CHAP. II.

“O MATCHLESS hero! 'graced with a sword, but worthier of a fan,'" cried Mrs. Ellars, as entering the room she observed the employment of her nephew..

"I have almost forgotten my school learning," he returned; "but, if I mistake not, Hercules handled the distaff of a lady."

"And spun the thread of his own destruction; he was rewarded with a poisoned robe from her fair hand, was he not?" inquired she, with a pointed emphasis, which made Percy colour; "but I have news for you," continued she; "you will see an old friend this evening, one who has copied Hercules as well as you, Percy, but in a very different part of his conduct; you remember his famous choice."

"O, Irwin, I'll be sworn," cried Seyton; "I have heard that he is become quite a bore; he is one of your serious ones: Ellen, you'll make a conquest of him, I prophesy."

Not more quickly did the colour rise to the

cheek of Flora Percy, than it faded from that of Seyton, as he observed the effect his words had produced on her; while she whom he had particularly addressed, the meek-spirited and unambitious Ellen, received her brother's prophetic annunciation with that unembarrassed good humour which evidently proved that no such idea had ever entered her own mind.

Mrs. Ellars observed the changing countenances of the two cousins with pain; for they spoke a language which former circumstances easily enabled her to translate. Desirous of changing the current of their thoughts, she sat down beside them. "What were you talking of when I came in ?" said she.

"I was endeavouring to persuade Ellen," answered Percy, at once relapsing into levity, "that there is sense and learning enough in that little storehouse of hers to supply all the rest of the world: and that, therefore, it is quite a work of supererogation for her to be driving every beggar's brat in the parish to school in order that she may make them as wise as herself."

"In other words," said Mrs. Ellars, "you think the work of educating the poor a superfluous improvement on the practice of the last age."

"Not quite that either," replied Percy; "for, to tell you the truth, I consider it no improvement at all: I would fain have Ellen tell me the good it has produced; and, in return, I will show her the Newgate calendar, and the calendar of every other gaol in the kingdom for the last ten years, and then beg of her to explain to me, why, in an age

when the Bible is more read than in any former one, the increase of crime should be so great?" Percy looked at Ellen with the satisfied air of one who fancies he has produced an argument strong enough to bear down every opposition.

"It is a melancholy truth," said Mrs. Ellars, "which Ellen cannot controvert; but she does not, I believe, deem it necessary to the honour of the Scriptures that she should be satisfied with the assurance which every Christian possesses, that none ever read the Bible in the manner he ought, that is, with faith and prayer, without its producing a

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beneficial effect on his heart and life. Resting in this belief, and striving to study it himself in the way most profitable to his soul; such a man is enabled to look, not with indifference indeed, but with calmness, on the scene of confusion around him; which, so far from shaking his faith is an additional proof to him of the truth of that word he venerates : in the madness of the people,' he beholds the violent struggles of Satan to retain possession of his kingdom; in the language of Scripture, he sees the devil coming down to the earth in great wrath, as if he knew that he had but a short time;' and while he laments that so many are still ready to follow the deceiver's will, he looks forward with hope to that promised time, when the inhabitants of the earth, as well as the saints in heaven, shall

triumphantly exclaim, Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ.' It is thus that he is enabled to bear his mind in composure amid those tumults of nations or of individuals which strike terror into souls not

arrayed like his, in the whole armour of God."

"Then among all the multitudes who read the Bible there are only a few who study it in a particular manner like you, aunt, and Ellen, who have profited by it? Is not this still supporting my argument that it has done little good," said the persevering Percy, unwilling to give up the argument."

"My dear Percy," replied his aunt, "there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, in these countries who have received the Gospel to the saving of their souls, but who will be unknown to either you or me till we meet together at the judgment-seat of Christ. But putting our ignorance totally out of the question, calculate, if you will, the multitudes who have, if you please, swarmed in our gaols for the last ten years, still must you not acknowledge that it is but a drop in the ocean compared to the number of those who are, humanly speaking, innocent? and, perhaps it may be taken as an almost universal rule, that those unfortunate beings are found