do they devote their time and abilities to researches beneficial to their species, while passion is allowed to predominate, and a man marries to please his eye, without any thought about those that are to descend from him."

66

By the head of Neptune, Agnes, 'tis enough to make one mad to hear you talk so foolishly! why, what the devil can be more natural than for a man to marry to please his eye? and I'd be glad to know how any thing that's natural can be blamable ?"

"Ah! fine doctriné! a fine way of teaching your son! Brother, I am astonished at you! I shouldn't wonder if, through your means, your son became one of the greatest profligates in the place."

"Oh, no danger of that! But, Agnes, ain't you afraid of Grace's being revenged for what you have done to her? By the Lord, I shouldn't be surprised if she served your head just as you served hers."

Miss Agnes Flora Judith turned pale at the thought, and involuntarily applying

her hand to her head, as if to feel that all was secure there-" Dear, I should hopeI should trust,” she said, "that she would never suffer herself to forget” but her agitation was too great to permit her to finish the sentence, and in extreme confusion she left the room.

Grace certainly had, in the first transports of her rage, vowed vengeance against her aunt for the trick she had played her; but the violent agitation into which she was thrown by the circumstance brought on a fit of illness, that confined her for some days to her chamber; and the time that was thus allowed for the subsiding of her passion, was not without its effect in meliorating it. Her heart was too good, and she had profited too well by the religious principles that had early been implanted in her mind, to be capable of long harbouring revenge against any one. She determined, however, not to forgive, or in other words, be reconciled to her aunt, except she received a positive promise from her, never to serve her again in such a manner, or attempt

annoying her as she had latterly done. This promise was readily given by Miss Agnes Flora Judith, glad to get off so cheaply, having been in no little dread of what might ensue on the recovery of Grace, from the spirit she knew she possessed.

A shyness however for some time after existed between them, which rendered the addition that was just about this time made to the establishment at the castle a very agreeable circumstance to both. Miss Agnes Flora Judith, with all her attainments, aware that in those days of refinement there were many things she was not capable of instructing her niece in, and anxious to have her, not only learned, but truly accomplished, engaged a young girl who had been brought up for a governess to assist in the completion of her education, and whose manners proved so very amiable, as soon to render her a general favourite in the house, and with none more than her pupil, who, ardent and af

fectionate in her nature, soon loved her as if she were a sister, finding in her society a substitute for the loss she had sustained through the departure of her friend, or, as he would have preferred being styled, lover, William.

CHAPTER V.

"Oh, come not ye, near innocence and truth,
Ye worms, that eat into the bud of youth!
Infectious as impure, your blighting pow'r
Taints in its rudiments the promis'd flow'r."

BUT the system of Gall and Spurzheim was not to be abandoned because of opposition, or disappointment, in the first instance. Miss Agnes Flora Judith still continued to make it her study and her theme. She at length succeeded in awakening the curiosity of her nephew, whose mind was naturally inquisitive; and the result of his investigation of it, was his

becoming a convert to it. He was just of an age and temper to be caught by any thing new; and in this there was something so ingenious and specious, as com pletely to captivate him.

How often was the world surprised by sudden aberrations in those whom it be lieved almost incapable of error! and was. not this a convincing proof of the truth of the system? for if we could help it, would we, so often as we do, commit acts which we know we must not only be condemned by others, but ourselves for, and which at times we could hardly account for?

The examination of his cranium was no longer opposed; on the contrary, he had an eager curiosity to know what he was likely to be; and with what delight did his aunt proceed to it, with the map of Gall and Spurzheim before her a delight only allayed by the reflection, that if she found any bumps requiring suppression, it was now too late for the application of the metal cap.

"That which I once took such pains to