My father smiled good humouredly as he replied, "I believe it is generally considered meritorious to be rich; and persons possessing the charm of wealth, seldom want friends or admirers. Your own experience, my dear Miss Dalton, must convince you that their is nothing strange or uncommon in the marriage of Miss Cope. That of Miss Percy, serves rather as a proof that industry, ability, and perseverance, united with integrity, seldom fail sooner or later to secure advancement. This may be taken as the general rule. But let us also bear in mind, that there is a wise and gracious providence, who, so far as the Christian is concerned, orders his lot in life, and graciously keeps him in that position most favorable for his spiritual welfare." "Yet," said Elizabeth modestly, "some reason is generally assigned for want of success, and we are apt to consider that our misfortunes might have been averted, had a different line of conduct been pursued." "Very true," replied my father; "but this does not alter the fact, that the children of God are the subjects of a special providence, which so directs and overrules the events of their lives, that they may issue in their good and His glory. Let us "Look to the End," dear Elizabeth-we are too much inclined to dwell upon the details of the short and stormy journey of life; too solicitous about our accommodations on the road; and too anxious respecting the opinions of our fellow travellers. The petty distinctions we prize so highly, must soon cease. same event will ere long happen to all. The The termination of rich and poor will life is the grand rallying point, when the meet together in the presence of that Lord who is the maker of them all. To be approved of Him, should be our great object on the journey. Then we should think and care less about the appearance we may make on the way." The serious turn which these remarks had given to the conversation, suspended my friend's enquiries for a time. At length I returned to the subject. "You have not asked after Miss Charlotte, my dear Elizabeth; is it possible that you have forgotten her?" "No, indeed!" she answered, "I never did Miss Charlotte that injustice. No person, having been under her rule, could be guilty of such a failure of memory. Had I forgotten you, Caroline, it is just possible I might not have recollected her, for I fear you will consider it no compliment to be informed, that you were ever associated in my memory. Pray, is she also married ?" "I believe not. When her sister relinquished the school, Miss Charlotte took a situation as private governess, and is at present in France with her pupils." "I hope the climate will have a beneficial influence upon her temper, and also that she may not be visiting her sister during the summer vacation. And now tell me, if you know anything of a Miss Campbell who was your earliest school friend?" “Yes, the mother of our little pupils is a distant connection of hers, and through her I have learned that she is married and settled in India, whither she accompanied her father, who was appointed to a chaplaincy in that country." "I am afraid," said Elizabeth, coloring deeply, and speaking with some degree of embarrassment, "that you will have considered me very remiss in so long delaying to enquire after your especial friend and favorite Miss Selwyn. You will recollect that, I used to be jealous of your affection for her. She is doubtless married, or at all events engaged to your brother Edward." 66 Pray did you ever see Edward, Miss Dalton ?" interrupted my mother, whose attention was instantly arrested by this allusion to the absent one of the family. 66 Never: but I frequently heard Caroline speak of him. If I recollect rightly, he was in Mr. Selwyn's employ?" My mother nodded assent. "But what of Miss Selwyn ?" continued Elizabeth, "and why do you all look so serious? I hope, dear Caroline, I have not grieved or offended you," she added, observing that my tears were falling fast. I struggled to regain my composure, and Ellen replied for me. "Caroline is not offended," said she, in her sweet and gentle "she weeps because your question reminds her of a manner, dear friend now in heaven." Miss Dalton appeared greatly shocked. "Anna was so gay, so blooming, so full of life and action," she remarked, "it is scarcely possible to imagine her otherwise than cheerful and healthy." "Nor need you. Her death was sudden and unexpected. She had been married about a year to a pious clergyman, and expired shortly after the birth of her child." "And the infant ?" asked Elizabeth. "Was buried in the same coffin with its mother," returned Ellen, sadly. “What a melancholy end!" said Elizabeth, sighing deeply. "Rather say, what a glorious end!" exclaimed my father. "The dear young lady, whose early death you deplore, exhibited in her short life the graces and virtues which adorn the character of the true disciple of Christ. She had devoted the spring time of her life, to the service of her Redeemer; and sudden and unexpected as was her summons hence, it did not find her unprepared. Strong in faith, she was enabled calmly to resign her spirit, relying simply, but firmly, upon the