nabas one night, far advanced in a state of inebriety, the worn-out frame of his recently watching, ill-used wife, alone met his view: her spirit had escaped to "where the wicked cease from troubling, and where the weary are at rest."

It might have been supposed by some, that this would have operated to produce a change in his conduct; but such only will imagine it who are ignorant of the nature of sin, and of that most ruinous of all sins,-DRUNKENNESS. Barnabas went onwards in his unhappy career, selling every fragment of furniture and other effects which the house contained, until at length, the very bed upon which he had slept was taken from him, by one who had given him credit for spirituous liquors.

Natural

affection had long since fled his bosom: his children were piteously neglected, until they were willingly given up by him to his wife's friends, by whom, in memory of her they loved with unbroken affection, they were cherished as their own. Premature old age fastened upon the besotted man, and at the early age of thirty-three, he was incapable of any employ, and hence, being destitute of every means of support, to prevent actual starvation he was conveyed to the poor-house, where he lived enfeebled both in body and mind, (and where, for aught I know, he still lives, although the probability is against it,) a burden to the parish, a misery to himself, a disgrace to human nature, and an awful evidence of the evils of intemperance; affording at the same time, a new testimony to the host already extant, of how fatally allied are "the first dram und apostacy."

I'm sick at heart to hear this ceaseless din;
Nor yet less grieved, to mark the foolish mob
Press on to vanities themselves abhor.-
Vexed, tired, disgusted, even to loathing,
Still on they press, because their fellows do!
Oh folly climax'd!-reason blushes here;
Still they believe the falsehood, often proved,
(And proved to cost, by loss of health and friends,)
That happiness and noisy pleasure are allied.
Oh! when will men grow wise, and only seek
The bliss they long for, where alone 'tis found,
In God, and in his service?

How long I had sat, pensively enough, with my head reclining upon my hand, labouring hard for a thought by which to preface and with something like propriety to introduce a narrative of an affecting description, the subject of which had just been laid before me, I cannot say ; still on I thought, or rather I could not think at all, for no thought came; or if some vagrant idea, some loose and inappropriate conception, did flit across the mind, it was only like a church-yard ignis fatuus-it did not remain sufficiently long to allow me to give it form and substance, or it did not appear to suit my purpose.

"O the misery of authorship !" I groaned to myself, half-vexed, nay,-half-roused to frenzy, that I should be so circumstanced. What had produced this unprece

dented obtuseness of mental vigour I could not conjecture. I shifted my position once or twice, perhaps oftener, in my commodious arm-chair,-applied the thumb-nail of my left hand very sagaciously, although at the moment unconsciously, to my mouth, and commenced an attack upon its horny extremity: I rose,-took a turn or two round my study,-somewhat like that which Kirke White describes his own to have been; I looked upwards, downwards, and every other way,-still no thought came. Recollection, quick as lightning, at this climax of my feelings rushed into my mind of the motto or title of an excellent tract which I had lately perused, and I determined to adopt it as my directing genius on this painful occasion. I resumed my seat, and seizing my pen, plunged sans ceremonie pretty deep into the sombre fluid which was placed before me, exclaiming as I did so," the most certain way to overcome difficulties is to TRY."Expressive character! never shall I meet you, in whatever place or connexion, but I shall think on the tract which first presented you to my notice in connected form, and never can my mind cease to revert to this important period. No sooner had I formed the determination than the resolve seemed to be rewarded; for at that precise moment, a voice from the street speaking beneath my window, reached my ears, and secured my attention. Are you going to the race-course to day?" was the inquiry proposed. The race-course! thought I,-and instantly a new channel of thought seemed naturally to open before me, swallowing up or putting to immediate flight my recollections and memoranda of the narrative upon which I purposed to write. The horse-course!-that is indeed -I moralized, a subject of sufficient importance to engage even my pen,-pardon the vanity, reader, of one labouring under the influence of the cacoëthes scribendi fever,—and with the purpose of obtaining all the facts of the case, I listened with peculiar satisfaction to what might be yet advanced. Several inaudible tones, of which at least only detached words could be made out, followed; and then a loud, long laugh, apparently of derision, struck my ear. A mild yet manly observation from another person, who was evidently protesting against the expressed determination of his friend, elicited from the first speaker an expression of astonishment, in the shape of a reply. "Why what in the name of Dame Sobriety, Clement, has

