reposing the eye on those exquisite hues which in that species of flower, never lack a refreshing coolness. I was strongly tempted to enroll myself among the hyacinth devotees: but there was something in the neighbouring family of the Ranunculus' that struck my childish fancy beyond all the rest. There appeared a toy-like prettiness in the many coloured balls, that was not to be rivalled by any other; and when a light breeze suddenly swept over the garden, too faint to disturb the more substantial stems of their neighbours, my Ranunculus' were all in motion, nodding their innocent heads, as it would seem, at me and at each other, with such lively, infantine restlessness, that I was rivetted to the spot, indifferent to any other attraction, while the party continued in the garden.

This was a point in my opening character that I cannot trace to any origin; but it cleaves to me yet, and always will do so-a strange faculty of forming, as it were, acquaintance with inanimate objects, until a sympathetic feeling seemed to exist between us, and I found more interesting companionship in a tree, a flower, or a rivulet, than among the greater number of my own species. I am now fully convinced that, out of this comparatively most innocent enjoyment, Satan wove a powerful snare for my afterlife. Imagination took the rein, and carried me out, far beyond the boundaries of reality and sober thought. A world that I could people entirely after my own unfettered fancy, was doubly attractive when I began to experience the hollowness and instability of sublunary things. My heart was never cold; neither, as regards my fellow-creatures, was it ever treacherous.

A very little kindness, the mere

semblance of love in others, drew forth an abundant return of unfeigned affection; and this, of course, exposed me, even in childhood, to frequent disappointments, on the discovery that I was receiving only base coin in exchange for my best gold. One would suppose that the affections of an immortal creature, repulsed on earth, would naturally rise with greater vigour heavenward;-when thus checked in their tendency to shoot, as it were, horizontally, they would assume the perpendicular, and rise towards God. But, alas! corrupt nature has no desire after that which alone is worthy to be desired; and I transferred every slighted affection to that ideal region which my own fancy had created, by combining the images of whatsoever was lovely and loveable in this dying world-thus using the gifts of my Creator as so many implements wherewith to effect the robbery of what was doubly His-my own heart, and the faculties of mind and body, implanted by His hand, that they might yield him a reasonable increase.

Thompson's beautiful hymn on the seasons, albeit that it rises no higher than deism, was the first thing that compelled me to see God in his works; and even this greatly sobered my wild imagination: but it was not an humbling truth, as I viewed it. Looking around upon a universe of mute worshippers, taught to consider myself as one of those

Chief, for whom the whole creation smiles,
At once the head, the heart, the tongue of all,

without any knowledge of my own lost and exceedingly sinful state, any consciousness of that guilty perversion of imparted powers, that sank me far below the level of those things that implicitly follow the first law of their existence, even the "wind and

storm, fulfilling his word," what benefit could I derive in offering vain oblations of praise, from an unsanctified, unhumbled heart? But, blessed be God for Jesus Christ! the gospel came, not to divorce me from the contemplation of what is so lovely and so soothing when viewed aright, but to render that contemplation profitable-to print a gentle rebuke on every page of the great book, wherein I used to read only the lessons of pride, and slothful indulgence; and to tell me that, while every inferior creature of God is filling its station, performing its office, and ministering to the accomplishment of one vast end, I, who am bought with a mighty price, must not cumber the ground, in a life of unfruitful idleness, and visionary speculation. I too, must be doing; and that as being well assured that my time is short at the longest, precarious at its best estate, and frail as the flower which bends before a zephyr's sigh.

Thus the Ranunculus leads me back to a period now distant, and shewing me the long, the guilty waste of precious days and years, waves not its beautiful head in vain. From a fascinating toy, it has become a serious monitor; but even now I cannot look upon a cluster of those flowers without experiencing somewhat of the buoyancy of spirit that seems to dance within their variegated little world. It is my deliberate opinion that, whether in form or in colour, the full double Ranunculus may challenge any flower that blows; while the remarkably delicate fragrance, that scarcely breathes, unless invited, from its rose-fashioned petals, is in beautiful keeping with the whole character of the elegant plant.

It may readily be supposed that no person of

I

ordinary appearance, or of common mind, would bear a comparison with this favourite flower. believe it was one of the very first that I linked to a living antitype-always excepting my own sweet May-blossom, the fondly cherished emblem of what, among earthly things, is the most sacredly dear to my heart-but, in childhood I have delighted to lead, with careful hand, among my flower-beds, one whose fair head hung languidly down, and whose attenuated form appeared to tremble, if touched by a breeze that would wave the Ranunculus. I remember her well; she was most lovely; and, to gratify her little companion, she would be as playful as she was sweet. The child of a fond father, the image of one in whom all his affection had centred: whom he had watched over, while she slowly pined and withered under the blighting hand of consumption, and in whose grave was buried all that had sweetened his life, save only this fair girl, in whose transparent complexion, and in the glitter of her full blue eye, he read the presage of hovering decay. The blight that struck her mother down, had indeed passed upon her; and my first recollection of her, is what I have alluded to: my conducting her, in the cool of a soft summer evening, through the little mazy walks of my especial garden, pointing out to her notice, now the tint of a flower, now the corresponding hues of a glorious western sky; and anon that exquisite object, Hesperus sparkling in a flood of liquified gold. I looked up in her sweet face, and the smile that beamed there spoke cheer to me; yet I felt that she was like one of my withering Ranunculus, ready to sink before the next rude breath of air.

At the window of our rural parlour, sat the fond parent of this fading blossom; and as I marked the watchful gaze of an eye suffused in tears, following every step of his child, I felt more than ever that something must be wrong; and my heart grew sad, to think that a creature as lovely as my flowers should be equally transient in her bloom. Our abode was in a very open, yet retired spot; and its air was considered very salubrious for the sinking Lauretta. Frequently did her father drive up to our gate in his poney-chaise; and being himself too much afflicted, by some rheumatic complaint, to walk, he took his post at that pleasant window, fronting the western sky; while I led his feeble charge to inhale the breath of flowers, and to bask in the slanting rays of an orb that was soon to set for ever, to her. She went to the tomb, before that summer had shed its latest glow; and her father survived her but a short time. Their forms seem melted away in the undefined vagueness of days long since past; but on a sweet evening, when the retiring sunbeams glance on a bed of Ranunculus, I often behold the vision of Lauretta and her father, surrounded by the scenes that memory will then call up, in all the vivid reality that makes the present appear as a dream.

I know not-I have no means of knowing—whether the path of that dying girl was lightened by the beams of a far brighter Sun than I could point out to her; whether the bereavements of her widowed father, even then, in anticipation, childless too, were blessed to his soul's peace, by leading him to seek the Lord, who had both given and taken away. That cloud of doubt hangs over the greater number of those whose images people the haunts of my infancy: the