'The efforts of the teacher,' she replied,' and the divine blessing, are totally independent the one of the other. Observe, dear lady, and endeavour to discriminate the Almighty has lent to man a certain number of natural faculties, and so long as this loan is not withdrawn, we are enabled, by the exercise of these natural faculties, to produce certain effects. For instance, I may take an infant, and wash, and dress, and feed it, I may impart that which I know of natural things to the minds of a whole class of children, I may, as it were, compel that class to know something; I may give instruction in the letter of scripture and the history of the Bible: but when it comes to impart a new nature, to give the love of God and the appetite for divine things to the carnal mind, there are no faculties or powers lent to me which can reach my object; therefore in no sense whatever does the blessing proceed from the effort.'

I could not help exclaiming in this place, Then, if so, what is the use of trying to make our children religious?'

'Simply,' she answered, because, in the first instance, there is woe to us, if we do not attempt it; and, in the second, that if we have the love of Christ, that love will constrain us to the endeavour of communicating it.'

'But, dear lady,' I said, 'have you not seen that God always vouchsafes his blessing to the labours of the enlightened teacher?'

'This I believe,' replied the old lady, lifting up her eyes in pious gratitude as she spoke: that when the Lord the Spirit inspires the prayer of a pious parent or instructor, that that prayer, thus suggested, has been granted even before it is uttered; and that

the dear one is saved, although there have as yet been no manifestations of the divine purposes of mercy. But I again repeat, that those blessings are entirely independent of any effort which man can make.'

I confessed, in reply to this remark, that I should like to have some time given to me before I either rejected or acquiesced in what had been said. At the same time returning to my first question, I put it again in a somewhat modified form, apologizing for what might seem pertinacious or disrespectful in my mode of argument. 'If, dear madam,' I said, 'I should allow that the work of regenerating the creature is entirely independent of man, (and, perhaps, I am more than half-convinced that it is so), yet still there is a work to be done which appears to be more within the reach of the powers actually lent to the creature man; and this work I consider to be, that of inducing moral and decent habits, and attention to the forms of that religious establishment to which the individual belongs; and under this view I again put my question. What does your long experience tell you, dear lady, respecting the different results of the system which prevailed half a century past, and of that which is the fashion of the present day?'

'My opinion, my good madam,' replied Mrs. Latifear, is just of as much value as that of any other human being possessing common sense or principle; that is, it may be just and correct, or it may not be so; if, therefore, I have any advantage over you, it consists in my long experience; accordingly, that which I count of little value, I will not give you; but, of that which is worth something, you shall freely receive. It has, through life, been a matter of great

interest to me, to know all that might be known of the individuals who have gone through this house; and I may add, not only a matter of great interest, but of vast satisfaction; inasmuch as in tracing the lives of many of these individuals, I have constantly been enabled to mark the designs of a merciful Providence-still leading on the wayward and helpless creature, perhaps through many dark and thorny paths, to where the full assurance of hope has brightened the closing scene. But to give you the benefit of my experience, I will take, without reflection, four characters from the class to which I belonged, and as many from a certain class of very amiable and intelligent young people, who were contemporary with my eldest grand-daughter. From my companions I select the four whose names present themselves most readily, viz. Mary Harland, Susan Bond, Kitty Felton, and Hannah Fairfield;-these young people were of respectable parentage, had average capacities, and were submitted to the general routine of the instruction then prevailing in the house. I remember them distinctly; they had few abstract ideas; were fond of getting into corners to detail gossiping anecdotes. They sometimes had little quarrels amongst themselves, when one would call another spiteful; and I have heard them mutter in private against their governesses. But there was one principle fixed in their minds and never called in question; and this principle in one word was, that the higher authorities must be submitted to; that the Almighty, in the first instance, could not be resisted, and that it was a matter of course, that what he chose to do was right; that the persons of parents were sacred; and that they, and those to

whom they delegated their authority, acted by an indisputable right. From this principle, which no one at that time ever controverted, there proceeded certain natural consequences, which some moderns would pronounce to be very bad, viz. a sort of blind confidence, by which the mind and thoughts being shackled, intellectual improvement did not advance with the growth; and it was to be feared that when the vivacity of youth passed away, there would be nothing to take its place. Three of these girls were married and became mothers; and falling into the old routine, they became household drudges; mended their husbands' and childrens' clothes; staid much at home; attended to the forms of religion, and made their children do the same; and were acquainted with all the cottagers in the neighbourhood. The fourth, viz. Susan Bond, never married; she lived till she was more than fifty, with a widowed mother, playing at cards every evening, and attending prayers every morning: all four thus quietly filling their places, and never dreaming of those new feelings and principles which had already began to agitate various parts of the same world in which they were living.'

I could not fail of being amused by the pictures which the venerable mother brought before me from the rich store-house of her memory, and begged her, after having finished her first sketch to bring forward her second.

'Amelia Wingfield, Charlotte Norton, Julia Ross, and Catherine Harding, are the next names which come forward to my mind. They were the class companions of my eldest grand-daughter; they were in the house from ten to fifteen years ago, at

which time I was capable of taking one or two classes every day. If any thing, therefore, was as it should not be, I must take part of the blame. Two of these were daughters of merchants; their fathers were intelligent and scientific men: the other two, of independent gentlemen. Before they came to us, they had been subjected to the influence of the excited spirit of the age; they had been taught to think for themselves, to ask questions, to inquire the reasons for every admonition which had been given to them, and to hear the opinions of various sects of professing Christians discussed and re-discussed. They were all awake and alive, and, as the French would say, on the qui vive, when they came to us? What could I do? when such girls were subjected to my tuition, but to be on the qui vive also; these excited minds could not be thrown back into composure; these rosebuds, already opened by violence, could not be restored to their natural positions. I had nothing to do but to endeavour to arrange these expanded faculties, or to change the simile, to direct the currents into the proper channels, and to endeavour to restrain their discursive properties, by fixing on their banks the stable barriers of the most correct doctrines. Accordingly, I laboured to give them the most enlightened views of the great scheme of salvation in my power. Nor could I discern how far their understandings only were enlightened, and how far the divine blessing had, I will not say followed, but accompanied my efforts. At length, these dear girls left us; and then, in some degree came the test-of this exciting mode of education, this forcing of the young mind before its time. When relieved from the comparative restraint of school,