lungs, distorted their spines, impeded the action of | of the brutes that perish! Dr. Winter ought to their hearts, shut them safely up from the free breath of nature, taught them assiduously every fashionable accomplishment and every artificial grace, but would have fainted at the vulgarity of a morning run over a breezy hill, had common sense ventured to propose such a remedy for the poor creatures' pallid cheeks and wasting forms. And as for reflecting on the effect this false system must have on their children's children, that of course they never did. Women did not often reflect at that time, except upon the characters of their neighbors. It has often struck me as a singular anomaly, that we calculate the extent of land or the amount of money we shall bequeath to our offspring, but never bestow a thought on the health they will inherit from us! 66 Well, ignorance of such matters was prevalent when my sister, then about eighteen, married a young man of good family, but no wiser than herself. My father rejoiced at the unexceptionable match, and pleased himself with flattering visions of her future welfare. In short, everything seemed to me to smile upon their union, until one evening I happened to overhear a conversation that made a strong impression upon me, though I did not understand it till some years after. Our medical friend, Dr. Winter, who had been on the continent for several months, and had only heard of my sister's marriage on the day of his return, was chatting with Miss Rumball, the clergyman's sister and another lady-the wedding of course being the staple of their discourse. "It is a great pity,' said the doctor with a deep sigh; her mother died of consumption, and I understand that his family is not free from the same malady. They ought on no account to have married. The children will pay the penalty.' "But there may not be any, you know, doctor,' interposed one of the ladies, (not Miss Rumball, for she, I remember, kept her eyes fixed on the point of her toe, and looked excessively shocked ;) 'there are many happy marriages without children.' "Miss Rumball here cast a horrified glance first at me and then at them. Mrs. Bland stopped short; the doctor shrugged his shoulders, and walked away. I could not imagine why Miss Rumball had checked them, as if they were saying something which it was improper for me to hear; so I stood behind the window-curtain, (not very creditable, you will say; and I hope you will not suspect I should do so now,) that I might hear the remarks of the two ladies when the doctor was gone. "Singular man!' said Mrs. Bland, who was a warm-hearted, weak-headed matron; now, for my part, I can see no possible objection to the match; there are youth, wealth, and beauty on both sides.' have been a horse-dealer, or something of that sort, and then he'd have been in his proper element. One would really think, to hear him talk, that there were different kinds of human beings, just as there are of cattle and such things.' 666 "Why, I've heard him say,' replied Mrs. Bland, that if we took half as much care to improve our own race as we do to improve our horses and sheep, the doctors would be obliged to turn farmers.' "Pray, my dear friend, don't repeat such things to me. The man is low.' "He is rather indelicate sometimes,' said the other, urbanely siding with indignant virtue; 'but then he's such a clever creature, one must make allowances for his odd little ways.' "Oh, clever! I've no patience!' exclaimed Miss Rumball. "For many an hour afterwards did I puzzle my little brain to make out what they had been talking about; but, as I said before, the interpretation came at last. Six years passed away. My dear sister was blessed, as we thought it, with four sweet children-little fairies, like living lilies and roses; but her own health was delicate. But suddenly my whole attention was engrossed by a new object; and the consequences, a new and powerful feeling. This object was a cousin, a nephew of my mother. He was about twenty-two years of age, intellectual, accomplished-in short, a perfect gentleman. He was the only survivor of a large family, and had lived from infancy with his widowed mother in the mildest regions of Italy. Important business at length compelled them to come to England, and it was then that Henry Goring paid his first visit to our quiet home. "I sometimes smile, and sometimes weep, but oftener both together, when I think how very happy I was for two months after his arrival. Every object seemed to glow with radiant colors; the perfume of the commonest flowers became intoxicating; all the sounds and sights of nature spoke a new and delightful language. Music was—ah, I must not attempt to describe what music was! A strain that was familiar then, and is mixed up, as it were, with the dream-like recollections of that delightful