grant dereliction of trust; and, as the thunder-clouds of self-reproach burst upon my terrified conscience, hers returned to the God who gave it.

My wound, though deep, was not dangerous, nor was the cure protracted beyond three or four days; that short period was sufficient to restore my bodily health. Far otherwise was it with my mental part. During my confinement I suffered extreme anguish of spirit. I tried to allay it, sometimes by prayer, sometimes by seeking palliatives for my conduct through every imaginable pretext: but none of them satisfied me. My days dragged on heavily amidst the torments of conscious omission of duty: my nights were far worse. Unable to sleep from a dull sensation of headache, the spectacle, or rather the spectre of her I had so inexcusably abandoned, haunted my waking thoughts. the impression which the bloody death I had seen a few months before made upon my imagination, so now this death, which I had not seen, took strong possession of it.

Like

I thought that she had left her dying bed and come to mine. Again and again I fancied that I looked upon her pale countenance as she sat beside my pillow, and mildly, if I may use the expression, frowned upon me as I lay. Now I well knew the whole time that these ideas were unreal, and no more than mere phantoms of the diseased mind; but I could not minister to it, nor pluck from memory the rooted sorrow which still remained unextirpated. Distressed beyond endurance by those visions which the periodical return of fever at eventide brought with it, I directed that a night lamp should be placed in my chamber Many find this a sovereign remedy against nightly fears; upon ne the effect was quite opposite. A month of my then state of bodily and mental excitement, and I had become a confirmed Swedenborgian, so far as believing that I held converse with departed men.

Whether it were that the flickering flame of the lamp cast varied shadows around, or that a crisis had come, I know not. This I do know, that I embodied every shadow, and set them before me upon as inany chairs as creative fancy could assemble.

My conversations with these people, as may be supposed, were highly animated, but not very profitable; yet I received many answers and assurances from my company. But time rolled on, and obliterated day by day some one phantom of the brain, and weakened at the same time the force of self-reproach. in short, I recovered full health and partial spirits. for the withers of conscience had been sorely wrang. My reflections were very painful and self-aceusing; and though indeed I prayed much, still the exercise brought little comfort: the Spirit had not come. The truth is, my supplications were rather deprecatory than enjoyed as the richest and most sublime privilege bestowed on man. I spoke to my God, but not with him. There was no speaking face to face, as a man speaketh to his friend, but merely a crying for mercy from afar, the beating upon the breast of the penitent sinner, not the hosannas of the believer rejoicing in hope. My mind was therefore a theatre in which conflicting feelings wrestled a sea where the four winds struggled for mastery.

I suffered exceedingly at the time; but subsequent experience has taught me that these strong emotions are generally the prelude to sober and wholesome convictions. The storm blows by-a gentle breeze remains, the pleasing vestige of the elemental rage by which we had been alarmed. I rejoice now—I rejoiced even then-that I felt such profound sorrow. I think it is very advisable to cultivate auch feelings when circumstanced as I was then. The sorrow which a sense of neglected duty inspires, may torment for a season, but bright beams of hope shoot from behind its darkest clouds, and tell to the afflicted soul the tidings of happier days. So certainly was it, and often since has it been with me. The first use I made

of my convalescence was to visit the widower. To my surprise, and I may add confusion, he received me with unbounded cordiality, testifying the deepest gratification at my recovery, and the universal regret the parishioners had felt when the account of the accident I had met with became known. Still, beneath these external demonstrations some hidden sentiment, at variance with his professions, must have lurked. He spoke of his sorrow for the loss he had suffered, and of the religious disposition of his deceased partner; but not a word of her latter moments, nor did he make any allusion to her desire of seeing me. This might have been delicate forbearance: or perhaps conscience made me suspicious; and that was all mere accident. But then he spoke of the fright his son had experienced at sight of my accident: that bore somewhat upon the question, and probed the wound. However, the general impression made upon my mind was that of thankfulness for the feeling consideration which he evinced; and truly his reception of me heaped coals of fire upon my head.

