right to build what he pleased on his four acres, as my uncle had on his four hundred; and he would not be dictated to by the greatest lord in the land.

"A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger," Prov. xv. 1. Uncle Barnaby adopted the former method of dealing with his angry neighbour, and its efficacy was fully proved. After a little conversation, Mr. Barnard declared that he had not originally the least intention of giving offence to his old and highly respected neighbour, and should never have thought of doing a spiteful thing, but for the message he received, daring him to execute his purpose, and threatening him that if he did, my uncle would be a match for him. Thus all the strife had arisen from the interference of the impertinent, meddling captain. The matter was soon amicably adjusted; at every stage of the building my uncle's taste and wishes were consulted. Frank was requested to furnish a design, and the building was so constructed as really to form a new object of beauty and interest in the view from the hall; and when completed, was occupied by a family who proved a valuable addition to Uncle Barnaby's circle of society.

"If I were you," said one poor woman to her neighbour, who had set one of her little girls to sweep the house, and the other to wash the dishes, "if I were you, I would ten to one rather do those things myself. You would find it much less trouble than teaching the children to do them."

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And if I were you," said another neighbour, addressing herself to the first speaker, “I would

make my girls work, and have a little rest myself. I have no notion of a mother slaving herself as you do, while her great girls are dressed up like fine ladies, to sit and do nothing."

be so.

"I do not agree with either of you," said the mother whose employment of her children led to the remark. "I do not set my girls to work for the sake of sparing myself, or because I consider it less trouble; but because I think it is a duty I owe to my children, while I am with them, to teach them how to do useful things, that they may not be ignorant and helpless when they have to shift for themselves. Perhaps it may be more trouble to me at first, to stand by them and make them do things properly; but it will not always In a little time they will be able really to help me, and then I shall be able with satisfaction to rest myself, if my strength should fail, or to employ myself about something else that may be for the good of all the family. So what is good for one, in the long run proves good for all." "That woman has some sense in her," said my uncle; she acts upon sound and judicious principles; not upon what others would do or suggest, or upon what she imagines she should do, if she were in the place of others; but upon what she perceives to be the line of present duty, and with a proper concern to qualify herself and those intrusted to her care, for the due discharge of the duties of future life."

"I think, uncle," said Frank, "that they are almost always silly people who have a habit of saying, 'If I were you.'

"I think they are, Frank: at least, it is a very silly phrase, and it is a pity if sensible people

adopt it. In the first place, they seem to lose sight of the identity of character. Circumstances elicit character, but they do not originate it. Could we change situations with the person to whom we address the phrase, both would still discover the same leading bent of character. If I were myself in your circumstances, I might act differently from what you do; for I should act upon my present principles; but if I were you, I should act exactly as you act yourself. recollect the reply of Alexander to Parmenio?"

You

As the anecdote, though well known, was then new to me, Frank kindly repeated it. When Darius, king of Persia, offered to Alexander all the country west of the Euphrates, with his daughter Statira in marriage, and ten thousand talents of gold, Parmenio, a favourite general in the army of the conquering monarch, took occasion to say, that if he were Alexander, he would, without hesitation, accept the terms of Darius. "And so would I," replied Alexander, “if I were Parmenio."

Alexander," said my uncle, " could not divest himself of his purpose of entire and absolute conquest; that was the one determination of his soul, and he must divest himself of himself before he could accept any thing short of it, however advantageous and ample it might appear to another person who had not his mind. Scripture affords us some fine parallels, but on nobler principles than those of Alexander. When David once and again had his bitter enemy and persecutor Saul completely in his power, those around urged him to improve the opportunity to rid himself of his adversary, and make way for his ow

promised advancement. The suggestions of David's followers were precisely in the spirit of If I were you;' but in David there was another spirit-a spirit derived from a nobler and holier source; and he said, 'The Lord forbid that I should do this thing unto my master, the Lord's anointed, to stretch forth mine hand against him,' 1 Sam. xxiv. 6; xxvi. 9. When Paul, on his progress to Jerusalem, received the prophetic intimation, that bonds and imprisonment awaited him, his friends, measuring his zeal by their own more ordinary standard, besought him not to go up to Jerusalem; but he replied, with a heroism of which Alexander was incapable, 'What mean ye to weep and to break mine heart? for I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus,' Acts xxi. 11— 13. A person possessing decision of character has a standard of his own, which the generality of people cannot at all understand; and it is supposing an absurdity to talk of what he would do in their place, or what they would do in his."

"Do you not think, uncle, that those who use the phrase are generally people of a meddlesome disposition, who look more after other people's business than their own?"

"Yes, Frank, that is almost universally the case. They are eagle-eyed to discern the duties and failures of other people, but blind as moles or bats to their own. It is soothing to our selfcomplacency to imagine, that if we were differently situated, we should act better than we now do, and better than others do who are in the circumstances we contemplate. Then, too, when we are disposed to say, 'If I were you;' 'or, If I

were he, I should do so and so,' it would be well to recollect that we cannot form an accurate idea of what the circumstances of another person really are, and therefore a judgment founded upon them will, in all probability, be erroneous, and lead to a train of injurious practical results. Instead of vainly speculating what another ought to do, and what we should do in his place, it would be well for us to listen to our Saviour's voice, What is that to thee? follow thou me,' John xxi. 22.

"The phrase is objectionable, as it is generally indicative of a disposition to compare our conduct with that of others, instead of the perfect and unvarying rule of duty. This lowering of the standard infallibly leads to deterioration of character. No man reaches higher than he aims; and if, instead of aiming at what is positively right, and what the Lord our God requires of us, we content ourselves with being a little better than others,' we are likely rapidly to descend in the scale of morals to 'as good,' 'nearly as good,' 'not much worse,' 'bad,' very bad indeed.'

Oh

"As we have begun talking about this silly phrase, we must not dismiss it without remarking that it is seldom unaccompanied by a spirit of envy. If I were you,' generally means, that I were you!' or rather, 'Oh that I possessed your advantageous circumstances !' Absalom's vain and insinuating professions of what he would do, if he were judge, or king, was an indication of his coveting the crown, and a preliminary step to his conspiracy to obtain it, 2 Sam. xv. 3, 4. A disposition to be content with such things as we have, and to do our duty in that state of life in which it has pleased God to call us, would

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