step, proceeded homewards-and he, with a sadder face and slower movement, wended his way towards a neighbouring house, where he had promised to assist as a watcher with an old man, who was dangerously sick. The man died that night, and Isaiah gazed on a scene he had never before witnessed-the last scene of all. It struck him most painfully; because the old man frequently adverted to, and lamented, the follies of his youth,-while it was continually occurring to Isaiah, that he had been guilty of a great sin, even to plan a deception upon his kind parents.

When the youth entered his father's house, the next morning, he found the whole family in commotion; and he learned, to his astonishment, almost horror, that his mother had seen the white apparition again, and it had told her that if Isaiah would prosper in this world, and be saved in the next, he must study with Mr. Lawton.

Isaiah was thunderstruck,—and, in the consternation of the moment, he acknowledged what had been his own intentions respecting the personating of the apparition. The matter grew more solemn, and Mr. Lawton and Lois were summoned; when the clergyman was, for the first time, apprised, that his daughter and the young student were looking to each other for their earthly happiness. As nothing, to clear up the mystery of the apparition, appeared, it was believed, by all the women in the town, to be an awful warning, a solemn call to the two religious parties, to lay aside their

prejudices against each other; and as the meeting-house was now completed, and the people were curious to attend in the new building, Mr. Lawton had the satisfaction, and a heart-felt satisfaction it is to a good man, of seeing a full audience listening to his sermon on the first Sabbath he performed divine service in the new church.

From that time, there was more unanimity among the inhabitants, than had been since Mr. Lawton began his ministry. This change was universally ascribed to the priest, who, his hearers observed, preached fewer doctrinal sermons, and insisted less on the doctrinal points than used to be his wont. Undoubtedly there was a change. Mr. Lawton as firmly believed in the apparition as any of his people. Neither was this strange, as he was descended, by the father's side, from a Scotch emigrant, who fancied himself gifted with the second sight, and his mother was a German, fully believing in all the wild and awful legends of German superstition. And, notwithstanding Mr. Lawton was a man of sound sense and fervent piety, it is not strange he should be a little infected with superstitious or imaginative notions. But these had, in this instance, a salutary effect; because, as the apparition had, as it were, borne witness to the saving creed of the minister, he did not think it necessary to argue continually to prove his creed the saving one. And so the town of Harmony seemed soon more deserving of its name.

There was a marked change of manner in

Isaiah Warren, from the time he commenced his religious studies; and when he was licensed and entered on the duties of his sacred office, no young clergyman could be more devout and devoted. Fourteen years passed away-The Rev. David Lawton and Captain Isaiah Warren were both gathered to their fathers. They had died in full charity with each other, and in the assured belief, that Presbyterians and Congregationalists were to inherit the same heaven. But Mrs. Warren still lived-lived, to enjoy the pious triumph of seeing her favorite son installed as pastor over the destitute church of Harmony. And all this, she firmly believed was foretold her by the apparition. She was never undeceived-but the reader must be.

Isaiah Warren had a brother Benjamin, a wild, roguish, adventurous fellow, who finally went to sea, and was absent many years. After his return, as he was sitting one evening in his brother's study, telling such tales of his wondrous chances as sailors will tell, he remarked an air of incredulity on Isaiah's countenance, and instantly paused.

'Why do you not proceed?' inquired Isaiah.

You do not credit me,' returned Benjamin; ' and yet it does not require a greater degree of faith than you once exercised about an apparition.'

Isaiah saw the keen eye of his brother sparkle with mirth, and something that announced a triumph. In a moment the truth flashed on his mind. He started up, and striking the ta ble with a volume of Baxter's "Saint's Rest

(the favorite book, next to the Bible, of his father-in-law, the late Mr. Lawton,) as if the said book had been a batten, he exclaimedBen, I know you were that apparition !'

After a hearty laugh, Ben confessed the whole. 'I was,' said he, 'down close by the river, among some bushes at your feet, where I had crept to fix a trap for a mink, and there

lay and heard all your conversation with Lois. After you had gone, thinks I to myself, I will even play the trick on mother, and it will be no sin, for I am not intending to be a minister. So I wrapped up myself, and stole into mother's room, on tiptoe, and I said "Isaiah must study with Mr. Lawton," and then was out again in the twinkling of an eye. That was all I did say, and that about your being saved, was no words of mine. When I found how seriously the affair was taken, I did not dare to own what I had done. But, on the whole, I think it was a good thing. You obtained your wife, and the people were all made more peaceable and christianlike, and no bad effect has followed. This, I guess, happened,' because I was not influenced by any bad or selfish motives, for our chaplain always said, that it was only the indulgence of selfishness that caused us to sin.'

WILLIAM FORBES.

O! wherefore with a rash impetuous aim
Seek ye those flowery joys with which the hand
Of lavish Fancy paints each flattering scene
Where Beauty seems to dwell, nor once inquire
Where is the sanction of eternal Truth,
Or where the seal of undeceitful Good
To save your search from folly! Wanting these,
Lo, Beauty withers in your void embrace.

AKENSIDE

'What answer did Elizabeth give?'

THOSE readers, who have been sufficiently interested in the work, to retain a recollection of the contents of the fifth Sketch, may remember, that 'The Village Schoolmistress' was left undecided respecting the answer she should make to the matrimonial suggestion of her recreant but repentant lover, William Forbes.

We have given her six months to consider the matter, and in this steam age of the world, no woman ought to require a longer time to make up her mind. What, enviable advantages the antediluvian ladies enjoyed! They might reflect and reject, doubt and delay, consider and coquet, for at least three hundred years, without any risk of incurring that appalling epithet, which now, in the brief period of thirty, is sure to be bestowed on the fair one