mind, when it first begins to consider subjects of this

nature.

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"They put her there because she was dead, Master Gwynne,' replied the nurse.

"What is being dead?' he asked; and, 'Does every body die? and shall I die too? and does she like being there? Can she smell the flowers? Can she breathe there?'

"Before the nurse could answer these many questions, it seems that one of the last remaining specimens of those ancient bards who used to pass from one gentleman's house to another, carrying his harp on his shoulders, and being well assured of a joyful welcome, had entered the churchyard, and stolen unobserved close in the rear of the nurse and children, and there having rested his harp against a tombstone, he was ready to answer to the last inquiry of the child, 'Can she breathe there?'

"Ah, little lass!' he said (for he had known her well), 'Poor little Lucy! There is no breath in her now, nor never will be again till the heavens shall be no more, though she was wont to be the first to greet me when I entered yon village street.' At the sound of old David's voice (for such was our harper's name), the nurse and children started, but immediately seeing who he was, they welcomed him cordially, and my little boy made him sit down by his side, and answer all his questions on the mysterious subject which then, for the first time, filled his mind.

"It happened, good madam, or rather, I should say, it was so ordered by Divine Providence," continued the worthy old gentleman, "that this harper, notwithstanding the hinderances which his wandering mode of life might seem to throw in his way, was a decidedly pious man, and as such promptly availed himself of the opportunity thus presented, of directing the child's mind to the real intent and purpose of natural death, or the dissolution of the body, as it regards the true believer and those who are found in Christ; for what is natural death to such, but that process by which the redeemed is set free from corruption, and admitted to a more perfect union with Christ.

"So then,' answered the little boy, when he had listened a long time, 'Lucy's soul is gone to Jesus Christ, and she is very happy, and quite glad, and will never be

naughty any more,-and she was younger than I am,-I am five years old, and she was four; and her grandmother had taught her about Jesus Christ: who will teach me about him? for perhaps I may die too while I am little. When will you come again, David, and sit again in this place, and talk more about it?'

"I will come very soon, and talk more to you, little master,' he answered; but, mayhap, now you would like to hear a tune on my harp, and I will sing you a hymn about going to heaven; and he uncovered his harp, and played an old psalm-tune, accompanying his harp with his voice in a hymn; and thus he talked and sung till the sun got low, and then the nurse took him to the mansion, where he lodged that night.

"The nurse, from whom I gathered most of this story, told me, that all the while he was talking to my boy, she had been listening, and, as she expressed it, gathered up many things which had been lost to the child, as being beyond the grasp of his understanding; and these things, with God's blessing, sunk deep into her mind; and she added that, during that winter, whenever he asked her to tell him a story, she used to tell him the story of little Lucy's grave, and how the harper had come and surprised them, and how he had talked about our Saviour and heaven, and the happiness of the redeemed; till at length he as regularly asked for the story as it grew dusk. When spring arrived, the harper came again; but he had had a bad winter, and looked very infirm; he could hardly carry his harp. He seemed aware that he should never see my little boy again when he took leave of him, but he promised him, if ever he came again, he would bring him a book, with a picture in it, of a good man who travelled from the city of Destruction to the celestial Zion. The poor harper never indeed did come again, for he died soon afterward at Aber Conway; but in dying, he remembered his promise to my son, and caused the clergyman who attended him to pack up this book, which was 'The Pilgrim's Progress,' full of oldfashioned pictures, which he had possessed for many years, and put it into such a channel as to reach the child.

"The brown paper parcel, containing this old and well-worn book, was the first packet my son had ever received; added to which, the tender remembrance of the old harper, whom he had known from infancy, ren

dered the old worn volume inexpressibly dear to him, setting apart its intrinsic merits, its curious and quaint representations of Giant Despair and his redoubtable castle; its maps and charts of the road, with other embellishments of the same description; so that from that period the harper's book was the favourite companion of the leisure hours of my son, and if he learned nothing more from this book, he at least learned one thing, and that was not a little, that the true Christian ought to be ready to leave all behind him, in order that he may obtain an inheritance in the kingdom of heaven.

"And thus was my boy led silently forward in the way of holiness, while his parents were far away; and his tutor gave himself no further trouble respecting him than to see that he construed his Latin, and made himself well acquainted with his Accidence.