time, will sometimes return, and wander through my brain for days and nights together, and then I sadly live over again my former happiness. But that is enough. One day you will know by experience how delightfully such moons as these roll by. "As yet, no word had been said of our attachment. We had looked into each other's eyes, and read our souls there; and we might have gone on in the same way for two months more, had not Henry been summoned to London upon the business that had brought him from Italy. This drew matters to a crisis. It was just such a lovely evening as this when he first spoke to me of his attachment. It was agreed between us that he should speak to my father the next morning. He did so; and all seemed propitious to our wishes. for my father gave a cordial consent. Another day of bliss, almost too intense for endurance, and then came my first sorrow-the departure of my lover for one whole wearisome week. Well might Moore sing bear anything you may have to tell me, even though it were that I must break my engagement with Henry Goring-provided,' I added, 'that I am convinced it is a duty.' "Thank God!" he exclaimed, clasping me to his heart; and thank you too, my beloved child, 'There's nothing half so sweet in life as love's for sparing me the trial I so much dreaded. I young dream!' The first-love of a girl who knows that she loves worthily the sacred halo which her pure thoughts cast around her ardent feelings-all make of that epoch in life a veritable foretaste of heaven. could not have hoped for this fortitude in one so young. My poor Lucy!' and as he said this he held back my face to look at me, 'it is a severe trial for you, and one that ought not to have been imposed upon you; but how could I teach you that which I knew not myself? Read this book carefully. Had I been acquainted with it before I married, I should have avoided committing two grievous errors. Your noble conduct gives me the assurance that you will help me to prevent another. May God in heaven bless and reward you!' And so we parted at the untouched breakfast table. "My approaching marriage soon became the talk of the little town. Everybody said what a good match it was. Miss Rumball was quite oracular on the subject; but Dr. Winter called upon my father, with a book under his arm, and after being closeted with him for nearly two hours, went away, leaving the book behind him. I met him in the hall: he stopped, looked earnestly at "With a despairing calmness I shut myself up me for a moment; then his eyes filled with tears, with that terrible volume, whose pages seemed to and he passed on without speaking. I felt as if be inscribed with my death-warrant. For awhile under the influence of a coming nightmare. II felt prompted to blind myself to its warnings, and could do nothing but wander about the house and gardens, visiting again and again the spots that were rendered sacred by some association with my beloved Henry; and cherishing but one definite idea throughout all the chaos of my feelings, and that was, a firm resolve that no power on earth should prevent my fulfilling the promise I had given him. 66 My father remained in his study the whole day. The meals passed away without his appearing; and as I crept up stairs to bed, I saw, by a ray of light streaming through the keyhole, that he was still watching. The vague sense of approaching evil still hung over me; and as I laid my aching head upon my pillow, the words which I had heard Dr. Winter utter respecting my sister's marriage rushed upon my memory, giving to this foreboding a shape of formless yet ghastly terrors. My dream of happiness was at an end! "You may imagine I did not sleep much that night. In the morning, I hastened down, anxious to see my father. He was in the breakfast room, and a glance at his soiled dress and disordered hair showed that he had been up all night. I even thought I could detect the traces of tears on his pale and haggard cheeks. He looked at me as I entered, and then turned away with an expression or keen suffering on his face. In the midst of my agitation, that look made me think of Jephtha and his daughter. He was evidently striving to arrange his words and ideas to open some painful subject, when it occurred to me that, by speaking first, on the clue of my suspicions, I might spare him the agony of plunging a dagger into his poor child's happy heart, and rudely destroying all her air-built castles. "It is now twenty years since this happened; but I remember the whole scene as vividly as though it had taken place but yesterday. I hung upon my father's neck, and said in as firm a voice as I could command, Father, I am prepared to rush madly to the enjoyment of a brief summer-day of happiness. But calmer reason, and my father's solemn words, prevailed, and I sat down to its perusal. You shall