which he has attempted to illustrate the volume. His Spinner of the Shroud, for example, has a face stolen from Landseer's Mountain Shepherdess, and marred in the stealing; his Fairies are little uncouth Gnomes of a purely Adelphic character; we might pluck a considerable crow with him about his Raven of the Rock, and the miniature battle raging beneath the beak of that bird, strongly reminds us of the Massacre of the Macphersons, in the Book of Ballads, where Mic Mac Methuselah,-we quote from memory,—

"Has resolved to extirpate the vipers

With four and twenty men and six and thirty pipers." Illustrations of verse should be light, sketchy, fanciful, suggestive; these are black, ponderous, and pointless as leaden bullets. To Mrs. Ogilvy we bid farewell, with hearty thanks for the pleasure her charming poems have afforded us, and, using a slight freedom with the text, in the words of her last line,

"Fair Chantress of Albyn, bestir thee again."

But let her next volume not be M'Ianized.

Chollerton: a Tale of our Own Time. pp. 381.

By a LADY.

London,

CHOLLERTON is a tale of the class which blends fictitious narrative with church truths; and may, therefore, probably be objected to by some of our readers, who, like ourselves, are inclined, at first sight of such a book, to cavil with this mode of introducing views on religious subjects to our notice. That the number of these works is increasing we cannot deny; and must therefore infer that the taste of the age is in their favour.

Chollerton, in spite of this objection, will commend itself to all readers. Of its kind it is perhaps the most powerfully written tale we have yet had; and possesses increased attraction, coming as it does from the graceful pen of a lady. There is something winning and gentle, too, in the mode in which she has introduced the discussion of the several points upon which issue is joined. The story is simple, yet its interest never flags from beginning to end; and it is told in such forcible language

as would lead us to the belief that its authoress has before appeared in print-her style is that of a practised writer.

Chollerton-a country village-is the scene of the story. At the period when the narrative commences a new rector has been appointed to preside over the spiritual affairs of the little parish; in whom we have an advocate for all those wholesome improvements in the discipline and efficiency of the Church which a judicious restoration of her customs and ordinances would effect. These are by some hotly opposed, and by nearly all condemned; but the still small voice of conscience influences a remnant, piously disposed, to obey their pastor; and by them a congregation is formed for the celebration of the daily morning services of the Church, as well as for the due observance of her Fasts and Festivals.

"Prayers every morning in the church at eight o'clock," exclaimed Mrs. Fosdyke, in a tone of something like horror, as she approached the luncheon-table on her return from church the following Sunday, "and service on all the Church Festivals, as he called them! Well! that's declaring himself openly enough, I hope, and will put an end to all speculation about him; nobody now will ask what sort of opinions Mr. Dampierre holds. Poor Chollerton !" added she with a sigh. It will be a sad change for Chollerton, Mr. Fosdyke."

I suspect," answered he, "that this style of thing will not make as much difference to Chollerton as you fear or Mr. Dampierre hopes. He will be the topic of conversation at the next half-dozen dinner parties at which he is not present; he will find his church empty and cold at his morning prayers and Saint day's services, and then they will be discontinued with less fuss even than they are begun."

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Nay, sir," observed Arthur, "I can scarcely think a man, expressing himself as Mr. Dampierre did this morning upon the duty of offering daily prayer and of commemorating the festivals of the Church according to her appointment, would easily be brought to neglect the practice in his own parish."

But, Arthur," said Charlotte, "if papa is right, as you cannot doubt, in saying that Mr. Dampierre will find himself alone in the church morning after morning, he must see there is no use in going on with it."