After submitting to this torture for some few minutes, I freely confessed my fault, and asked his forgiveness. Poor fellow! he appeared willing enough to forgive, but I had touched a tender string, which vibratsd in his heart's core. Bitterly did he weep, and loudly bewail the dispensation with which it had pleased God to try him. Overcome by the recollection of twenty years of cloudless happiness, he remained for a long time a prey to irrepressible bursts of affliction. By degrees they subsided: and, when he felt himself sufficiently composed to speak distinctly, he sobbed out --" O! dear sir, I cannot take upon myself to forgive my teacher."

The words were, I believe, spoken in the purest singleness of intention, and with unfeigned humility; but I was fully sensible how much more they meant than he intended to express. They absolutely made me start. Forgive my teacher! Again and again I pondered upon the phrase; and the more I thought on it, the deeper it sunk. Forgive my teacher! "You won't take upon yourself," I inwardly exclaimed, " to forgive him, because you know that the account is between God and his soul, and that it is not yours to deal with." No! the poor man did not think so; and I am sure that if he had, he would have gladly prayed for me He merely felt that I was too much above him to require his forgiveness; while I, in heart, confessed myself so far below him, as earnestly to desire both his forgiveness and his prayers. And I have lived to receive both. Two years had scarce fulfilled their course, when he too was summoned to depart, and pass into "the land where all things are forgotten." Before his day arrived, he had become a changed character. When it had come, he left this world rejoi ing in hope. His last words were a fervent entreaty that God would bless my labours in the parish; and, as I held his clammy hands in mine, we exchanged a final blessing.

Few reflections can be required upon the narrative of so very simple an incident. In the criminality of selfish delay all mankind are agreed: such undoubtedly was mine. A merciful God has, I trust, sent an answer of peace to the sighings of a contrite heart; and not withheld the full measure of his love from her whom a negligent minister deprived of the dying glory of professing her reliance upon her Redeemer's sacrifice.

AUSTRALIA.

AT the October meeting of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, a letter from the bishop was read, dated Sydney, 9th March, 1841, on the subject of the grant of three thousand pounds voted by the society in January, 1840, towards the establishment

of a college in New South Wales. His lordship writes | as follows:

"I entertain the strongest opinion that our progress towards the establishment of a college, by which the true interests of learning shall be advanced, must be by a regular transition through the lower stages of instruction. In this point of view 1 am persuaded that the society's donation may lay a foundation for the most important results, and that it has been most opportune, as enabling me to bring it into connexion with other resources, just now providentially falling to my disposal; the nature of which will appear from the statement of my plan, which I will now submit to the society. Since my last communication, the erection of the grammar school in the immediate vicinity of St. James's church, in Sydney, has been proceeded with. It is now roofed in; and is, as a building, very ornamental to the town, while I trust that, in accomplishing the purpose to which it will be devoted, it will prove equally acceptable and advantageous to the inhabitants. It is calculated that it will contain comfortably 200 boys; attention having been given to secure a very perfect ventilation. The attainment of such a number of scholars will necessarily depend much upon the acquirements and character of the master who may be appointed; and I have addressed a letter to the secretary of the Society for Propagating the Gospel, soliciting its aid in obtaining the services of a duly qualified head of this important establishment. If the school should operate as, by God's blessing, I hope and expect it will, it cannot fail of creating a demand for a seminary of learning of a more advanced character; the means of providing for which I will now proceed to state. The late Mr. Thomas Moore, of Liverpool in this colony, who died on the 24th December, 1840, has by his last will bequeathed to his executors (the bishop of Australia, and Alexander Mackay, and Robert Campbell, juu., esqrs.), the site of his dwelling-house, and ground adjoining, in the town of Liverpool, together with 700 acres of freehold land in trust, towards the establishment of a college in immediate and exclusive connexion with the church of England and Ireland by law established. The situation must be considered favourable, from the quiet and healthiness of it; and its distance from Sydney (21 miles) gives every facility of access. The provision which Mr. Moore has thus made for the advancement of learning and religion is worthy of the utmost commendation, as a proof of his own just anxiety for the permanent welfare of a colony in which it had pleased the Almighty to prosper him, and as an example which it may be hoped others may be induced to follow. His memory will indeed survive with the very enviable distinction of having been the first who, with entire singleness of heart, devoted his substance to the purposes of that piety and charity, of which, while upon earth, he set a constant and very edifying example. The produce, however, of the property which he has entailed upon the intended college is insufficient for the erection or maintenance of such an establishment; nor indeed, as I have before stated, is it immediately required. The appointed site is of sufficient dimensions to admit of the formation of one very large or of two moderately sized quadrangles; and the object of the executors will be to provide for the accumulation of the proceeds of the property, until funds shall be provided for the erection of such a portion at least of the buildings as shall suffice for commencing the work of a regular collegiate education. My anxiety, therefore, is to connect in the closest manner with this design, the establishment of the grammar school, in the erection of which I am now proceeding. My object is, that it shall form a nursery for the future college; wherein I look forward to the establishment of scholarships and fellowships, with other helps and encouragements for the