read that book yourself one of these days: it is sufficient for me now to tell you that it explains the laws governing the transmission of qualities, mental and bodily, from parent to child; the immense amount of suffering and disease with which the world is filled in consequence of the frequent disregard of these laws; and how fearfully the sins of those who marry with a strong taint of hereditary disease are visited upon their children, even to the third and fourth generation. I now understood Miss Rumball's outcry against Dr. Winter's indelicacy. She was a good sort o person, but too narrow-minded to perceive that prudery is in general far more indelicate than philosophy. "Well, love, I must not now stand shivering on the brink of resolution, as I did when the light of that calmly-reasoned book was clearing away the mists which had made the valley of the shadow of death look like a paradise. As I read on, I saw clearly the position in which I was placed. The very affection, so ardent, so buoyant in its youthful energy, which I bore to my lover, was enlisted to oppose my marriage with him; for what true love would doom its object to the misery of seeing all his dearest ones sinking into an early tomb? Such at least was not my love; and seeing my path of duty thus strongly marked out before me, I resolved unflinchingly to follow it. But there was something more to be done. He, too, was deeply tainted with the same fell disease, and must therefore be convinced that marriage was forbidden to him. My own grief was nearly forgotten when I thought of this. Could I have borne the burden alone, it would have been comparatively light; but he must share it, and that indeed was bitter. To teach him to love me as a friend-to behold him happily married to some one who might marry-to train up his children, and rejoice over their health | fected soon began to assume a real existence. I and beauty—this would have been to me a dear may praise myself at this distance of time, just as delight; but, alas! the ban was upon him likewise, old ladies are permitted to boast of their youthful and bound us both in the same dreary fate. All charms, because I have now nothing to do with that was left me, as I now thought, was sternly to disinterestedness, heroism, or anything, in fact, but pluck out every hope of happiness from both our hearts, and make the best preparation for the early grave that yawned at our feet. "I could fill a volume with the thoughts and emotions that passed through my mind during those few hours, but such a recital would be useless. It is enough, that when the sharp conflict was over, and my resolution firmly bent to perform the hard task assigned to me, I felt a degree of tranquil composure that surprised myself, and which arose from a lofty faith that so great a sacrifice to truth and justice would not be made in vain. "I went into my father's study, to concert with him the best means of breaking the subject to Henry. He was dreadfully agitated, but my calmness communicated itself to him; and when I saw that, it stimulated me to still greater efforts of self-control. He appeared astonished and delighted; and the fervent blessing he called down upon me, mingled with praises of what he called my heroic fortitude, reflected back upon me the consolation I had inspired. This was the first fruits of the faith that sustained me. "It was agreed that I should not write to Henry immediately, but await the arrival of his next letter, which would give me time to deliberate. Sorrow seldom comes alone: while expecting this letter, we received a summons to my sister's bedside, as her illness had taken an alarming character. Her husband had carried her to Torquay soon after Henry's first arrival, and thither we followed them. "A description of her illness would add nothing to the usefulness of my narrative, so I will not burden your young mind with it. She died a fortnight after our arrival. There is, however, one painful circumstance which I shall relate, because it bears directly on the principle I am endeavoring to enforce. This was my poor father's sorrow. He saw his daughter die, and that was grief enough; but it was trifling compared with the remorse that gnawed his soul at having first, by his imprudent marriage, inflicted upon her the enfeebled existence which could not stand the ordinary trials of a mother's life; and having then allowed her to commit the same error, by which her life was probably shortened, and her fatal malady transmitted to her four innocent children. was no alleviation that he had acted in ignorance; he continually repeated that he ought to have known it.' The only drop of comfort in this bitter cup was derived from my patient submission to my own sorrow. To the hour of his death, he never knew what were my real sufferings; for I fortunately possess a