of purpose, and a life of determined separation from all that is sinful in the practices of the world, what are we to say of the honesty, or of the competency of that steward, who, to produce them, sows the seeds of folly, and plants the root of pride, and encourages the growth of earthliness, and cultivates a taste for things forbidden? I have talked, or listened to many parents on this subject, during the education of their families. I have seen a father encourage his boys to fight out an amateur battle, for the right of possession to a puppy-dog, and yield it to the victor-and when I asked him if he intended his boys should in after life take possession by force, of what they could not prove a right to, he said, No but boys must learn courage-it, was their nature to fight, and it was good exercise for their limbs-they would know better when they were men. I have seen a mother take her daughters to a dancing-school, to be taught every fashionable manoeuvre of the ball-roomand when I asked her if she meant her daughters should be introduced to amusements she did not herself approve, she said, She hoped not-the principles she laboured to instil, would, she trusted, prevent it-but till they were of an age to feel their influence, she must let them do as others do-there was no harm in children's dancing. I have seen a teacher bring tears and blushes upon the cheek of a pains-taking booby, by showing him the achievements of his brother, assuring him, that while the younger brother was sent to college, he, for his stupidity, must go behind the counter. I asked him if he wished that, when that boy became a man, he should be pained by the superiority of others, or ashamed of the station to which providence assigned him, He answered me, Nay-but emulation was the finest thing in the world-it was impossible to make anything of boys, without the stimulus of rivalry. I have asked a lady, whose children I saw every evening playing at cards for half-pence, and vehemently contending for success, whether she was bringing them up to

be gamesters, or to waste their hours in frivolous pursuits and unwholesome excitations of temper and feeling. Half laughing and half angry, as at a foolish question, she said, of course not-but it did not signify how children amused themselves. Of another, who was cramming her children's minds with most pernicious nonsense, in the form of books; I asked her if she meant that they should be weak, ill-judging, and romantic women-She too said, No-but children did not understand sensible books-she was glad to get them to read at all, and should give them better books when they were older. A few times in my life, I have seen parents take-no, not take, for they would themselves have been ashamed to be seen there-but send their children to the theatre, and other publick places, which they had taught them to consider as inconsistent with the spiritual requirements of the Gospel, and the safe conduct of a corruptible nature through a corrupting world-alleging that it was desirable at a certain age, to let young people taste these pleasures, that they might better appreciate the nature and tendency of them.

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Let me pause a moment. Of those who are reading this, some will say, "But we do not think there is any harm in publick places, in dancing, in boxing, and all these things you talk about." I answer, that makes not to the question. What I particularize applies only to those who do think these things objectionable, as leading into sin, and who wish their children should grow up in this opinion. To you these instances may not applybut if there is anything in the world you do think wrong or unbecoming in man or woman, suppose that to be the thing I have instanced, and the case will be in point. I meant not to blame any one for planting the root of which he wished to gather.

One word to those young persons, who are free, or are allowed in some measure to judge for themselves— and perhaps a few years more of age, may not make the words unapplicable. What is it you intend to be? A

child of God, a purified jewel of the Redeemer's crown, a heavenly plant, bearing seed a hundred-fold-walking not after the course of this world in the vanity of your minds, but in meet and holy preparation for the bliss of Heaven? Do you desire to fulfil the purport of your baptismal vow, to renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world, with all covetous desires of the same, and the carnal desires of the flesh, so that you will neither follow nor be led by them-obediently to keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in the same all the days of your life-even as you have pledged yourself to do, in these words or others of like import? These are great fruits-your fallow field is ill-disposed to bear them-the air about you is well prepared to blight them. O! why are you so bold? Why do you reason so absurdly, and act so foolishly, as in many cases you are seen to do? When you insist on going once, but to see you know it is wrong-you do not mean to make a practice of it. When you seek companions and employments you know will dissipate your thoughts and unsettle your habits-when you poison your minds, and stimulate your passions, and heat your imagination, and pervert your taste, by every species of pernicious reading and unhallowed talk, by ambitious schemes and unsanctified desires? Would you be persuaded, would those who have the management of others but considerhow hard a thing it is to purify and make meet for glory a spirit born in sin and conceived in iniquity, prone to evil as the sparks fly upward, but to all good unwillingly a soil that bears indigenous every bitter and unwholesome weed, but will only be cultured into fruitfulness by toil and care, favoured with the dews of heaven and the sunbeams of celestial grace. We must have had small experience in life, and less in religion, if we do not know the difficulties, the miseries, the conflicting feelings entailed upon us by the tastes and associations of our past lives. How very difficult it is, with every motive and inelination to the work, to subdue one evil propensity, or

