resembling a serpent threaded through the solar disc. Measuring from head to tail of the serpent, the diameter was about two miles and a half; but following the curve it was somewhat more than three: that of Carnac was considerably larger.

It has been also conjectured that they were altars upon which human sacrifices were offered by the Druids, and circumstances render this conjecture plausible. Human, sacrifices were offered by the Druids, and their object appears to have been to appease the Great Destroyer, who under the symbol of a serpent was universally placated for a like purpose. Of this we have traces in the Eve, or serpent-mother of the Mexicans; the long or "crooked. serpent" mentioned in the book of Job;† the "nachashim” consulted by the prophet Balaam; the Chiun § or Remphan worshipped by the wandering Israelites; and the Siva, Chiven, or Quiven of the Hindoos. This worship had reference to another special doctrine of the Druids---the metempsychosis, or transmigration of souls; and was evidently associated with it in the erection of the pyramids of Egypt.

THE PARSON'S CHOICE MEMORIES.
CHAP. II. THE POWER OF GRACE.

"IF you will allow me, my dear friends," said a middle-aged clergyman, when Paternus ceased to speak, "to relate a little tale, in which my own daughter played a prominent part, I shall be most happy to do so; and to follow the lead more exactly, I will commence by a reflection that seems to me to bear strongly

See our volume for 1844, p. 253.

Job xxvi. 13.

Numbers xxiv. 1. And when Balaam saw that it pleased the Lord to bless Israel, he went not, as at other times, to meet with nachashim-to consult his serpent oracles; but he set his face towards the wilderness.

Amos v. 26.

T Acts vii. 43.

on the point. The infidel and the worldling declare that the heart of childhood is pure and spotless; whereas the christian sees, even in the infant in arms, the strong seeds of that original sin which we have inherited from our first parents, and shall lose only when we become the heirs of salvation, and the acknowledged children of our Divine Creator. This remark will at once lead me to my tale; and inform you that it is one in which little actresses (for all my personages are females) will be represented as they unfortunately really are, and not under a false veil of purity and innocence which cannot belong to any but a converted child.

"About two years ago my wife was seized with so severe an illness, that we both anticipated it must end fatally. Our medical adviser, however, gave us hopes that a change of climate might be of service; and having obtained leave of absence, we left our parish and hastened to the South of France. We hesitated a little about taking our daughter with us; but, at length, agreed it would be better on all accounts to leave her in England. Maria was just of an age to be of little service as nurse to her mother; whilst, on the contrary, she was old enough to suffer severely, not only in her body, but in her mind, by being the constant attendant in a sick room. We therefore placed her at a school in a neighbouring town, where she was to remain, holidays and all, during our absence. It was a most painful parting, for neither mother nor child expected to see each other again. But then, perhaps, the meeting was one of greater happiness to us all. But I am anticipating.

"On our return to our parish, a week or more was wanting to the holidays, but so anxious were we to have our beloved child again with us, that I sent for a chaise the day after we had arrived at home, and set off to the neighbouring town where her governess lived. Maria, as you may suppose, was delighted; neither was I much wiser than herself on the occasion; and as it happened that I had met all the little people just entering the house after a long walk, I felt so kindly disposed at sight of their youthful faces, that I proposed to them to ask their governess to allow them a half-holiday that very evening. All the young countenances, with only one exception, brightened up at this proposition, and they received it, as one might say, with cheers; but

this one exception, to my astonishment, burst into tears, and

sobbed quite audibly.

"Is that little girl in disgrace?' I asked;

if so, she must promise amendment, and I have no doubt Mrs. Davies, the gowill forgive her.'

verness,

666

'In disgrace,' murmured a little, sharp, pert voice, close to my ear-in disgrace! Selina Roberts is always in disgrace. We have just agreed to send her to Coventry for a week.'

"I suppose," said the narrator of this tale, here interrupting his narrative, " you all comprehend the meaning of the term 'to send any one to Coventry;' or, in other words, refusing to speak to them, or listening to what they might wish to say? I had heard it before, and turning, perhaps somewhat angrily, to the pert little girl who had spoken, I asked her what her young companion had done?