promotion of learning; enabling the middle and lower classes of society, if they have children of promising abilities, to send them to this seminary, where their capacities may be drawn out and improved, and rendered available to the service of God and of their native country. Holding these objects stedfastly in view, and praying very earnestly for that blessing upon them without which we plant and water in vain, my proposal is to establish as a fundamental rule of the grammar school, that every student shall pay annually, in addition to the charge for tuition, a very moderate sum, to form a fund for. replacing the amount expended in the erection of the school. This fund I propose to vest in the hands of responsible trustees, for the purpose of being placed out at interest, upon real securities, to accumulate until it shall reach the amount of 30001., or such portion of that amount as shall have been drawn from the society's grant, and applied towards the erection of the grammar school. When that amount shall be in the possession of the trustees, I propose that it be transferred from them, to be employed in the erection of the necessary buildings of the college at Liverpool, in conjunction with the accumulated property bequeathed by Mr. Moore, and all such other benefactions or bequests as it may reasonably be believed a sense of public advantage will induce other residents in the colony, and interested in its welfare, to contribute towards an undertaking by which the highest interests of our social state may be promoted, even to the end of time. In this way I earnestly hope the bounty of the society may be successfully applied to its legitimate object; and that its approval will be given to the arrangements by which, in providing for the prospective completion of the purpose expressed in the society's grant, namely, 'the erection of a college,' I have secured the intermediate attainment of another purpose, which is not only most important in itself, but may be regarded as indispensable even for the ultimate fulfilment of the society's design, inasmuch as a good school is the first step towards the university."

NEWFOUNDLAND.

THE bishop, in a letter dated St. John's, Newfoundland, July 26, 1841, has written as follows to the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge:

"I have now re-visited St. John's for a few days, for the purpose of an ordination, which, with God's grace, I effected yesterday, and shall embark (Deo volente) to-morrow for Tonlingato and the northern settlements of Newfoundland. It will be interesting to the society to hear that I have dispatched a vessel, with three missionaries and the materials for building six churches, to Placentia Bay, at the Bay of Islands. I have also been enabled by your bounty, and that of the sister society, to contribute to several other churches and school-houses, to the great encouragement of the reviving spirit of religion in this land. Nothing could have been more timely than your late grant. Without it I know not what I should have done; for this visitation, which I consider to be of the utmost importance, would have been altogether impracticable. Even with the facilities afforded me by the little vessel which I have chartered for the season, my travels are more difficult and perilous than can be conceived in England. I have been obliged to land at some of the little coves scattered over the island, from rough seas, on fish-stakes, or stages rising perpendicularly from the water to the height of thirty and fifty feet, covered with slime and the slippery remains of fish, in great danger of being precipitated into the sea below. In some of these places, however, I have been more than repaid for my labours by the grateful attention of the poor people, and by a strong hope that I have been enabled not only to do them some present good

To bid thee fix thy heart on things
Beyond the gulf of time,

And never expect enduring bliss

In the earth's ungenial clime.

"Why does the sun go down?"

Thou mayst ask in deeper gloom,

When the hand that writes these verses now,
Is laid in the silent tomb :
And O may heaven this sacred truth
Stamp deep on thy bosom then-

It does but quit the scene awhile,
In glory to rise again!

THOMAS RAGG.

Miscellaneous.

