not destroy. I have seen the beauty of holiness beaming forth amid the ravages of disease, and have traced the mild lineaments of peace and love divine, even amidst the torture of pain. In beholding these effects of religion, our thoughts may be led heavenward, and we may learn to magnify the Creator, in the contemplation of his more delicate, as well as his more sublime works; and from such renovated forms of the human face and character, we may judge what man was ere yet contaminated by sin.

"Erasmus Claude departed this life when his daughter was in her nineteenth year. Immediately after his death, she married Theodore Comte de Barfleur, a nobleman of France, with whom she became acquainted in a manner which I shall explain hereafter, and with him she left the house of her father.

"I entered on my cure very soon after her departure: and I found every mouth filled with the mention of the Comtesse de Barfleur, some speaking of her with interest as the child of their late pastor, and some mentioning her with distaste as a young woman of great pride; but all extolling her rare and singular loveliness of appearance.

"I found my parishioners, notwithstanding every exertion which had been made by my predecessor, in a state of religious declension, though many deplored the loss of the simplicity and purity of former times. The more opulent inhabitants had for some years past been in the habit of sending their children to be educated at Lausanne, or placing them out in apprenticeship to the trades-people in Geneva; and these young men, when they returned to see their parents, or to settle at home, lost no opportunities of disseminating those hateful principles of infidelity with which all the more refined parts of the Continent were already poisoned. There was a great scarcity of Bibles among us at that period, a scarcity which from the poverty of those few which still held fast the profession of the faith, it was not possible to remove; while the infidels, in the mean time, spared no labour or expense in propagating their principles and disseminating their books.

"When speaking with one of the oldest men in my congregation on the state of my people, he informed me,

that my predecessor had dated the beginning of corruption in the village to the sale of certain lands in the valley, which in former tinies had belonged to a respectable family in Lausanne, but had been more recently occupied by tenants of inferior degree, who, living by their labour, were neither above nor below in circumstances the other inhabitants of the village. The lands had, however, been sold about the middle of the last century, to a gentleman of some consequence in Geneva, who, being delighted with the situation, had built a lodge, which he used for a summer residence. I call this building a lodge, not knowing what other appellation to bestow upon it.

"The edifice was built in the form of a large tent, such as are used in the East, where it is contrived that the outer covering should terminate in an open verandah. The materials of this building were of white or gray stone, and the pillars which supported the verandah, of polished marble, supplied by a neighbouring quarry; the whole of the edifice presented at a small distance the appearance of a shepherd's tent, such as are seen on the mountains of Switzerland, compacted of stone, for the use of the shepherds, when they drive their flocks in the summer season to the thymy uplands of the mountains.

"Within this mansion there were many large and handsome apartments, and every ornament which sculpture could supply. The situation of the edifice was an alp or mountain pasture-ground. A peak of the hill crowned with turrets of rock which seemed to pierce the very clouds, formed the northern boundary of this alp, while a belt of pine encompassed it on every other side, sweeping around its whole circumference, and extending its majestic line of shade to the very margin of a lake, which in the bottom of the valley reflected in its clear bosom all the glories of the surrounding country. Various streams of pure water gushed from the lofty regions above the lodge, and urged their way into the valley in various directions, presenting in their passage all the varieties of the murmuring brook, the foaming cascade, and the sparkling waterfall; sometimes hiding themselves as it were capriciously among the brambles, sedges, and the obscurity of coppices, and again bursting forth to view,

forming mirrors for every beam of light which sun or moon might supply.

"I speak not of the lesser beauties which encompassed this charming place, or attempt to describe the garlands of roses, eglantine, columbine, and wild pink, which adorned the shelves of the rocks and uplands of these lovely regions, and spread their fragrance through the whole air, supplying food for the multitude of bees which wing their flight perpetually through the warmer clime of Switzerland.