"In the meantime, we in Paris were continually deferring our return to Caervon; and when we had actually fixed that return, our eldest daughter was taken ill, and ordered to the south of France; and we in our hearts were almost glad of this excuse to delay our absence; for my agent had found it his interest to keep me abroad, and with this view had always made it appear to me, by letter, that he could manage my refractory tenants much better without my visible presence with them.

"It is easy to persuade a man when he wishes to be persuaded; so I sent for my youngest daughter and her nurse, and wrote to a brother of Mrs. Gwynne to find a proper school for my son. My brother-in-law accordingly sent for my son, and, as he wrote me word, was very much pleased with him, and was about to send him to a large public school, when his plans were providentially changed, by what appeared to me quite an accident. While my boy was at his uncle's, there happened to be a clergyman visiting in the family, with his two sons; he was a man of fortune, and a truly pious man; his sons were older than mine, and it seems that one of them detected my little boy, one morning, sitting at the foot of his bed, in a closet which his uncle had given him to sleep in, trying to copy the picture of Giant Despair on a slate, from his old book. This led my son to tell his young companion the story of the book, and of the harper; and this story being carried to the father, he was so touched and affected by it, that he made a

petition to my wife's brother to be allowed to take my son home with him, and to educate him with his own fine boys. This was an offer not to be declined; and all preliminaries being settled, the dear child went off with his patron in a few days, and in the house of Mr. Hughes enjoyed every privilege which the child of the first gentleman, scholar, and Christian of the land could desire: but all this might still be attributed to the ignoble means which the Almighty chose to use, in order to confound my pride and self-conceit.

"Thus my son, and the heir of a large domain, was educated in the way of holiness, and inspired by God's blessing on human means with those true principles, through the medium of which the rulers and reformers of society can alone shed peace and happiness on their dependants, while they still use those restraints which are and ever must be necessary for keeping in order those members of the community who are not under the influence of Christian principles; for liberty is a fine word, but it is not made for man. There is no creature living who does not find himself in one way or other subjected to another. The very conformation of society includes the idea of dependance, and the best view we can have of liberty is, that state of mind by which we are enabled to conform, with most ease to ourselves, to the circumstances of our situations. The yoke does not gall when we cease to struggle against it; and there is one who truly says of himself, ‘My yoke is easy, and my burden light.'

"So my son grew and prospered; and although I did not return to England till his education was finished, yet I saw him twice; for Mr. and Mrs. Hughes and the family, being invited by me, joined us once in the south of France, and again a year or two afterward in Paris. I was delighted each time with my boy; and I must do myself the justice to say, that I had sufficient discretion not to interfere with Mr. Hughes's work, so happily begun and carried on; and, indeed, to confess the truth, both I and my wife were at this time beginning to have no small doubts of our own superior wisdom, and of the soundness of our reforming principles. The death, too, of our eldest daughter, had its influence in showing to us the vanity of the world; for she had died in the very early blossom of superior loveliness, and in a state of mind which, although we had not understood it at

the time, has given us great delight in the retrospect. But I must not be too particular, as I see the spire of the village to which I am bound rising above the woods before us," continued the old gentleman, "but must hasten to the conclusion of my story.

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Having made such miserable work of my reformation system, I resolved never again to settle at Plus Caervon, but established my son there on his marriage with his tutor's only daughter, who was an infant in arms when he entered her father's house-and he is now the parent of children as tall as myself.

"I am now on my return from visiting him; and if I could only say of him that in his generation he has undone all the mischief that I did in mine with my pragmatical schemes of reform, it would not be saying a little; but, with God's blessing, he has done more. Though he had to fight against the stream for a long time, yet has he at length introduced that spirit of submission, and of consequent content and frugality, into the families of his dependants, which in a great measure has removed all cause of murmur and complaint; for he labours to teach his people that this world is not their resting-place; that they are to be here but awhile, and that godliness with contentment is great gain; that if the old customs of society have their inconveniences, new plans, however well arranged, would certainly introduce others, and probably still greater ones. That it is necessary that there should be different ranks in society; and that although the turn of fortune's wheel might probably bring some up who are now down, yet that equality is a state of things which cannot last, as long as one man is stronger, or another more wise or artful, than his brother."

The good old gentleman was here suddenly cut off in his discourse by the appearance of a groom leading a horse, and motioning to the coachman to stop.

"Is it you, Thomas?" he said, in a cheerful tone: "Are all well at home?" and then, bowing politely as he descended the steps of the coach, we passed rapidly forwards, and saw him no more.