the succeeding pain; and that the cultivation of it, in a female more especially, is very often at the expense of more useful and valuable qualities;—is frequently an inlet to many dangers, and is certain to subject the possessor to very strong temptation, from that Proteus-like hydra-headed monster-vanity. Where there is much imagination, there ought to be a superior quantity of judgment to hold it in rein; but this is very seldom the case, and certainly is not likely to be the case, if, in mental training, the one faculty is called into exercise, gathering strength by use, and the other is left quiescent, becoming torpid by inaction. Self-control is essential to happiness and usefulness; but I need not enquire what faculty is most difficult to keep in check. Let such as possess imagination be humbled under the sense of the danger of the possession, as well as its responsibility; and, acting upon Flavel's advice to ask of God a mortified fancy,' let them daily seek for strength from above, to cast down imaginations. And let them not presume to act in opposition to their prayers, by indulging what they are bound to restrain. If they do not thus watch, and pray, and `strive, they may add the word of a humble individual to the experience of thousands, that they are laying

up

for themselves a store of mental anguish, and are fostering in their bosoms a rebel, ready, at every moment, to start up in the exercise of usurped sovereignty, and that sovereignty of the most dangerous character.

You will say, that I am writing for others rather than to you. It is true I am strongly impressed with the responsibility attendant upon writing for the press at all; and the consciousness of not knowing what manner of persons, or how many, may peruse the words which are now escaping from my pen, increases my desire not to add to my sins of omission that of suffering the opportunity to escape of giving such a testimony as I can, on a subject, the importance of which I so painfully feel.

I may be pardoned if I add one remark more. Sobriety of mind is a duty incumbent upon us as Christians. By sobriety of mind, I understand the surveying of objects in their true colours and dimensions, and the forming an estimate of their real value by habitually comparing things temporal with things eternal. Any species of reading which militates against this frame of mind, must, to say the least, be thought of with great caution, and

I would almost say, not engaged in, unless duty and necessity require. You will allow the test to be true; apply it to poetry, and decide.

If our business in life were merely to indulge in dreams and fancies, it would be different. When we read that we are to have our loins girt, and our lamps burning, and that we are to work while it is called to day, we must feel that it is an imperative duty as Christians, as rational creatures, and as immortal beings, to lay aside every weight, both by avoiding and by renouncing evil habits.

Were I asked what habit it is most important to cultivate, I would answer, truth-truth moral and truth intellectual; truth in all its beauty, naked, simple, and unadorned. It is a rare virtue in the world; for the habit of receiving false impressions ourselves, and of conveying false impressions to others, often remains after the prayer, " Remove from me the way of lying," has been uttered from the heart. The enquiry may be made, What has truth to do with the reading of poetry, and with the play of fancy? Much every way. One of the finest descriptions of genius that ever was penned, describes the poet as giving to airy nothing a local habitation and a name.' I do not

say that all poetry is falsehood, or that all poets

succeed better in fiction than in truth.' I do not even say, with a distinguished philosopher, that figurative speech is an imperfection, or an abuse of language; but I do say that very much of worldly poetry is calculated to blind the eyes of those who believe not, as well as of those who believe; and it may, under this view, be called, if I may be pardoned a strong and uncouth expression, with the design of fixing my meaning in the memory-a sand-box of Satan. Many have been blinded to their own destruction—have been lulled asleep by soft and melting airs, and have lifted up their eyes in hell. What avails it, I might ask, to ride in a magnificent chariot, amidst flowers and music, if we are travelling towards a precipice ?

It may be said that I am too severe I care not. It is a small matter to be judged by man's judgment. I am writing to a young female, for the perusal of females; and I cannot bring myself to sanction what I know to be the bane of woman, the undue exercise of imagination and the undue indulgence of feeling.

You will ask me then, if I place all the tribe of

1 Locke.

poets in a prohibitory index, and, with the stern sage of old, banish them from civilized society. I answer, No-not even worldly poets, entirely and unreservedly, if they are moral writers. There is a cultivation of taste, and a knowledge of classical writers, which is expected from every one who receives a polite education; and a delicacy of tone may thus be infused, which, unconsciously but perceptibly, influences the whole character. But as I would not have principle sacrificed at the shrine of taste, nor common sense at that of elegance, I would decidedly say, that what a young woman reads of poetry, she ought to read under the guidance of an older and a wiser head than her own. Selected portions of the distinguished poets of her own and other countries, may thus, under careful superintendence, be perused without injury; but to allow a girl unrestrained access even to the British poets, is much the same as to place in her hands a draught of virulent poison. It is worse : the ruin of the soul is more fearful than the ruin of the body.

In speaking of selected portions, no one, I hope, will so far misunderstand me, as to think I am recommending books of extracts. The chief merit