forefathers did walk, when they gave better heed than we d to the inspired word which tells us, "Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shal drive it far from him."

Affectionately yours,

C. E.

LETTER II.

YOUTH.

I HAVE long been persuaded that there is no such thing as an honest private journal, even where the entries are punctually made under present impressions. There is so much of positive, active evil always at work in the mind, that to give a fair transcript of idle unprofitable thoughts and corrupt imaginings is out of the question: evil is dealt with in generals, good in particulars, and the balance cannot be fairly struck. Those confessions of indwelling sin that remorse will wring from us, and which, perhaps, are penned at the moment in perfect sincerity, being unaccompanied with the specifications that would invest them in their naturally hideous colours, beneath the searching light of God's holy and spiritual law, wear the lovely garb of unfeigned humility. The reader, coming to such self-condemnatory clauses, is struck with admiration at the saintly writer's marvellous self-abasement, only lamenting that he should, in the excess of his lowlymindedness, have written such bitter things against himself, at a time when he was grieving, resisting, almost quenching the Holy Spirit within, by obstinate transgression.

And if the present, how much more is the past, liable to be glossed over! To be faithful here is next to impossible, for Satan helps us to deceive ourselves, and instructs us to

carry out the deception to others. This consideration might well cause the pen of auto-biography to drop from a christian's hand, did not an earnest desire to glorify God in his merciful dealings, together with the consciousness that to no other could the task be safely delegated, act as a counterprise to the discouragement. I do desire to magnify the exceeding riches of God's grace to me, if I may do so without increasing the charge of arrogant assumption. I know that among the diversity of gifts which he bestowed on his creatures, he granted me a portion of mental, energy, a quickness of perception, a liveliness of imagination, an aptitude for expressing the thoughts that were perpetually revolving in my mind, such as to fit me for literary occupation. I know that Satan, to whom such instruments are exceedingly valuable, marked me as one who would, if properly trained to it, do his work effectually within his own sphere; and I am not more sure of my present existence than I am of the fact that he strove to secure me for that purpose from the first expanding of those faculties which evidently lie exposed to his observation, and open to his attacks, or as far as God permits him to work. Can I feel all this, and not bless the Lord who so far baffled these designs, and deigned to appoint my field of labour within the sacred confines of his own vineyard?

The visitation of which I have spoken had a powerful influence on my after-life: it rendered the preservation of my newly-restored sight an object of paramount importance, to which the regular routine of education must needs be sacrificed. A boarding school had never been thought of for me; my parents loved their children too well to meditate their expulsion from the paternal roof; and the children so well loved their parents and each other that such a separation would have been insupportable to them. Masters we had in the necessary branches of education, and we studied together so far as I was permitted to study; but before it

means of which, tracing the characters as they shone through he paper, I was able to write with tolerable freedom before any one knew that I could join two letters; and I well remember my father's surprise, not unmixed with annoyance, when he accidentally took up a letter which I had been writing to a distant relation, giving a circumstantial account of some domestic calamity which had no existence but in my brain ; related with so much pathos too, that my tears had fallen over the slate whereon this my first literary attempt was very neatly traced. He could not forbear laughing; but ended with a grave shake of the head, and a remark to the effect that I was making more haste than good speed.

At this time, seven years of age, I became entangled in a net of dangerous fascination. One evening my brother was taken to the theatre, while I, on account of a cold, had to stay at home. To compensate for this, I was permitted to read the play to him; and that play was 'The Merchant of Venice.' I will not dwell upon the effect: I had already become fond of such theatrical spectacles as were considered suitable for children pantomime and broad farce - and like a child I gazed upon the glitter, and enjoyed the bustle; but now, seated in a corner, all quiet about me, and nothing to interfere with the mental world, I drank a cup of intoxication under which my brain reeled for many a year. The character of Shylock burst upon me, even as Shakspeare had conceived it. I revelled in the terrible excitement that gave rise to; page after page was stereotyped upon a most retentive memory, without an effort, and during a sleepless night I feasted on the pernicious sweets thus hoarded in my brain.

it

Pernicious indeed they were, for from that hour my diligence in study, my docility of conduct, every thing that is usually regarded as praiseworthy in a child sprung from a

at my age was hailed with applause; visiters questioned me on the different plays, to ascertain my intimate acquaintance with the characters; but no one, not even my father, could persuade me to recite a line, or to listen when another attempted it, or to witness the representation of any play of Shakspeare. This I mention to prove what a powerful hold the enemy of all godliness must have expected to take on a spirit so attuned to romance. Reality became insipid, almost hateful to me; conversation, except that of the literary men, to whom I have alluded, a burden : I imbibed a thorough contempt for women, children, and household affairs, entrenching myself behind invisible barriers that few, very few, could pass. Oh, how many wasted hours, how much of unprofitable labour, what wrong to my fellow-creatures, what robbery of God, must I refer to this ensnaring book! My mind became unnerved, my judgment perverted, my estimate of people and things wholly falsified, and my soul wrapped in the vain solace of unsubstantial enjoyments during years of after sorrow, when but for this I might have early sought the consolations of the gospel. Parents know not what they do, when from vanity, thoughtlessness, or over-indulgence, they foster in a young girl what is called a poetical taste. Those things highly esteemed among men, are held in abomination with God; they thrust Him from his creatures' thoughts, and enshrine a host of polluting idols in his place.

My father, I am sure, wished to check the evil which, as a sensible man, he could not but foresee; my state of health, however, won a larger portion of indulgence than was good for me. The doctors, into whose hands I had fallen, were of the school now happily very much exploded; they had one penacea for almost every ill, and that was the perilous