nation is willing to escape, and to wander without the impediment of blushes. Against this wandering, employment is a defence, and company is a defence, and the salutary dread of danger*. The young lady who never read a romance, but perseveres in intellectual, and humane, and pious exercises, is pure in heart. To the reserved and thoughtful, whose imaginations are fertile, devotion is a fafe-guard from evil thoughts, it opens a wide field of innocent delight, it pours out the secrets of the soul, and fills that void which is felt by all, but most by the retired and humble. "The departure of "company is the return of religion, and he "takes leave of man but to meet with God." There is a secret inner chamber accessible only to God and the soul. Enter it with God, and cast out whatsoever defileth. Enter with God, and present to him the conscious remorse, and contrite tears, and bitterness of the heart, which he knows and appreciates; offer thanksgiving for deliverances and bles sings. Enter often, and acquaint yourself with God: it is a retreat from care, a refuge

* Lisant, a seize ans, histoire naturelle de Bouffons, je sautai, sans la lire, l'article qui taitoit de l'homme, et je glissai sur les planches relatives, avec la promptitude et le tremblement de quelqu'un appercevant un precipice. Madame Rolande.

from overwhelming sorrow, a receptacle for feelings and for thoughts, which cannot, or ought not to be uttered. It is an oracle to enlighten and direct your steps. "The se

"cret of the Lord is with them that fear him, " and he will shew them his covenant."

THE extremity of shame is combined with tenderness of conscience, and often awakens the reproaches of the heart. Sins of omission, which Archbishop Usher lamented when dying, are thought of with compunction by the bashful: they have been kept back from presumptuous sins, but through false shame they have omitted testimonies of public and of private virtue, even when their sense. of obligation was strong; and their remorse is in proportion bitter. The Lord who knoweth all things, knows the efforts they have made, and their contrition for every failure. Days and nights of fearful solicitude about the path of duty, and of penitential sorrow for every devious step, render life to those whose hearts are tender, a checkered scene, a wilderness in which they have passed through many briars and thorns, and in which, if they have yet any considerable time to sojourn, there are many briars and

thorns through which they have yet to pass. The rest that remaineth, when fear which causeth torment will be cast out, is an anchor of hope.

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IN sickness, the bashful check the propensity to complain. "A querulous disposition "is never pleasing: next to the danger of murmuring against our Maker, I consider "the temptation to disturb the peace, perhaps to destroy the comfort of those about us, as one of the greatest evils that accompany pain*." While some wish for all the formalities of a last farewell, the bashful are willing, and even desirous to omit them all; they are averse from giving trouble, and dread a record of dying sayings, and wish to be alone. Solitude accords with humble penitence. The aggregate of guilt contracted in early, and ripe, and declining years, arises in awful retrospect. In the silence and secresy of thought the sacrifice of a broken spirit is consummated-A broken and a contrite heart, O Lord, thou wilt not despise. Thou rememberest that I am dust, with a Father's pity for his frail and erring child.

* A Sermon on Pain by Doctor Fordyce.

Blot out my transgressions as a thick cloud. Renew the inward, as the outward man decays. Support my parting steps with patience and faith.

Jesus can make a dying bed

Seem soft as downy pillows are,

While on his breast I lean my head,

And breathe my soul out sweetly there.-Watts

ON BASHFULNESS.

Part Seventh.

THROUGH self-knowledge, which the bashful man is led to cultivate, he views with candour the failings of his bashful brethren. If any of them fail in polite attention, or in kindly condescendence, he knows it was awkwardness, not unkindness, that made them fail; that they neglect to visit and correspond, from the fear of obtruding when they have nothing to say; that formal thanks to a benefactor may, through false shame, be omitted, while they are really thankful, and that they are averse from receiving thanks, or in any way alluding to the service they have done. Proper words may be wanting when the heart is right, nor is the copious language of affection always a proof of its existence. Upon sudden emergencies, the bashful are