death, I think, was the means of impressing on my mind two very important lessons; one was, the power of Divine grace, and the value of true religion in sustaining the mind of the Christian under affliction. Even to the present day, I remember the meek resignation with which my beloved parents bowed to that heavy stroke. About the same time, a fine boy; about the age of my brother, was taken from a family who, it is to be feared, were strangers to religion. The mother murmured bitterly at the bereaving dispensation, became deranged, and continued so through life. | which they availed themselves to a ruinous extent. Mrs. L. erred on the side of fondness and indulgence. She made herself and all around her miserable by needless anxieties; a slight cold or the cut finger of one of the children would occasion her a fit of illness. Then she would never suffer them to be controlled, lest their spirits should be broken and their tempers spoiled. Certainly their spirits were not broken, but stood erect, in defiance of all proper authority; their tempers were much as those of spoiled children generally are. I believe they were a sad exercise to the patience and forbearance of a second mother, but that they had great reason to be thankful for her mild yet firm discipline. "This year died Mrs. Harris, the superintendent of our nursery, a victim to procrastination. (See vol. iv. page 147.) "Mr. W. our next door neigh "The other lesson impressed on my mind was the duty of cherishing tender affection and exercising constant kindness towards those with whom we are united in the most intimate connexions. I could remember with pleasure the interchange of habitual kindness between Ronald and myself. I recollected with intense pain bour, the fat man who was always comone instance of unkindness and alienation. | plaining that he had no appetite, and yet The spot and circumstances of our trifling killed himself by over eating and drinking. quarrel are still vividly pictured to my He rose late, languid, feverish, had no remind, and send a painful thrill through|lish for food, and enticed down a few slices my conscience. My childish feeling was, of hot roll or buttered toast by the help if I should die and go to heaven, as I of anchovy, red herrings, or German hoped Ronald had done, my first impulse sausage. In consideration of his failure on meeting him there, would be to em- at breakfast time, it was deemed requibrace him and ask his forgiveness. A site to take a luncheon, perhaps of turtle more correct and permanent effect of the soup and sherry wine, perhaps oysters recollection has been, to check the utter- and porter. At dinner time there was ance of a hasty expression, the indulgence generally a great failure of appetite, until, of an unkind feeling, and to prompt me, tickled by the tempting variety which his on recollecting that I had said or done table always displayed, the poor man was any thing that might give pain to another, induced to partake of fish, poultry, game, to lose no time in frankly confessing the and pastry, with ample potations of beer, fault and seeking a cordial reconciliation. wine, and perhaps spirituous mixtures. "The next year was distinguished by If the muffins at tea did not quite relish, the death of two relatives of the family, an egg or two would be called in to lend Mrs. H. and Mrs. L. Each was the their persuasions, and then, having had mother of a numerous family with whom little or no appetite through the day, the I occasionally associated. I believe they poor man would fancy that he might were both, in their way, good women, relish a bit of something hot for his supand well-intentioned mothers; but neither per; a roast duck or partridge, or a dish of them succeeded in securing the affec- of broiled kidneys, or toasted cheese. tion or the happiness of her children. would be necessary then to take a glass Mrs. H. alienated her children by harsh- of spirits and water to promote digestion, ness and severity, which she intended for and procure sleep. Even that infallible their good. In her scheme of education, remedy sometimes failed, and year after all the stress was laid upon discipline, year Mr. W. was continually ailing, and the effect of which was to make the at length died of apoplexy, in the fortychildren mind her and fear her.' Per- fifth year of his age. It is probable that haps they did so in her presence; but the being a child at the time, I should not effect produced on their minds was such have known so much about the matter, as led them to look upon her death as but that Mr. W. had a habit of dropping their release from bitter thraldom and in at my father's to complain of his unarbitrary restraint, and, being set at comfortable feelings and want of appeliberty, to please themselves; a liberty of tite. My father told him he believed It that a month's exchange of occupa- | sire. Before she died, all her children "Miss tion and diet with one of his ploughmen would cure all his ailments. A similar prescription, rather more tersely expressed, has been frequently given by a celebrated physician to his patients, but I have not heard of many cures effected by it. That class of valetudinarians can seldom be sufficiently convinced of its efficacy to induce them to give it a fair trial. However, boys, it may be worth your remembering; and if, in future