Emma listened with deep attention. Perhaps she thought, that had she been content to learn of God only, in matters of religion, she would have been preserved from falling into temptation, and have escaped the sad consequences which had "pierced her through with many sorrows." And probably she remembered her uncle's words, that a deference to human authority, was the one fatal error, in which all her subsequent defections from the truth of the gospel had originated. But whatever reflections might have occupied her mind, they were for a time suspended, by the suggestion that I had some particular business to transact at a little distance; and the invitation to herself and my wife to accompany me thither.

Every thing out of doors looked certainly most inviting. It was one of those balmy days which are of rare occurrence in the capricious month of April. The clouds

"Now huddling, now dispersing,

Seemed with the windy messengers conversing."

and now shutting out the sun, and now revealing him in his full glory, chequered the wide landscape with that agreeable variety of light and shade which is so characteristic of the early Spring. The wind was soft and mild as that of June; the bees were out, and the flowers, as if rejoicing in the opportunity, exhaled their sweets in the warm sunshine more lavishly than they had yet done. You felt, as soon as the window was opened, an earnest of the coming on of summer; and could now realize, what you might have doubted but a day or two before, that the time of the singing of birds was again near. We had contemplated a walk over the hills, to a village where we had some special business to transact with an acquaintance; and the morning being favorable, we were glad to avail ourselves of it.

Our eldest boy begged hard to go with us, and as we saw no objection, was allowed to make one of the party. We crossed field after field, till finding the heat was becoming oppressive, we screened ourselves behind a fragrant hedge-row. The hills before us, chequered by the shadows of the flying clouds, looked nearer than we found them to be, but at length we reached the brow of that over which our path lay. Pausing to look round us on the scenery we had passed through, we saw an old stile in the hedge

on our right hand, sufficiently shadowed by two tall elms, one on either side, to make it an agreeable resting-place. As for little Charley, he was so busied in the fruitless attempt to dislodge a mole, which he had followed home to its run, that he had no wish to join us. He soon, however, rushed up in haste, alarmed by shouts coming from the opposite side of the hill, which were immediately followed by the appearance of two or three workmen, hurrying with all speed towards a temporary shed, formed in a small excavation on the shelving bank, a little beyond us. We too had heard the shouts, and as far as we could make them out, they indicated danger of some sort. Fancying, however, that we were far enough out of the way, we took Charley under our protection and sat still. Not many seconds had elapsed before we saw a jet of white smoke rise to a great height from over the hill, and soon after heard a harsh rattling rush, like an explosion, followed by the descent of various fragments of stone apparently from the atmosphere, for from the rapidity of their motion, we had not seen them hurled upwards. The workmen had just blasted an impracticable mass of stone in the adjacent quarry; and the danger being now over, we were induced by the entreaties of our boy, to deviate so far from our original intention as to turn our steps in that direction. The quarry was now only worked on a small scale, and the greater part of it being overgrown with brushwood and fern, interspersed with ivy and luxuriant wild flowers, presented many picturesque points, and inviting dingles. Winding in and out among these, as we followed the old road leading down to that part of it which was still productive, we stopped occasionally to gather a flower, to admire some striking coup d'œil, or to listen to the twitter of the birds, which seemed to be now tuning for the concerts of the coming month. The strata rose high above us, the sun-light as it slanted down into the vast hollow, bringing out in bold relief the salient crags, and glittering on the wings of the sand martens, that wheeled, and shrieked, and flitted in and out of their nests, in the perpendicular cliffs of sand, capping the firmer and more marketable stone below.

A little knot of workmen were congregated round the spot on which they had just operated. Amongst them were two or three of a superior class, and the whole were evidently discussing a

subject of great importance. As we came up to them, I recognized an old acquaintance, Mr. Sidney Shoveller, commonly though by courtesy alone, better known by the style and title of Doctor Shoveller, of Stonecroft. He was a short but thin man, between fifty and sixty, with shrivelled features, like old parchment, a retired apothecary, resident but a few miles off, in an old stone-built house of the heavy order of architecture. Here though, he had his museum, and his picture gallery, and his laboratory, and here he sometimes entertained a select circle of the London literati, for whom he was an efficient caterer, and through whom (for the doctor himself never came out in print), he now and then enlightened the world, or rather that infinitesimal section of it, which read the Transactions,' or the 'Proceedings,' or the 'Minutes,' of the various learned societies with which these literati were connected.

