stronger texture; and elucidate the consequences that attend them by relating a few anecdotes in the lives of two young noblemen of distinction, whom I shall describe under their christian names of Frederic and Albert.

In infancy these two young gentlemen were placed in circumstances apparently similar. They were alike subjected to the disadvantage of being almost entirely confined to the society of low-born and illiterate persons: for, except an hour or two of every day, they lived, as children in their station generally do, with the servants in the nursery*. Happily, however, for Albert, he in the nursery met with an excellent instructress; it being his good fortune to have for an attendant one who considered herself

*To this remark there are some very honourable exceptions.

as not merely accountable to her master and mistress, but accountable to God for the charge she had undertaken. This young woman was ignorant of the wisdom of the schools, but she was well acquainted with the precepts of the gospel: she had imbibed its spirit, and the law of God was written in her heart.

To the latest period of his life, Albert owned his obligations to this humble instructress of his infancy, whose declining age was more effectually cheered by the acknowledgments of his gratitude, than by all the favours his liberal heart bestowed. "By "others," said he, "I was taught to

say there was a God; from her I first "learned to make inferences from "the important truth. But for her I "make no doubt I should to the pre"sent day have had my mind clouded "by a thousand vulgar prejudices

" and

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"and superstitions which would have "taken too strong a hold of my gination to have been eradicated; nay, but for her," he would add with a smile, "but for her, I verily believe "I should have been a blockhead!"

A country gentleman to whom he one day made these remarks, as they returned together from a ride to the pretty cottage which was built by Albert for this old domestic, asked him, with some degree of astonishment, how it could possibly happen that one born in so high a rank should have been so much indebted to one in a menial station for all this instruction. "Had not Your Lordship a tutor? "Had you not masters to attend to "your improvement ?"

O yes," replied Albert. "I had "tutors and masters in abundance. "But all for the head, and none "for the heart. And how was I

"prepared

"prepared for their instructions?

Why, I shall tell you. By being

taught to think that as heir to a

great fortune, I was born to enjoy "pleasure, and that whatever inter "rupted that enjoyment was injus"tice. Lessons were a grievous in

terruption to my enjoyment; les"sons I consequently hated. Hated "them the more, because they were "unconnected with all the previous "habits of my infancy. I had in that "state none of the advantages which

your children, my good sir, enjoy.

They, by living almost entirely un"der the eye of their mother, have "their faculties imperceptibly opened, "and imbibe their first notions from "the mind of a gentlewoman. I on "the contrary was cooped up in a

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nursery, without objects to rouse or "to gratify curiosity that were not of "a nature injurious to the mind. I "heard

"heard of the quarrels and the loves "of servants; was acquainted with "all the different cuts and colours of "the different liveries worn by the "favourites of our maids; knew why "Tom left his place, and why Jack "resolved to keep his; and was also "embued with a deep sense of the

glory that resulted from a fine stud "of horses, magnificent equipages, "and a splendid table. But as for knowledge or virtue, I might be "told they were very proper and becoming a gentleman, but it cer

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tainly was not among the people "with whom my time was spent, that "I found they were ever seriously thought so.

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My ignorance was greater than you can conceive. I literally be"lieved the moon to be a great cheese, "and that the trees in the park were "made by the gardener; and this not " from