rendered by its promises the source of his joys, and whose scanty comforts bave inspired the emotions of his gratitude-whose hopes have been elevated by the sublimity of its promises, and whose doubts have been dispelled by the isward witness of its truth: and say then, if that evidence of the divine inspiration of the "lively oracles," which is produced by the conscious ness of their authenticity resulting from a personal application of the promises they contain, and an individual appropriation of the blessings which they proffer, is one of trivial importance, or little account?

It lays a foundation for the faith of those who are not able to investigate the external evidences of the authenticity of the inspired volume; and establishes in their minds the constant belief of their authority, which is so indispensible as a preliminary step to their cordial reception. It chases away the doubts that would question the wisdom of Providence; and resolves many of the mysteries that obscure the light of truth. The man of science may draw his conclusions from the appearances of nature: the traveller may discover in many of the spots which have been hallowed as the scene of the fulfil And what can infidelity do for the ment of predicted judgments; or in poor men? It may put an end to all the the ruinso f the cities of the East, whose charities of home and of neighbour names have; en handed down to us hood-it way untwist that band of on the sacred page, a satisfactory proof sympathy which binds heart to heart of the truth of the divine Revelation: -it may sever those links of friend the close observer of the distinguishship which unite man to his fellow- ing intellectual features, and peculiar man-it may destroy the finest sen- national customs of a particular people, sibilities of our nature-it may rob may arrive at a similar conclusion : es of the institution of the Christian the learned historian may trace, in the sabbath, which a northern bard has annals of the profane, the firmest corso appropriately designated "The Poor roboration of the records of the ins Man's Day"-it may throw a gloom spired: the lover of elegant literature, over the vale of life, and spread a cloud who delights in classic fore, may pause across the glory that bounds it: but in the perusal of his favourite authors, it will never heal the broken in to draw from some remarkable passage beart"-it will never" bring delia new evidence on the side of Chrisverance to the captives"-it will never tianity. The beauties of creation-and be the recovering of sight to the the lovely scenery which it exhibits : blied"-it will never set at liberty the structure of the world, and the them that are bruised”—it will unfold" constellated canopy" which crowns to them" the acceptable year of the Lord”—

end

The Scripture yields—or hope to find a friend?"

But this subject does not only appear is an interesting point of view, when considered as furnishing an additional argument is proof of the truth of the Christian religion, but as being calculated to afford the most pleasing refections to those, whose minds are fredy established in the belief of the doctrines contained in the sacred writings. It sets a higher value on all the truths which they exhibit, and tenda to bring thein bome to the conscience with a more convincing energy.

it: the rivers which fertilize the earth -and the volcanoes that disfigure its the broken rock; the verdure of vege surface: the rugged promontory-and tation-and the strata that lie beneath it: the fallen grandeur of Babylon

and the stagnant lake that covers the cities of the Plain: the customs of the East-and the superstitions of its deluded idolaters: the scattered descendants of the faithful Abrahamand the wandering progeny of the banished Ishmael-may all afford to the diligent observer so many interesting objects of consideration, and may serve as so many proofs of the authenticity of the sacred record. But these are reflections, which are confined to a peculiar class. They lie beyond the reach of the observation, and above the compass of the comprehension of thousands to whom the Gospel has proved a message of peace. The Bible appears as a messenger who brings his own eredentials. Its lengthened train of in

Lome years at the Bar, which he quitted for the Church. On the lamentable air of Miss Ray and Hackman, he related the story in a work entitled "Love and Madness," which formed an interesting miscellany, though relating pricipally to events of a melancholy Dature. When Dr. Johnson was writing the Lives of the British Poets, not being sufficiently acquainted with the biograpy of Dr. Young, he applied to Mr. Herbert Croft (not then a Baronet) to supply the deficiency. Mr. H. Croit wrote the article requested, and has mutated Dr. Johnson's style so well as to give a uniformity to the whole of that treasure of biography. On the death of Dr Jobuson, Sir Herbert was preparing to publish a new edition of his Dictionary, with the addition of many thousand words,

A CONVERSAZIONE. (Continued from page 42.) "AM very anxious," said Mr.

to avoid the tædium of formal desertation; more especially as I per ceive it acts with so paralizing an effect upon the witty energies of Lady S, and the patient gentleness of my better half-I will, therefore, acquit myself of the remaining part of my task with as moch brevity as the nature of the subject will allow.

"In order, therefore, not to lengthen my observations by repetition, I shall take it for granted, that when a wife bas laid aside all affection for her hasband, whatever conformity she may condescend to shew to his commands, must originate either in a conviction that resistance is totally useless, or that it may produce worse consequences to herself, than the mere trespass upon her convenience or the constraint upon her raclinations."

"It is well known, that there are characters in society who escape the opprobrium of penal infiction by por tessing more cunning than honesty, and by adroitly contriving, in all their obliquity of unfair dealing, to keep just within the limits of the law-Such persons are certainly honest much against their wills, since, if it were not for the barriers of justice, they would overleap all bounds of honourable restraint, and correct principle-It is exactly so with those wives who obey because they must, but who resist when they can, the prescripts of their husbands.”

Europ. Mag. Fol. LXXIII. Feb. 1818.