"The only approach to this lodge, or indeed to the valley itself, was through an exceedingly narrow gorge, formed by a chasm in the hills. These hills being rocky and rugged, had, in one place, formed a kind of archway over the pass, by the tumbling of huge fragments of stone from the heights. The peasants had formed a pathway over these fragments, and nature had enriched this natural arch with innumerable saxifrages, some of which hung in light festoons from the rock. In the very bottom of the valley, which was every where encircled by hills of a moderate height, was a clear lake about a league in circumference. The village church, with its white spire and its little burying ground, occupied an open and green spot on the shores of this lake; and the intermediate ground, between the church and the woods, which surrounded the lodge, was occupied by the thatched cottages of the village; the habitation of the pastor, in which I dwelt, being a little above the other houses, and nearer the lodge. The hills on the opposite side of the lake, though occupied with human habitations, pasture grounds, and vineyards, were richly embellished with forest trees; and, beyond these, on a clear day, were frequently seen the remote peaks of the snowy mountains; sometimes sparkling in the sun-beams like pillars of adamant, and again assuming a rosy hue, calculated to impress the beholder with the simplicity and grandeur of divine operations.

"But in allowing my imagination to wander over these scenes of beauty, to which I conceive that nothing on earth can be comparable, I forget the design for which I took up my pen, and find myself too distant from the pursuit of my original purpose,

"The primary occupant of the lodge of which I am speaking, was an elderly citizen of Geneva. It next became the property of his son, a spendthrift and a profligate, who was seen but once in our valley: the next who was in possession of it was a French nobleman, whom I shall call the Marquis de Nemours, not choosing to give his real name. This gentleman only once visited the valley; but this single visit, as it was protracted for several months, was fatal to the peace of many, who had before enjoyed that comfort which results from the actual ignorance of great wickedness.

"It was during the last year of my predecessor's life that this visit was paid; and though the Marquis himself, as an individual, could not be supposed to have spread the contagion of sin into many families; yet what the individual could not effect, was widely brought to pass by his many visiters, his numerous profligate companions, and his still more abandoned train of attendants.

"I have often heard my parishioners speak of the confusion excited in the village at the period of the visit of the Marquis and his associates at the lodge. There, as in the instance of Ferney, it was the object of each to make the most of this life, and to annihilate the hopes of a better; and thus our woods and mountains, which for years past had afforded a peaceful retreat to those, who, during the height of papal power, had been as a light shining in darkness, became the haunts of the impious blasphemer and daring libertine. For although the higher ranks of those who visited the lodge, did not perhaps enter much into discourse with the villagers, yet such persons never lack a large train of followers, who, in imitation of their masters' profligacy, take a delight in spreading the contagion of their impieties in their own peculiar circles. Hence, it followed, that numbers of the young people of the village learned those pernicious sentiments during the residence of the family of the Marquis with us, which they never forgot. Some of them became dissatisfied, and left their homes, never to return; and others, who did return, only brought back with them those corrupt habits and opinions, which, by dissemination, continually increased the evil, and at length contributed to bring forward that state of confusion in

which our unhappy country is now almost universally involved.

"On my first arrival in my parish, I was made aware of the corruptions which had infected my flock. I do not say but I might have done more to stem the torrent of infidelity which was breaking in upon us: but I had great difficulties, the chief of which was the very great scarcity of Bibles among us, and our inability to procure them at the very time when the enemy was pouring in upon us every kind of infidel publications almost without money and without price. I was enabled, however, through the divine blessing, to lead back many individuals, who had become perplexed by sceptical notions, into the right way; and I attended many to the peaceful grave who enjoyed the hope of a happy resurrection, during the course of my ministry. Nevertheless, the enemy seemed to prevail: our society gradually departed from its original simplicity, children became selfwilled, and supported their own opinions in contradiction to those of their parents, and the hoary head, though found in the way of holiness, was no longer looked upon with respect.

"It was, I think, in the tenth year of my ministry, in the season of summer, and towards the close of the day, as I was taking the air on one of the breezy heights above my house, that I met an old man who had for some years past had the charge of the Marquis's concerns in the neighbourhood. He saluted me, as his manner was, and informed me that he had been engaged with his wife in airing and cleaning the lodge, having had notice that some of his lord's family might speedily be expected. This was no welcome news to me, and I put many anxious questions to the old man, which he was unable to answer satisfactorily. In the mean time we walked up towards the lodge, the doors and windows of which were all open. I had never been within this building, as it had always been shut up, and I now looked towards it with a kind of dread, thinking what mischief had issued from it to our poor villagers, and my mind recurring to the history of my predecessor's daughter, the beautiful Estelle, whose fate was still involved in mystery. As I passed round the house and looked in at the open win