Supposing his efforts should be so ill seconded, Lotte," returned her brother, "I still do not think Mr. Dampierre will give it up. If it be his duty as a parish priest to read the service of the Church, it cannot cease to be so because his people neglect the duty of joining their prayers to his. But I do not believe our Rector will be placed in so painful a solitude as my father and you contemplate. In every parish where the daily service has been restored of late, some persons have been found who have eagerly and thankfully accepted the opportunity offered to them of publicly joining in the prayers of the Church; and doubtless so zealous a priest as Mr. Dampierre appears to be, will not content himself with merely enabling his parishioners to offer with one accord their daily prayers and praises to the Almighty,

he will endeavour to make them feel the doing so to be no less a privilege than a duty; and with God's assistance he will doubtless succeed with some."

"I supposed your mother's and my observation would draw you forth as a champion for this new sect," said his father. "I never say much to you about it, as you are young and enthusiastic, and it will all rub off with a little practical acquaintance with the world; but I confess I look upon the sort of thing very differently when I find it in a man of Mr. Dampierre's age and disposition. Speculative imaginings do little harm to a young man of two and twenty; but when acted upon by a forty years' old rector of a parish like Chollerton, it becomes something worse than contemptible."

"

"The little that I have seen of Mr. Dampierre," observed Mrs. Fosdyke, "impressed me with the idea of his being a very sensible, rational, well-bred man, not likely to be betrayed into any eccentric absurdities."

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Exactly so, my dear," replied her husband; " and his sermon this morning astonished me proportionably. If, however, he is the rational man he appears to be, he will soon perceive that this style of thing does not take at Chollerton, and then he will drop it. Or if he persist in leaving his bed while it's half light to read a set of prayers to his wife and the clerk, instead of doing it in his own dining-room, like the rest of his profession, it will do us no harm."

'Mr. Fosdyke then decidedly turned the conversation into a more ordinary channel, and the party soon dispersed.

The breakfast hour at Fosdyke Lodge was a liberal nine, and Anna the next morning resolved to go to church, without fearing that her doing so would be discovered. As she knew that the distance to the church was too short to occasion any risk of this, she was not called upon to determine in what manner she would have acted had the case been different. We must not presume, therefore, to look more closely into her heart than she did herself: but we may safely affirm that she rejoiced much at finding herself able to resume an old habit which had been a source of great comfort to her at a time when she much needed some solace.

She raised her eyes to the clock in the tower as she entered the door of the church, and perceived she was only just in time to reach her seat in the family pew before the service would begin. With a self-condemning feeling at having so nearly been too late, she hastened up the nave, and reached the pew without raising her eyes to see if Mr. Fosdyke was right in supposing there would be no congregation; nor was it till she had risen from her knees and opened her prayerbook, that she discovered that she was not the only occupant of the cushioned, curtained penfold. Arthur Fosdyke was there before her. Exclusive of Mr. Dampierre's family, there were about a dozen persons, all of the poorer class, except one old half-pay officer of the navy.'

Arthur Fosdyke, in due course, is ordained to the sacred office, and upon the resignation of the rector of Chollerton is appointed to succeed him. The record of his pious zeal

and unwearied watchfulness over his flock sets forth a heartstirring picture of the lives and labours of happily many of our clergy of the present day. The views expressed in the following passage will meet with the support of all those who have seen, with regret, the readiness of thousands to bind themselves by unauthorized vows to observe those duties, to the performance of which they were already pledged as members of the Church.

"We could not quite agree yesterday, Mr. Fosdyke, as to whether you had declined preaching for Mr. Listowel or not. I believe I was right in saying that you had been asked?”

"Quite right," replied Arthur; "but you were mistaken in supposing that I was going to do so. I begged to decline."

"Dear me! did you, indeed?" said Louisa;

well, I confess I am surprised. Had you any reason, Mr. Fosdyke, for refusing?" "Yes, I had a reason, certainly," replied Arthur, with a good-humoured smile, " or I should have been happy to have done what I was asked, particularly as I believe the invitation was meant as a kind one to a young clergyman just entering his ministerial career."

"May I ask your reasons, Fosdyke?" asked Sir Edward. "I have no doubt they are right and consistent with your principles; but I confess I do not quite see the grounds on which you acted.'