PILGRIMS AT ROME IN THE HOLY WEEK.-The scene was a most interesting one. After prayers had been read in the small chapel, each pilgrim was conducted by a Sorella to the room in which the ceremony of the Lavanda, or washing of feet, was to take place. The sisters were all dressed alike, in black silk gowns, with scarlet aprons, on which was a badge with the letters IH S, and the cross in silver, or some inferior metal. The only thing which marked a difference in rank was the hair, which in some was carelessly arranged, in others beautifully dressed with gold chains and simple ornaments. There was an elegance and dignity in the manners of some of the younger sisters which indicated high birth, and a certain pride in the performance of the most menial offices that bespoke the Roman patrician. The gentle and graceful ease with which our fair cicerone entered into conversation with us was perfectly fascinating, and there was something in her countenance that shewed sorrow had been there, and, without marring its beauty, had given it a peculiar expression of tenderness and grace. Around the room were placed high benches, on which the pilgrims were seated. Before each was a tub, supplied by pipes with hot and cold water; a lady knelt beside, and washed and dried the feet of her charge: every foot was then kissed, and while this part of the duty was little relished by the younger and gayer members, many seemed to perform it as a kind of penance fervently and devoutly. The feet of those who had suffered from the stones, or from walking barefoot so many weary miles, were carefully plastered and bound up by an attending surgeon, and then all were led to the supper-hall. Here long tables were laid out, at which the pilgrims were placed. The princess Chigi stood at the top of the room, and gave out from a large smoking cauldron rations of soup, which were conveyed by the sisters to the pilgrims, before each of whom was placed a plate of fish, and another of bread, figs and apples, besides wine. We were very tired, and left soon after supper began, but the labours of the gentle Sorelle do not end until they have made the beds for their guests, and left them to repose. I forgot to tell you that, as we were standing in the supper-hall, a party of gentlemen came in,

dressed in the costume of the brothers of the establishment a loose red gown of glazed calico; they were cardinals and princes; and amongst them Don Miguel was pointed out to us.-Cath. Taylor.

EVIL INFLUENCE OF FASHION.-Never yet was a woman really improved in attraction by mingling with the motley throng of the beau monde. She may learn to dress better, to step more gracefully; her head may assume a more elegant turn, conversation become more polished, her air more distinguished; but in point of attraction she acquires nothing. Her simplicity of mind departs; her generous confiding impulses of character are lost; she is no longer in

clined to interpret favourably of men and things; she listens without believing; sees without admiring; has suffered persecution without learning mercy; and been taught to mistrust the candour of others by the forfeiture of her own. The fresliness of her disposition has vanished with the freshness of her complexion; hard lines are perceptible in her very soul, and crowsfeet contract her very fancy. No longer pure and fair as the statue of alabaster, her beauty, like that of some painted waxen effigy, is tawdry and meretricious. It is not alone the rouge upon the cheek and the false tresses adorning the forehead which repel the ardour of admiration; it is the artificiality of mind with which such efforts are connected that breaks the spell of beauty.-Mrs. Gore.

INDIAN HOSPITALITY.-The virtue of hospitality in India, as elsewhere, prevails most in the milder and more unfrequented districts. "I sometimes frequented places," says Forbes," where the natives had never seen an European, and were ignorant of everything concerning us: there I beheld manners and customs simple as were those in the patriarchal age; there, in the style of Rebecca, and the damsels of Mesopotamia, the Hindoo villagers treated me with that artless hospitality so delightful in the poems of Homer, and other ancient records. On a sultry day, near a Jinore village, having rode faster than my attendants, while waiting their arrival under a tamarind tree, a young woman came to the well; I asked for a little water, but neither of us having a drinking vessel, she hastily left me, as I imagined, to bring an earthen cup for the purpose, as I should have polluted a vessel of metal; but as Jael, when Sisera asked for water, gave him milk, and brought forth butter in a lordly dish,' so did this village damsel, with more sincerity than Heber's wife, bring me a pot of milk,

and a lump of butter; on the delicate leaf of the banana, the lordly dish of the Hindoos. The former I accepted; on my declining the latter, she immediately made it into two balls, and gave one to each of the oxen that drew my hackney. Butter is a luxury to these animals, and enables them to bear additional fatigue."-Oriental Memoirs.

