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some peculiar history belonging to it) was a portrait which occupied a great portion of one side of the room. This painting represented a lady dressed in black, and in the fashion which prevailed about the middle of the last century, before the ill-fated Queen of France had introduced those preposterous forms of dress which produced a total revolution in the human form. The figure was a fine one; the face had been remarkably handsome, though the lady I should judge to have been considerably advanced in years. before the resemblance was taken.

When I first looked at this picture, I thought I observed considerable sternness in the countenance, but on further examination I rather changed my opinion, and fancied I observed the lines of sorrow traced on the features, together with a degree of tenderness, which seemed, as it were, to contend with natural strength and sternness. The hand which wrought this portrait was, undoubtedly, a skilful

one.

I looked for a while on the picture, and then on every surrounding object. "This lady," I thought, "probably, when alive, occupied this chamber; those were, perhaps, her books; that might have been her musical instrument; she, perhaps, used to sit on that chair, and spread her work on that table;-but where is she now? Where are those with whom she associated-her neighbours, her friends, her servants? For whom did she wear that black dress? Whom did she love? whom did she regret? What were her thoughts? what were her acts?". There is something very affecting in being brought into close contact with the dead. It is possible to reflect without powerful emotion on the destruction of whole countries by an earthquake-on the sinking of whole fleets at sea-on the dying away of generation after generation-on the depopulation of ancient cities, and the extinction of the noblest families;-but who could have visited Herculaneum, and entered into the very domicile of the ancient Romans, and contemplated the skeleton of the mother embracing that of the infant, without deep and lasting feelings of sympathy and tenderness?

Having gazed on every thing within the room, I walked to the window and opened the casement; for I felt a faintness which I partly attributed to a confined air which is often found in old buildings, in which the work of decay

must necessarily be going on, however slowly, and partly to the feelings which had been suddenly excited within me; and there, what a wonderful, what a glorious prospect opened to my view over the garden wall and trees!

Between the wall and the bottom of the valley, was a lawn or sheep-walk, scattered over with flocks, and beyond this a clear and beautiful lake, inclosed on the opposite side by a range of hills, the lower parts of which were richly variegated with trees, and studded with little thatched cottages and small farms, and the higher regions of which, though the hills were of inferior magnitude when compared with the height of the Himalayas and the Andes, or even of those lofty Alpine regions where an eternal winter reigns at the distance of eight thousand feet above the level of the sea, nevertheless were, in fact, above the clouds, their blue summits appearing at that time higher than the morning mist which had ascended from the lake at sun-rise, and was becoming condensed as it rolled upwards.

My mind had been previously led to serious reflections by the objects on which I had been meditating, and now the beautiful works of creation which opened before me gave a pious turn to my reflections. The shortness of

man's life, even when compared with other works of the Creator, in this sublunary state, particularly impressed me. "No doubt," I thought, "the lady whom I have been looking upon loved and admired this scene. That lawn and lake, those woods and hills, were often gazed upon by her. But the eye that beheld these beauties shall see them no more: her place knoweth her no longer. Man cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he fleeth also as a shadow, and continueth not.-As the waters fail from the sea, and the flood decayeth and drieth up; so man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep." (Job xiv. 2, 11, 12.)

And here, if it be not irrelevant, I will pause to make some remarks on the effects which are frequently produced on an enlightened intellect by a contemplation of the beauties of nature.. A fine prospect, when first beheld, always conveys the idea of happiness; we cannot imagine that the inhabitants of a picturesque region can be low or miserable and hence, no doubt, in a great measure, proceeds that peculiar kind of fascination which we often ex