life, your maladies should not yield to ordinary remedies, at least give it a trial: it is, 'Live upon sixpence a day, and earn it.' sixteen years of age, the intimate friend of my sister, afterwards Mrs. Tatnall. I recollect her a fine, lively, rosy girl, as much so as my own sister; but she became pallid, feeble, and sickly, and died, universally lamented by her family and friends. My sister visited her frequently during her illness, and was much affected by her death, which the medical gentleman, on a subsequent examination, alleged to have been brought on by tight lacing. Whether or not this was correct, it had a very happy effect on both my sisters, who, notwithstanding the tyrannical laws of fashion at that day, ever after yielded the formation of their persons to the graceful simplicity of nature. "My grandmother —, a choice old lady, of the race that is now nearly extinct. I can fancy I see her now, seated in her richly-carved, high-backed chair, with her large silver buckles, a stiff full dress of rich silk; apron, cuffs and handkerchief of the finest French cambric; a massy gold watch hooked on her apron string; several mourning rings on her fingers, her silvery hair smoothed back; then a delicately white little cap, and over it a black lace hood, which I believe was the symbol of widowhood, (the portrait of Mrs. Katherine Henry, the wife of Philip, and the mother of Matthew Henry, has always put me in mind of uncle Barnaby's description of his grandmother,) her gold-mounted spectacles in a tortoise-shell case, and a large Bible, with crimson velvet covers and gold clasps lying open before her. These were trifles in themselves, but they fixed themselves in my memory; happily not alone, but in connexion with many holy sentiments, many portions of Scripture read and affectionately pressed home upon me by my venerable ancestor, or committed to memory by me at her de and grandchildren were gathered around her, like those of the patriarch Israel, to receive her parting blessing and admonitions. The funeral sermon was preached from the closing verses of the ninety-first psalm, a portion of Scripture which was eminently verified in her character and experience. Blessed be God for pious ancestors, and may piety like her's descend and multiply through all the generations of her descendants! 66 My cousin Edward, and a young friend, Lawrence , were drowned by the upsetting of a pleasure boat. What an affecting lesson on the frailty and uncertainty of human life! In the midst of life we are in death. What a signal in stance of preserving goodness have I to acknowledge, in that while others were taken, I was spared. I was to have been of the party, but was prevented by a slight indisposition. Will the life thus distinguished yield any revenue of praise to its Preserver and Benefactor? and am I prepared to resign it, if some other accident or disease should attack me, from which I am not to escape? Let me remember that a respite is not a reprieve, and that Safety consists not in escape From dangers of a frightful shape, An earthquake may be bid to spare The man that's strangled by a hair. God has smitten others, and he thereby warns me. Prepare to meet thy God. "Old Richard -, my late grandmother's coachman. He had lived in the family nearly threescore years, and had seen three generations. His worth and fidelity rendered him truly honourable, and gained for him deserved honour. Richard was born at the time of the great fire of London, and at three days old, had been thrice removed with his mother from the spreading devastation. He often spoke of the goodness of God in preserving both lives under circumstances so peculiar. In his childhood and youth, it was Richard's privilege to associate with some of the confessors of Charles the second's reign. His parents attended the ministry of the excellent Richard Baxter: indeed, he received his name as an expression of the respect of his parents for that holy man; and many prayers were offered that he might resemble him in spirit, and these prayers were not offered in vain, accompanied as they were by parental instruction and example. Richard embraced and exemplified the same truths which that good man laboured so successfully to diffuse both by his tongue and pen; and though our Richard was not a preacher of the word, there is good evidence that he was a successful propagator of it, his conversation and example having been blessed to several of his associates. He that winneth souls is wise.' "Archibald R-, my school-fellow and college companion, a highly gifted youth, and one who did run well but, alas, was hindered. Archibald possessed brilliant talents, and far outstripped all competitors, especially in those exercises which call forth original genius rather than plodding perseverance. He was as amiable as he was talented, and won the love even of his unsuccessful rivals, as well as the admiration of indifferent judges. His conduct was strictly moral, and even exemplary. His views of sacred truth were scriptural and clear; and there was reason to hope that he experienced the power of religion in his heart. In course of time, Archibald became a popular preacher. Wherever he preached, admiring crowds were convened; and it was considered almost a disgrace not to have heard the celebrated Mr. It "Poor Archibald!" continued my uncle, with