TURKISH JUSTICE.-There is a curious account of an execution of a Turkish woman and her Greek enamorato. The evidence against them was so little conclusive, that the judge had attempted to save the supposed culprits till he was assured by the Turk of a husband, that he would take justice into his own hands if he failed in obtaining it otherwise. The unfortunate pair, therefore, were condemned and hung, side by side, to a beam in front of a warehouse in the bazaar, selected from its being known to belong to a wealthy merchant. The object of this choice is the petition that naturally ensues for liberty to remove so dreadful a nuisance, and perhaps a bribe of 100 piastres (17. of our money) is offered for this purpose. A larger sum is demanded; and, matters not being brought to a conclusion, it is deferred till the morrow. The next

day finds circumstances aggravated-a larger sum is proposed, and a still larger required; and the bid ing goes on increasing till, perhaps, the fifth or sixth day, when the visitation becomes intolerable to the rich man and his neighbours, who are already suffering from the desertion of their customers, that they make common cause, and the affair is concluded by the payment of what is, in fact, an absolute line of perhaps 20,000 piastres.-Mrs. Dawson Damer's Tour in Turkey and Egypt.

London: Published by JAMES BURNS, 17 Portman Street, Portman Square; W. EDWARDS, 12 Ave-Maria Lane, St. Paul's; and to be precured, by order, of all Booksellers in Town and Country.

PRINTED BY

JOSEPH ROGERSON, 24 NORFOLK STREET, STRAND, LONDON.

TATORS OF HUMAN CONDUCT.
BY THE REV. H. WOODWARD, M.A.,

Rector of Fethard, Tipperary.

THERE is no passage of the kind, the justness and felicity of which have been more generally applauded, than that of our great dramatic poet

"All the world's a stage,

And all the men and women merely players." This pregnant thought is capable of being expanded in various ways; and, amongst other trains of reflection, naturally suggests the following:-There is nothing perhaps more wounding to the natural pride and native ambition of the mind than to fancy, at least, that we are unsuitably placed in lifethat the part allotted us to act is below that rank which our talents and capabilities might fairly claim, and to which they might unpresumptuously aspire. It is no small trial to flesh and blood when we see men of inferior attainments raised above us. We look up, perhaps from amidst the dark shades of obscurity and the drudgeries of a struggling life, or it may be from the lowest depths of pining want and sorrow, and behold the favourites of fortune riding upon the high places of the earth, and basking in the sunshine of the world, envied, caressed, and flattered, while at he same time we feel that all intrinsic superiority is on our side. We know that this glitter is but the thin covering of a coarse and mean and narrow soul; while beneath the outward garb of poverty and depression, there breathes within our bosom a loftier spirit, forced as it were into an unnatural position, and struggling to escape

VOL. XII.-NO. CCCXXIII.

This

deep dissatisfaction of the mind is much enhanced when we begin to reach that point at which it appears that our present allotment is fixed for life, and that things must now continue as they are to the end. In early youth we feel that we are still malleable, and that if Providence should raise us higher, we can easily take such new impressions as our change of circumstances may require. But when we are conscious of habits being so formed, that we are better suited to keep the blank we have drawn in the lottery of life than to ascend to the rank of those who hold its glittering prizes-that now it would be too late to acquire the modes, to become naturalized to the manners, of those in high station, so as to act our part with grace and ease if elevated to their level; there is, under these convictions, a dejection of spirit and rebellion of soul best known to those who would have things otherwise than God has ordered, and who oppose their will to the march of an almighty Providence: for experience alone can tell how thorough discontent can fester in the heart, and rankle in the breast which harbours it.

A truly pious friend, placed in both trying and humiliating circumstances, once told me that the burden was considerably lightened by the hope of better things to come, even here below. While comparatively young, and while paths of deliverance seemed not wholly closed, he felt the justice of that saying, "The spirit of a man will sustain his infirmity:" but when he began to have too good grounds for thinking that his present trials would terminate only with his life, and that those crosses, which to flesh and blood

с