and mortification of minute investigation and strict scrutiny are so great, that few take the pains requisite for thepurpose; and many scarcely know how to set about it. Thus we deceive ourselves, and call things by their wrong names; so that the grossest vanity will pass for humbleness of mind; and the deepest selfishness for a warm and affectionate disposition.

Let me then advise my cousin, while she is still young, and all things are possible, to enter into a close and faithful examination of her own heart. Let her motives undergo the strictest scrutiny; and never let her set the least value on that regard (even if it could be secured) which is not founded on sterling qualities. There is a thing more precious and more conducive to happiness than the esteem of others, and that is self-esteem. When this is acquired th the other will be sure to follow; resolve then to deserve the affection of your friends; and in order to this, think much less of what particular persons may think of you and of your conduct. Let it be your endeavour, from benevolent motives instead of for selfish ends, to promote the happiness of all around you; cultivate habits of activity, of self-denial. Learn humility: be content to take your proper level: think less, much less of yourself, and make fewer demands on others; and then, what you before unsuccessfully claimed will be spontaneously yielded.

If I had not believed you to be possessed of good sense and principle enough to profit by these suggestions, I should not have taken the trouble to address them to you. If you will believe it, my

dear Maria, I have given you a very strong proof of friendship in this letter; for it requires a greater effort to give one faithful reproof, than to pay a hundred elaborate compliments; and it is, be assured, a far stronger evidence of affection. My hope-I will even say my expectation is, that if a few years hence I should be favoured to pay another visit to my cousins, it would perplex me exceedingly to answer such a question as that to which you lately compelled me to reply, but which, you would, in that case, feel no inclination to propose. In the mean time, I remain your sincere friend and affectionate cousin,

**** ******

P.S. Your mother and sister will not expect to see this letter, as they are already informed that it relates to private business between you and me.

XXIV.

BUSY IDLENESS.

MRS. DAWSON being obliged to leave home for six weeks, her daughters, Charlotte and Caroline, received permission to employ the time of her absence as they pleased; that is, she did not require of them the usual strict attention to particular hours, and particular studies, but allowed them to choose their own employments; only recommending them to make a good use of the licence, and apprizing

them, that, on her return, she should require an exact account of the manner in which the interval had been employed.

The carriage that conveyed their mother away was scarcely out of hearing, when Charlotte, delighted with her freedom, hastened up stairs, to the school-roon, where she looked around on books, globes, maps, drawings, to select some new employment for the morning. Long before she had decided upon any, her sister had quietly seated herself at her accustomed station, thinking that she could do nothing better than finish the French exercise she had begun the day before. Charlotte, however, declined attending to French that day, and, after much indecision, and saying, "I have a great mind to -three several times without finishing the sentence, she at last took down a volume of Cowper, and read in different parts for about half an hour; then throwing it aside, she said she had a great mind to put the book-shelves in order—a business which she commenced with great spirit; but in the course of her laudable undertaking, she met with a manuscript in short-hand: whereupon she exclaimed to her sister, " 'Caroline, don't you remember that old Mr. Henderson once promised he would teach us short-hand?-How much I should like to learn!-Only mamma thought we had not time;-but now, this would be such a good opportunity. I am sure I could learn it well in six weeks; and how convenient it would be!-One could take down sermons, or any thing, and I could make Rachel learn, and then how very pleasant it would

be to write to each other in short-hand! Indeed, it would be convenient in a hundred ways."-So saying, she ran up stairs, without any further delay, and putting on her hat and spencer, set off to old Mr. Henderson's.

Mr. Henderson happened to be at dinner; nevertheless Charlotte obtained admittance on the plea of urgent business; but she entered his apartment so much out of breath, and in such apparent agitation, that the old gentleman rising hastily from table, and looking anxiously at her over his spectacles, inquired in a tremulous tone, what was the matter. When, therefore, Charlotte explained her business, he appeared a little disconcerted; but having gently reproved her for her undue eagerness, he composedly resumed his knife and fork, though his hand shook much more than usual during the remainder of his meal. However, being very goodnatured, as soon as he had dined, he cheerfully gave Charlotte her first lesson in short-hand, promising to repeat it regularly every morning.

Charlotte returned home in high glee: she at this juncture considered short-hand as one of the most useful, and decidedly the most interesting of acquirements; and she continued to exercise herself in it all the rest of the day. She was exceedingly pleased at being able already to write two or three words which neither her sister nor even her father

could decipher. For three successive mornings Charlotte punctually kept her appointment with Mr. Henderson; but on the fourth she sent a shabby excuse to her kind master; and, if the truth must

be told, he from that time saw no more of his scholar. Now the cause of this desertion was two-fold: first, and principally, her zeal for short-hand, which for the last eight-and-forty hours had been sensibly declining in its temperature, was, on the above morning within half a degree of freezing point; and besides this, a new and far more arduous and important undertaking had by this time suggested itself to her mind. Like many young persons of desultory inclinations, Charlotte often amused herself with writing verses; and it now occurred to her, that an abridged history of England in verse, was still a desideratum in literature. She commenced this task with her usual diligence; but was somewhat discouraged in the outset by the difficulty of finding a rhyme to Saxon, whom she indulged the unpatriotic wish, that the Danes had laid a tax on. But though she got over this obstacle by a new construction of the line, she found these difficulties occur so continually, that she soon felt a more thorough disgust at this employment than at the preceding one; so the epic stopped short, some hundred years before the Norman conquest. Difficulty, which quickens the ardour of industry, always damps and generally extinguishes the false zeal of caprice and versatility.

Charlotte's next undertaking was, to be sure, a rapid descent from the last in the scale of dignity. She now thought, that by working very hard during the remainder of the time, she should be able to accomplish a patch work counterpane, large enough for her own little tent bed; and the ease of this