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tercepted by trees, at others it again appeared, nately fixed upon the coffin and upon Osmore brilliant than ever. As the traveller advanced, he distinguished several torches moving to and fro amidst the thick fog, but could not yet perceive the persons by whom they were carried. The weary horses creeped like snails through the deep sand. Leaping from his carriage, he hastened towards the torches, and as the objects illumined by them grew more distinct at every step, he at length discovered, trembling, that it was a funeral proceeding with slow solemnity to the church. Wilhelmina's father was his first thought. In a few moments he had overtaken the last of the sable train.

"Whose funeral is this?" said he, in a voice scarcely audible, to one of the torch-bearers. "Wilhelmina Oswald's," was the reply. "Liar," cried Wallen, at the same time laying hold of the man with both hands to keep himself from falling. The information was, alas! but too true. A few days before, the little girl, Wilhelmina's charge, was playing in the pastor's vineyard, on the bank of the river, while her lovely foster-mother was bringing some refreshment for the vintagers. The child stepped upon a slippery stone and fell into the water. Wilhelmina heard her shrick, ran to the spot, beheld her struggling with the waves, jumped in after her, and was carried away by the current. The vintagers hurried to the place, sprung into a boat, and brought them both to the shore, without signs of animation. After long efforts to rekindle the extinguished spark of life, the child at last began to breathe, but Wilhelmina's spirit was already with her mother.

Such was the dismal story told the unhappy Wallen by the torch-bearer, while he supported himself upon the latter, and scarcely master of his senses, followed with tottering step the corpse of his bride. "And her father?" stammered be" Her father," answered the man, "endures his misfortune with pious fortitude. He is already in the church to receive the body, and to combine the last duties of love with those of his sacred function."

The procession had now reached the gate of the church-yard, and continued its course over the graves into the gloomy temple, the roof of which now reflected the glare of the torches. Not far from the altar sat the venerable pastor engaged in prayer. The corpse being set down in the middle of the church, an awful silence ensued, interrupted now and then by half-suppressed sobs. Not a tear bedewed Walleu's eye, which was alter

The old man now rose. Supported by a staff, which, on this occasion he used for the first time, he proceeded to the altar. No sooner had he reached it than he dropped his staff, and raising his hands towards heaven, he thus began: Almighty God! we thank thee that in the excess of temporal woes, thou deignest to bestow on us the consolations of religion. Yes, in this dread hour, in which thy aged servaut deplores the loss of an only child, thou sendest down to me thy celestial daughter, Faith. The staff which brought me hither I have courageously cast from me, and here I now stand supported by the staff of Faith. We are immortal."-He paused; big drops rolled down his pallid checks—“ Of these tears," he continued, "human weakness need not be ashamed. They flow for an only, a beloved, an amiable child, the last joy and hope of my declining years. But thou, O God! hast done all things well: she died with an unspotted character, she died an angel, and now lives for ever among the angels. — Yes, she lives!" he suddenly exclaimed, with so loud a voice that the vaulted roof reechoed the sound, and a powerful impression was made on Wallen's heart; " she lives! and soon, very soon, shall I behold her again!We belong not all to that unhappy class of men whose frigid reason locks up their hearts: we believe in a God! we believe in immor. tality! and therefore I bless these dear re mains, therefore I bless you my beloved children, and promise in this sacred place, to fulfill my duties with the same fidelity as ever, till it shall please the Almighty to take me to himself!"-The old man now seized his staff, and firmly followed the corpse to the grave, where he saw it deposited, and threw upon it the first shovelful of earth. He then ascended the vehicle which had brought him, and returned to his desolate habitation.

Wallen followed him, without knowing what he did. Scarcely had the venerable divine alighted, when Wallen, silent and pale as ashes, went up to him. The sudden sight of his expected son-in-law, gave Oswald a violent shock; he sunk, with a loud shriek, into his arms, but Wallen's eyes continued dry.

The hoary pastor, bereft of his all, still found himself strong enough to endeavour to console Wallen. Every morning he renewed the attempt to communicate to Wallen's agitated bosom that faith from which be himself derived such comfort. His efforts were fruit less: the unhappy man was ashamed of his

MATRIMONIAL INVITATIONS.

heart when it was sometimes overpowered; he then vented his spleen on the venerable man. and indulged in bitter sarcasms on his most exalted feelings. Oswald sighed, but made no reply Once only he observed, in a wild but serious manner:-" Your philosophy canuot restore my temporal happiness; why theu would it deprive ine of my hopes? My faith affords me consolation; your reason plunges me into despair." The concluding word operated like an electric shock on the unhappy Wallen. It was as if despair had slumbered in his torpid bosom, and had been suddenly roused by the repetition of its name. Louisa's loss bad deeply dejected him, but he was quite overwhelmed by Wilhelmina's death. It is more painful to lose an expected good than one which we have possessed.

From that day his behaviour was marked with increasing singularity. He took scarcely any food; drank nothing but wine, and sometimes in considerable quantity; conversed with nobody, avoided Oswald, went to bed in the day time, and at night rambled about in the valley. His favourite haunt was the spot on the bank of the river where Wilhelmina

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had precipitated herself into the waves. There he was sought whenever he staid abroad longer than ordinary, and there was usually found. One morning, however, nothing was to be seen but his hat and his pocket-book. His body was cast on shore by the current near the church-yard, where he was inIn his pocketterred beside Wilhelmina.

book Oswald found the following words, addressed to him:

"I have seriously endeavoured to acquire your faith, but it is impossible. God has denied me this gift, he therefore connot bat pardon me. You, father, will lament, and perhaps condemn me.”

