we part with one ornament of the christian character, to preserve the dignity of our ecclesiastical; and is the church, of which we are members, to be upheld by an anti-social spirit? If I mistake not, we are to love all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity; and in proportion as this grace is displayed by us, we shall give substantial evidence that we have passed from death unto life.” “The hostility, or if that term be too strong, the illiberality which prevails among the different denominations of this country, induced me to suspect for a long time," said Miss Osbourne, "that none of them took their religious sentiments from the Scriptures; and though a more extensive intercourse with them has corrected that opinion, yet I am conscious that they do not take this spirit from the Scriptures."

"Well, Sir," said Mr. Guion, addressing himself to Mr. Lewellin, "while these sentiments are found in us and abound, there is no danger of our injuring each other by our christian intercourse; and though on retiring we may still retain with all due pertinacity our distinctive opinions on the minor questions of religion, we shall cherish with superior warmth the more essential truths on which we mutually agree. You go, and teach your dissenting brethren to respect and love the pure and undefiled piety of their brethren in the Establishment; and I will employ the small portion of influence which I possess, to diffuse the same noble and divine spirit in that circle in which I move."

The Author acknowledges the receipt of the following sums for the pious Minister, alluded to in the Eighteenth Number, page 11.

A Stranger

A. S. R.

Left at Mr. Westley's

1505

2000

£. s.

d.

1

1

0

J. S. Hughes, Printer, 66, Paternoster-row, London.

[No. 23.

"It was a fine evening. The moon was just rising above the top of a distant hill; and, as we were entering the grove, at the bottom of the lawn, we stopped to listen to the songs of the nightingales, which were responding to each other. Here,' said Mr. Roscoe, is melody. Here is the song of innocence. Here is sweet contentment. And, Why is the bird of night more happy than man?-Ah, Why?""

See puge 9.

London:

M R. ROSCOE.

PART I.

"Enlighten my dark mind with this new ray,
This dawning of salvation! Tell me how
I shall obtain the favour of that God,

I but begin to know, but fain would serve."

ANON.

AFTER the engagements of the day had been fulfilled, as our custom was," we met in the drawingroom to enjoy the pleasure of social intercourse. We wanted neither cards, nor the chess board, to beguile away our time; nor did we consume it in sacrificing or defaming the reputation of our neighbours; but employed it in rational and instructive conversation. Mr. Stevens having spent the whole of the morning amidst scenes of affliction and distress; observed, that this world is justly represented as" a valley of weeping." If, said he, we go into the city, or into the village; visit the abode of luxury and of fashion; or the humble dwelling of poverty; if we associate with the young and intelligent, or the aged and the illiterate; if we penetrate into dungeons or hospitals; or walk abroad among the sons of freedom, or the children of health; we shall find that misery, under some form of manifestation, has pierced every bosom, and imprinted the features of sorrow on every countenance.

J. S. Hughes Printer, 66, Paternoster Row, London.

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Very true," said Mr. Roscoe, (who formed one of our little party,) there is much misery in the world; and every individual of the human family is called, at some period of his life, to drink its bitter draughts; yet, in my opinion, there is a larger portion of happiness distributed among us, than is usually admitted. The following extract, which I recently took from a favourite author, I much admire. The weather is sometimes foul; but it is oftener fair. Storms and hurricanes are frequent; but calms are more common. There is some sickness; but there is more health. There is some pain; but there is more ease. There is some mourning; but there is more joy. There is a complexional depression that asks, Wherefore is light given to him that is in misery? but it bears no proportion to the native cheerfulness, which is open to the agreeable impressions of surrounding nature. Multitudes have been crushed under the foot of cruelty; but greater multitudes have remained unmolested by the oppressor. Many have perished with hunger and nakedness; but more have been supplied with food and raiment. Some have counted the days of captivity; but the majority were never in prison. Numbers have lost their reason; but larger numbers have retained it. The list is long of the forsaken and the forlorn; but still longer is the catalogue of those who have never failed, in some one or another, to find a friend. Sometimes we are told of towns, agitated to pieces by the terrible quaking of the ground; but more frequently of cities, who know no enemy but time. Sometimes we hear of ships destroyed by the storm; but more commonly of vessels that arrive safely in port. We have read, and read with horror, of failing harvests; our hair has stood up, our pulses have stopped, over the horrible picture of famine! The craving of delicacy for food offensive to plain fed nature! The frightful conflict between the fervor of affection, and the phrenzy of want! Between the agonies of hunger, and the agonies of the heart! But fruitful seasons, and shouting reapers, and hearts filled with food and gladness, are the cheerful forms with which mankind have been familiar. We have trembled to contemplate the terrible figure of pestilence, walking in darkness, travelling

in awful invisibility, striking with an unseen hand, and strewing the street with dead; but the accounts that have most occupied our attention, have been of benignant constitutions in nature; of qualities in things that are calculated to recall departed health, and heal the diseases of man; of restorative temperatures of air; of kindly and genial climes; of medicinal herbs, and of physical fountains. A melancholy proportion of mankind have perished by the sword; or pined in the sickness attendant on its way; or deplored the plunder and desolation it has spread over the plains; or, at a distance from the theatre of its ravages, been pierced through by its stroke, with sorrows far sharper than its point: but the greater part of mankind have passed their days in the seat of peace; sat under their roofs in serenity and security; reaped their fields without any fear of the soldier's sickle or his flame; exercised their affections in social union, that have felt no cut, but from nature's hand; and resigned their breath, at last, in the quiet and domestic bed.""

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"These observations," Mr. Stevens remarked, are correct; yet how few wish to live their life again. Some who have no hope of a blissful immortality, would not object to a second birth, and to a second childhood; but they would prefer some other course than that which they have run, under a supposition that they should be able to avoid the evils by which they have been oppressed, and gain that prize of mental happiness which they have never won." "But, Sir," said Mr. Roscoe," the reluctance which we may manifest to go back to infancy, and live through our past life, is no substantial argument, in my opinion, against a preponderance of felicity in the world. If we prefer another course to that which we have run, it is because we calculate on a fewer number of evils, and a larger portion of bliss; but who would not willingly endure all the miseries which he has suffered, with the comforts which he has enjoyed, rather than die and enter the invisible world, where he knows not whatdestiny awaits him?" "If, Sir," said Mr. Stevens,

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we know not what destiny awaits us in the eternal world; we ought to prefer the endless continuance