"Aye," cried the Baronet, "it is great pity that such disobedience is not included within the criminal code of the country;-for of this I am confident, that there cannot be a more ruinous breach of the peace than that which destroys the happiness and unanimity of a family-And when a woman, who might be a happy wife if she would submit to the duties of her station, takes upon her to thwart her husband in his domestic hopes, she becomes as evil a violator of the general comfort of society, as any of those atrocious offenders who are tried, cast, and transported for robbery, whether perpetrated by swindling or breach of trust.-At all events, she who marries and promises to obey, by breaking her promise, marries with false pretences-and when she abuses the confidence of an affectionate husband, she defrauds him of his just expectations for he had a right to insist upon her part of the compact so long as he observes his own."

"All this, my good Sir," resumed Mr., is doubtless very true in the abstract; but I cannot think there is any omission on the side of our provisionary laws, of sufficient sanction in support of the husband's right to punish a refractory wife.-For instance, Sir B, you remember the famous deci sion of Judge Buller, who with a consummate union of justice and mercy decreed that a husband might chastise his rebellious rib by applying, in answer to her wayward taunts and vexatious disputations, the argumentum baculi, provided the stick were not thicker than a man's thumb.

"He was a Daniel in judgment," exclaimed the Baronet," for he thought it right, that both parties should rigidly adhere to the very letter of the bond."

He might be a Daniel in judgment," observed the Director's Wife, but I think he was no Solomon in his system-for who ever heard of a woman being beaten into love-she may indeed be awed into obedience-and were you to quote all the judges in Israel, and all the prophets in Judea, in favor of your position, Sir B, I should set their authority at defiance, without the least scruple of conscience, whenever I chose to dispute the lordly injunctions of my husband, in justification of my own will."

"Then, Madam, you must abjure your religion," observed the Director, and tear the bond of your conjugal

P

he would have suffered you to go on in your heedless course of inconsideration -but he rightly judged, that as you were to travel with him through that path of life in which you blended your uture condition with his own, it was no more than consulting the peace of both, to unite your inclinations with his-It was a short but a painful season of probation; but depend upon it, Mrs. A———, affection in a man is never more genuine than when it can discover, and is anxious to correct, in the object of its attachment, those weaknesses which prevent the nobler qualities of the mind from asserting their due influence over it.-You have, in such conduct, the most convincing proof of your husband's truth of attachment; for the person whom we love, we wish to see in all things amiable -You have yielded to your husband's with-and in his will you have found the most satisfactory accomplishment of your own.'-I then rose to depart, but did not leave the room before I engaged, in compliance with her request, to stand as godfather to the little Mary.-Mr. A accompanied me to the door; and, as he held it open with one hand, he shook mine heartily with the other, and bid me “good morning” in a tone of voice that at once convinced me he felt assured of the sincerity of his wife in all that she bad said."

“Well, Mr. —," exclaimed the Manager's Lady, who had so recently expressed herself somewhat severely upon the follies of young women who had been perverted by the supposititious accomplishments of a fashionable education, from the real excellencies of female worth, “I must admit that your picture is faithfully drawn-I only wish that more of my untoward sisters could find their own features of corrected feeling portrayed in it. But I have a portrait of rather an opposite nature to present you with, which I de very unfeignedly regret, because would have my own sex command, in every instance, the truest criterion of its excellence, the respectful esteem of your's. There are indeed many wretches among you men, who in the lawless pursuit of a worthless passion exult in the degradation of a hapless female to the base level of their own corrupt desires-but for the honour of human nature, we will not suppose that, even in the most vicious of your sex,

I

the virtues of our's have not an overawing power, to which the vilest do not involuntarily submit the dogmata of their libertinism.-There are, I know, some beings, I can scarcely dignify them with the appellation of men, who, ushered into life at an early age, and under the very unpropitious auspices of the most depraved associates, have imbibed an opinion of women in general, only from the lowest and loosest characters among them, whose infamy, indeed, has originated in the iniquitous arts of the worst of your sex. I bave thus prefaced the short history which I am about to relate, because it will shew how little a female, and that female a married woman, can depend upon that very will in the instant of danger, which she has asserted as a law of sufficient claim to absolve her from the important duties of a wife and a mother, in the more propitious season of happier opportunities.-Among my husband's college acquaintances, was a very estimable young man, who, after signalizing himself at the University of Oxford, in a way that opened to him the most brilliant prospects of collegiate proferment,-married a hoyden girl, who was the only child of an open-hearted foxhunting farmer of substance in the village of which he was curate.

The girl had been accustomed to consider herself as privileged by the tolerance of those who knew her before marriage, in many actions of self-will which nothing but the apparent ingenuousness of her disposition, could have reconciled to their ideas of feminine propriety-Poor M― had a spice of the romantic in his composition, and he traced in her wild unrestrained deportment, all the graces of a Dianashe was in short, the very child of nature, which he fondly persuaded himself he could form to his will; and

model in all the purity of mind, so as to make her the ornament of her sex, and the delight of his life. He married her-but as she had never allowed herself to contemplate what were the prudential characteristics of a wife, she of course had left out of her calculation those proprieties which belonged to the condition of a married woman-the natural result of all this, was an improvident carelessness in the management of his household, and a flippant negligence of all those decorums, which are always expected in a clergyman's wife.-bvery one who knew him foreboded ill of the