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tranquil portion of my existence; it was supplied partly from the energising nature of religious principle, which interests and exercises all the deep emotions of the soul, thereby preventing any rust or inactivity gathering over it-and partly from my now being in that happy season of life, when, to persons of imaginative temperament, this earth wears the hues of heaven. Youth was past—but not youth's peculiar happy moods and feelings: I still often felt keen delight, without stopping to analyze the cause of that delight; or, if I did reason about it, the spell was not thereby broken-the harmony did not cease. There was then a mystic music in all nature, that was heard and understood by my listening and entranced spirit. All life was tinged with poetry: even common and familiar things were glorified by some reflection caught from it: the sublime verities of our holy faith were beheld by me, invested with this halo; and Agnes was often my interpreting angel-for she would sometimes embody in words, thoughts, I fancied too etherial to be revealed. Thus was this part of my life. a beautiful poem-certainly too divine to last.

As if to prevent any danger of the "sweetest

honey" being "loathsome in its own deliciousness," the generally sweet and even intercourse that subsisted between Agnes and myself was occasionally slightly ruffled by some of those thousand little occurrences of daily life, that sometimes cast a thin nuance across the otherwise bright horizon; but they were as mere ripples on the calm lake-momentary stops of harmony-gentle rumplings of the rose-leaf.

We were both sensitive-I, morbidly so. I would be so unreasonable sometimes as to be annoyed, and to show the annoyance, if Agnes did not look or speak as affectionately as usual-or if she suffered my short absences from home without expressing a proper degree of regret or unhappiness. My love made me exigeant; I considered not that it was selfish, thus to vex her with what was mostly the mere coinage of my brain, but fancied, in my self-deception, that all refined and sensitive spirits must feel as I did. I used to vex her, too, occasionally, by fancying she was not as happy as she had expected to have been; and that she had not found her expectations realized in me. Had I practised this folly on some women-and even ex

cellent women too-it might have imbittered our domestic happiness most materially—for the peace of married life is often, in the first instances, broken by such fancied ills as these, and, like trifles, often lay the foundation for a series of petty disputes and disquietudes. But Agnes was too sweettempered and gentle to be made irritable by my folly—she was often vexed at these suspicions, but generally attributed them to my great affection for herself; and instead of dwelling on the subject of complaint, dismissed all mention of it, as soon as it was possible for her to do so.

In about a year after our marriage, her brother came to see us. He met us, as if nothing disagreeable had happened on either side. I was obliged on this occasion to have a battle with my pride, (of which, it may have been seen, I had a great share), before I could consent to behave as if he had not cast scorn on my alliance with his sister: for her sake, too, I endeavoured to forget what had mortified me. Agnes was delighted again to renew her affectionate intercourse with her brother; and thus all seemed smoothed in our path.

G

CHAPTER XIII.

"Leaves have their time to fall,

And flowers to wither at the north wind's breath;

And stars to set: but all—

Thou hast all seasons for thine own, O death!

F. HEMANS.

THUS time passed on-years glided by, with rapid movement-no event of stirring interest happened for four years after our marriage-my love for Agnes rather increased than diminished. I found she possessed that sterling excellence, which so few, even of good persons, can lay claim to. Her naturally good disposition and tendencies were exalted and strengthened by her humble piety. I soon found her religion was much deeper than my own. I was a creature of impulse, and too many of my best and holiest emotions subsided, in great measure, after the excitement had passed; her's seemed to belong to a congenial nature, and to meet with but little antagonist power; or rather, perhaps, the

subduing influence of the gospel had early moulded her heart in its heavenly form. All persons do not seem, certainly, to have been born with the same amount of evil in their natures; all, undoubtedly, need the quickening influences of the Holy Spirit, to draw their hearts permanently heavenwards; but all do not evidence the same depravity or love of evil; goodness and truth seem to command their sympathy, and be more easily adopted than a contrary course the why, or the wherefore, of this difference, is not for us to explain; it remains amongst the many psychological difficulties, that will perhaps be solved in a future and higher state of existence.

I was entering on the fifth year of our marriage; the autumn was commencing; by degrees I felt an unaccountable depression steal on me. I tried to shake it off, but could not; every thing seemed enveloped in gloom; nature no longer looked rejoicing; books and study wearied me; preaching to our little flock became exceedingly difficult and distasteful. I could scarcely pray, and found no consolations in the exercises of piety. Agnes suggested that I could not be well in health; but I

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