good share of self-control, which enabled me to appear more calm than I felt. He did not see the paroxysms of agony which at times prostrated all my energy. They did not last long, however, and became daily of less frequent occurrence, for the resignation which I af It taking care of my own little self, and doing such atoms of service to my fellow-creatures as chance may throw in my way. Then life appeared to me a blank-dull, hopeless, soulless. I was immolated on the altar of unrelenting justice, a sinless but unresisting victim; for the sentence was as distinct as it was righteous, and I could no wish to evade my doom. Gradually a serener mood came over me. First of all, my father required my every care: he would sit for hours plunged in melancholy reverie; and Dr. Winter, a wise student of human nature, excited me to redoubled exertions, by awakening fears concerning his mental health-knowing that the surest means of drawing me from my own grief was to engross my attention with some external object. Under our united care, my father slowly regained his tranquillity; but he had sustained a shock from which he never wholly recovered. "I had received one letter from Henry Goring, to which I had answered briefly, informing him of my sister's death. This sad event was also an excuse for leaving long unanswered that which he sent in reply, full of gentle and affectionate condo lence, but not a word of our expected marriage. But the work was to be done, and delay seemed but to magnify the evil. By Dr. Winter's advice, I wrote at first vaguely, hinting that our marriage might be deferred longer than we had anticipated, but without assigning any reason. By return came his answer, assuring me that he would not press our union until my grief had quite subsided. I thought he had not taken the alarm as we intended he should do; but then followed these words in a postscript-'On reading your letter again, my mind misgives me. Surely there can be no other reason than your late bereavement for any delay of our marriage? For mercy's sake do not speak to me in riddles, but write immediately, and explain.' I did write as he wished, entreating him to read the fatal book, and divesting himself as much as possible of the trammels of passion, to submit implicitly to the dictates of right and justice. "On the evening of the following day, as I sat by my father's sofa, watching the first sound sleep which he had enjoyed for many a weary day and night, the door opened hastily, and Henry entered. I suppressed with difficulty the scream that was bursting from my lips, and rising quietly, with a gesture of silence, I took his hand and led him into the garden "Have you read the book?' was my first question. "I have,' he replied. "Then,' said I,' you know what must be our resolution.' "Alas! I had judged too hastily. Either his feelings were stronger than mine, or he was less thought she read returning health in the bright hectic flush; and yet again was she compelled to own that her hopes had been illusory. Amid all these apparent variations, the insidious enemy silently continued its ravages, and ere the spring was quite gone, my poor Henry slept in his grave. He died; and (mark this, dear Margaret, for it has been my consolation during all the years that have since elapsed) his last words were a blessing on me for clinging to the right. "I bore his loss with comparative patience, for sorrow had become my familiar companion; and thenceforth I devoted myself wholly to promoting my father's comfort. When he died, which was in the habit of controlling them. I was terrified Dr. Winter warned me not to be deluded by at the storm my words aroused. The wildest appearances. Again he sunk; again his mother expressions of love were mingled with anger, despair, bitter reproaches, jealousy, vengeance on those who had instigated me to such unnatural conduct he was indeed shaken by a tornado of all violent emotions. He even declared, poor fellow, that changed affection was the real cause, and that the book and its arguments were only a subterfuge to get rid of him. Very, very dearly and truly did I love him, so you must not be surprised that, unaided and weak as I was, my resolution began to quail. Still I argued, I entreated, I wept; and he did the same, yielding at times to fearful paroxysms of passion. Dreading the effects of such powerful excitement upon his delicate lungs, I strove to calm him; and was about to about six years ago, I became, at the invitation of give him a promise to reconsider my resolve, when your kind parents, a member of your family. his voice became suddenly husky and stifled, a And here I am still, you see; living very happily, deadly paleness displaced the brilliant flush upon and prepared, but not watching, for death; renhis cheeks, he staggered, and fell upon a garden | dering what