peace of a family as soon as it enters; it makes people backbiters, and induces them to create discord and mischief wherever they go." Miss Frip. Then I suppose it was against this religion, that our worthy Doctor preached such an excellent sermon a few Sundays ago!" Miss Grig. mon !" "Was it not a most excellent ser Miss Frip. "He alluded to the writings of a certain female, who had distinguished herself as the advocate of this fanatical religion; pray do you know who he referred to?" Miss Grig. "I did not at the time; but the next morning, I went amongst my friends, and found that it was a Mrs. More, an impostor woman, who once lived at Tutbury in Staffordshire. This woman pretended to live without eating or drinking, and she wrote a great many books, but at length she was detected taking food, and then she confessed the whole." 66 Miss Frip. "Was she the founder of this sect ?" Miss Grig. "I suppose so, but that is a point I have not vet ascertained." N Miss Frip. "I now recollect, when at Mrs. -'s, I neard Miss N. say, that a book written by Hannah More, had made Miss Lester change her religion, I suppose it is the same!" Miss Grig. "I have no doubt but it is. If you remember, our worthy Doctor said, that her writings have a very pernicious tendency, and that we should avoid reading them, as we should avoid touching the body of a man who had died of the plague.""* Strange as this conversation may appear to his more intelligent readers, the writer assures them that Some weeks elapsed after the Doctor's return from Cheltenham before he was sufficiently disengaged to attend to the promise which he had given to Mr. Lester. At length he called. "Well Mr. Lester, has my strayed lamb returned to the fold ?". No, Doctor, she is still straying in the wilderness of fanaticism." "Indeed! Mr. Lester. I fear Mr. Lester you have not exercised your authority. Children should be compelled to keep to the Church." "She has not left the Church, Doctor; though she now goes to hear the Rev. Mr. S. preach, because he is, as you know, Evangelical." "And do you suffer her, Mr. Lester ?" "I cannot prevent it, Doctor, unless I use force." "Lock her up, Mr. Lester; lock her up." "But, Doctor, if I were to do this, what would people say?" "Let them say what they please, Mr. Lester, you ought to do your duty. Now suppose it should please the Almighty to allow one of your children to be visited by a mental derangement, would you suffer that child, Mr. Lester, to go at large ?" "Certainly not." "Now I maintain, Mr. Lester, that our modern fanatics are labouring under a species of mental derangement; and though like other maniacs, they are sane on many points, yet as soon as you bring them into contact with religion, they go off, and it is the substance of what passed between two fashionable gossips, on an occasion similar to that which he has described; and which was reported to him by a lady who happened to form one of the party in which it took place. talk of visions, and illuminations, and impressions, which no one can undestand, unless he happen to be affected by the fatal malady. I appeal to you then, Mr. Lester, if it be not our duty, to restrain them from following these aberrations of the mind, when the Almighty puts it into our power ?" 66 But, Doctor, can coercive measures root out the seeds of error from the human mind ?” "I think, Mr. Lester, that it is by connivance in the first instance that these seeds when sown take root; and bring forth their fruit, after their kind. And I think if you take my advice, and restrain your daughter from going, where an influence is employed to call forth their germinating qualities, that like weeds that are left without sun, or rain, they will soon die away. Of course she will offer no resistance to your parental authority, Mr. Lester." "On no point, Doctor, but this one. She says that all interference with her religious opinions, except by argument, is a species of persecution, which is contrary to the spirit of christianity, and which, if employed, she should feel it her duty to resist." "What opinions does she hold? you were to have sent them to me." "I have done it, Doctor." "Yes, Doctor, I sent you a copy of them, before you went to Cheltenham; and I have been expecting you to call every week since your return." "I suppose then I mislaid them: however, Mr. Lester, I will look for them, when I go home, and in the course of a few days, I will step in and see what can be done. I think you said it was Miss More's Practical Piety,' that infused these new notions into her head?? 66 Yes, Doctor, I will send you a copy, that you may examine it." 1 "Yes, Mr. Lester; do-do. Good morning, Mr. Lester." An event now transpired which proclaimed a truce to all the domestic animosities that had been stirred up against Miss Lester; and which awakened the anxieties and the tenderest sympathies of the whole family. This was the sudden return of Miss Sarah Lester, from school, who was brought home dangerously ill. Miss Sarah was several years younger than Miss Lester; and though a finer figure than her sister, yet she was not considered quite so handsome. She surpassed her in the strength of her intellect, and the versatility of her genius, yet she did not equal her, in the sweetness of her natural disposition, nor the urbanity of her manners. From the earliest period of childhood, she discovered a high, unbending, resoluteness of mind, which no system of discipline could subdue, -a native hauteur, which raised her above the level of her rank in society, and which made her look with supercilious contempt, on what she termed the lower orders, and conceiving that she was destined to move in some higher circle, she was always aspiring to an intimacy with the more elevated and distinguished. This propensity, which was always receiving some mortifying checks, while she resided at home, had an ample scope for its indulgence when she was placed under the care of the Misses W- whose school was considered the most respectable, and the most fashionable of any in the county. Here she associated with the children of opulence, and of rank,-conformed herself to their habits, imbibed their notions, and imagined that by some strange concatenation of circumstances, she should in future life, gain that distinction in society, to which her birth gave her no title. That young persons should aspire to the honour of an intimacy with their superiors is a point which we concede; but they should never feel above the station in life which providence has assigned to them, as this will imperceptibly induce a spirit which will subject them, to the pity of the wise, and the contempt of the proud; and by making them dissatisfied, will embitter their domestic comforts, and render them no less uninteresting to their equals, than ridiculous-the objects of satire, both amongst those whose society they covet, and those whose society they wish to avoid. In whatever rank of life their lot is cast, they necessarily move in contact with an higher, and a lower order, and while there are some beneath them with whom they may associate without any sacrifice of their dignity, there are some above them, whose friendship they may solicit, without either exciting envy or disgust; and though it is not my wish to record an opinion which may have the slightest degree of an improper influence, yet I give it as the result of my observation, that there is, in general, less danger to be apprehended from an aspiring, than a grovelling tendency of mind, especially when it is under the control of a correct moral taste, as a person cannot hope to ascend, in the grade of virtuous society without cultivating corresponding excellencies, while to descend requires no effort of improvement. Miss Sarah Lester who had been under the tuition of the Misses W- for seven years, was now finishing her education, and expected at the approaching recess to bid adieu to the toils, an |