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Having finished my purchases, I proceeded homewards, and soon reaching the corner of the street in which we resided, turned round and almost started on perceiving the identical primrose bonnet following at a short distance. After tea I accompanied my parents to church, it being the evening for a weekly lecture which my dear father was in the habit of delivering. Our pew was in the aisle on the side nearest the parsonage, and commanded a view of the opposite gallery. There, to my surprise and delight, I again saw the ladies I had met in the afternoon.

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On leaving the church, I asked my mother if she knew them. 'Certainly. They are Mrs. Kendal and her daughter. They came to reside in our neighbourhood early in the spring, and have only just returned from a long visit to the sea side. If you wish it, I will take you with me to call upon them to-morrow.”

The acquaintance thus commenced shortly ripened into intimacy, and proved an advantage as well as a pleasure to me. Ellen Kendal was not clever, romantic, or even accomplished; but she possessed practical good sense, and a decided partiality for domestic pursuits. We soon became associated in our duties and recreations. We taught in the Sabbath school, assisted my mother in instructing her week-evening class, walked out together, or employed ourselves with needlework.

It was not possible for two young people to be more dissimilar in dispositions or tastes than Ellen and myself; yet her manners were so gentle and lady-like, and her opinions so correct, that she gradually won my esteem, and acquired considerable influence over my mind. I made several attempts to excite her sympathy in my favorite amusements, but they proved total failures. Not that Ellen was a bad listener-quite the reverse. She manifested neither impatience nor weariness when I persisted in talking sentiment, reciting poety, or relating romantic adventures, but it was evident she did not participate in my feelings. Her attention on ordinary topics was always wide awake. It would have been impossible for her to have become so much absorbed as not to perceive that the candle wanted snuffing or the fire stirring; or if we were taking a country walk, no finely written stanzas would have led her to forget the precise locality of a flower she wished to possess. My parents watched our growing

intimacy with anxiety. They spared no pains to ascertain its effect upon my character and habits, and were satisfied to find it upon the whole beneficial. Had it proved otherwise they would not have permitted its continuance. There is an easy method of testing the intimacies of young people. If mutual confidence between parent and child remain unbroken-if there are no reserves, concealments or mysteries, there is no serious danger to be dreaded. But if children manifest a disinclination for the society and sympathy of parents, or a distaste for the pursuits which have formerly interested; if they become reserved and appear anxious to separate themselves from the family circle, let parents beware; there is a worm at the root of their integrity, which must be removed, or moral disease will ensue, and blight not only their future happiness but their welfare and usefulness. In the choice of companions it is especially necessary both for parents and children to "Look to the End."

I must now pass over an interval of three years, during which no particular change took place in the outward circumstances of my family. I still remained at home and was surrounded by many comforts, but the stern realities of life had begun to dissipate the bright imaginations of early youth, and some degree of care and anxiety spread a gloom over our little household. My dear father's health was by no means so robust as formerly, and it was my mother's opinion that he ought to obtain the assistance of a curate, and desist for a time from his labors.

My elder brother, now a promising young man, just about to commence his professional career, was threatened with consumption, and was recommended to try a voyage to Madeira as a probable means of removing his unpleasant symptoms—a very agreeable remedy, as Philip observed to our medical friend, with only the slight drawback of the want of means to enable him to give it a trial. I had always known that we were not rich, but had never felt poverty an evil until now.

It was towards the end of June, when we were one evening agreeably surprised by a visit from my brother Edward, whose buoyant spirits and affectionate attentions infused fresh cheerfulness into our little party. He was the bearer of tokens of

remembrance from my friend Miss Selwyn, with whom I had kept up a regular correspondence and occasionally exchanged visits. Some difficulty arose respecting providing accommodation for our welcome visitor, and I volunteered to give up my room and return to the closet I occupied when a child.

Owing to the excitement caused by Edward's arrival, I was unusually wakeful, and the door of my chamber being unlatched I distinguished the voices of my parents in low but earnest conversation. It was past midnight, and the silence seemed to give distinctness to their words; or it might be, that as they became animated they spoke in a louder tone. Presently, I heard my own name mentioned by my mother, but the rest of the sentence escaped my ear.

My father's reply was in his most decided tone, and not a syllable of it did I miss.

"Our

"I cannot entertain a thought of the kind," he said. daughter is still very young, and she has too little stability of character to be trusted amongst strangers. Although I am anxious that Philip should try a voyage to Madeira, Caroline must not leave the protection of my roof."

