visit Illnetta, when the bedside of a good sick mother (who was hastening rapidly on the wings of consumption to a premature grave) could be left without uneasiness.

CHAPTER VIII.

Emma.-0 William! you have wronged me- kindly

wronged me.

Whenever yet was happiness the test

Of love in man or woman? Who'd not hold

To that which must advantage him? Who'd not
Keep promise to a feast, or mind his pledge

To share a rich man's purse? There's not a churl,
However base, but might be thus approved
Of most unswerving constancy. But that
Which loosens churls, ties friends, or changes them
Only to stick the faster. William! William!
That man knew never yet the love of woman,
Who never had an ill to share with her.

GENTLE, patient reader, your attention is now called from the shores of the New World, to a great, "oftheard-of" land, far across the Atlantic-the isle of long-established fame, from whose mighty cities, flowery fields, and pleasant valleys have sprung the fathers of our own literature, the progenitors of our own language. And to understand this, and the few succeeding chapters, the mind must travel back over the ruins of past years, the graves of heroes, and the fallen greatness of former men. In doing which, you are not invited to stop and enter minutely into the details of English times, either historical or political, but only to give a passing glance at a few private in

cidents, which relate to the investigation of certain characters under consideration.

In the north-eastern part of Essex county, England, stood the house, or rather the castle, of Lord Scarborough, a nobleman of considerable wealth and lively reputation, and the father of two grown-up children. Robert, the first-born, was a youth of extraordinary intellectual capacities, and endowed with many virtuous qualities.

From an early age, he had manifested a respect for benevolence and Christian philanthropy. He was never better pleased than when doing some needy person an act of kindness, for which purpose he visited the lowliest tenant, and administered to the wants of the meanest wretch, bestowing comfort to the bereaved, and sustaining the faint by kind words and better deeds.

Add to all this a firm, manly spirit, which could brave any danger, nor staggered at sight of duty, and you will yet have but an imperfect idea of the excellent principles of Robert Scarborough.

In room of the haughty, contemptuous young nobleman that his parent and friends wished him, he was humble, yet firm and steadfast, making choice of meekness before pride, and virtue before worldly honors, the true ornaments of an untarnished character.

Lord Scarborough, after trying every means which his own or the minds of his coädjutors could suggest, to wean the "wayward boy," as he called him, from his unbecoming habits, after sending him to a distant school, and absenting him from home for a number of years, without effect, determined in the future to act

with more severity, forcing him into views towards which persuasion and threats were useless. And as a double impetus to his displeasure, he made suit to a young and beautiful cottage girl, the daughter of a neighboring tenant.

The younger brother, Manchester, was a boy of weak mind, hidden expression, and deceitful character. He never manifested the part of a brother towards Robert, or friendship towards any one, save those who were equally vile as himself.

Such a son was a fit subject to receive the base instructions of a high-minded parent, who every day infused into his willing soul new phases of loyalty, pride, and vainness. Not unfrequently either did the short-sighted father mingle expressions of hatred and jealousy concerning the behavior of Robert; and thus encouraged, the evil precepts from such a producer, and offered to such a ready communicant, soon presented themselves in a most hideous form, the culminating point of all his demoniacal wishes.

Nor did he hesitate to make available every itein, both true and false, that his fertile mind could devise, in alienating his brother from the esteem and confidence of Lord Scarborough, who, needing not much to excite him against the hated violater of a father's mandates, listened with eagerness and pleasure to the villainous proposals of Manchester, vehement to put in force the views of his obedient son, which amounted to nothing less than an entire prescription, not merely from the family circle, but from the least share in the estate or honors of his rightful patrimony.

Blindly, foolishly, and without a serious thought of

the baneful consequences, Lord Scarborough was maturing a plan to ruin his best blood, and drive to utter despair a child whose heaven-built soul had led him to stand in defense of virtue in opposition to every being on earth that bore to him a relationship, an innocent mother alone excepted.

He was inadvertently setting thorns in his own death-bed, and bringing down upon himself a tide of misery, destined to darken his declining life, and send his gray hairs in sorrow to the grave. O father! if this humble volume comes under thy observation, ponder well the plain truth which it contains, nor forget the precepts which it teaches-that moral goodness is something more than a proud title or an empty name, which may fitly be styled

"A sounding brass or a tirkling cymbal."

We are an advocate of a cheerful obsequiousness on the part of children to parents; but when religious duty is at stake, the obligation is null and void. The child undoubtedly owes a service to its parent, but the parent owes a greater one to the child; therefore it is his duty to provide as well for the moral as the physical welfare of his offspring, and to regard its future happiness, instead of entailing upon it a legacy of miseries which drag the helpless victim down to the very verge of death.

Robert found a soul in Matilda Green as pure, as honorable, and as faithful in love as himself. In her bosom throbbed a heart which was foreign to deceit, that knew no shadow of turning when once it had been fixed to the beloved object of its choice.