I objected on two points, Belcomb," answered Arthur. "In the first place, I greatly disapprove of the system of getting strange clergymen to preach instead of the appointed pastor of the people. Mr. Listowel is the appointed teacher of the people of W——, and not I; and in addressing them I should go out of the place assigned me by the Governor of the Church under whom I act. If it is supposed that more people would come to the church to hear me, or would listen more attentively to me because I am a stranger to them, and have no claim on their obedience, that is the greater reason for my keeping away from them, and not encouraging in them a very faulty, nay, sinful disposition."

"But, Arthur," inquired Charlotte, "should you think it wrong to ask another clergyman to preach a charity sermon for you, if you knew that he were a more eloquent man than yourself, and more likely, from being a stranger and from his style and manner being new to your congregation, to make an impression upon them, and secure a larger sum for the object you had in view?"

"Certainly," returned her brother. "I would rather obtain a smaller sum from my people offered in such a spirit as might enable us to hope the blessing of God might rest upon our efforts, than see them moved by a more eloquent appeal to their feelings to give largely. The alms offered as the natural result of a spirit of self-denial, and given in an individual instance in obedience to a demand made by him who has the rule over them,' must be a more pleasing offering to God than money given from the momentary effect of a clever sermon. There are few things done professedly with a religious object, that I think more reprehensible than the collecting of money by objectionable means, such as penny and sixpenny subscriptions, ladies' bazaars, or clap-trap

sermons from wandering clergymen. You may succeed by such means in gathering a certain sum for a special object, but the money which you thus call into action is not of the quality that is twice blessed; it blesseth not him that gives,' supposing that it does ' him that takes.'

"But you were not asked to preach a charity sermon, Mr. Fosdyke," remarked Louisa.

"No," replied he, "but I was selected because I was a stranger to the W- people, and it was supposed that a sufficiently large placard stuck about the town, with the words Sermon to be preached by the Rev. Arthur Fosdyke in the parish church of W,' would draw, as they say, a large congregation; and then an interesting paragraph would follow in the county newspaper next week, stating that a highly respectable and intelligent audience listened with gratifying attention to an eloquent discourse upon the previous Thursday. Can this be considered a legitimate use of a building consecrated to worship; or do you consider a parish priest so endeavouring to tickle the ears of people with whom he has no connexion is in his proper sphere ?"

"I wish

"You are quite right, Fosdyke," exclaimed Sir Edward. all clergymen would think and act with you in this respect. It would in some measure tend to teach us two things of which we are lamentably ignorant; the proportionate importance of prayer and preaching, and the real and proper connexion between pastor and people."

، ، Will you give us your other reason, Arthur, for objecting to preach at W-?" asked Anna.

6 66 Willingly," said he; "though I am not quite sure of finding a supporter of my opinions in Belcomb. The sermon I was asked to preach on Thursday was to be addressed to a body of tee-totallers, who come as such to the church, and expect their Vicar, who does not feel called upon to perform the service appointed by the Church on ordinary occasions, to do it at their request, and preach a sermon to them as tee-totallers. By consenting he recognises and sanctions a body held by a bond of union, of which the Church knows nothing."

"But, Arthur," cried Charlotte, eagerly, "would you not wish to sanction anything in the lower classes that preserves them from so much that is vicious, and is not in itself wrong, like these tee-totalling unions?"

"I disapprove of these self-organized societies," replied he, "as they shew either an ignorance or a contempt of the society of which they are already members; the rules of which, if duly observed, are sufficient to preserve them from falling into vice."

،،، Of what society do you speak, Mr. Fosdyke ? asked Louisa, who had been silent longer than was usual or agreeable to her. “I know of none such established in W- whatever may be the case

elsewhere."

"I speak of the society, Miss Riley, of which we have all been made members in Holy Baptism," replied Arthur," of the Church of Christ: we are all united in Christ, why should we seek any other bond of union? We are all bound by the vows made at our baptism to Christ, under whose banner we are sworn soldiers; why should we