tears in his eyes, "he was not happy. The new views he embraced he found alike inefficient in affording solid support and satisfaction to his own mind, and in instructing and saving those who heard him. I unexpectedly met him a few months before his death, when he sighed for the unsophisticated pleasures of religion which he thought he once enjoyed, but declared himself unable to return to that state of mind which would prepare for their enjoyment. I was much shocked at hearing of his death, and never had an opportunity of hearing any thing as to the state of his mind on its near approach. My dear boys, may you never suffer yourselves to be carried away by pride and vain philosophy, but ask for the good old paths and walk therein, that you may find rest to your souls. Precious hope! The Rock of salvation is solidity itself.'" "Very different from the doubtful and misgiving feeling with which the name of poor Archibald R. was entered in my little obituary, were those of entire confidence and unmingled veneration for a long life of consistent piety, and a deathbed of humble, solid, and edifying asis true that the bulk of his congregations surance, which rested, and which are to were gathered from among the lovers of the present day awakened, on referring novelty and variety; but even judicious to the name of an aged minister on whom and experienced Christians listened with our family, when in town, constantly atdelight to his eloquent appeals, and re- tended. The doctrines,' said he, 'which joiced to see such brilliant talents con- for half a century I have preached to secrated to the work of the Lord; but others, are now the support of my own they had not heard him many times be-soul. Precious Christ! Precious gospel fore they observed with pain an effort to display himself, even at the expense of obscuring the great and glorious objects which the Christian minister should constantly labour to exhibit. He seemed to be more full of himself than of his subject. He more than once received a faithful and affectionate expostulation, and for a time gave to the preaching of the cross something more like its due prominence; but again he relapsed into his former egotistical parade. His conversation became less and less spiritual. His chosen associates were selected, not for superior wisdom and exalted piety, but for brilliancy of talent, keenness of wit, and connexion with the more fashionable circles of literary society. The time came when Archibald could speak of experimental religion with levity bordering upon sin, and indulge scepticism on those glorious doctrines of the gospel, concerning which he had at one time said that he determined to know nought beside, The next entry in my uncle's book, seemed to awaken in his mind feelings of deep and melancholy interest. He more than once endeavoured in vain to subdue them and proceed with his wonted composure. At length with an agitated voice, he said, "True, indeed, it is, that man walketh in a vain show. We set our affections on that which is not; and our very affections are the sources of our afflictions; our hearts bleed, and our very lives are smitten down to the ground when lover and friend are put far from us. "Now I forbid my carnal hope, And make my God my all." As uncle uttered these words, he closed the book, and appeared for a few moments lost in thought. His own placid, benig nant smile soon played again on his countenance, and we hoped he might | forefathers, identified as it was to them have been inclined to proceed with his with the May-day games in which it reminiscences. But as if suddenly recol- held so distinguished a place. But though lecting the occasion of our midnight inter- these village sports have comparatively view, which I believe had been forgotten fallen into disuse, who can regard the both by Frank and myself, he pointed to lovely blossom of the hawthorn without the time-piece, which to our great sur- feeling wafted back in memory to the prise intimated that the midnight peal happy days of childhood? With what must be nearly over. It wanted only a ecstacy did we hail the appearance of quarter to one o'clock. We threw up its milk-white buds in the hedge newly the library window and listened a minute mantled with the lovely green of early or two; but, with much greater interest, spring! They seemed the final proof spent the few remaining moments in required to assure us of the delightful joining with my uncle in prayer that we fact, to which all around us testified, that might be enabled so to mark the flight" the winter was past, the rain over and of time, and so to number our days, as to apply our hearts unto wisdom. C. THE HAWTHORN. gone." How many hours have rapidly sped by, while surrounded by the beloved companions of our early days, we culled the new-found treasures of the field to form our little posies, ever reserving the best, the loftiest place for the fragrant branches of our favourite May tree. How many wistful glances were cast toward the topmost bough, where grew the finest branches, the whitest sprays; while every renewed attempt to reach the desired object, waving in mid air far beyond the reach of the longest arm, but robbed it of its snowy honours, scattering around a cloud of perfumed flakes. Little were the insidious thorns regarded, or the wounds and injuries they too often inflicted, were the desired prize but attained and borne in triumph to deck the grate or fill the jug. At no season of the year is the hawthorn devoid of interest; it does indeed combine the utile with the dulce, the useful with the agreeable. The milk white thorn, that scents the evening While yet the ground is locked by the gale."