which he is continually compelled to accommodate his humours to those of his fellow-creatures, would presently utterly subvert the whole order of things, and reduce the earth to one scene of moral chaos and anarchy.

Nevertheless, notwithstanding this dependance upon each other, induced by our bodily wants, such are the confusion and disorder still existing in this world by reason of sin, that life is a burden to many; and those who are ignorant of religion, and of the remedies for every evil provided by it, are ever exercising their reason and imagination in discovering the means of setting that to rights, which can be repaired by no human exertions. Hence the variety of laws which have been enacted in different countries for restraining and punishing crime; the number of treatises and plans of education; and the innumerable schemes of reformation which are daily displayed before us, and which daily afford proofs of their futility.

There is scarcely a contemplative mind on earth, which has not discovered that there is much that is amiss in all it sees around it; and every reflecting being is dissatisfied with the present state of things, and fancies it might be better: and while the revolutionist endeavours to produce this amendment by the subversion of all existing order, the poet amuses himself with fancied scenes of happiness and visionary delight, and hence is led to represent in his works scenes of Arcadia and Elysium, the inhabitants of which are strangers to the angry passions common to men, and are described as dwelling in a state of bliss incompatible with the present state of things.

Such are the romances and pastorals which have filled the libraries of our fine ladies for a century past; -books in which sentiments as false, and nearly as dangerous, as the more open blasphemies of the infidel, are set forth in the most attractive colours, and which have proved particularly injurious, by misguiding the directors of youth, and leading them to believe that the natural defects of disposition and temper may be effectually amended by the dissemination of these false sentiments, and by the cultivation of a spurious kind of sensibility.

But none of those plans for softening and correcting

the nature of man has hitherto been found to answer, or to overcome his natural selfishness.

Light and elegant reading may undoubtedly give a polish to the manners, and impart a certain degree of refinement to the mind; but the religion of Christ alone -the religion taught by Scripture-is that which exclusively supplies a real, lasting, and certain correction of the baser passions and feelings of the soul. It is the religion of Christ alone which has power to impart a saving change to the heart, to purify our corrupt affections, and to give to the creature already dead in sin, a spirit of everlasting life and strength. But Madame le Visac, not having known this religion, could not have conveyed the knowledge of it to her son. That however, which she had known and admired, she had taken care to impart to him; namely, that romantic spirit, and those false sentiments of sensibility, which she had acquired from the fashionable works of imagination; and, young as he was, she had given his mind many ideas of this kind, which tended considerably to the formation of his taste and manners, when left to himself and to his own reflections in the wood of Normandy.

His mother had left behind her several books of pastoral and romance, which, as Florentin grew older, afforded much matter for his contemplation; for he had discovered that nothing was more easy, or more delightful, than to carry a book out with him into the woods, and to read while his cow grazed at her leisure by his side.

When first he made this discovery, which was soon after he entered upon his office of cowherd, he was accustomed to carry such little books into the woods as suited his childish fancy; books which his mother had brought with her for his use from Paris, and which chiefly treated of fairy tales, or the exploits of such little good boys and girls as the world never saw. But, having exhausted these, and beginning to thirst for new springs of entertainment, he had recourse to the remains of his mother's library, which was contained in a small chest in the corner of the little room in which he slept; and there finding, among other wonderful histories, that elegant pastoral, the Estelle of Florian, he henceforward made it the constant companion of his rambles; and hence was taught to look with an admiring eye on all those beauties of nature which were so pro

fusely scattered around him, and which he had hitherto gazed upon with indifference.

But, inasmuch as this admiration of the glorious works of God was not directed by this book into its proper channel-namely, to the promotion of pious feelings-but rather to the exaltation of the creature in the stead of the Creator, the little improvement of taste which the young student acquired from this book would assuredly have been more than counterbalanced by the errors into which it would have led him, had he been permitted to acquire man's estate under such false impressions as it was calculated to give.

In the mean time, his solitary mode of life, and his peculiar state of mind, gave a singular interest to his appearance; insomuch, that no one could behold him without feeling a desire to become farther acquainted with so interesting a character.

