a visit in town or country, he soon became a favourite with the young. They were readily won over to his side from the kindly notice he took of them, and his solicitude to promote their pleasures and improvement. Many a family fireside will long cherish the remembrance of the pious old gentleman, whose happy looks made all around him happy too; and on whose lips the children were wont to hang in rapt attention, as he extemporized a story to amuse and instruct them.

It may be readily supposed that this characteristic sociality, as well as the influence created by his writings, would devolve on him a considerable amount of correspondence. The claims on his time for letter writing, indeed, often sorely interfered with his ordinary engagements; but with much goodwill he promptly met the numerous appeals of friendship and duty which arose in this way. His letters were written in the few intervals he could secure for the purpose, and often when wearied in body and mind from long sitting at his study table; yet are they pleasing expositions of the sentiments and feelings of the writer, and illustrate his agreeable method of laying hold of every occasion to do good.

It would extend this brief memorial beyond

the limits assigned to it, were there to be introduced an extended selection of letters to his friends. A few, written under different circumstances, will suffice to show the playfulness of his style and the occasional gravity of his remarks.

"TO MISS

"MY DEAR MISS

66

Kingsland, Dec. 30, 1845.

I have just returned

home, and find your kind note on my table. It is now half-past eleven of the clock- -a period of time, when on ordinary occasions, ordinary men of prudent habits and upright intentions, are recruiting their wearied bodies and minds with refreshing slumber. But as I am meditating, in a day or two, a rapid run into Herefordshire, and as my intervening moments are already mortgaged for more than they are worth, I must either hurry through a few lines now, or add to my sad delinquency. *

* *

"Yes, after a long delay, I wrote to you, and fearing to address you as you requested, lest you should have returned home, I wrote also to our good friend, Miss S, requesting her to hand my scribble to you; but lo, and behold! when I came to put your letter in hers, it was

not to be found. From that time to this, the

note I wrote Miss S

to receive the lost note.

has been waiting Some fine summer's

day, perhaps, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, should I then be an inhabitant of this world, it may be found among my multifarious papers.

* *

*

"Now and then, but not often, I have heard your worthy and honoured pastor, to whom God, in his goodness, has vouchsafed powers of no ordinary kind. He has sent me away pondering on holy things, neither ungrateful for the gracious message of mercy, nor for the advantage in hearing it eloquently set forth.

"I conclude that your invalided sister is better, and regret to hear you have a cousin on the couch of affliction. And yet why should I regret? Is it not a light thing for the Great Physician to bid her take up her bed and walk; or so to bless his painful visitation as to turn her mourning into rejoicing? She is in good hands; only let her trust Him, and she shall come off more than conqueror.

"Years ago, in the part of the country to which I am going, I knew two sisters; one was called away from the world, and then the other. At an adjoining mansion, I knew also two other sisters of the same name as the former; one of

the latter is gone, the other is, I hear, going : yet here am I still! Marvellous are the works and ways of the Holy One!

66 * * * To your sister, remember me kindly, and also the invalided cousin. Tell her to look upwards and onwards.

"I am pleased that you have so keen an appetite for rural scenery, and the world of vegetation. The trees! the trees! Admire them! Revel in them! But look beyond them.

"Thanking you very heartily for your letter, with respectful remembrances to your parents, I remain, my dear young friend, yours very affectionately."

TO THE SAME ON HER BIRTHDAY.

"August 2, 1851.

"Often have I given you poesy on your natal day; let me now give you a word or two of prose. Whether presented in prose or poesy, the offering of the heart you will never despise.

"Autumn, winter, spring, and summer, have passed; the earth has again rolled round the sun; I have journeyed through another year; and once more has the anniversary of your birthday arrived.

"Every passing year is a promoter of change,

birthday find us where Some are taken from, our circle of friends.

and never does the new the old birthday left us. and some are added to, We are either in better or worse health, and are stronger or weaker than we were; and even if no other change has occurred, we are sure to be a year older, and a year nearer an eternal world.

"How is it with you? Are you much as you were in the bygone year, or has the change been great? Have you been adding to your mirth and your money-bags, or laying up treasures where moth and rust cannot consume them? To enjoy the present in this world with a thankful heart is a great good; to provide for the future in the world to come, in a prayerful, peaceful, Saviour-loving spirit, is a yet greater advantage. How reasonable, how desirable, how necessary, and how imperatively important it is, that, in passing through things temporal, we should not forget things spiritual and eternal!

be

"But I meant rather to throw a flower in your pathway, than to read you a homily; take, then, the warm-hearted wish, that yours may the good things of this and a better world; that you may be blessed in your earthly possessions, and your heavenly hopes; and that every birthday may find you clad in the goodly garments of praise, with the Rose of Sharon blooming in your bosom."