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tions which constitute piety. It implies, the highest sentiments of reverence and adoration,-of love and gratitude to God,-of trust in his mercy, and of faith in our blessed Redeemer, all animating the heart. Whatever nourishes such affections as these in the soul, gives strength and support at the same time to active virtue, and thereby prepares and assists us for every duty of life. With respect to ourselves, the view which prayer gives of our necessities and wants, of our sins and offences against God, and of the dangers which we have thereby incurred, produces becoming humility of mind. Prostrate before that great Being, whom we have so much offended, all the pride of man is laid in the dust. He is impressed with a sense of what he truly is, and taught how far removed from what he ought to be. By the prayers he puts up for being assisted to repent of past follies, and to make improvements for the future in virtue, the desire of virtue is cherished, and the pursuit of it excited; and if this desire after virtue, which is expressed in prayer be genuine, it is a degree of goodness already in some measure begun within the heart. Prayer is at the same time an exercise of benevolence towards men, as well as of piety towards God; when, as was before observed, not merely as individuals, but as members of the great family of God, we come before our heavenly Father, and express our affectionate wishes for all our brethren. While prayer in this manner gives exertion to many of the highest parts of goodness, it is attended moreover with this great advantage, that it tends to

fortify the worshipper in the practice of all his duties; for it impresses him with a sense of God, as the great friend and protector of righteousness in the world, to whom therefore, all righteous men may look up with confidence and hope, whose strength is more than sufficient for their weakness, whose gracious aid none that served him ever implored in vain.

Blair.

SOME writer has remarked, with equal force and beauty, that by a visit to those places which we know to have been the haunt of genius, we are more affected than when we hear of their actions, or read their works; and this remark is founded on a thorough knowledge of human nature. The room where Newton was born, at Wynford, and the chamber in which Shakspeare saw the light on Avon, the church-yard where Gray wrote his elegy, and the study where Johnson penned his immortal Rasellas, must always possess a spell for those to whom learning and genius are dear. And such was the feeling with which I gazed on the cottage of the poetess at Rhyader; the situation is pretty and picturesque, the view at once rich in the foreground, and romantic in the distance, is precisely that on which a mind so exquisitely alive to the charms of nature, would delight to repose; of the interior, I will only say, (for the home of such a woman is hallowed ground, and its secrets should not be delivered over to the vulgar gaze of the public eye,) that it is plentifully adorned with that best furniture

books; and is rich in those little embellishments, which a woman's ingenuity can so readily supply, and a woman's taste can best arrange. By a common-place observer, Mrs. Hemans would be considered an interesting, rather than a beautiful, woman, and yet hers is beauty of the highest class. It depends neither on feature nor on complexion; it is that which lasts the longest, and over which time has so little power,—the beauty of the soul. The intellect, which lights up that pale and placid countenance, bestows on it a life and loveliness, a grandeur and majesty to which no complexion, however brilliant, no features, however faultless, can aspire;-the expression of her countenance when in repose, is deeply melancholy, the dark, soft, and sad eye, tells a tale of past sorrow and suffering. But the expression about the mouth, when speaking, is frank and singularly winning, and in conversation on any favourite topic, her eye lights up with living lustre. At these moments, she bears no faint resemblance to Pasta. Her strongest characteristic seemed to be that of the most intense affection for her children. Her eldest boy is a lad of high and extraordinary promise: if life be spared, there requires no second sight to affirm, that he will emulate his mother's fame. Endowed with a vivid eye for scenery, an imagination capable of appreciating it, a fine healthy cheerful tone of mind, and deep religious impressions; the conversation of Mrs. Hemans, is a treat few would not travel miles to enjoy. Whychcotte of St. John's.

THE princely and splendid mansion of Belvoir Castle, has presented one continued scene of hospitality, since the noble duke's birth-day in January. The names of the individuals who dine at the castle, are invariably written down, and from this list it appears, that in the course of the last eight weeks, sixteen thousand persons, including servants, have been hospitably entertained within the walls of Belvoir. Four fat oxen, and fourteen fat sheep have been slaughtered each week, besides venison, birds, hares, and fish. The number of barrels of strong ale emptied is immense, whilst seven hundred and twenty-six hogsheads, or forty-five thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight gallons, remain untapped. The individual having the care of the lamp-room, a singular but well-conducted department, has had to clean, and put away each night, after the family retired to rest, four hundred lamps, and the nightly consumption of oil has been from ten to twelve gallons.

ON A VISIT TO WILLIAM ROSCOE, OF LIVERPOOL.

YEARS many, many years had elapsed since we last parted, and by what vast changes had they been marked. I bade him adieu as he stepped into his carriage, loudly cheered by the multitude, at the head of the poll, secure of his election for Liverpool; in the possession of acknowledged affluence, and what he coveted much more ardently, literary distinction. I now met him in his pretty garden in Lodge-lane, busied about his flowers, and boasting of his show of hya

cinths. I left him in the bustle, and heat, and fervour of matured life, and flushed with political excitement. I found him with the silvery locks of age, thinly scattered over his noble brow, the very picture of a placid and contented old age. Yet the mind, the man was the same. His eye kindled, and his voice swelled into a deeper, firmer tone, as he expressed his pleasure at the abolition of the Test Act, and his persuasion that intolerance was daily losing ground. He pointed to the article on forest-gardening, in the Quarterly, said to be written by Sir Walter Scott; and after entering keenly into the merits of the plan, and the probabilities of its general adoption, gracefully diverged into criticism, if that can be called criticism, in which there is no dash of gall, not an atom of malevolence on the mannerism and peculiarities of the wizard of the age.

In point of happiness too, the biographer of Lorenzo seemed to have lost nothing by the change of the sumptuous splendour of his former residence, for the quiet elegance of his suburban villa. If the traces of age were visible on his cheek, peevish discontent was not. Time, 'tis true, had planted here and there a wrinkle on his brow, but the deep furrows of care were wanting. He talked cheerfully, I might almost say, gaily, nor shall I ever forget the spirit, taste, and tenderness with which he quoted this stanza from Thompson, as a faithful transcript of his own feelings. "I care not fortune, what you me deny, You cannot rob me of fair nature's grace;

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