"She did, did she? I suppose it was Mrs. H- Why, man, she was perfumed like ten milliners."

"Very likely, and so thought that you were imitating your betters. No doubt there are persons who would like to have all the scents in the world to themselves, and all the sense too, if they could. Let them have the one, so we can have our share of the other."

"So I say," said Morgan; "but, Ellis, you must allow that our temptations to spend money on dress and other useless things are very strong. We see others doing it every day, and so we do it too. Besides, we know that, scrape and save as we may, we shall never be able to get together enough to go into business with; and so, it just goes as it comes.'

"I do not know that," replied his pertinacious monitor. "In the first place, if others do wrong or foolishly, it is no reason why we should do so too. In the second place, if money must be spent, it had better be spent on what would be really beneficial to ourselves and others. And, in the last place, it is not so certain that a young man-you, for instance, might not, by the exercise of prudence, economy, and perseverance, save money enough, in the course of years, even to establish you in business."

"I wish, with all my heart," said the young man, "that you would prove this; for I have nothing at present to look forward to but this perpetual drudgery behind another man's counter; and this often makes me careless how I spend the little money I get."

"You are welcome to my experience," said his friend; "and I shall be glad if it really benefits you.

"Like yourself, I had, at one time, no expectation of ever having a business of my own. When I first became an apprentice, my father plainly told me that he should not be able to put me into business for myself, and that the most he could do for me, when out of my time,

would be to obtain a situation for me in a wholesale house as warehouseman or traveller. He said, that though he lived comfortably, and had been able to give me a tolerable education, he never had saved, and never expected to save money out of his salary. But when I was out of my time, he put a hundred pounds into my hands, and said that the difference in his own and my personal expenses since the affair that had so nearly ruined me, amounted to at least that sum, and that he considered it mine to do what I pleased with. I took his advice about it, and got him to put it out at interest for me. This was eight years ago. Since that time he has added a certain sum to the capital, and yet has, as he tells me, been much freer from pecuniary embarrassments than he had ever before been, just because he has contracted his personal expenses. For my own part, I made up my mind that I would save money to get into business with; and began to do so the first year I received a salary. In eight years these savings, together with their interest, have amounted to nearly two hundred pounds. This, added to the sum which my father has placed in reserve for me, makes somewhere about five hundred pounds; but the probability is, that if my love of finery and my extravagant habits had not received so early and severe a check, I should not have been worth five hundred

pence. And now, to tell you a secret, which will not be a secret much longer, Mr. D-- has, within the last few days, offered me a share in his business, on terms which I could not have expected had I not had some capital at command; and I have accepted the proposal."

"I wish you joy with all my heart," said Anderson. "And I," "and I," repeated his companions.

"Thank you all," said Mr. Ellis. "But before we say good night-and it is quite time to do so-allow me to say two things more. The first is, that there is an opposite vice to that of extravagance and foppery, or love of dress; it is, covetousness, or the love of money. There is a danger of passing from one of these sins to the other; but each is equally offensive in His sight who 'searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins of the children of men.' If I have been kept from covetousness, it was not because I have never been inclined to it; but because the grace of God has kept me from it. The other thing is, that religion is 'the one

thing needful;' and everything else must give way to it, if we would be happy in this world and the next. Now, if the love of dress, or the love of anything else, keeps our hearts shut against the love of God, it is of the first importance that such a mischievous and ruinous affection should be overcome. Our idols, whatever they be, must be utterly abolished, or we shall never have "repentance towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ," which are absolutely necessary to our salvation, Acts xx. 21.

THE PEOPLE OF BELGIUM.

S.

THE Roman Catholic population is of two classes; the bigoted, and the liberal and semi-infidel. The former class includes the clergy, the aristocracy, the almost entire female part of the middle rank, and the bulk of the lower orders. Of this class, a writer thus speaks:"All these persons are violently opposed to everything which is not of the Roman Catholic church, and as blindly attached to whatever belongs to it. The priests and aristocracy mutually support and favour each other, whilst the former keep the poorer classes completely under their own domination, and that of the aristocracy. The number, power, and influence of this portion of the community are immense, all of which are zealously devoted to the support of Popery.' The liberal portion "includes the male members of the middle, and a small number of the better educated and lower classes of society. This party may be considered as negative opponents of ultra-Catholicism. Having no belief in the doctrines professed by their church, they treat everything as matter of indifference; and, professing no religious principles of their own, they have little to oppose to the domination of their priests. The mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters of this party being mostly under clerical guidance, the infidels themselves are also brought to submit to priest rule. When there is a marriage, a birth, or a burial, the priest is called in by female influence; and the father regards with indifference the mother's leading the child into all that mummery which he himself so thoroughly despises."

Indifferent to all religion, the liberal party often allow the zealots to exercise their whole influence with the government in favour of their own views; and

