Creator, yes! Thy wisdom and Thy word
Created me! Thou source of life and good!
Thou spirit of my spirit, and my Lord!
Thy light, Thy love, in their bright plenitude
Filled me with an immortal soul, to spring
Over the abyss of death, and bade it wear
The garments of eternal day, and wing
Its heavenly flight beyond this little sphere,
Even to its source-to Thee-its Author there.

O thoughts ineffable! O visions bless'd!
Though worthless our conceptions all of Thee,
Yet shall Thy shadowed image fill our breast,
And waft its homage to Thy Deity.
God! thus alone my lowly thoughts can soar;
Thus seek Thy presence-Being wise and good!
'Midst Thy vast works admire, obey, adore;
And when the tongue is eloquent no more,
The soul shall speak in tears of gratitude.

SIR JOHN BOWRING.

IN QUEST OF A WIFE.

Dinner was over, my mother had taken up her knitting apparatus, and I was picking my teeth and amusing myself with building castles in the air, when my attention was roused by the unusual number of the good lady's hems, which I knew to be a prelude to some extraordinary communication. At length, out it came: 'My dear Tom," said she, "yesterday was your birth-day, you are now three-and-twenty, and it is high time you should be looking out for a good match: a man must marry some time or other, but he should take care he does so ere it is too late, for that is as bad as too soon.' "Why, mother," answered I, "I am not much disinclined to change my situation, as the phrase goes; but I have never yet been fortunate enough to meet with the girl who would induce me to become a benedict." While I was speaking, my mamma had opened her china snuff-box, and with a knowing look held a pinch betwixt her finger and thumb; "What would you think now," said she, after a pause, and eyeing me through her spectacles; "what would you think of little Doris, the upper forester's daughter!" I shook my head, "She is well enough to pass away an hour or two occasionally, for she is a good-natured lively thing, but she is like the lilies of the valley, they toil not, neither do they spin." "Son, she has ten thousand dollars in the bank, and they will set the looms agoing. You know our estate is burdened with debt, and as you now think of keeping house for yourself, and

once.

won't make use of your friend's influence to procure you a place under government for you- "My good mother," interrupted I: "once for all, that is out of the question; one who has any pretensions to the character of an honest man cuts but a sorry figure nowadays as a man in office; for my own part, I can only go straight forwards, and it would not be easy to avoid now and then treading on the kibe of some placeman or other, or giving him a jerk with my elbow, and I should gain nothing but vexation for my pains. No! no! I will travel, and endeavour to suit myself to my mind." "But do you know what the expression 'getting suited' means?" I took her hand. "Mother," cried I, "most fully do I appreciate the force of the expression, for I have seen it so completely exemplified in my own family; during my father's life, he and yourself had but one heart, one will." This was touching the right string, and decided the question at My mother wiped her spectacles, gave me a blessing, and desired me to travel. My portmanteau was soon packed, and almost before I could bestow a serious thought on the object of my journey, I found myself seated in the diligence for B- I was ashamed, however, to turn back, and determined to give myself up to the guidance of my lucky star. I had several acquaintances at B—, and loitered away some weeks among them, and among what is called the good society of the place. Here there was no lack of pretty maidens, all ready and willing to get married, but their forward manners and total want of feminine delicacy soon convinced me that this was not the place to get suited: for the most part, their ideas of life were gathered from the shelves of the circulating library; and of gentility, from the miserable flounderings of a set of strolling players, who sometimes visited the town; in short, their small accomplishments sat on them with as much grace and propriety as the glass beads and tinsel of the Europeans do on the necks of savages. One young creature, however, attracted my attention by her naïveté and engaging disposition. I determined to make her acquaintance, and found no difficulty in procuring an introduction to her father's house. She was the only child of a rich contractor, who had amassed a consider able fortune during the war, and now lived very comfortably on his fortune. Wilhelmina played on the harpsichord a little, sung a little, drew a little, and had a smattering of French and Italian; but it was easy to perceive she laid claims to excellence in all these acquirements. Throughout the house there was great

splendour, without the slightest particle of taste. Miss was the idol of her parents, over whom she exercised unlimited sway, and the surest and shortest road to the old people's hearts was by praising their darling. It would have been no very difficult matter for me to have won this damsel's hand, had I been so inclined; for besides that she showed some sort of penchant for me, the Von before my name was a powerful recommendation to old Squaretoes; but I felt that she was not at all calculated to make a wife for a domestic man like myself; and a letter soon afterwards received from my mother, wherein she expressed the same opinion, determined me to look elsewhere for a spouse.