·

They were attentively examining the large stone which had been blown in pieces by the explosion we had witnessed. It had broken into three large masses vertically, at the same time splitting in a horizontal direction, and discovering a number of curious indents on the surface so exposed. They appeared to be the foot prints of some large animal; and as they alternated with smaller impressions of the same kind, it was most natural to suppose, that they belonged to some quadruped whose fore and hind feet were differently proportioned. Though but little of a geologist, I had heard and read of such a creature-a gigantic opossum, called I think, provisionally, the chirotherium, and I hinted that these foot prints might belong to the same creature. The doctor shook his head, and looked grave, “No,” said he we don't find the mammalia so early; it must be a batrachian or a saurian—a frog or a lizard."

“I should think it was what it looks most like," said Charley, but he was soon silenced by a severe frown from the doctor. "And pray, young gentleman," he added, "what does it look most like?

My boy gave no reply, but unwilling to drop the argument, I asked the doctor for an explanation of his remark, that the mammalia were not found " so early."

He told me he used that expression in a geological sense, that creation had been progressive, that the world at first had no

living thing upon it, that vegetables came first, then zoophytes, then fishes, then reptiles, and then quadrupeds properly so called. And at last came our own species.

"The diapason closing full in man.'

“If, therefore,” he added, "we were to find fossil quadrupeds, or any traces of them, in older strata than those which contained reptiles, it would of course be opposed to our theory."

Well but," said I, "is it not better to give up a theory, than a fact? Your theory in this instance was not invented a year or two since: your opossum then, was an opossum ; but now it is a toad; and all through this theory of yours."

The doctor affected not to hear me he was humming a low tune, and directing the operations of the workmen, who were carefully removing every fragment of the stone, to a place of safety, preparatory to its being conveyed home to his residence. He had been hitherto so absorbed with this discovery, that he had omitted to introduce us to a friend of his, among the little party of spectators. Glad of an opportunity just then to change the conversation, he turned round abruptly.

"I beg pardon, Goode," he said, "these are friends of mine," "Enderby, Major Goode; Major, Mrs. Enderby, Mr. Enderby, and ditto ditto, miniature edition, in blue with a tuck,' too, as the booksellers say," he continued, looking slyly at the boy's pelisse.

The major bowed stiffly, and bit his lips at the strange soubriquet given to the boy. He never made jokes himself, and never understood them in others; and he saw no reason why Master Enderby should not have been introduced by his proper "Well," said he, turning again to Dr. Shoveller, "I must be off-good morning."

name.

Stay, stay, you must not run away just now," rejoined the doctor, you surely feel a little interest in this discovery; I want you to satisfy yourself that there are at least some facts in geology. Look now at these foot prints, and tell me honestly, how you think they came there."

"How do you know they are foot prints?" asked the major snappishly.

66

Why, look at them, what else can they be?" rejoined the other," they are as perfect as if made yesterday, you may see the cast of one of the nails here, very distinctly."

"I don't wish to look at them," retorted the major, "you' geologists are all infidels, geology is a lie, an invention of the evil one, and I don't believe one word about it."

"But surely you believe a fact like this; you believe that we have discovered some curious impressions in the heart of this rock?"

"I believe it's all nonsense," said the major, forcing a smile to qualify the rudeness of such a remark. Then, as if anxious to escape from his dilemma, he turned towards ourselves, and having been in due form introduced to Miss Singleton, expressed a hope that it would not be long before we called on him. We assured him it had been our intention to do so for some time, and that we would take the first opportunity of carrying out our purpose. Having exchanged a few further remarks, he bade the doctor and ourselves good bye, and turned homewards.

66 Prejudiced fellow, that! said the doctor, before he was scarcely out of hearing, "did you ever see his like! He never will see anything he does not wish to see; your facts and arguments are all thrown away upon such men."

"Well," I remarked, " perhaps we are all prejudiced: I have my predilections, and you probably have yours. Nay, I may say certainly; for you have just shewn us, how a theory of yours, a theory, I mean, common to all geologists, has obliged you to change an opossum into a toad. And now I recollect it, this same theory has just led one of our greatest anatomists to transform an albatross into a pterodactyle, a bird into a lizard. You don't wish to find birds and quadrupeds in such ancient strata; and therefore, you turn them into fishes and reptiles."

The doctor, though often jocose, and always communicative, was by no means good tempered. Knowing nothing of the power of religion, though not an avowed infidel, he often spoke his mind too freely, and when beaten in argument, grew irascible. At these times he would speak not only unadvisedly, but in terms bordering on profanity. After a little more skirmishing on the subject of his prejudices, he began to interlace his remarks with a few trifling oaths' as they are thoughtlessly called by worldly men; as if any profanation of holy things could be properly described by such an epithet. Finding that the conversation was taking an unpleasant turn, we soon wished him