the verses he had read, contained, perhaps, as sublime a figure as was to be found in the Bible.

"The pillars of heaven tremble,

And are astonished at his reproof."

"There is, however," continued she, an equally striking and grand example of personification in the third chapter of Habakkuk.

I have Herder's translation of it here, and will read it, with some slight alterations :

'When God came from Teman,

The Holy One from Mount Paran,
His glory covered the heavens,
The earth was full of his praise.

His brightness was like the sun;

Rays of light shot forth from his hand;

And these were but the veiling of his might.
Before him walked the pestilence,

And burning coals went forth at his feet.

He stood; the earth was moved:

He looked; and the nations were scattered abroad.
The everlasting mountains were broken in pieces,
The perpetual hills did bow,

When he marched forth of old.

I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction:

The curtains of Midian trembled.

Was Jehovah angry at the rivers?

Was the blast of thy breath at the waves?

Was thy wrath against the sea?

For thou didst ride upon thy horses

And chariots of victory.

Thou drewest thy bow,

Multiplying seven-fold thine arrows,

And the streams cleft asunder the land.

The mountains saw thee, and trembled;

The overflowing waters fled away;

The deep uttered his voice,

And lifted up his hands on high.

The sun and moon stcod still in their places,
At the dazzling light of thine arrows flying,
At the brightness of thy glittering spear.'"

The children liked this very much, and begged that their mother would read them more of Herder's translations. She accordingly read the two following, from Isaiah and Daniel :

"The year in which the king Uzziah died,

I saw Jehovah sitting on a high, uplifted throne;
His train of glory filled the temple,

And round the throne his servants stood.

Six wings had each of these;

With twain they covered their face,

With twain they covered their feet,

And with twain they did fly.

And one cried to another, and said,
'Holy, holy, holy,

Jehovah, God of hosts,

The earth is full of thy majesty!'

The foundations of the pillars moved

At the voice of him that cried,

And the temple was filled with smoke."

ISAIAH vi. 1-4.

"This I saw until the thrones were raised,

And the Ancient of Days enthroned:

His garment was white as snow,

The hair of his head like pure wool;