services I can to my fellow-creatures, seat, near which we had been standing. Believing and thereby securing constant pleasures to myself; that he had fainted, I raised his head, when I felt fearless as to the future, careful of the present, and, my hand covered with the hot blood that was above all-and oh, Margaret, think, think, think gushing from his mouth. He had broken a blood- of this-free from remorse for the past! vessel. now, do you at last understand," continued Cousin Lucy, with a gentle smile gleaming through a tear that did not fall, "why I am an old maid?” "I dared not scream, lest I should arouse my father, whose reason might be wholly unseated by the spectacle that poor Henry then presented. I dared not leave him while I ran to the house; but I supported him in my arms, and looked wildly round for help; and help was at hand. Dr. Winter had caught a glimpse of Henry's face as he rushed through the town in a postchaise, and had followed immediately, to sustain me by his presence and advice, or to be at hand in case of such an accident as had actually happened. He quickly summoned the servants, who, under his direction, removed the poor invalid to the bed which he had occupied a few weeks before in apparent health. "You may be sure that every imaginable care was lavished upon him that affection and skill could suggest; but I saw from the first that Dr. Winter entertained little hope. The intelligence was broken with the utmost care to my father, whose greatest anxiety was on my account; but when he saw me no less tranquil than before, (paler, my glass had told me, I could not be,) he resigned himself patiently to this new afflic tion. And "I do, dear cousin; but may I ask you one or two questions? Will it be painful to you to say something more?" Certainly not. It must always be a sad, but can never be a painful subject. Ask as many questions as you like; my object would be ill attained if you did not perfectly understand all that I have said." "I think I understand it all; but I wish to know if you did not feel as though you had been the cause of poor Mr. Goring's accident? I think I should." "In the first burst of grief I did; but I was soon convinced that I had done right, and that left no room for self-reproach." "And yet you must have been very miserable when you reflected that you could never have a kind husband, or loving children to comfort you; you who are so fond of children too?" "For that very reason, how much more miserable should I have been to see those children blighted in their youth; or, dying myself, to know that I left behind me unfortunate beings whom ] "It was now the commencement of autumn; had endowed with mortal disease! With what during that season, and the following winter and tranquillity could I meet death, knowing that my spring, I was a constant attendant upon Henry life had been injurious to the world-that I had Goring. His mother shared with me the duties spread contamination throughout unborn generaof nursing him. At first, she treated me with great coldness, I might almost say harshness, because she thought I had sacrificed her son's life and happiness to a fantastic and unnatural whim. But when Henry himself, calmed by suffering, at last recognized the rectitude of my conduct, her manner completely changed, and she became as kind as she had before been stern. At the beginning of the spring our patient seemed to rally; but tions—that by my deliberate and premeditated guilt, incurred from intensely selfish motives, I had increased, to the utmost of my power, the mass of human misery? Is not my present lonely life preferable to this?" "A thousand times!" exclaimed Margaret; as your poor sister must have felt. What became of her children?" "By very great care, they were reared to the age of man and womanhood; and then, one by | preserve his health in the best possible state, for an one, they dropped off, and now all are dead." "To what can you attribute your own exemption from this dreadful disease?" "In the first place, to my having been brought up from my earliest infancy in a very healthful farmhouse; and secondly, to the incessant watch which I keep over my health, thanks to the judicious advice of Dr. Winter. In short, to avoid being thrown a sickly burden upon my friends, my existence is one continued course of self-denial. Am I invited to a ball, (and you know that I am so sometimes, old maid though I be,) I consider whether it would be wiser to go and enjoy myself very much, but at the risk of late hours, heated rooms, cold currents of air, the temptations of dancing, ices, and so on; or to stay quietly at home, read, work, or chat, content with my biscuit and glass of negus, and go to bed at ten as usual? In the same manner I reduce everything to this question-Which is the wiser? Not from any great love for life, but