make it conscientiously, with an eye to futurity, so that if you knew that all your connexions were to meet you at the throne of the Eternal in an hour after your signing, sealing, and delivery, you would not wish it altered.

Great mistakes have been made by many in believing unfavourable reports of their relatives and friends, and allowing prejudices and resentments to influence them in the bequeathment of their property. If you are in a proper spirit for making your will, you will look with a forbearing and merciful eye on all who have a reasonable claim on your remembrance.

Our earthly comfort is greatly promoted by the good conduct of faithful domestics. If you know the value of good servants, you will not be unmindful of them in your will, admitting that, consistently with prior claims, you have the ability to do them a kindness.

"A worthy man had served a country shopkeeper and his son for nearly forty years. He was the tried servant, and esteemed by all the family. You shall never want,' was the frequent language of the master. The servant was comforted by the thought 'that when he was old and grey-headed, he should not be forgotten.' His master died, leaving considerable property; but the name of the servant was not found in the will;

he was left without provision. Was this equitable, when the master had power to provide for his servant? A small weekly sum would have filled the heart of the old man with joy."

Now, do not fall into the error of supposing, that a small sum will be of little importance to a faithful domestic. There are times when a single shilling is very valuable to a person slenderly provided for, and to such an one five or ten pounds would be a treasure.

"A woman was once seen weeping at the grave of a worthy female. No one present appeared more deeply affected. 'Have you lost a friend in the deceased?' inquired a person present: 'Yes,' replied the afflicted woman, 'the dear lady was very kind to me; she used to allow me sixpence a week, which procured me many comforts.""

My poor pen has run on strangely, and yet I appear to have written but a small part of what I intended to lay before you. It may be that after a while I may be permitted to return to this sub. ject again, for it is an important one. In the meantime, if you have a wife and children, be not unmindful of my imperfect suggestions. If you have poor relations, "be ye merciful, even as your Father in heaven is merciful," and leave them not without some token of your remembrance. If you have faithful servants, give them reason to

bless your memory, and let the kindness of your friends be acknowledged.

If Old Humphrey, in addition to what he has said, should intimate that a faithful minister of Christ, and a conscientious doctor, are entitled to estimation, you will not gainsay his opinion, nor deny that those who minister to the peace and repose of soul and body, have a claim on our best regard. If, however, we cannot follow out all our affectionate sympathies, let us, at least, not on this account neglect our positive duties.

ON INSANITY.

THE by-ways, as well as the highways of life, must be trodden,—the house of mourning, as well as the house of feasting must be entered by him who would see human nature as it is, and draw from mankind at large such lessons of instruction as may be profitable to his own heart, and the hearts of others. With a spirit that claims kindred with the unhappy, I have visited the home of humiliation, the domestic circle of sorrow; I have been to a lunatic asylum. Shall I draw the picture from the life? No! for though I might thereby call forth much of human sympathy and Christian kindness for a peculiar class of my fellow-beings, yet might I, also, wound those into whose bosoms I would rather pour the oil of gladness, and the balm of peace.

To the friends of those whose intellects are beclouded, I would say, Encourage not gloomy impressions respecting those you lament.

We

know that in the natural creation darkness is as necessary as daylight; and who shall say that in the most mysterious visitations of the Almighty,

mercy is not the principal ingredient? We see our afflictions, but we know not from what evils they preserve us; nor do we discern the advantages which others may derive from them. Many of God's providences are painful; they are intended to be so; but the end is not yet:-it remains for another state of existence to unravel and enlighten much that is now intricate and obscure.

But a word, reader, with you. There can be no doubt that you pity from your heart all those whose reason has gone astray; but let me tell you, that if you cannot answer affirmatively the question I am about to propose, you stand, yourself in more need of pity than even the unhappy objects of your commiseration. I take it for granted that you read your Bible, acknowledging it to be the word of God; and that you are fully aware mankind are not only born in sin, and conceived in iniquity, but also under the curse of the law for actual transgression. You are, doubtless, well aware that your life, compared to eternity, is but as a moment, and that there is but a step between you and death. Seeing, then, that if you die in your sins, the Holy Scriptures hold out no hope of escape from eternal woe; and that there is but one way in which a sinner can be reconciled to God, and saved from everlasting death, the question I have to propose to