-BURNS. "Lo! the green thorn her silver buds Expands to May's enlivening beams." NATURAL ORDER. Rosaceæ. C. SMITH. LINNEAN ARRANGEMENT. Icosandria Di-Pen tagynia. Crataegus Axycantha. Calyx superior, of one leaf, with five permanent segmen's. Petals five, round, growing from the edge of the calyx, b and c. Filaments, awl shaped, incurved, d. Anthers, two lobed. Germen, inferior, roundish, f. Styles, generally one, some times two or three. Stigma knobbed. Berry, globular, deep red, crowned with the calyx, containing from two to five capsules, each one valved, e. Seeds, two in each cell, egg shaped. Branches thorny. Leaves three or five lobed, regular, smooth, and glossy. Flowers white in lateral corymbs. Thorns small, awl shaped. Blooms in May or June. How many early and pleasurable associations does the sight of this tree revive! How closely is it connected in our minds with the delights of spring, and images of rural festivity. This must have been peculiarly the case with our paralyzing hand of frost, the March blast studded round the edge with the dark tips of the calyx segments. "Between the leaves the silver whitethorn shows Its dewy blossoms, pure as mountain snows." Then, as the petals expand their concave milk-white segments, crowned with the dark tipped anthers, like so many rays surmounting a pearly coronet, what can exceed the beauty of each individual flower? And what can surpass the appearance of an individual tree viewed from a distance: a mass of the bright and lovely green of spring varied with snow-like wreaths of the most dazzling whiteness; while the perfume extending far and near fills the air with the most delightful odour. Again, when the chilling gales of autumn, the partycoloured tints of the forest, and the rustling leaves beneath our feet, tell too truly of the approaching dreary season in which nature sinks into her annual state of repose, thence to regain fresh strength to resume, with another spring, her round of ceaseless bounty, the hawthorn, which has been overlooked during the bright months of summer, will relieve the melancholy scene. As the tawny leaves fall one by one upon the ground, the interlaced branches again appear loaded with their scarlet 'stony haws." It has been often remarked that an abundant supply of these berries betokens a severe winter; but experience has frequently proved that this omen is not to be depended on. Yet if superstition can find no food in these vegetable harbingers of winter, what Christian eye can regard them unmoved? How forcibly do they repeat the delightful truth, that "the goodness of God endureth continually ;" that he who wields the destinies of empires, and rolls the heavenly bodies through the infinity of space, is not regardless of the wants of the meanest of those beings into which he hath breathed the breath of life. Yes, the feathered songsters, those choristers of heaven, whose little voices are ever tuned in notes of grateful praise to their Almighty Creator, are not overlooked by him. He knows the season of their need, and makes a bountiful provision for their sustenance; while the means by which he supplies their wants, conduce to the gratification crop of . of man. "Fear him, ye saints, and you will then The derivation of the various names by which this tree is known is very obvious. May, from the month in which it usually blossoms, as well as from the importance attached to it in the rural sports which were celebrated on the first day of that month; though owing to the variations of the seasons, as well perhaps in some measure to the alteration of the style, it is very seldom now found in bloom so early. Hawthorn, as well as its Danish and Swedish names, (Hagetoon and Hagetorn,) are most probably formed from the Saxon word hage or haeg, hedge. Whitethorn requires no explanation; and the word quick, applied to a hedge formed of this plant, signifies life, and was most likely used to distinguish such fences from those of wood, as it cannot be considered a quickly growing plant. The hawthorn seldom exceeds thirty feet in height; when young, it grows from one to three feet in a year, afterwards it increases in size very slowly, and spreads chiefly in an horizontal direction. The trunk is generally gnarled the bark rough, and the branches tor tuous and irregular. The timber it affords is hard and durable, finely grained and susceptible of a high polish; but owing to a deficient supply of a useful size and its great tendency to warp, it is seldom used. The hawthorn is principally cultivated for the hedgerows of England, or as an ornamental shrub, for which, as we have seen, it is well calculated. For the former purpose it is invaluable, on account of the ease with which it is propagated, as well as the impervious barrier which it affords, when properly trained, against the inroads of man and beast. The ancients used it for this purpose: we find in the Odyssey that Ulysses, on returning to his father, found him alone, the servants having been despatched to the woods for |