with to adorn herself,-if he had told us that she and Adam spent their evenings in playing with pebbles, dancing on the turf, or in idle conversation and that they rose and retired to rest without any devout acknowledgments to their Maker; we should certainly have considered it a most absurd, unfair, and degrading representation, even after they had fallen from their first estate. Yet how many of their descendants are there, even in the most civilized and evangelized parts of the globe, whose time is spent to no better purpose! A young lady who rises without prayer, or with only a heartless and formal performance of it, who spends her morning in preparing ornaments of dress, or in pursuits equally trifling, and devotes her evening to gay amusements, or even to the more credible recreation of sober visiting, and returning weary or dissipated, forgets to call upon God, is surely no less unmindful of the dignity of her nature, and the great ends of her existence.

Perhaps the subjoined stanzas may serve to illustrate our subject, by exemplifying the dif ference between a trifling and an intellectual taste.

It was a pleasant winter's night;

The sky was clear and the stars were bright,

The air was fresh and cold;

But all within was warm and tight;

And the fire-flame cast a flashing light

On the carpet red, the ceiling white,
And on the curtain-fold.

Here Anne and Martha idly sit,
Because the candles are not lit,

And both are tired of play;

And Anne was tired of Martha's chat
About the trimming to her hat,

For her mother had said, (she was sure of that,) She would trim their hats that day.

So rising as quickly as she could,

Anne went to the window and there she stood:
The sash, which reached the floor, display'd
To view the pleasant garden-shade;
For the curtains were not drawn:
And she was pleased to stand and see
The moon shine on the laurel tree:
How, when the wind the foliage heaves,
It sparkles 'on the glossy leaves :
And what soft light and shade were shed
On every bush and every bud;
And what a sheet of light was spread
Over the level ground.

Then roved her eye from star to star,
And soon her thought had fled as far;
For thought has neither chain nor bar,
It ranges far and free:

And as she had not wings to fly
Amid the starry realms on high,
She marvell'd that a mortal eye
Those distant worlds could see.

Their gentle mother enters now,
And pleasure gladdens Martha's brow:
For lo! on either hand she bears
With tender touch, these hats of theirs;
While in her basket store is seen
Some glossy yards of ribbon green;
And having now unrolled it,-

She forms the bow, she twines the band;
Behold, with light and dexterous hand,
And there does eager Martha stand,
Suggesting this, approving that,
And all her soul is in her hat,

(Full large enough to hold it.)

Nor think that thoughtful Anne defers
To thank her mother, too, for her's:
She came and with a grateful look,
And duteous word, her hat she took;
And bore it to its place:

Yet that fair ribbon, bright and new,
Scarce cared she if 'twas green or blue :
For now her mind was braced with thought,
Some nobler happiness it sought

Than e'er, with nicest art, was wrought
With ribbon, pearl or lace.

As years increased, still Anne inclined
To train and cultivate her mind,
At reason's nobler voice:

While Martha strove with equal care,
To deck her person light and fair :
Now, reader, these pursuits compare,
Compare-and make your choice.

XXIV.

SOLILOQUIES OF THE OLD PHILOSOPHER AND THE YOUNG LADY.

"ALAS!" exclaimed a silver-headed sage, "how narrow is the utmost extent of human knowledge! how circumscribed the sphere of intellectual exertion! I have spent my life in acquiring knowledge, but how little do I know! The farther I attempt to penetrate the secrets of nature, the more I am bewildered and benighted. Beyond a certain limit all is but confusion or conjecture; so that the advantage of the learned over the ignorant consists greatly in hav ing ascertained how little is to be known.

"It is true that I can measure the sun; and compute the distances of the planets; I can calculate their periodical movements; and even ascertain the laws by which they perform their sublime revolutions; but with regard to their construction, to the beings which inhabit them, of their condition and circumstances, whether natural or moral, what do I know more than the clown?

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Delighted to examine the economy of nature in our own world, I have analyzed the elements; and have given names to their component parts. And yet, should I not be as much at a loss to explain the burning of fire, or to account for the liquid quality of water, as the vulgar who use and enjoy them without thought or examination!

"I remark that all bodies, unsupported, fall to the ground and I am taught to account for this by the law of gravitation. But what have I gained here more than a term? Does it convey to my mind any idea of the nature of that mysterious and invisible chain, which draws all things to a common centre? I observe the effect, I give a name to the cause, but can I explain or comprehend it?

"Pursuing the track of the Naturalist, I have learned to distinguish the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms; and to divide these into their distinct tribes and families:-but can I tell, after all this toil, whence a single blade of grass derives its vitality ?-Could the most minute researches enable me to discover the exquisite pencil that paints and fringes the flower of the field?-have I ever detected the secret that gives

their brilliant dye to the ruby and emerald, or the art that enamels the delicate shell?

"I observe the sagacity of animals; I call it instinct, and speculate upon its various degrees of approximation to the reason of man. But, after all, I know as little of the cogitations of the brute as he does of mine. When I see a flight of birds overhead, performing their evolutions, or steering their course to some distant settlement, their signals and cries are as unintelligible to me as are the learned languages to the unlettered mechanic: I understand as little of their policy and laws as they do of Blackstone's Commentaries.

"But leaving the material creation, my thoughts have often ascended to loftier subjects and indulged in metaphysical speculations. And here, while I easily perceive in myself the two distinct qualities of matter and mind, I am baffled in every attempt to comprehend their mutual dependance and mysterious connection. When my

hand moves in obedience to my will, have I the most distant conception of the manner in which the volition is either communicated or understood? Thus in the exercise of one of the most simple and ordinary actions, I am perplexed and confounded, if I attempt to account for it.

"Again, how many years of my life were de voted to the acquisition of those languages, by the means of which I might explore the records of remote ages, and become familiar with the learning and literature of other times! and what have I gathered from these but the mortifying fact, that man has ever been struggling with his