submission, which are the best preparation for making God's will our own, and for acquiring the most difficult of all things-the hard-learnt lesson of obedience. May the present grievous chastening yield the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them that are exercised thereby!"

With these thoughts in my mind, I proceeded on my way, enjoying the balmy freshness of the autumnal evening. A light air sprang up; the mist that hung upon the lowlands was dispelled; the sun, so long obscured, burst forth for a while, warming, cheering, invigorating the face of nature; and then, amid its cloudy pavilion of gold, and purple, and all other gorgeous hues, went down behind the roof of Arderne church,-appropriate termination to the scene in which I had been engaged-meet emblem of the rest of those who sleep in Jesus, and who, when their light has shone its appointed time before men, shed forth accumulated lustre in the moment of their departure, and then fading from before us, sink but to rise upon another hemisphere, and beam out with unfading splendour in a pure and cloudless sky

The Village Gossips.

Yet here Disguise, the city's vice, is seen,
And Slander steals along and taints the green :
At her approach domestic peace is gone,
Domestic broils at her approach come on:
She to the wife the husband's crime conveys,
She tells the husband when his consort strays;
Her busy tongue, through all the little state,
Diffuses doubt, suspicion, and debate.

CRABBE: The Village.

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Chapter II.

F the inhabitant of a city pleases, he may pass his days unnoticed and unknown; for there is no solitude so profound as his who finds himself alone in a crowd. Unless he courts observation, scarce any one will give themselves the trouble to inquire whence he comes, or whither he goes; nay, his next-door neighbours may live and die in ignorance of his very name. But there is no such state of existence in the small town, or country village. In such limited communities every man's eye is on his neighbour, every body's ear is open to his neighbour's doings; and woe be to the unlucky wight who imagines that he can so much as set two dishes on his dinner-table without an inquisitive friend having previously ascertained the contents of his covers.

To illustrate my meaning, and introduce the reader to some ladies with whom he will soon be better acquainted:

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"Mrs. Adderbury is expecting her sister Darnaway," observes Miss Peck; for Beeves the butcher says she has ordered a sweetbread for Tuesday."

Yes," rejoined Miss Burr, on the occasion alluded to; and if Lucy Darnaway comes, I'll engage that Lieutenant Seabear isn't far behind. Indeed, I as good as know that all three of them are to drink tea with the Kipps's on Wednesday, for Susan Kipps has sent her old brown silk to Miss Rigmaiden's to be turned, (more, by token, it has been turned twice already); and Miss Rigmaiden told me she was to be sure to have it ready by Wednesday morning; and Mrs. Kipps herself asked me how many eggs I put in my tea-cakes. She never would make teacakes, you know, unless she was going to give a teaparty; and she never asks any body to tea but the Kents and Adderburys, and the Kents, you know, are all ill with the mumps."

Such are the objects of daily interest, such the tenour of daily conversation, among a not uncommon class of persons in country places. And happy would it be for themselves, and for those around them, if the general tone and temper of their remarks were as innocuous as in the specimen just quoted. But when they who have much leisure and few resources once allow themselves to get into habits of gossiping, they soon become busy-bodies and evil-speakers; the most trivial actions of others become important in their eyes; the worst construction is put upon every thing; where no motive is alleged, it costs them little effort to invent one; and as the thirst of acquiring and imparting the news of the day increases, Christian charity is lost in the love of scandal, and Chris