Barley Wood. I look over my last sentence, and repeat deliberately that my firm conviction is that it was given to Mrs. More to exercise such an influence on the habits and manners of her age, as seldom falls to the lot of a private individual. And as it regards the "love of admiration," with which this honoured woman is charged; I do entreat the critic to tread softly on this ground. It has been well and feelingly said

'Hard is his fate on whom the public gaze;

Is fixed for ever to detract and praise:

Repose denies her requiem to his name,
And folly loves the martyrdom of fame.'

It is easy to mark out faults-to observe the spots on the sun's disk—the wavering wing of the soaring eagle the occasional slumbers of the great poet of antiquity; but it is not easy to act better even within our own sphere and as to the question how we should probably act if placed in the sphere of another, and exposed to like temptations, on that point, I refer Coelebs non volens' to the closing sentence of Sir Walter Scott's Life of Napoleon. I should be deemed harsh and severe if I quoted it myself.

I have travelled very widely from the subject on which this paper began, but it really is very difficult for a private individual to estimate, in any just degree, the snares and temptations to which a public labourer is exposed, and a female public labourer more especially. For my own part, I will freely confess that when I consider the battery of menwrought praise, the continued hot fire of flattery before which Mrs. More was obliged to stand, and that praise that flattery from the most distinguished individuals of the age, persons to whose good opinion

she could not possibly be indifferent, I always regard it as one of the very highest proofs of the sincerity of her Christian feeling, as well as of the strong native good sense which forms perhaps the most valuable characteristics of her writings, that she was still enabled to go forward in her work, with simple-hearted devotion, and singleness of aim. I do not say that she stood the fire uninjured, but I do say that it is astonishing, and a proof of the power of divine grace that she was not fatally wounded.

There was a consciousness of her danger; and, doubtless, like Jehoshaphat in the battle, there was a prayer for help. We know that there was. I earnestly request your correspondent to read what Mrs. More herself says to her beloved friend Mr. Wilberforce, on the chapter in his Practical Christianity, on the love of applause and on the fear of shame, and then let her speak of Mrs. More's love of approbation if she can.

I might go on to say something of the unfairness of the general assumption that unmarried females are influenced by a desire for notice in their efforts to do good. Assertion is one thing; apparent proof is another; fact is sometimes a third. The simple truth is that some of the most distinguished female authors of our day have been married women. Without the impropriety of personal allusion, I may be allowed to mention, in confirmation of my statement, Mrs. Marcet, Mrs. Somerville, Mrs. John Sandford, and the late Mrs. Hemans.

To counterbalance this, I must add that were I required to single out the two ladies of my acquaintance who are the most actively and extensively engaged in doing good, and whose sphere of influence

has been most extended, I should certainly select two unmarried ladies. Both are well and generally known; of the friendship of both, were pride even an allowable feeling, I might be permitted to be proud, but the mention of their names is the last thing that either would wish. I can even venture to affirm, that if these lines fall under the eye of either, there will not be for one moment a suspicion as to whom the writer means to allude.

V. Z. X.

THE iniquities of a nation, as we read in many a page of history, have drawn down the vengeance of heaven upon the perpetrators of crime. Not only upon those to whose neglect the crime may be attributable, but upon the whole population of the land. We have abundant instances of this most awful truth in those days. Our own country has, it is true, been as yet spared, and has been most mercifully exempted from suffering, however deserved; but our day of reckoning may be at hand, if we continue to neglect the advantages bestowed upon us.-The Hope of the Navy.

THE POWER AND GOODNESS OF GOD.

WONDROUS are all thy works, Almighty God!
In the wild wind we hear thy voice, and own
Thy presence in the winged lightning's glance.
At thy command the pestilence goes forth,
Wasting the guilty nations. Hast thou sent
In just displeasure, to some haughty land,
That dreadful minister of fiery wrath
The gaping earthquake? Quick into the pit
Thousands go down, and know, alas! too late,
Vengeance, though tardy, not the less secure.
But chief dost thou delight in goodness: Love
Is thy best and brightest attribute. 'Twas love
That gave to man (the noblest of thy works)
-This fairest of ten thousand worlds. 'Twas love
That clothed the land with verdure, and the soil
Bade, without labour, richly to bring forth
The varied products of an hundred climes.
Love spread abroad the star-bespangled sky,
Hung the moon's lamp amid the blue serene,
And bade the sun (bright emblem of thyself)
Walk forth in majesty. But chief, 'twas love,
'Twas wondrous love, divine, unspeakable,
That from his palace, in the heaven of heavens,
Sent forth thy Son, thy well-beloved Son,

66

66 Shiloh," Immanuel," "Mighty," "Prince of Peace,"

With his own precious blood to save from death,
And rescue from hell's grasp a guilty world!
Here let me hold-too lofty is the theme
That I advent'rous sing. Yet will I say,
For this best effort of eternal love,

Nor thou alone:

For mercies countless as the ocean's drops,
My soul, praise thou thy God.
Let every heart and every tongue unite,
To laud his goodness; till the final trump
Summon adoring multitudes away,
His praise to celebrate in ceaseless song.

S. W. H.

SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.-If paper, linen, tow, wool, cotton, mats, straw, wood shavings, moss, or soot, be imbued slightly with linseed or hempseed oil, and placed in contact with the sun and air, especially when wrapped or piled in a heap, they very soon become spontaneously hot, emit smoke, and finally burst into flames. If linseed oil and ground manganese be triturated together, the soft lump so formed will speedily become firm, and ere long take fire.