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was rather tall for her age, but exactly proportioned; which, together with a fine open countenance, regular features, and a delicate complexion, made her the envy of her sex. These endowments are too often overvalued. Beauty is many times the gift of Providence to the proudest, vainest, silliest people. This momentary excellence leads such persons to value and adorn the casket, while they neglect the jewel. They do not consider that it is the mind only which constitutes the perfection of our nature; that exterior advantages are enjoyed by us in common with the brute creation; and that in many of them we are far outstripped by the savages of the desert.

Mr. Neville was constantly watchful to guard his daughters against the errors too common to their sex. My children, he would say, a noble building requires sumptuous furniture: yet I have seen many ladies with agreeable persons, whose minds and bodies have been the greatest contrast. How are we chagrined when we find these pretty things to be mere outside Such may make many conquests, but they can retain those only who are as empty as themselves. Whereas if a woman have but a moderate share of this outside varnish, yet if we perceive her to be modest, discreet, humble, and courteous, we are agreeably disappointed. A wise man judges such a one to be a proper friend and companion for life; fit to be the mistress of a family, and likely to sow the seeds of piety and virtue in the tender minds of her offspring. Such a woman is a blessing to mankind in general, and especially to the rising generation; children generally keeping that bent which is given them in their childhood.

Thus did he take every opportunity of conversing with them on the most important subjects; and the visible improvement which they made in knowledge and obedience showed that his labour was not in vain. The fueds and animosities too common among children brought up together, were scarcely known in this family; and if at any time peevishness took place of affability, a glance of the father's eye was sufficient to restore the former tranquillity. He had indeed the art of being obeyed as implicitly as an eastern monarch, at the same time that he ruled with the greatest moderation and sweetness.

Notwithstanding Mr. Neville was of the Romish com munion, he was every where well received, and his ac

quaitance was courted by the neighbouring gentry. He had an agreeable turn for conversation, and was of a ready wit: yet he never, by indulging the self-sufficient sneer, or the cutting rapartee, gave pain to the meanest person; nor could he patiently hear others make use of that crual liberty; justly observing, that he who can laugh at heat ing a man abused, would find equal reason for mirth if he were to see him thrown into the dirt: and that nothing can be baser than this malvolent disposition, since the best characters, and the most sacred things, may be distorted by false wit, and rendered the subject of ridicule.

He was easy of access to the poorest persons of his village, who ever found him ready to commisserate their distresses, and to relieve their wants. He judged that nothing was better calculated to bring them within the pale of the church than those arguments to their senses, which the very dullest were capable of understanding: and the event proved that he made a just estimate of human na

ture.

When alone with his children, he would oft deplore the miseries that were brought upon this nation by its schism from the church of Rome. When men, he would say, once get out of the high road into crooked paths, it is no wonder they should quarrel about which is the right way, since they are all wrong. If the church of Rome be not the only true universal church of Christ, where are we to look for it? Let common sense judge. Had Christ no church before Luther? If he had, where did it exist, if the church of Rome were not that church? What was the origin of this schism, which has had its reward in the divided state of all those who have been out of the pale of the church ever since? It was the lust of an impious king; and the covetousness of court sycophants, who with longing eyes beheld the possessions of the church, which they were willing to plunder under any pretext. The same reason keeps their descendants from returning to its bosom. They are unwilling to restore their ill-gotten gain. From such causes what better effects could be expected? O my children, it is your highest honour that you are descended from ancestors, who, in this divided, distracted land, have uninterruptedly kept the faith. Transmit it, my dear offspring, to your posterity, as I have done to you. Could I think the contrary, it would be despair and death to me. You will meet with many opponents, who will speak evil of those things which they understand not; but I flatter myself you are able to defend yourselves against any common adversary.

At a small distance from his house was a wilderness through which were cut many mazy walks, bordered on each side with a great variety of flowering shrubs and evergreens, and shaded by lofty oaks, limes, and chesnuts. Here Mr. Neville delighted to walk in the summer months with his children; for he seemed to enjoy nothing without them.

One day, after they had been sometime in this cool retreat, conversing about indifferent matters, My children, said he, do you meet with no rebuffs, or foolish pity on account of your religion? I ask this, because I know the world, and that part of it especially where Providence has fixed our lot.