the extent to which these zealots often prevail is proved by important facts. The following is one which, from its affinity with a recent ministerial measure in our own country, is worthy of notice. "The bill," says the writer, was to regulate the government schools for poor children. It gave the direction of all the schools into the hands of the bishops and inferior clergy. The master must be approved, and the books used in the schools examined, by them. They are to give the religious instruction; and the moment they disapprove of any thing in the school, or refuse to attend, that moment the government will withdraw its support. In vain did the liberal party oppose the bill, as being an attack on the constitution; the power of the clergy prevailed. It will be easily conceived that the clergy take advantage of their present position.' Indeed, that new life, that renovated energy, which, from whatever causes it may arise, and in whatever issues it may terminate, the Roman Catholic church manifests at this day, seems very fully developed in Belgium. Mr. Panchaud gives very remarkable illustrations of this. The Virgin Mary nowhere receives more abundant homage; she is adored as Divine; more prayers are offered to her than to God; and her mediation is regarded as indispensable to the enjoyment of the Divine favour. About twelve miles from Brussels, in a large village, there is a church of very miraculous history, in the traditionary accounts of which the Virgin figures as the chief performer; and a box of angelic manufacture, belonging to the Virgin, was by her favour procured, by means of which miracles were wrought in abundance, so that no doubt remained of its being a chosen instrument of the Mother of God to console and relieve all those who had recourse to her in their affliction. In addition to this box "the church contains a large piece of the cross on which Christ was crucified-a part of Christ's seamless coat-some of the Virgin's hairher belt-her scissors-the ivory needle with which the Mother of God sewed." On the walls of a church in Mons, there is hung up the following prayer, addressed to the Virgin-"I salute you, my Divine Queen, amiable Mary, I adore and bless the design which God has of glorifying you in this holy place, and of glorifying himself in you. To contribute as much as is in my power to the admirable purpose of the Supreme Majesty, and to render

THE VALLEY OF THE INN. As a traveller ascends the Iser, he enters the Tyrol amidst scenery which, as he advances, becomes finer and bolder; it may, indeed, be called truly Alpine; for snow peaks soon begin to appear, and all around are appearances of great elevation. As the road crosses, he leaves the Iser, now dwindling into a brook within a league or two of its source, and passes through a small mountain village, beyond which the scenery becomes still more striking. A traveller relates that he gathered on his way thirty-two different species of plants, of which thirteen are cultivated in the English garden. Wild flowers, in great variety, covered the slopes of the rocks by the way-side; the fringed pink, the wild polyanthus, and the box-shrub in flower, formed, in many places, a thick underwood; some fields were entirely overgrown with a large and beautiful heart's-ease; and on JULY, 1845.

inhabitants. Three times a day soup made of it and milk is served at the table of a Tyrolean peasant; and this, with bread, sometimes entirely of maize, but most commonly with one third or one fourth part of wheat, forms his whole diet. The appearance of fine athletic peasantry attests the wholesome and nutritious qualities of Indian corn.

KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE.

ALAN. Here you are again with your book, Arthur; always getting wiser and wiser. You mean to be like the schoolmaster, I suppose, of whom it was said,

"And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, How one small head could carry all he knew." And yet I very much question if you know how heavy the moon is?

ARTHUR. Why no, I do not pretend to know that, for the weight of the moon is known to nobody.

ALAN. Ay, but there you are wrong, with all your learning, for it is known to

me.

ARTHUR. To you! Ah! ah! ah! Tell me how heavy it is, then.

ALAN. Why, it weighs mind, I won't tell you in tons and hundredsit weighs exactly four quarters.

ARTHUR. Oh! that is a mere catch; a quibble that I should be ashamed of.

ALAN. Ay, but what is the use of your learning, if you are to be caught so easily by a mere quibble? I tell you what, Arthur, my opinion is, that the world is too learned by half. Our forefathers were not half so wise as we are, but they were quite as willing to work, quite as healthy, and quite as happy.

ARTHUR. We are not to look on mankind as on a parcel of bullocks, and rest satisfied with them because they can eat and drink, and are healthy and strong. There was a time when

"Mighty monarchs wanted skill to frame

The letters that composed their mighty name." Think of a king not being able to write his name, and being obliged to make his cross. A fine sovereign he must have been to reign over a people! What a simpleton !

ALAN. Simpleton! You may call him so, but wise people are sometimes quite as silly as their neighbours. I have heard of a very wise man, who, having to boil an egg in his study, popped his watch into the hot water and boiled it

three minutes, holding the egg in his hand all the while, like a simpleton as he

was.

ARTHUR. Pooh! that was a mere mistake through forgetfulness. I once heard of an ignorant man so very silly, that he attempted to get a cow to the top of his cottage to eat the grass that grew there, instead of bringing down the grass to the cow.

ALAN. It was but yesterday that I read of the learned astronomer who discovered a monster in the sun-such a dreadful monster! when it turned out to be nothing but a poor little fly, which, by some accident or other, had got into his telescope. Oh, these learned men are wondrously clever in their way!

ARTHUR. Whether men are clever or not with learning, they are not likely to be clever without it. I suppose you have heard of the Chinese simpleton, for he must have been a man after your own heart. He was seen filing away at a bar of iron, and when asked what he intended to do with it, replied that he was filing it down into a needle. Did you ever hear of a learned man acting in that way? If you will keep people in ignorance, I promise you there will be plenty of needle makers.

ALAN. And if there were plenty of them, they would be quite as profitably employed in filing iron bars into needles as in spying out horrible monsters in the sun, which monsters, after all their learned orations, have been the whole time within half a dozen inches of their noses. When you found a college, Arthur, I hope you will teach those who go to it to employ their talents in a better way than in boiling watches, and spying out monsters in the sun; because if you do not, I fear that mankind will be but little the better for all their learning.

ARTHUR. As you are of opinion the world is already too learned by half, there is but a poor prospect of your founding a college. Should you, however, do such a thing, the object of your college would be, I suppose, to teach people to unlearn what they know of figures, to forget what they know of reading and writing, and to give prizes and confer honours upon the greatest simpletons that could be found. Why, it should be called the College of Know-nothing, and Doctors Addle-head and Silly-brain ought to be the head masters!

ALAN. I don't think we want any colleges.