the words of which pleased me very much at the time, but I could afterwards recall only one verse:

High as the towering Alps do raise
Their dark pines to the skies,

Yet, blessed God, thy children's praise
Is fairer in thine eyes.

As the last lines of the hymn died among the mountains, Rosèe rising suddenly, walked with a quick pace to the side of the lake, and taking from her neck the Rosary and Cross, she pressed them to her lips, and then threw them into the quiet lake; at the same time we heard her say-"This was my Mother's, my beloved Mother's; but it is right that I should give it up." The glassy beads for an instant were lighted up with bright and dazzling colours from the golden rays of the setting sun, then gradually sinking into the water the Rosary was lost for ever to our sight. The young girl then knelt on the ground beside the lake, and lifting up her dark eyes, from which the tears fell slowly down her cheek, she clasped her hands, and said aloud-"Dear Jesus, I am thine; be ever with thy child, for she is weak and entirely unable to take care of herself. Grant that the Lord the Spirit may never leave me to myself, or allow me to worship any other than the Lord Jehovah."

Nannette and her brother had joined their friend, and when the orphan maiden had finished her prayer, the little peasant of Switzerland embraced her with affection. The pastor also was moved, and laying his hand upon the clustering ringlets of the lovely child, he said, "God will bless thee, my Rosèe, with blessings from above; yes, my little one, God has made thee to pray, and he will make thee to do his will, and in the end he will remove thee to a land of hills and vallies, where the sun will no more be wanted, for the Lamb is the light thereof;"-and as he spoke, the

worthy pastor wiped away a tear from his eye. And now the little troop of children advancing, placed upon the head of the kneeling orphan a crown of roses and mountain flowers, at the same time a shout of infantine joy rang through the vallies of" Rosee the orphan, Rosèe is now our sister, the Rosée of our Mountains, the Rosèe of our love."

And now what more can I say of this fair flower of Switzerland? It was the first day of our acquaintance, and it is the last in this world; but should any one like myself travel over fair mountains and lowly vallies, they may find other Rosèes, but none, I am convinced, will equal my Rosèe of Montreux.

THE ROMAN BATHS.

PREFACE.

THE lesson to be learnt from the story of The Roman Baths, is the perishable and passing nature of earthly things.

This is a lesson which is never learnt by any one to whom the Spirit of God has not been given; and for this reason, that the natural man, that is, the man whom Solomon compares to beasts, thinks of nothing, and understands nothing, but present things; so that

N

you will see an old man of eighty, who has no children, as fond of his money, and as ready to over-reach his neighbour, as if he had forty or fifty years before him to look forward to. This is madness and vanity.

Every thing tends to ruin and decay in this world; as soon as a house is built, it wants cleaning, and presently afterwards repairing. As soon as a man grows up, and has attained to his full stature, he begins to lose his early bloom, and soon passes on to grow old. Every thing in this world moulders, or rots, or tarnishes, or drops to pieces. But when Christ our Lord shall come in his glory, to establish his kingdom on the earth, then will all things be made new, and the present state of things, which is but a shadow, will pass away; and we, who love the Lord, shall dwell in a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God," Heb. xi. 10.

On that side of Cheltenham, in the direction of the Malvern Hills, but considerably removed from the high road, is a small but beautiful little dwelling. I do not choose to say whether it is to be found on the right or the left of the way, or whether the approach thereunto is by a private road, shaded with trees, or through open and breezy fields; suffice it to say, that although it is so near the gay world and the centre of fashion, it is so shaded by the shrubberies and or

chards which encompass it, that it might be long sought before it could be discovered.

At the period which I have selected for my little history, there dwelt in this house a very excellent gentleman, to whom for the present we will give the name of Bloomfield; he was married to a truly pious and elegant lady, and he had four children; the eldest, Caroline, might be about twelve years of age at the time I speak of; Louisa was so near the age and size of her elder sister, and resembled her so much in the simple and bright expression of her countenance, and the pure tincture of her complexion, that she often passed with strangers for her twin sister. The third child was Robert; he was a rough little boy, that is, he would speak his mind on all occasions, whether to the purpose or not so; and the youngest was Celia, a little sparkling creature, who, being much younger than the rest of the family, was the play thing and darling of every one, although she was too gentle to take advantage of the great favour in which she was held.

Mr. Bloomfield had been in the army, but had retired on account of his health; in the quiet and peace of his happy home he had, however, recovered much of what he had lost; and as he lived below his income, and by his own and his lady's labours saved the expence of paying others to educate his children, he was, as he called himself, a rich man; that is, he always had more than he spent upon his family; those only are rich, who are content to live below what they might, and those are the people to whom a person in need should apply for help.

I could say a great deal of the happy way in which the days of this family were spent, and of the many pleasures which the children enjoyed, pleasures in which their dear parents took their parts as fitted them best. It was Mr. Bloomfield who helped them

to form their arbour by the brook at the bottom of the garden, near the weeping willow, and taught them the names of the wild flowers, and shewed them how to dry them; and it was Mrs. Bloomfield, who told them pleasant stories in the dusk of the winter evenings, and helped them to work for the poor people, and went with them to visit the little day-school kept by the widow Smallridge at the end. of the village. Oh! it was a pleasant life they led, and their pleasures were the sweeter, because they were such as are approved by the word of God; for my reader can not have advanced so far in my book, without being quite assured that the Holy Spirit was present with this family, and that the holy word was the rule and director of all that was done therein.

I have read of families, of fathers and mothers, and children of all ages, who have lived together in perfect peace, although their principles were altogether worldly. When people write books, they may, if it pleases them, describe oranges and citrons as growing out of bramble bushes, and men bringing forth good works from their natural evil hearts; the Scripture says, Matth. vii. 16. "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" And again, "Every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart is only evil continually." And wherefore is it thus evil? but because when Adam sinned, the breath of life, or the living principle imparted by the indwelling of the Spirit, was withdrawn, and man became spiritually dead-dead to all that is holy and good, being incapable altogether of producing the fruits of holiness, until he again becomes the temple of the Holy Ghost; and a new and living principle is imparted to his soul by the breath of life given again at the moment of regeneration.

This entrance of the Lord the Spirit into the