I left B in company with a fellow-collegian, who was going to S- on business, and as I wished to see that town, we agreed to travel together. In the inn at Lunan, where we stopped for the night, we fell in with some strangers: a gentleman from S, with his son, and a young lady, his ward. We met together at supper, and the conversation took an easy and lively turn; it is true, the elder of the two men spoke seldom, but he smiled often; and, as they say, at the right place; and looked as if he could say a great deal on every subject, if he would. He made up for his silence, however, by keeping the bottle continually on the move. The son was the reverse of his father, his tongue never lay still, although his ideas were not of the most brilliant order. The young lady remained silent, and apparently absorbed in her own thoughts; she had a tall, elegant figure, handsome features, with a mild and somewhat melancholy expression, and she appeared to have recently shed tears; I gathered from what passed at supper, and afterwards from the landlord, that she was called Adeline; that her father, Major Linden

ow,

had fallen in battle, leaving her to the protection of his friend, Colonel Sternbach, who now lived on his estate near Lunan; that Colonel Sternbach had sent her to be educated at S, where she resided with his brotherin-law, the senator Seldorf, with whom I had supped; that the colonel now lay dangerously ill, and that Seldorf, who expected to inherit his estates, was on his return from visiting him. Although Adeline had never once deigned to look at me, yet there was a something about her that interested me exceedingly in her favour. Old Seldorf, on learning my intention of remaining a few days at S- , gave me a pressing invitation to visit him and his family; his son drank to our better acquaintance, and swore that one's time might be spent at Sin the most delightful way in the world, and

On

that even a university life did not surpass it. He offered, as my travelling friend quitted me here, to fill his vacant place in my carriage, to save me, as he said, from the blue-devils. any other occasion I could willingly have dispensed with the youngster's good intentions; for there is nothing in which I take a greater delight than when, seated snugly in the corner of the vehicle, I can give myself up, undisturbed, to every fancy, and luxuriate in all the delights of castle-building; now, however, I determined, for once, to forego my favourite gratification, and acceded to his proposal, as I thought it might afford me an opportunity of learning something more of Adeline, into whose opinion I felt a strong inclination to ingratiate myself. Early on the following morning we set out for Lunan, and for several miles my new companion troubled me very little with his remarks, as he almost immediately began to snore; but he soon awoke, and then talked all in a breath about his college adventures, his connections in S, his two sisters, Adeline, and his prospects of getting a place. "I shall then," added he, rubbing his hands, "marry Adeline! for you know a wife is a necessary appendage to a man when he becomes of consequence in the state." This piece of intelligence was not of the most pleasant description; "So," said I, doubtless with a sheepish look enough, "you have confessed that Adeline is perfectly indifferent to you, and yet you mean to marry her; how can you expect happiness from such a union?" "Pooh, pooh," said he, "my dear fellow, your ideas of marriage are quite out of date; the husband has only to take care that his wife keeps within proper bounds; that she attends to her family and kitchen concerns, receives the guests, and so forth; the Orientals have far better notions of matrimony than we in the north; among them the wife is neither more nor less than the principal slave, and that, according to my view of the matter, is what she ought to be, and not a whit more. "But Adeline!" said I, impatiently. Adeline," answered he, "has ridiculous whims, like all other girls who have not yet reached a certain age. She has nothing to boast of but her pretty face, and has hitherto lived in complete dependence; my uncle, indeed, lets her want for nothing, but then he is daily expected to set out on his journey for the other world, in which case she must be glad to get a comfortable settlement. During the last two years she has taken the charge of our domestic concerns, for my sisters do not trouble their heads about such matters." I was now enabled to form a tolerable good

