when he shall be delivered from what now oppresses him; when the prison-gates shall be opened, and the prisoner shall be commanded to go out free. But let him wait in pious dependence on a superior Power, and not endeavour, by any act of his own, (although it may even be one of equivocal morality,) out of the line of his duty in that station of life to which it has pleased God to call him, to forestall the means which will undoubtedly be prepared for his redemption. We give not this advice because we fear him-but the wounded spirit requires not consolation only, but counsel. For himself we are assured, that in all respects he will prove a good soldier-both to God and man until discharged from a painful duty, in a manner equally honourable to himself and his fellow-creatures. Those whose lines have fallen in the least pleasant places of social duty may learn to abate the sense of hardship, by reflecting that this life itself, in its best estate, is but vanity-a burden and a yoke, which the richest and proudest devise many false shews to set off or to conceal, and are at last glad to lay down for the chance of a better. Only by labour and by death is worked out, with fear and trembling, the salvation of the world. Knowledge is not all which it behoves us to seek; but rather that the life within us should be nourished into moral eminence above the life without, in all patience, and faith, and hope, and charity. This life, it is needful, should have its first resurrection while in the body, and surrounded with the mixed good and evil of physical circumstances, that it may certainly attain to a happy immortality in the second. Such a consummation, however, can only be secured by submission in the first place to law and order, and in the next by acts of love and good-will to all men in the path of duty. "Stern daughter of the voice of God! O Duty! if that name thou love, Thou who art victory and law, When empty terrors overawe; From vain temptations dost set free; And calm'st the weary strife of frail humanity. Stern lawgiver! yet thou dost wear The Godhead's most benignant grace; Nor know we any thing so fair As is the smile upon thy face. To humbler functions, awful Power! O let my weakness have an end! And in the light of truth, thy Bondsman let me live." J. A. H. THE YOUNG ENTHUSIAST IN HUMBLE LIFE. CHAPTER I. WHO hath not felt, in early life, the bewitching power of fancy? who hath not, at that period, fondly cherished hopes of future happiness, ay, and perhaps of fame, which hopes a few short years have proved to have been as "the baseless fabric of a vision ?" And when we consider the influence those fancies have on our actions, is it not of importance to counteract their unhappy tendency by some such truth as this, that "Prudent, cautious, self-control, Is wisdom's root?" Such is the design of the present story. Its object is to impress upon the minds of youth the importance of a sound judgment, and the C necessity of attending to the plainest maxims of prudence in the conduct of human life. Henry Martlet, the subject of the following simple records, was born at a small village in Lancashire. His father was a farmer, and for a time, I believe, he was smiled on by fortune, and acquired riches; but this happy state of things changed, and he was reduced to poverty. After witnessing the sale of the principal part of his property to satisfy his creditors, he removed with his family to the town of L- where he carried on a small business till the period of his death. Although his pecuniary resources were very limited, yet he contrived to send Martlet to school, with the view of being taught the common branches of education. Martlet, however, soon became disgusted with every thing about the school. The confinement of being chained, as it were, all day to the desk ill accorded with his buoyant spirit. In spite of the schoolmaster's cane, the hazel stick of his father, and being sent to bed without supper, the green fields, and the face of the sun, |