freedom in addressing you, sir, as one possessing, in common, the frailties attendant on human nature. There is no occasion of confining such to the gross violators of God's law; the outwardly decent and moral, will, at that solemn period, need these consolatory reflections as well as the adulterer, or the murderer.

When

As the minister spoke the last sentence, Mr. D's countenance reddened with emotion. He fixed his penetrating eyes on the speaker, but he understood not their expression; for he was not in possession of any private history to the disadvantage of this gentleman. Unaffected, then, by the keen glance of his eye, he went on. we speak of human innocence, we mean a comparative innocence; and in such a state I view the character of Sir Charles Bright. His youth is stained by no crime, or excess of any kind, which subjects him to the censure of his fellowcreatures; but who shall say that his maturer years will be thus virtuous? Temptations of various sorts may assail him; he may fall into their snares, and thus make work for such bitter repentance, and such pungent sorrow, as none can conceive, but those who have been in a similar situation, and have experienced such sensations. In this case he will not only have prejudices to oppose to the reception of the Gospel, but habits of sinful indulgences; his heart

Mr. D-'s pa

may become callous and"tience was now quite exhausted, and he resolved to put an end to the conversation. "Sir," said he, “you see, no doubt, great force yourself in your arguments, but I am not accustomed to call declamation by the name of reasoning. I take the liberty of wishing you a good morning." "I wish you the same, sir," replied the minister; "I do not desire to detain you; nor should I have intruded on your time so much, but understanding you had great influence over Sir Charles's mind, I felt an irresistible wish to speak upon the subject we have been discussing. You are pleased to call my arguments declamation; if declamation have good principles for its foundation, I see not why it should be despised. Oh! sir, suffer me to intreat you not to lean so much to your understanding, but to examine more your heart, and your conscience."

Mr. D--- bowed in silence, and each gentleman took an opposite path, much disconcerted with each other. The minister earnestly wished, that whatever sect he might have to combat, in his new place of designation, it might not be a sect of philosophers.

The more Mr. D-- considered the words and manner of the minister, the more he was persuaded, that he must have gained information of

4

certain remote circumstances, which he hoped were long since buried in oblivion, and that a personal insult had been intended him. Thus will it ever be with a guilty conscience, not entirely hardened.

He spent the time which passed during his walk home, in conjecturing how this person could gain intelligence of what in reality he had not the most remote suspicion. He repeated to himself the words adultery, murder, by which he made no doubt the minister meant his past gallantries, fashionably so termed, with their consequences. On his return home, a letter was delivered him, which he opened in the presence of Sir Charles. Violent emotions agitated his countenance during the perusal. Sir Charles begged to participate in the uneasiness this letter had so visibly occasioned to his friend. But Mr. D---politely declined a disclosure of its contents.

He retired to his apartment much disordered; for many days he appeared extremely grave, and absent in conversation; and indeed it was many weeks before he recovered his usual serenity and composure.

CHAPTER VII.

A particular Account of Mr. Warian, his Wife, and Daughter. The term, Sensible Woman, briefly explained. What a young Lady should not be. Sir Charles and the Warian Family commence an acquaintance.

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EAVING Sir Charles closely engaged with

his manufactory, Mr. D. to his studies, and Roger Trusty to his pious reflections, we return to the Warian family, and enter a little more particularly into their characters, conduct, and views.

Mr. Warian was descended from a pious race of ancestors. His grand-father was contemporary with the father of the excellent Dr. Watts. Both suffered in the cause of the dissenting interest. Both were driven from their homes by the rigour of persecution; and both maintained an inflexible integrity in the principles they had, from the best motives, adopted. The father of the present Mr. Warian trod in the steps of his predecessor. He was a zealous dissenter. It must be confessed his zeal was somewhat tinctured with bigotry; but here great allowances should be made: the

times in which he lived must be pleaded as an extenuation of this blot in his character. Happily the Dissenters in the present day form, in general, more liberal opinions. They can conceive it possible, that an equal share of love, piety, and devotion, may glow in the breast of one who reads a form of prayer in his church, as in one who pours forth his extempore effusions at the throne of grace, in his unconsecrated meeting-house; and that others may consider their Sovereign to be head of the church in a subordinate view, without derogating from the dignity of Him who is the head and heir of all things, though he may scruple to render him this high appellation.

If what the poet says were true in all cases, that

"Children like tender osiers take the bow,

And as they once are fashion'd so they grow,"

The present Mr. Warian would have been a very different character from what he was; for he received the purest instructions in his early years, enforced by what carries still greater weight--virtuous examples. As the case was, he copied his father more closely in the dark shades of his character than in the light. His bigotry he retained, but not his unaffected piety, his warm devotion, and his disinterested zeal to promote the spiritual and temporal good of those around