He was not, as his mother had been, an infidel; for Aguace du Bois had taught him a general respect for religion; and had told him, that although she was unable to instruct him in its nature, and although his legal instructers were banished the kingdom, yet, assuredly, the time would come when they would return; and when the altars, now thrown down and trampled upon by infidel feet, would again be restored, and the dilapidated churches would be reinstated in their former beauty. She also taught him some prayers, and pointed out to him the duty under which he lay of protecting and loving the little sister who alone remained to him of all his family and relations.

Thus he was taught a general respect for religion and the social duties; and though his ideas of both were indistinct, yet the Almighty Being, who had undoubtedly loved him from everlasting, though he knew it not, led him on through the careless years of childhood in a state of comparative harmlessness, preserving him from those flagrant offences into which our weak and sinful nature is apt to fall; as one leads a blind man through a way abounding with pits and snares of which he has no idea, and the nature of which it would be difficult to make him comprehend.

And here I would remark, from the case of Florentin -what many, who in after life have been brought to a knowledge of the true and holy Gospel, and who have experienced a change of heart and life, may have ob

served with respect to themselves-how frequently, ere yet they were brought to know the Lord, his tender care and watchful providence had been exercised for them; how every circumstance had been arranged for their good; how they had been guarded on the right and on the left from snares and dangers, as with a wall and a hedge; and how those circumstances which in themselves appeared unfavourable for them, were overruled for their good.

But, leaving these reflections (which multiply around me, and divert my eye from the path I had marked to myself), I return to my story.

From the moment when his infant sister had been presented to Florentin, she had become an object of his warmest affection; and on her account he accepted with glee the office of keeper of the cow which was to supply her with food;-an office on which he might otherwise have reflected with some degree of contempt, but which he now considered as ennobled by the end it was to

answer.

"This cow," said he to himself, as he walked for the first time from the cottage, with the rope in his hand by which the animal was attached; "this cow is to supply my little sister with food: it shall, therefore, be my care to find the sweetest herbage for her which this country will afford, and it shall not be through my neglect if my sister wants nourishment."

It was a moment of great delight to Florentin when Lucie first smiled upon him; and no holyday ever brought more happiness than the day when she first followed him into the woods. From that time—that is, when Lucie could walk-she became more exclusively the companion of Florentin; and it was not to be wondered at, if, henceforward, she acquired such an affection for her brother, that every thing which he did and said was good and right in her eyes.

When Florentin was able to take the chief charge of Lucie, Agnace du Bois was at liberty to return to her usual occupations in the fields, which she had been obliged to relinquish in a great measure during the first years of Lucie's infancy.

Thus the little girl was daily more abandoned to the protection of her brother, who, during all the finer months of the year, carried her with him into the woods, and wherever he went to feed the cow.

And

during these excursions, and while they sat together on the green herb, he would amuse her with such tales as he had read, or otherwise become acquainted with.

It has often occurred to me, that there are few natural sentiments more pure and lovely than those which we may sometimes observe between a brother and sister; in cases especially in which the sister is dependent for protection and instruction upon that brother: and if these natural feelings are sometimes thus amiable, how much more so do they become when ennobled by piety, and when fraternal interest is extended to the spiritual as well as temporal welfare of its object.

In the mean time, as years rolled on, Florentim attained his fifteenth year, and Lucie her seventh. During this period these orphans had continued to spend their time in the manner I have described, with this variation only in their modes of life, that Lucie was now sometimes trusted to go out alone with the cow, while Florentin assisted his adopted mother in other parts of her labour.

It happened, one sultry day in August, Florentin being engaged in some employment for Agnace du Bois, that Lucie was sent out early, and alone, to seek pasture for the cow (so often mentioned during the course of this history) in some of the grassy glades of the forest.

The little girl, finding that her cow had exhausted all the pasturage in the near vicinity of the cottage, proceeded to a part of the wood somewhat more remote; and there finding what she was seeking, she sat herself down on the grass, and, leaning her back against a mossy bank, began thus to discourse with herself:"If Florentin were here, he would tell me a story, or perhaps read to me.-0 that I could read as well as Florentin! But no one can read like Florentin; how, then, should I? But what, then, must I do? I will make garlands. But here are no flowers fit to make garlands, excepting those eglantines, and they are above my reach. Well, then, I must be content with these marguerites. I have heard the story of Les Marguerites de Printems; and there are some here with a beautiful circle of red round their brims: these are the flowers which teach us whether we are truly loved. I should like to know how Florentin loves me; but I do not recollect what words I am to say, or how I must begin."