merits of her Saviour clothed in his righteousness, the fear and sting of death were removed, and she was able to exclaim, 'Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory, through our Lord Jesus Christ!' Her death was not only peaceful, but triumphant. And now, my dear girls," continued my beloved parent, "since death must be the end, whether life be long or short, prosperous or adverse, strewn with flowers, or entangled with thorns and briers, let it be our chief aim, humbly and prayerfully to keep that end in view. Your relative positions in society may alter; for we live in a world, 'the fashion of which' is constantly 'passing away,'-but, whether your future lot be wealth or poverty, health or sickness, weal or woe, all will be well at last, provided you 'Look to the End."" THE MOUNT. Newcastle, Under Lyme. SERPENT WORSHIP, AND ITS ORIGIN. S. A. "IF death have passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,” a knowledge of the exact circumstance which introduced it into the world-the temptation by a serpent, or some creature of like kind-has also been diffused throughout its whole circumference. "The eloquent air" may indeed be said to "breathe and burn" with traditions relative to the primal transgression; and the gloom of heathenism to be "thick with phantoms" of the great instrument of mischief. If we turn for example to China, we shall see, in the mythology of that people, the serpent distorted into a horrible dragon, with “flaming eyes, long sharp teeth, and open mouth breathing streams of fire;" and from its connection with the pillar or pedestal of Chiven, the lingam of India, in one of their open temples, referred to in Macartney's Embassy, there seems to be good reason for associating it with the third power of the Hindoo Trinity—the great Adversary or Destroying principle of all the nations of antiquity. If, in coming nearer home, we traverse the provinces of India, we may observe the same circumstances of terror connected with this repulsive creature; and in the Avatars, or incarnations of Chreeshna Suffering and Chreeshna Triumphant, we shall at once see its identity with the serpent-tempter of the Bible, and its intimate connection with the curse denounced against it—"I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise its heel." In Persia, the serpent was the representative of the Evil One himself—the Ahrimanes of their system—the Azacha or devouring monster, so much dreaded by the priests and people. In Egypt it was the "Typhon huge, ending in snaky twine,” or the great red dragon of baleful and portentous aspect. In Greece it was the Python slain by Apollo-the spirit of darkness vanquished by the god of light—the guardian of the golden apples of the Hesperides, which, vomiting flames, and having a hundred heads as well as voices, was nevertheless discomfited by the valour and prowess of the son of Jupiter. But the serpent was not only worshipped and feared in propria persona. Delineations of it were "imagined in the heavens ;" and of these it is very certain that the celestial dragon, encircling the poles of the ecliptic, diffused general alarm and terror over the inhabitants of the Asiatic continent, and that its baleful influences entered into all their systems of Astronomical Mythology. "There is one very remarkable feature," says Mr. Maurice, "in the mythological portrait of this story upon the sphere: and that is, the position of the foot of Hercules in immediate contact with the serpent's head, irresistibly impressing the mind of the Christian astronomer that the event thus pictured in the silent blazonry of heaven, is in some way connected with the promise made to our first parents, that the seed of the woman should bruise the head of the serpent." This very position is noticed by Aratus→ "For while sublime his awful hands are spread, Fixt on the writhing monster's burnished crest." And it is here worthy of remark, that in the Courma Avatar of the Hindoos, this expressive symbol of the Tempter is represented as encircling the mountain Mandar, or Mandreguiri, by which the north pole of our earth is usually supposed to be typified, (just as the celestial Draco surrounds that of the Ecliptic,) and convulsing the natural world in the same manner as its original, is declared to have reversed the moral constitution of things. "I entertain little doubt," says the author of Indian Antiquities, "that the serpent Asookee, whose enormous, body enfolded the globe, represented by the mountain Mandar or the north pole, is no other than the celestial Serpent or Dragon whose baleful influence is represented in all oriental systems of astrology to be so fatal to the revolving spheres." In China, too, the same idea appears to have been transferred to the starry skies, in the northern region of which they represent a human figure standing with one leg on a dragon, and the other drawn up and suspended in the air, accompanied by an inscription thus paraphrased: "Raised high, the venerable man of books Sweeps the nine heavens with his searching looks, Though this strange figure is styled the man of books, we must certainly regard him as something more than human. A |