their bases, by their fixed and never-varying forms, and the more solid brilliancy of their appearance; and behold these mountains lay towards the east, from which quarter my uncle informed me that the Master was to come.*

My uncle then passed up a narrow winding path formed in the woods, beautiful from the variety of lovely flowers in its vicinity, harmonious with the song of doves,† and the rush of waters, and fragrant from the breath of May blossoms which filled the air;-passing on, he took several cottages in his way, where he stopped to give a word of comfort to one, a word of exhortation to a second, and a volume of his Master's letters to a third. In all these he was greeted with love and joy, and I perceived that the coming of the Master seemed to supply the subject of many discourses, all agreeing in speaking of it as a thing earnestly to be desired.

"Well," said my uncle, as he left the last of these," are you satisfied, nephew? are you convinced that the Master has many people where you thought that he had none? But now," he added, "our affairs call us home, and we must not lose time, for I have business to do at a greater distance than this: I must be up in the morning and away; I may be absent several days, and must leave you, but I have endeavoured to convince you, that there are many here on our side, and I have shown you also whom you would do well to avoid. I farther advise you to keep in your own place, and on your own post when I am gone; and I shall leave you without fear, knowing him to whom I have entrusted you, and that he is faithful, and will preserve you unto the end." He then spoke of the interpreter, and of the sacred intercourse with the Lord's people; I told him of my dream, or vision, or whatever it might be, which I had had when I first came to the house; whereupon he smiled, and said, "It is well: he will not leave the work he has com

"And, behold, the glory of the God of Israel came from the way of the east; and his voice was like a noise of many waters: and the earth shined with his glory." Ezekiel xliii. 2.

"The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land. The fig-tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with the tender grape give a good smell. Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away." Solomon's Song ii. 12 13.

"The Lord redeemeth the soul of his servants; and none of them that trust in him shall be desolate." Psalm xxxiv. 22.

menced unfinished till he has you confirmed in the right way," and thus discoursing, we reached our apartments

My worthy uncle took his leave of me at daybreak on the following morning. I perceived that he had a wallet on his back when he came to my bedside to say good-by, and I asked him what he had therein: he soon made me to understand that the scrip contained copies of his Lord's letters, which he was about to dispose of in the remote parts of his Master's territory: so he blessed me, and departed; and I, turning myself in my bed, thought that there would be no harm in availing myself of his absence to take more rest than he would have permitted me, had he been present, for he had the way of constantly saying, "The time is short, the time is short, up and be doing, for we know not the day nor the hour in which the Master may come." So I slept long and late. While I was sitting at breakfast, behold there was a gentle tap at the door, and who should enter when it was opened but the doctor, inquiring after my uncle.

When I made him understand that my uncle was gone out, and explained the motive of his journey, "That," said the chaplain, "leads me at once to explain the motive of my visit," and so saying, he came in and sat down, adding, "that he was glad of the oportunity of speaking to me, before he delivered his message to his venerable friend."

"And first, my young sir, I would say to you, that I am, and long have been, extremely hurt and concerned, to see your worthy relative spending himself in a service which is too much for him; the people on this estate have greatly increased within these few years, and many of them are sadly ignorant of their Master's will, as declared in his letters. I have indeed laboured for years to make them acquainted by word of mouth with his will, and have exerted myself (though it becomes not me to say so) beyond the example of the present times, but still with the feeling, the depressing feeling, that it is imposBible for me to do all, nay, half that is required; at the

"For whom did he foreknow, he did also predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified." Rom. viii. 29, 30.

"Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour "wherein the Son of man cometh." Matt. xxv, 13.

same time I have felt that, in days so enlightened in all other respects as the present, it is a shame and a disgrace to every ruler of this family, to permit such ignorance of the will of our Lord to continue to exist.

"I have therefore, Mr. Nicodemus," he added (for by this time he had learned my name), " after much and deep consideration matured a plan in my mind, which if I am duly supported, where I have the best right to expect support, will be effectual to disperse the clouds of darkness and error which hang upon many of our dwellings. I have already consulted many of our friends upon it, and have been encouraged in quarters where I expected nothing but a contrary conduct; for I have so far prospered in my poor endeavours as to be enabled to engage Madame le Monde on my side, and not only Madame le Monde (who really possesses many excellent qualities when she can be induced to lay aside some unfortunate prejudices which she possesses in common with too many other persons of her way of thinking), but also that worthy, though mistaken old man, Father Peter, and that highly intellectual character the librarian,which last person enters most warmly into my plans, complimenting me on the idea, which he calls a novel one, and giving me credit for exercising an influence beyond what has ever been exercised before in the household, auguring from this unhappy dawn the full blaze of a day in which a spirit of brotherly love will become universal among us, and in consequence such a rapid advance in the intellectual progress of our little society, as has never yet been experienced in the history of the family."