guess of Adeline's situation, and her misfortunes imparted additional interest to her in my eyes. On the second day after my arrival at SI received an invitation from the elder Seldorf, which I readily accepted. The sisters were a pair of dolls who displayed their accomplishments as if they wished to let them out on hire. The youngest of the two played a few musty waltzes on the piano, and the other sung a bravura in a style that made my very flesh creep; Adeline busied herself about the house,, and it was easy to see that the management of everything was in her hands. She seemed a little more cheerful than when I saw her at Lunan, still her countenance bore evident traces of dejection. Whilst the sisters were acting their parts, she sat down to her needle, from which she seldom looked up; her future lord and master showed her very little attention, and I could almost imagine she treated him with contempt; I felt quite out of humour, and had risen to go away, when it came into the old gentleman's head to ask his daughters to declaim; neither of the misses, however, was in the vein, and he then applied to me to favour them with a specimen of my rhetorical powers; I was vain enough to accede to this request, for I flattered myself that I should now be enabled to make some impression on Adeline. They gave me the Cassandra of Schiller. I had often read aloud, and understood at least accentuation and modulation of tone. When I had finished, all were lavish of their applause; but I was only attentive to Adeline, whose expressive eye now seemed to regard me somewhat more attentively. From henceforward I continued to visit the senator almost daily, but never found an opportunity of seeing Adeline alone; she was ever engaged in her domestic concerns, and when she came sometimes for a few minutes into the room, the sisters had always some pretext or other to prevent my addressing a word to her. As the family were one evening assembled as usual, the conversation happened to turn upon women and marriage; the father gave it as his opinion, that the principal point to be attended to was whether or not the bride had a weighty purse. Young Seldorf was of an opposite way of thinking. 'Money," said he, "gives the wife to lord it over her husband, which she is always sure to avail herself of, and it is therefore dangerous to marry for that alone." The two girls coincided with their father, and supported the contest with a deal of stuff in favour of rich daughters, or, in other words, of themselves. This annoyed me, for Adeline's sake, although she did not appear to notice anything that

had passed. I now took up the cudgels, and said: "According to my notions, a woman's value is not to be estimated by what she has, but by what she is. Women have, for the most part, juster views of the value of things than men, and none but such as are of a coarse and common nature ever wish to make their dowry a pretext for exercising undue control." While I was talking in this ridiculous strain, with more than ordinary warmth, Adeline continued quietly at her work, and the sisters winked and made faces to each other. I got vexed, and took my leave. When I reached home I reproached myself for my folly. My observations had pointed too strongly to Adeline, of whom, as she was totally without fortune, it was impossible for me to think seriously; and uncomfortable as her situation in that family was, this conduct of mine had been calculated only to render it more so. I now therefore determined to be more sparing of my visits, and actually staid away two whole days. On the evening of the third, however, I met Adeline by chance at a friend's house, and as it was already late, civility obliged me to offer to see her home. "If you are going that way at any rate," said she, somewhat reservedly. Mr. Seldorf lived at some distance; but I don't know how it happened, we did not choose the nearest road to his house. I had persuaded her to take my arm, and we fell into conversation which soon became interesting. I declared in the most unreserved manner my opinion of the Misses S., and touched by the way on Adeline's own situation. She seemed affected, and said, "Though education and circumstances may produce in us faults for which we are not to blame, they often at the same time put it in our power to do much good, for which probably we do not deserve praise. If I have obtained juster views of life than I should otherwise have possessed, I am indebted for them to that excellent clergyman who brought me up; and if I am not easily disquieted or ruffled, it is doubtless owing to my natural frame of mind. One person is differently constituted from another; and besides, I have passed through a severe school." She said this with so much sweetness and unaffected modesty, that at this moment I could have pressed her to my heart, I could have offered her my hand; I thought of my mother and what treasure I should present her with in this maiden, and the blow would perhaps have been struck on the instant, had not luckily, or unluckily, young Seldorf just at this juncture made his appearance, and most unmercifully put to flight all my fine emotions by his rapid raillery.