I assure you, sir, replied Maria, those who have hitherto encountered us have had little reason to boast of any advantage they have gained. The truth is, religion seems to be no part of the business of the polite world; and the poor too frequently follow the example of the rich. It has been rare that any other argument has been used than ridicule, which, in the opinion of too many, is the test of truth. Persons, however, of this character, have learned to laugh at religion in general; it is no wonder therefore that ours does not escape their derision.

My children, said he, I believe what you say, that your opponents have gained no advantage over you; since, as Shakspeare says, Thrice is he arm'd who has his quarrel just. With regard to ridicule's being the test of truth, nothing is more false. The time is coming, when the laughter of those who assert it will be turned into mourning; and when the righteous Judge will say to them, Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish. It was foretold, that there should come, in the last day, scoffers, walking after their own lusts; which prophecy is abundantly verified. These men talk of honesty, moral rectitude, and the fitness of things; but their practice is too frequently the reverse. The two great springs of human action are fear and hope: these being once broken or obstructed, every part of our moral conduct is inevitably disordered. The best of the heathens, such as Socrates,

Plato, Tully, Seneca, and many others, so far as they were influenced to lead a virtuous life, were actuated by a faint hope of immortality. I wish these mockers were only to be found among those who have left the Catholic church; but it is to be lamented, that these tares of infidelity have taken such deep root in the world, and have spread so far and wide, that many, too many of them, have sprung up among ourselves.

Pray, Sir, said Eusebia, of the many Sectaries who are divided from the Catholic church, which do you think the worst ?

My dear, replied he, of the many withered branches you see upon the ground, which do you think the worst? Alas! these heretical sectaries have all rent the seamless coat of Christ, and destroyed that uniformity which was the glory of the church for many ages. Instead of being, as formerly, under the bishop of Rome as the common bond of union, every one believes and does that which is right in his own eyes. If, however, I were to give the preference to any, it would be to the church of England. Her bishops dare not deny the uninterrupted succession in the see of Rome; their own ordination would be invalid, even in their own esteem, if they were to do this. But behold their inconsistency. Although they confess that ours is a true church, and consequently never re-ordain any priest that goes from us to them; yet they have violently rent themselves from this true church, and are, therefore, as I before said, only to be considered as in the same state with these withered branches and as lying under the fearful curse of St. Peter's successors. If they should say in their own defence, that there are some things among us, which need reformation, we acknowledge it. All good men have prayed for the perfection, as well as for the peace of the church; but this perfection they have found easier to be desired than attained. When that violent schism took place in the time of Luther, they called it the Reformation; but if you would know what kind of reformation it was, you need only look at the lives of the reformed. Where will you find among them those alms-deeds and acts of hospitality, that voluntary poverty, that renunciation of the world, and that mortification of the body, which are to be met with among us?

All these things, said Maria, are so obvious, that

it is a

matter of wonder with me, that they who abandoned our communion should continue to make any profession of Christianity. I conceive the guilt would have been very little more, if they had renounced the name as well as the thing.

Yet so blind are they, replied he, to their own imperfections, that every different sect of heretics thinks itself only to be right; and they are such consummate deceivers, that many in my time, of whom I hoped better things, have forsaken the flock of Christ to follow these blind guides. O my children! that you may be guarded against every error, is the summit of my wishes and be assured, that a failure in this point would make me abhor and detest you: I should think the roof accursed under which you dwelt, and the earth polluted on which you trod, nor would I ever see you more. I thus speak, because I would arm you on the right hand and on the left.

The young ladies thanked their father for his tender care of them; and told him, that if they should ever be so far lost to a sense of their duty and of their interest, as to become heretics, they desired him to show them no favour.

At Barnwell, a village about four miles distant, lived a gentleman, whose name was Mr. Robert Barnwell. He was the son of a Jamaica planter, and was born in that island, where he resided with his father till he was in the twenty-fifth year of his age, except only five years that he had lived in England, whither his father had sent him, when he was a boy, to be educated.

Mr. Barnwell had risen from very small beginnings, his first occupation in Jamaica being that of a menial servant to a planter; who, perceiving him to be industrious, on leaving the island made him overseer of his plantation; after which, by a train of favourable circumstances, he at length arrived to considerable opulence.

When the old gentleman arrived in England with his son, he waited a long while before he could please himself in a purchase; for being a man who looked a great way before him, he thought that in process of time some of his family might be ennobled. He determined, therefore, to buy an estate, where the name of the village belonging to it was sonorous, and of considerable length, that It might serve for a title. He was a man of such refined taste in this respect, that he would have thought five hun

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