delight; and to pray to him to continue his favours towards us.

Ellen. But I must not play on Sundays, Mamma. Sometimes I think I should like to play on Sundays as well as other days.

Матта. You would like to do so, Ellen, and we all like to do sometimes what we ought not to do. But you must be satisfied now by my telling you that it is not right you should do so when you are older and better able to understand why you should not, you will learn, I hope, to be quite satisfied on Sundays to lay by the pastimes of the week. But now if you like to take a walk with Papa, go and get your bonnet, and we will talk more of this another time.

DIALOGUE II.'

THE GARDEN OF EDEN.

Mamma. Do you recollect all I have told you about the creation, Ellen?

Ellen. I think so, Mamma.

Mamma. Tell me now what was the last thing God made before he rested from his work.

Ellen. He made man-Did he make only one man, Mamma?

Mamma. He made only one man and one woman, Ellen, and these are the parents of all persons who have ever lived upon the earth. And these God placed over every thing which he had made, and gave them authority to make use of all the animals and plants. To the animals they were to be kind and protecting; and the plants and herbs were to serve them for food, to please their eyes by their beauty, and their sense of smelling by the delicious fragrance they send forth.

Ellen. What was the man's name, Mamma? Mamma. The man's name was Adam, Ellen,

which means clay, or a sort of red earth; and this name was given to him by God, because it had pleased God to form man from the moist dust of the earth. And the name of the first woman was Eve, and she was so named by Adam because Eve means the mother of all living; for Eve was to be the mother of all those who were afterwards to be born in the world.

Ellen. Adam and Eve had a very large place to live in, Mamma, when they were the only people alive?

Mamma. Yes, they had plenty of space, Ellen; so much indeed that they might have been puzzled in what part of the earth to live, had not their Almighty Father directed them in their choice. But God planted a beautiful garden, filled with flowers and fruits of every kind; and in this garden he placed the man and the woman which he had made. Here they were to live, in the enjoyment of every blessing by which they were surrounded, and nothing could be happier than they were.

Ellen.

Did Adam and Eve dig in their beautiful garden, Mamma?

Mamma. Digging and hard labour were not required in the garden in which Adam and Eve

were placed. It was called the Garden of Eden, that is, the garden of pleasure, and all the plants and flowers sprung up and bore fruit without the labour of man. So that there was nothing for man to do but to dress the garden and to keep it, as directed by God. He was good and happy, and passed his time in enjoying the blessings bestowed upon him, and in singing praises to the Almighty Bestower of all good things.

Ellen. But our garden in the country is very often dug up, Mamma, or else it would be overrun with weeds, Papa says. Our garden is not like the garden of Eden then?

Mamma. No, Ellen; our garden is a very different garden from that of Eden; and if you will listen to me, I will tell you how it is that there are no such gardens now as was that of Eden. I have before told you that in the garden of Eden were many plants and flowers; and there were a great many trees also: many trees which were pleasant to the eye and good for food; and of a great many of these trees Adam and Eve had permission to eat. But there was one tree which they were ordered not to touch, however beautiful it might appear, or however delicious to the taste its fruit might promise to

prove. This tree was called the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil.

Ellen. Why was the tree called so, Mamma?

Mamma. Because it was to prove whether man would be good, and obey the will of his Maker, by not tasting it; or commit evil, and become wicked by disobeying the orders he had received, and eating of it. Unfortunately for

Adam and the whole race of mankind, the order was disobeyed, and from that day every thing was changed.

Ellen. Did Adam eat the fruit then, Mamma, he was told not to eat? This was very naughty.

Mamma. I am sorry to say that he did so. But when God reproved him for so doing, he excused himself by saying, that he was prevailed upon to do it by his wife, who had eaten of it first.

Ellen. And had Eve eaten of it first, Mamma? Mamma. She had so; and, finding that the fruit was pleasant to the taste, she persuaded her husband to eat of it too.

Ellen.

Mamma?

Then Adam was not so wicked as Eve,

Mamma. Adam was equally wicked with his wife. For he knew as well as she did that God