"Far be it from me," said the old man, with tears." It is not for me to inquire why the Creator denied this unfortunate man the most precious of his blessings. I can only thank him for having conferred it upon me."

Thus did he live several years longer, through the power of faith, a father to all the inhabitants in the valley, and a tender parent to the blooming girl, whose life Wilhelmina had purchased with her own. It was her hand that closed his eyes.

MR. EDITOR,

MATRIMONIAL INVITATIONS,

IT is generally allowed that our News"brief abstracts of the times;"-if|| papers are so, a stranger on first perusing our daily and hebdomadal publications, must suppose that our times are full of absurdity, or else that marriages, which used to be made in heaven, are now made by advertisement. Nothing, indeed, can be more whimsical than those muptial notices, these puffs for adventurers in the lottery of matrimony. The female candidates, it it is true, in many instances aspire to superintend a widower's family, though their advertised endowments aim at a more but in the male adverpermanent connection; tisements there is something too ludicrous for serious animadversions, yetoften too deceitful to be allowed to pass unnoticed. That any man of probity and decent property should be so isolated in society as to be obliged to advertise for a wife, as he would for a road-hack, is a thing in our present state of manners Even the common detotally impossible. gencies of refinement will be his passport into

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respectable female parties in town, and should
his fancy prompt him to a wider range, the
watering-places will always afford an oppor-
tunity of looking round him for families into
which he need not fail of an introduction, if
his views are honest and rational. He then
that can descend to this mode of exposing his
wishes, must be either a fool or a knave; the
latter alternative is indeed most likely, and
therefore deserves a little closer investigation.
It is well known to those dabblers in ma.
trimony, that there are many knots of maiden
sisters, the remains of respectable mercantile
familes, who have retired to the different vil-
lages in the outskirts of the metropolis, where
they mix but little with society, except their
own particular friends, and live comfortably
on their little fortunes. These are the game
these sportsmen aim at; they hope that the
solitary state of maidenhood, and that na-
tural wish which every female breast must
feel to confer happiness and to share it, may
induce some independent, but unprotected
spinster to notice the advertisement of a
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"young man of respectable connection, gen-
teel appearance, flourishing business, and who
only wishes the lady to bring suflicient for her
own share of the expences." A bait of this
kind may often induce respectable females
to notice it so far as just to make inquiry;
but there they cannot stop, for no sooner does
the hero of the adventure find the inquirer
worth his pursuit, and liable to be deceived, || knavish advertisements.
than he prepares for a regular system of chi-
canery and impertinent perseverance, which
too often succeed, whilst the unfortunate vic-

tim finds too late, that her property is either
squandered by a spendthrift, or applied as a
temporary prop to a falling credit! That the
picture is not too highly coloured will be ge-
nerally admitted; and it is to be hoped that
these slight hints may serve to put on their
guard those individuals of the sex who are
most liable to be led astray by those absurd and
I remain Mr. Editor, Your's,
TIMOTHY SINGLE.

ANECDOTE OF MR. LOCKE.

serving the favour of his patrons, he was ad vanced to some places of no inconsiderable

This great man, in his earlier years, had contracted a very particular friendship with a young fellow who had lived in the same neigh-profit and honour. bourhood from his infancy. This esteem Mr. Locke carried so high, that he considered his friend's interest as inseparably connected with his own, and looked upon any instance of good fortune in either to be a means of advancing the welfare of both. However, having once got into the favour of some people in power, the friend began to envy Mr. Locke: and judging of that good man's heart by his own, supposed he would withdraw his friendship as he increased his fortune.

Fraught with this opinion, he endeavoured to supplant Mr. Locke in the esteem of all his friends, and to engage protection for himself, by the discovery of every secret which the other had trusted him with in the unsuspecting openness of his heart; finding, however, that all attempts of this nature were fruitless, he suddenly disappeared, and carried off a sum of money, the property of his friend, which he knew must involve him in the greatest distress. Mr. Locke felt severely for the 'perfidy of his friend, and was to the last degree surprised when informed of the methods be took to ruin his interests; but, still continuing his application to business and de

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One morning while he was at breakfast, word was brought, that a man in a very shabby habit, requested the honour of speaking to hin. Mr. Locke, whom no advancemeut could raise above the practice of good manners, immediately ordered him to be admitted, and found, to his great astonishment, his old friend, reduced by a life of cunning and extravagance, to the greatest poverty and distress, and come to implore his assistance and solicit his forgiveness. Mr. Locke looked at him for some time very stedfastly, without speaking one word; at length, taking out a fifty pound note, he presented it to him with the following remarkable declaration:

"Though I sincerely forgive your beha viour to me, yet I must never put it in your power to injure me a second time.Take this trifle; which I give not as a mark of my former friendship, but as a relief to your present wants; consign it to your necessities, without recollecting how little you deserve.

-No reply:It is impossible to regain my good opinion, for you know friendship once injured is for ever lost."

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As worn by a Lady of Distinction on His Majesty's Birth Day 1810.

Engraved for the 6th Number, New Series of L

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