on the flute, and joined them with much taste and skill in their vocal performance; which was well selected, as Mr. Mordaunt would never permit his daughter to sing the pretty nothings of the day, - of the sentiments of which, perhaps, it would be well if we could say, that negative merits were their only claim to the reprehension of the delicate and correct.

Whatever may be his religion, said the young ladies to each other, after he had retired, it neither makes him melancholy nor austere; and they anticipated Sunday, that they might hear what sort of sermon would be preached by a person professing sentiments so eccentric. The day came. The church of course was crowded. Many and various were the mental comments made upon the preacher and his discourse; but an actual buzz of astonishment circulated through the congregation, when, at the close of the service, the clerk announced that there would be a sermon in the afternoon, and also an

evening lecture, at which all were invited to attend; with sundry other rules, respecting the catechising and instructing of the poor children, which the new Rector was desirous of establishing; and a little while afterwards, the surprize of the inhabitants of Aubrey was carried to its climax by the establishment of Bible and Missionary Societies in their village.

As the people issued from the sacred porch, nothing was heard but the cant phrases of "downright Methodist;" "rank Enthusiast;"" pure Calvinist;""absolute Dissenter;" and similar epithets,—all, perhaps, equally inapplicable to the character of the excellent young man, whose pious, simple, yet refined discourse, had been directed to the ears of all his congregation, and to the hearts of a few.

The barbarous Peruvians did not gaze with more wonder at Manco Capac and Mama Ocollo, when they emerged from the lake Titiaca to instruct them, than did the good people of Aubrey at their

new minister, as he walked in his robes along the beautiful avenue of limes, which adorned their picturesque church-yard. Meeting Mr. Mordaunt at the gate, he begged to introduce to him his mother and sisters; the apparant urbanity of whose manners, and whose moderately fashionable, though correct, dress encouraged the young ladies in the opinion they had formed of the family, that austerity, at least, was not a prevailing part of their code.

Mr. Mordaunt wished the whole party to proceed to Aubrey Park with him to dinner: but on their declining, on the plea of the day, they separated; Mr. Mordaunt remarking to his young companions, that, for a literary and well-bred man, Mr. Harley had some singular prejudices. They thought so too, and remembered the conversation which had first excited their astonishment at his singularity.

Louisa asked her father what he thought

of the additional services. "I think them excellent for the common people, who cannot improve themselves at home, and probably have no other means of learning their duty: it may, perhaps, divert them from the ale-house; but I fear it will rather disgust the genteeler order. This sort of enthusiasm, on entering upon a new office, is not, indeed, blamable; but is not likely to last long and I would have Mr. Harley beware of being righteous overmuch, which surely is an error, or the Scripture would never have warned us against it."

Louisa and Emma had read their Bible, as a necessary task and from the idea of performing a duty, but never with the attention and interest due to that "Word" which alone could make them wise unto salvation: therefore it is not surprising that this quotation had never struck them; but it flashed again upon Emma's mind, when walking home from church the next Sunday, after hearing a sermon from those awful words: "If the righteous scarcely

be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?" If Mr. Harley's assertion were true, that without holiness, or righteousness, no man should see God, or attain eternal bliss, how could any person have too much of it?

"That very idea was passing in my own mind," said Louisa; " and I know not what to think: Mr. Harley and his sentiments seem alike mysterious; and yet his assertions are so rational, and so conformable to the Scripture, which he quotes, that he cannot be in the wrong: but if he be right, we must have been guilty of so many omissions, of which I never before was aware, that I cannot think with satisfaction on the subject."

Let us talk to my uncle about it," said Emma; but dinner precluded farther conversation.

In the evening they wished to have attended the lecture: but Mr. Mordaunt said, "No, my loves; I will not have my smiling cheerful companions turned into