I now comprehended the subject of their discussion, and felt that my mother was right-I ought to be turning my education to good account in the sphere for which I was designed. This conviction was accompanied by an idea which then for the first time occurred to me, and which I flattered myself could not fail to meet the wishes of both my parents. Acting on the impulse of the moment, I arose hastily, with the intention of immediately confiding my hopes and wishes to them. But all was silent; they had ceased to converse; and fearing to disturb them I indulged in waking dreams, which ere long took more fantastic forms, and were at length dissipated and forgotten as sound repose succeeded to lighter slumbers. S. A.

THE MOUNT,

Newcastle under Lyme.

(To be continued.)

A WELL-KNOWN CHARACTER.

LUTHER said of himself, after the labors of his active life, "I am well known in Heaven, Earth, and Hell."-Montgomery.

STUDIES OF FIRST PRINCIPLES.*

"First

"PRINCIPLES" we believe are Beginnings, we can make neither more nor less of the term. But what are Principles ?" We cannot interpret the qualifying epithet chronologically; for in that case it would be merely tautological or expletive: let us therefore assume that it defines rather the importance, than the order of time, attaching to the principle. Thus understood, first principles are principles of first-rate importance, fundamental truths; beginnings on which we may safely and profitably rear a superstructure enduring, majestic, and influential.

And now what are "Studies?" These Essays, says Mr. Binney, "are called 'STUDIES,' -'Studies of First Principles.' The epithet I suppose to be derived from the use of the word by painters. With them, 'a study' is a sketch--the outline of some thought or object-a conception lightly pencilled or partially embodied, not elaborately brought out, filled up, or finished; the thing is pregnant, suggestive, and exhibits, not so much the entire idea, as what might be made of it, if all that is indicated in the drawing was to be distinctly and fully expressed. In the following sketches-or 'studies,' as thus interpreted-the writer fixes his mind intently on the subject, and throws out, in a few brief paragraphs, the results of his meditation—the form in which the thing shapes itself to him, and takes breadth and color in his thoughts. He touches on various aspects of it, draws his lines, and throws in his lights and shadows, without any elaborate finishing of the parts. There is no attempt here at exact or lengthened logical articulation, at induction, analysis, or exhaustion of a subject. The author does not advance by distinctly-marked and graduated steps to the end of a carefully-constructed argument, shutting up the reader to some grand conclusion from which there is no escape, and the path to which has been drawn and cut by line and labor; but he throws out-somewhat without order or close connexion-thoughts about the thing, which he hopes may be

*Studies of First Principles, by James Baldwin Brown, A.B. London. With a Preface by the Rev. Thomas Binney. London: M. Tayler, and Ward & Co. 1849.

the seeds of thought to others,-seeds which may produce fruit according to what life there is in them, and the sort of soil on which they fall."

Ingenious as this interpretation of the word may be, it does not strike us as the right one. A study in its technical sense is not a mere sketch-far from it. It is a severely elaborated transcript of a subject-an attempt to place every line and trait -light, shade, tint, tone, and detail of every kind upon the canvass to embody it in fact as powerfully and accurately as possible. We have heard of a painter, who was seven days in making a study" of a broom-handle, and we cannot imagine he was all this time engaged on the "suggestive"-throwing out, or painting in, ideas which were to be the "seeds" of other broom-handles. But enough of mere words; and to the work before us.

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Mr. Brown's "First Principles" are six in number. Voluntaryism; Independency; First Principles of Politics; The Sign of the Kingdom of God; Honest Thought, Honest Speech, Honest Work; and the Central Truth.

We are not to be diverted from the purpose to which we have adhered for nearly half a century, of avoiding political or polemical discussions. Our readers need not therefore be frightened by any show of controversy in the titles of these essays. Voluntaryism, according to Mr. Brown, is merely "Christianity working," (Essay i. p. 4,) and to such voluntaryism we believe both churchman and dissenter will heartily wish all success. Independency, as pourtrayed in the work before us, is as little provocative of strife. "We conceive,” says he, "that Independents, in guarding their entrenchments against powerful and formidable foes, have neglected the stronghold; they have kept the lines which men in past ages constructed, instead of keeping the tower, and constructing such lines as might be demanded by the exigencies of the time. This tower of strength is the same as that to which Micaiah betook himself, 'What the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak.' Friends, is this the broad principle which we have grasped? Is this the rock on which we stand? Supreme allegiance to the God of Truth, and a reverent attention to the utterances of truth within the secret chambers of the soul?"

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