believe it-the people were possessed and absorbed by it, and when the vessel glided past the hill round which the river winds, and was hid from view, several, heedless of the rugged road and their naked feet, ran up the steep acclivity to get a last look; and others, chiefly the elders, flung themselves on the ground in every attitude of affliction. One old woman, who had a son among the emigrants, was an awful spectacle; and to see the tender sympathy of the lowly women that gathered round her, clasping her hands, drying her tears, caressing her, it reminded me, allowing for the greater humility of the parties, of the women of Bethlehem who gathered round Naomi as she entered her native place, bereaved and poor, and cried in her anguish, Call me not Naomi, call me Mara: for the Almighty hath dealt very bitterly with me.' Ruth i. 20.

"Still Scrimp and I both agreed, as we turned sadly from the window, that if we had money to bestow, we would employ it in sending off many such ship-loads, and that if tears were due to the scene we had witnessed, it was for those who stayed, not for those who went. Scrimp's share in helping so many to escape we all thought enviable, and I must say, that since then my pupils and their parents seem to have entirely corrected, or at least silenced, their prejudice against old maids."

"It is very strange," said Ellen, breaking silence for the first time, "that people should have ever entertained such an unreasonable and ungenerous prejudice."

"All prejudice," remarked Mrs. Vernon, “is unreasonable, and frequently injurious. A very brief sketch of the influence of prejudice in retarding truth and perpetuating error, would at least teach us to be careful in forming and testing our opinions.'

"I think, to-morrow evening," said Edward, "I can give you such a sketch; I have some memoranda among my papers on that subject, which in the meanwhile I will arrange; and, as it will be written, aunt Anna, if she wishes, can have it to read afterwards; for I have felt it a drawback to our own enjoyment of Jane's narrative, that it should have been unheard by one of our circle.”

The eyes of the little party being for the moment directed to aunt Anna, as Edward spoke, she instantly divined the purport of the remark, and said with a good-tempered smile, "Oh, don't mind me; I am quite amused with looking at you all; it would be a sad aggravation of my infirmity if it kept me from sympathising with you, even in what I cannot participate. But to-night I caught the name of Scrimp,' and I know her history, for Jane wrote me the whole account some months back. I am, you know, much indulged with long and pleasant letters-a treat few enjoy more than I do; and my old wandering friend and correspondent -whom Etty has thought proper to name 'Peregrina Jot,' has among her letters sent me some that I mean to produce, and read as my contribution to our family conversazione."

"Excellent!" exclaimed Philip; "well, really

Etty, what becomes of your objections as to the impracticability of our plan, where you see even Jane's crochet needle, that was to be such an impediment, has prompted and served her instead of a pen, and aunt Anna means to impart the pleasure she cannot receive?

"Sister Anna has learned," interposed aunt Patty, "that pure pleasures imparted are always received. Most beautifully and truthfully did Coleridge say

'We receive but what we give.

Ah from the soul itself must issue forth
A light, a glory, a fair luminous cloud
Enveloping the earth.-

And from the soul itself must there be sent
A sweet and potent voice, of its own birth,
Of all sweet sounds the life and element.
We in ourselves rejoice,

And thence flows all that charms or ear or sight;

All melodies, the echoes of that voice;

All colours, an effusion of that light.'

"One thing, Philip, is very obvious," said Edward, laying his hand on his brother's arm, "we shall have some difficulty in competing with the ladies, and must sharpen up our wits to come off with honour in the contest.'

"Yes, yes," said Etty, as having folded up her work she was leaving the room to put it away, 66 we mean to assert our rights here, at the fireside, at all events; and depend on it I shall look pretty. sharply into your sketch of Prejudice to-morrow night—it must be tolerably comprehensive to satisfy me."

CHAPTER III.

PREJUDICE-ANTAGONISM AGAINST TRUTH.

"I FEAR my subject will be found a melancholy one,” said Edward, when the family party had assembled, "it is such a dismal record of wrong thinking and wrong doing; but we are instructed by the mistakes of society, as well as by its wisdom."

"Then there's one comfort," interposed Etty, แ we shall never want plenty of sources of instruction, for the mistakes of the world must be pretty numerous.'

"It seems to me," resumed Edward, as he smiled off the interruption, and referred to his papers, "that prejudice in most cases is a combination of rashness, indolence, and obstinacy: haste in adopting an opinion, disinclination to take the trouble to examine it, and determination to adhere to it because once adopted. There may be some cases where pride prevents a due appreciation of a truth; from the absurd, but not wholly unusual feeling, that the thoughts originated by another mind are not worthy of attention, and must of necessity be inferior, and also that ever to acknowledge an error in judgment is an unbearable degradation. And there have always been some,

their number I trust is few, who have been too envious to own the merit they clearly enough perceived; and who have consequently hated, persecuted, and denied the excellences they could not emulate. Envy is the 'rottenness of the bones,' says Scripture; and certainly in bringing both mental torture and spiritual ruin on its possessor it is unrivalled.

"While these are the distinctive elements of prejudice in the minds of individuals, the collective prejudices of masses of people are usually the result of ignorance. Incapable of reasoning, they are the slaves of the indiscriminate passion of the moment; the dupes of their own selfishness, they behold with suspicion, not unmixed with dread, every thing that is either new to their observation, or beyond their comprehension. This perplexity, distrust, and fear, is the source of those popular clamours, those panics issuing in deeds of blood, that history has recorded in some memorable instances of national and tumultuous prejudices.

"Hateful as prejudice is, no mind is entirely free from it. The cleanest house will have some dust constantly gathering, and as constantly requiring removal; the largest and loftiest dome may have some cobweb hanging its filmy drapery upon its polished sides. In many even luminous minds they are 'thick as motes that people the sunbeam,' but in that case there is light enough for us to see how numerous they are. Educational bias, natural predilections, cherished customs, the common habit