root out one ungodly feeling; to correct even one, the smallest sin to which we are habituated-if we may venture to call any thing small which is offensive to the pure vision of the Most High.

We scarcely expect to be understood, to the full extent of our meaning, by any but those who, having come to be like-minded with their Lord, have learned to know no misery equal to the consciousness of sin, no desire so intense as to be holy in his sight, no hatred so deep as towards iniquity, though parted from its eternal conséquences. But I could wish that the less experienced would take it on the word of those who are before them; for if honest in religion, they will come to this mind at some time. It is then that the heart becomes conscious of the mischief of every habit, of every inclination, or taste, or feeling, that that has been engendered by example, or cultivated by indulgence. Then the tossed and troubled spirit has cause to say, Why was I encouraged in these feelings, till they have become as natural to me as to think or breathe? Why did I feed my imagination with these images, till I find it impossible to expel them from my mind? Where did I learn this taste for vanities, that seems determined to go with me even into Heaven? I do not know whether what we hear be all a fiction, or whether those who at the altar on their knees declare that the memory of sin is grievous to them, and the burthen of it intolerable, have any such sensations as their words express but if they have, I am sure they cannot thank their parents for having poured one drop unnecessary of bitter memory into that full cup, nor themselves for having voluntarily added one feather's weight to that too heavy burthen.

Admit that the thistles may be rooted out-that the girl who is taught vanity, will not be vain when she becomes a christian woman, and the youth who is encouraged in oppression, rivalry and pride, will not be contentious or dissatisfied when he becomes a christian man --still be it remembered, it is no magick touch of the ce

lestial wand that converts the bond-slave of earth into the meet inheritor of heaven. It can do so, we know-but generally, as regards the sanctification of the heart after it has been pardoned and renewed, the process is a long, and often very painful one. It is by the fire the gold is purified. By many a painful excision the eye is made single. Sorrow after sorrow comes-draught after draught of misery is drained-and the heart has sometimes to be buried beneath the wreck of every thing it has loved and delighted in, before earth and self can be crushed out of it. Why should we be so mad, so unjust to our children and cruel to ourselves, as to increase the difficulty of the cure, because confident it will in the issue be performed? Why do we plant our ground with thistles, because after years of labour we can root them out?

CONVERSATIONS ON GEOLOGY.

CONVERSATION XVIII.

Specimens of Lead-Arsenic-Red Marble-Lias-Alum-Fossils. MRS. L.-Before we begin with our new subjects, I promised to show you a few specimens of Lead. In its common form I need not introduce it to you. Fig. 1. is Foliated Galena (Lead); it is very brilliant; you may crumble it into thousands of pieces; but each piece, of whatever size, will have the cubic form. Fig. 2. is a Carbonate of Lead, (Lead and Carbon)-Fig. 3. an Arsenate of Lead-(Lead and Arsenic.) We will now proceed to another formation.

MAT.-May I first enquire what is Arsenic?

MRS. L.-It is a mineral very generally diffused and intermixed with others. You might at first sight mistake it for Lead, but it is easily distinguished from other metals by the smell of Garlic it emits when struck with a hammer or heated.