The chaplain was proceeding, when I begged him to have the great kindness just to inform me, before he went on, to speak of the other people's opinion of his plans, what these plans were, and what they had to do with my uncle?

"My plan," replied the doctor, "is to form a sort of association among ourselves, that is, among us the rulers of the family, including Mr. Fitz-Adam, Madame le Monde, myself, the librarian, Father Peter, and your uncle, for the instruction and improvement of the inferior servants, and the first step we wish to make is, to relieve your uncle from the very heavy weight which has hitherto, to a certain degree, hung solely upon him, of copying and dispersing the Lord's letters. Not that every

person has not at present the liberty of doing this to any extent he may please; yet your uncle has always been considered as the person authorized by our rulers for this purpose; and as it is impossible for him to do the work to the extent of the present demands, I have been led to consider,-whether it might not be possible to form a company, to use a mercantile phrase, whose object should be, to facilitate the multiplication and dispersion of these precious documents, at the same time promoting by this proposed union, in which all our united efforts will tend to one point, the spirit of brotherly love and concord which every lover of our Lord must earnestly desire to witness. Such is my plan, and I must inform you, that the housekeeper told me herself but yesterday, when I entreated her to give me her company with that of her daughters, at a meeting which we are about to have on the subject which is so near my heart, that I had so clearly stated the effect such a combination of all parties in one object would have in promoting brotherly love, that she could not refuse her countenance to my plan; hinting at the same time that I had obtained so much influence over her, that I could persuade her to any measure I thought right, and she was pleased to say that a subject treated and handled by me was altogether a different thing from the same subject handled by another. And now, my young man," continued the chaplain, "I am come with the hope of inducing your excellent uncle to fall into our views; and although I was at first somewhat disappointed in finding him from home, yet on second thoughts I believe that it is for the best that it is so; for though one of the first and most excellent of men, he is, as you must have perceived, a man of singular and peculiar notions, stiff in his opinions, and any thing but accomodating to those of others.

"Had it not been for him, Mr. Nicodemus," added the doctor, growing somewhat warm as he continued to declaim, "for him, I say, and such as he, we should have brought many plans to bear which would have added much to the peace of the family, months and months ago. Father Peter was formerly a great hindrance to us, and being in great favour with the housekeeper and the intendant, he was as firm to the full in his way, as your uncle and his party are now in their way, and we were torn to pieces by contentions. One room, nay, one house, was at one time too small to hold us all, and

your uncle being determined, the weakest was well nigh driven to the wall; but Father Peter is now entirely changed, and, as he told me himself but yesterday, ready to fall into any thing for the promotion of the Master's interests which I might suggest; and the librarian on his part is all anxiety for the good of the family; and the steward does not interfere, nor will not, so long as we have the housekeeper on our side ;-so that, if your uncle, who is a sort of leader of a certain party, would but accommodate a little, we should be a family of brotherly love, and have little else to do than to promote the welfare of our poor fellow-servants, and to correct all those disorders which have arisen from ignorance of, and inattention to, the Master's wishes, as expressed in his letters."

"My good sir," I replied, "I do not quite understand all these matters, nor do I exactly know what you are aiming at."

"Not know what I am aiming at, my young friend!" replied the doctor: "why, in one word, what I am aiming at is neither more nor less than such a general reformation of the manners and morals of this house as may be pleasing to the Master when he comes, not to abide with us here, but to judge us.'

"But, sir," I replied, "I understand from my uncle that no such general reformation can be expected while the persons now in command shall continue to rule."

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Then," said the doctor, “if our rulers are of a spirit which cannot be reformed (which by-the-by is, I think, a very uncharitable supposition), we have nothing to hope but that the government may pass into other hands."

"Into the hands of the Master himself, when he comes, perhaps, sir,” I said.

"Pshaw," retorted the doctor, "there speaks Mr. Secretary, by the organs of his nephew. What! have you in this short time imbibed the idea that the Master will actually, after such treatment as he has received in this place, degrade himself so far as to come and live with us, in order that he may set all things to rights in his own proper person? Let me tell you, sir, that there is no foundation whatever for this absurd notion; though there is every reason to believe that a very superior order of things will be established hereafter in this place, but not by the personal interference of the Master;

and