from a desire to preserve my independence as long as possible. It is indeed, a duty incumbent on every member of society to unhealthy member is a burden instead of a support to the community. Think of this when a little spice of vanity prompts you to wear a pair of pretty, thin shoes in dubious weather, instead of less sightly but more substantial old friends. "If I do catch cold," whispers vanity, "that will hurt nobody but myself." But vanity would mislead you, as she generally does those who listen to her; and pass over in silence the trouble which an illness would entail upon your family. You would be nursed and petted, while not one other person in the house would be exempt from care and anxiety on your account." "Thank you, dear Lucy. I have often sinned in that respect quite thoughtlessly, but I will take care to do so no more." "If you act up to that resolution, Margaret, I shall see that my warning tale has not been given in vain. But come, the sun has just set, and I must not wait for the night dews; thereby, like too many teachers, spoiling a good precept with a bad example." A GENERAL MOVEMENT IN THE WORLD.-The day. A man without something indispensable to period of the Conquista, (the Spanish conquests in do, will find his life to be involved in some of the America,) at the end of the fifteenth and commence- difficulties by which a woman's life is often beset, ment of the sixteenth century, was marked by a one of which difficulties is the want of a claim parawonderful coincidence of great events in the political mount upon her time. And these difficulties will and moral life of the nations of Europe. In the not be the less if the poet have, as he ought to have, same month in which Hernando Cortes commenced something of the woman in his nature;-as he his march against Mexico, after the battle of Otum- ought to have, I aver: because the poet should be ba, Martin Luther burnt the papal bull at Witten- hic et hac homo-the representative of human nature berg, and laid the corner-stone of the Reformation. at large, and not of one sex only. With the diffiA little earlier the most glorious creations of ancient culties of a woman's life, the poet will not find that Grecian art, the Laocoon, the Torso, the Apollo any of its corresponding facilities accrue; he will Belvedere, and the Medicean Venus had risen as it find claims to be made upon him as upon a man, and were from their graves. Michael Angelo, Leonardo indemnities granted to him as a poet. Thus it is da Vinci, Titian, and Raphael, were illustrious in that in the bustling crowds of this present world, a Italy; Albert Durer and Holbein in our own Father-meditative man finds himself, however passively disland. The true system of the universe was discov-posed, in a position of oppugnancy, to those around ered by Copernicus the very year in which Colum- him, and must struggle in order to stand still.— bus died, though he did not make it known till some- "Henry Taylor's Notes from Life.” what later. Translation from Humbolt's Kosmos," vol. ii, p. 338. PASSAGES IN THE LIFE OF LEDYARD THE TRAVELLER.-Mr. Beaufoy had an interview with LedTHE MODERN MEDITATIVE MAN'S DISADVAN- yard just as he was setting off on his last expedition, TAGES.-The man who lies under no external and repeats the following passage from his conver obligation (none that is apparent and palpable) to sation:-"I am accustomed," said Ledyard, “to occupy himself in one way or another, will become hardship. I have known both hunger and nakeda prey to many demands for small services, atten- ness to the utmost extremity of human suffering. tions, and civilities, such as will neither exercise I have known what it is to have food given me as his faculties, add to his knowledge, nor leave him charity to a madman; and I have at times been to his thoughts. The prosecution of a contempla- obliged to shelter myself under the miseries of that tive life is not an answer to any of these demands; character, to avoid a heavier calamity. My distresses for though the man who is in the pursuit of an active have been greater than I have ever owned, or ever calling is not expected to give up his guineas for will own, to any man. Such evils are terrible to the sake of affording some trifling gratification to bear; but they never yet had power to turn me from some friend or acquaintance or stranger, yet the my purpose. If I live, I will faithfully perform, in man who has renounced the active calling and the its utmost extent, my engagement to the society; guineas, in order that he may possess his soul in and if I perish in the attempt, my honor will still be peace, is constantly expected to give up his medita-safe, for death cancels all bonds."—“ Ledyard's tions, and no one counts it for a sacrifice. Medita- Life." tion, it is thought, can always be done some other | |