of late taken possession of you? you had once the spirit of a man, but since you have become a member of the Temperance Society,-(I wish, by the bye, the Government would interfere and put it down, for it will undoubtedly injure the revenue,)—since then, you have taken into your head to spend morning, noon, and night of every Sunday in some conventicle or other, you have become as mopish as an owl when the sun shines, and as melancholy as a sky lark in a storm."

Again the laugh was raised for a short time, which appeared to be terminated rather suddenly by the reply "You have mistaken the matter, I assure you, Walter; never were your dogs more completely on a wrong scent than you are now: I am neither mopish nor melancholy, I wish not to conceal the fact, that I owe-nay, start not, my friend-I owe, I say, my present condition, and that is far from an unhappy one, to habits of temperance. Could I at an earlier period have understood the nature and object, or have conceived of the high advantages which flow from union with a Temperance Society, I should long ere I did have avowed myself a member of that honourable body, and so far as my feeble capacity would have enabled me, an advocate of its cause; happy, Walter, would it be for you if the occasional glass which you take were abandoned altogether, but I beg pardon, I am somewhat diverging from my point, not having, as I intended to have done, replied fully to your antique charge of melancholy.-If indeed, to act according to rationality, to which as a human being I lay claim, and to judge of things according to their nature, and not after their names, and hence to be thoughtful on things, because their infinite importance demand thought, and to shun others, whose nature and tendency is to debase,—is to be mopish and melancholy, why, perhaps, I may-must -plead guilty!-but," he added with increased seriousness of tone and emphasis of expression, "I have read, Walter, that 'the laughter of fools is madness,' and that 'the heart of fools is in the house of mirth;' while my own short experience assures me that

To be wise, is to be happy;

And wisdom lies not in the noisy rout
And midnight revel, but in serving Him
Who gave us being, and whose service is
True freedom.'

"But what, permit me to ask," interupted Walter, are your objections against racing? Do you seriously condemn all running?" "No," replied Clement, "I recommend running: I think, for the honour of our national character, for the advantage of society, for domestic enjoyment, and for individual benefit, it should be attended to. Nay I maintain that racing, although sometimes it may be hard work, and apparent, and even positive loss of some sort may attend it, if followed up, is, nevertheless, a most rational, healthful, manly, and beneficial exercise; in fact, Walter, I never thought so highly of it, as since I joined—what you feel so disposed to raise your batteries against, or lampoon-a Temperance Society." "Bravo!" shouted Walter, in a tone of ecstacy, "your hand, my brave fellow." He added, "I see you are a man yet; if what you state is correct, and I cannot question it, I shall change my mind respecting these same societies, although I do not feel disposed to pledge myself, for the present, never again to drink a simple glass of grog occasionally. But why not go today?" he inquired with eagerness.

"I intend doing so," resumed Clement. "I was," he added, " on the course yesterday, and I hope to be so, if alive, to-day, and to-morrow, and not as a mere spectator either."

"On the course yesterday, and not merely a spectator!" echoed Walter. "Why which horse did you ride? -did you win or lose?

"I rode no horse," replied Clement," and yet I ran, -I did not bet, and yet I won."

A few moments' silence followed this colloquy, during which I felt my own curiosity excited in an unusual degree. At length, Walter resumed, "Pon my honour, you have overshot me: what do you mean, Clement ?—If the words you employ were as strange to me as the meaning which they appear intended to convey is dark, I should say you had a spice of the unknown tongue about you,— if however you are serious in what you state, tell me so in plain English.

"I am serious-deeply serious," returned Clement in solemn tones.

Again there was a pause, which was broken by Walter, “I never knew you addicted to falsehood;" he observed, "and cannot suppose you about to commence in so dis