"In reply, she named to me some trifling offence that the weeping girl had committed during their walk; but what it was matters not to this tale: it shewed, however, that for some cause or another, Selina Roberts was an object of dislike to her schoolfellows, and that amongst them there was not one who came forward to speak in her defence. I was annoyed at what had passed; and I told the young ladies my opinion as kindly as I could; adding, that they would fare but ill, if their friends and relatives punished them for their offences as severely as they were about to punish Miss Roberts; and I ended by remarking that such conduct could not be persisted in by a child of God. But the young rioters were summoned away before they had time to make any réply.

"That poor little girl, Maria,' I said, as we drove away, 'I was sincerely sorry for her. Why is she so disliked by her school-fellows?'

"Oh, papa,' replied my daughter, 'I am afraid she was a very, very, naughty girl, but I do think she wishes to be better now; but the girls will not forgive her; for somehow or other she has seriously offended them all.'

"And you too, Maria?' I asked.

"Oh no, papa,' she answered,

or else she would not have

cried so bitterly as she did at my leaving school.'

"Poor child,' I said, 'I am sincerely sorry for her, as it is

evident, by her dark skin and darker hair, that she has come from a warmer climate than ours, and has probably few friends in England.'

"She has none,' answered Maria, and, poor little thing, she is an orphan !'

"Maria then began to question me about her own mother, and other domestic matters; and little Selina would have been forgotten, at least by me, had not circumstances happened which made it wholly impossible for me to cease to remember her.

It was at the commencement of the Christmas holidays following, Maria had been at home about half a year, when my wife and I went to the town, where the school was at which we had placed Maria. We did not take our daughter, because she had a cold, but left her with her careful old nurse, as we were to be absent a day or two.

"You will remember to call and see Selina, papa,' said Maria. Poor Selina! she is left alone at school now; the rest have gone home for the holidays. Give my love to her, please, papa;' and she placed a little parcel in my hand, which I was to deliver to her my own very self.

Accordingly, the next day, I did call and ask to see the child. The governess informed me that she was much afflicted by rheumatic affections, and that they kept her in bed, that she might have the benefit of an uniform temperature. I asked to be taken up to her, and found her lying, often in solitude no doubt, in a small room, where, if there were an uniformity of temperature, its range was very low.

"The forlorn little girl received Maria's remembrances with such glee, and spoke of her as so good, so very good, that my compassion for her was highly excited; and so much sympathy did my kind wife feel with me, that when she had consulted the medical gentleman who attended the school, and had learned from him that there was nothing infectious in the child's disease, and that a change of air and scene might be of great service to the invalid, she proposed that we should ask permission to take the little one home with us. This permission being granted, the child, to her utter amazement and delight, was taken out of bed, most carefully enveloped in wrappers, and placed in the comfortable close carriage between my wife and myself.

"At first she did not speak, but lay enveloped in furs, her little pale and shrunken face, with its large black eyes, being only visible. After a while, she began to prattle, and to tell us how the ladies, as she called her school-mates, were accustomed to treat her. We were not disposed to hearken to this gossip; and, to change the subject, we asked her if she remembered her fardistant home?

"No,' she answered, ' but I remember on board ship,-and Jewun, and Patton, and Paundi Cowrie, and Nerkon.'

"Who were these?' I asked.

666 Oh, the black servants; they were so kind; Julia's servant, and Sophia's, and mine,' She was rattling on in an accent certainly not English, when I asked her if they had had any storms that she could remember?

"No, not many;' she answered; but we came to a place where there were-O! so many elephants in the sky, and their trunks reached from the clouds down to the sea; and we thought that they would have sucked up the ship into the sky-Nerkon was so frightened.'

"My wife looked at me, as if now convinced that the child really deserved the character for untruths which she had acquired; but I suggested that she meant water-spouts; and told her that these were always attributed, by the ignorant and superstitious natives, to the elephant of one of their gods, the location of which was supposed to be in the heavens. This little circumstance led me to hope that Selina was herself deceived when she seemed to be uttering the most monstrous untruths.

"We got her to our house in due time; and Maria received her most gladly and kindly. She was placed under the especial charge of nurse, and kept very warm, and very carefully attended to, and Maria was permitted to be with her whenever she pleased; though never unless some watchful elder was present; for my wife and nurse soon came to the same opinion with the school-mistress and her pupils, that she was by no means a child to be trusted. But although I sincerely pitied her, for she suffered extremely from rheumatism, and occasionally from great oppression on the chest; yet, when I came to study her character, and to find what were the opinions of all the persons about her, I perceived that this little girl was different from any who had ever before come under my observation.