perience in travelling through a beautiful country, with whose inhabitants we are unacquainted. The imagination conceives that what is so outwardly fair must be productive of happiness; and thus it amuses itself in a kind of elysium of its own, till awakened from its dreams by reflection and experience. In our ideas, however, of moral beauty and perfection, we are greatly assisted by our associations with the beauties of nature; and much more frequently, no doubt, should we make use of such aid, were it not that our minds are alienated from the subject by the influence of sin. The things most lovely in creation are used by God as emblems of such perfection, and of the rest and glory of the latter days. We are warranted by Scripture to look into the Book of Nature to find the pictures of the happiness and consolation of the believer in the resurrection. As water to the thirsty lips, so are the promises of God; and blessed is he, who cannot walk forth into the woods, or contemplate the distant mountain, the fertile valley, the dripping rill, the airy sheep-down, or the opening bud, without an enlargement of those views of future glory which are held out to the lowly disciples of Christ. In the sparkling jewels which adorn her birth-day suit, her blazing coronet, and chains of gold, may not the royal and noble lady, if she be a child of God, behold the symbols of those ornaments with which the heavenly Bridegroom will, at some future period, adorn the members of his Church? In the spotless robe she wears, may she not find the type of that robe of righteousness in which the Lamb will array his bride? In the richly-ornamented pleasure-ground, the shadowy grove, the open lawn, and the perfumed garden, which surround her dwelling, may she not see a lively representation of what the earth will be when the banner of the cross shall blaze as a beacon on the heights of Zion, and all nations shall flow unto it; when showers of blessings shall be shed on every valley; when the wilderness shall blossom as the rose, and gushing fountains shall be heard in every dell; when wild beasts shall cease from the land, and the people of the Lord shall dwell quietly in the wilderness, and sleep in the woods?

But perhaps I may be dwelling too long on this subject. I therefore hasten back to my narrative, and shall proceed to say, that while I was still considering the beautiful scene

beheld from the closet, I was made aware, by the sound of a bell, of which I had been apprized, that breakfast was ready, and accordingly hastened down stairs, resolving to make myself better acquainted, if possible, with the history of the lady who had engaged so many of my thoughts. Upon enquiry I found, that the unmarried name of the person respecting whom I was so inquisitive, had been Matilda Vincent, that she had possessed the estates of Inglewood for some time, and had been dead more than forty years: it was further added, that she had been a singular character, and had shewn her singularity by leaving behind her written memoirs of her life, in which she had taken so little care to guard her name from the ill opinion of her successors, that she had made a full, true, and perfect confession of many parts of her life with which no one could have been acquainted, and which, certainly, set her in no amiable point of view; "though," remarked our dignified hostess, from whom I received this account, "if you, my young friend, are willing to read, and even to copy these memorandums, you will find nothing in these confessions. which can be injurious, in any way, to your mind. only wonder at this, that any lady should have taken pleasure in leaving behind her any memorials of her own errors."

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My father replied, that probably the lady in question left this narrative in somewhat the same spirit in which a benevolent navigator would like to publish an account of an unfortunate voyage-in order to warn others against the rocks and shoals upon which he suffered shipwreck.

"It may be so," replied the old lady, "and if your daughter chooses to read the manuscript, I will deliver it into her hands as soon as we have inspected the house; and she may, if agreeable, retire to her closet to peruse it: for," added she, "it was in that very closet in which it was written, and which, out of respect to the writer, we have left precisely in the state in which we found it; no article having been removed from it since her death.

I could say much of the delight with which I received this permission; but having already said more of myself than I at first intended, I will now withdraw into the back ground, and introduce my readers to other persons more worthy of their notice.

The Memoirs of Matilda Vincent.

"It having pleased the Almighty Ruler of all things to call me, the chief of sinners, to come into his gracious presence, and to receive his free grace and pardon, which were obtained for me by the precious death of his beloved Son, I have thought it right, at an advanced period of my life, lest I should be led impiously to take credit to myself for that which has been wrought for me by God alone, to note down certain circumstances of my life, on which, should my memory fail, I may look, from time to time, and be reminded of those sins of my life, by which I truly deserve to be called the chief of sinners.

"I had my origin from a family of credit in this country. My grandfather, who possessed large estates in this vicinity, with this spacious mansion in which I now dwell, had one son and two daughters. The elder of these daughters, who was my mother, married, and went to reside at a distance; but the second remained at home till my grandfather died and her brother was married, at which time, or soon after, she was united to one in very low circumstances, who presently spent all her property, and left her, but whither he went, or what became of him, was never known. My father left his wife shortly after my birth, and my mother did not long survive his desertion of her, in consequence of which I became a needy orphan in early infancy. I was not, however, suffered to know pecuniary distress-for my uncle came in his coach-and-six, and brought me with my nurse home to his house, and there I remained till I married.

"The modes of education then were very different to what they are now. Boarding-schools were little frequented, and the governesses appointed to take care of young ladies at home were little better than upper servants. However, my uncle did for me as for his own offspring, for he had but one child, a daughter, about my own age. We were brought up together in one nursery till our days of babyhood were expired, and then, as my aunt was dead, (for she died soon after the birth of her daughter,) we were placed under the care of a governess, who exercised us in needlework and in playing on the harpsichord, a talent but little cultivated in those days.

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