I to myself, "It is of use to try, and it was only for want of trying that I did not succeed before." This little incident taught me a better lesson than that I learned in the Delectus, and gave me more delightful feelings than even those awakened by taking a day's pleasure with my uncle. Since that time, I have scarcely ever heard the expression made use of and it not unfrequently proceeds from the lips of persons of a certain cast of character-but my memory has reverted to the incident of my childhood. I have, more than once, repeated it to my young friends, accompanied by some of my good uncle's remarks, offered on that, or on similar occasions.

"I cannot keep awake all sermon time! I assure you, dear sir, I cannot; and it is of no use to try," said a young female, when gently admonished by my uncle on the impropriety of her conduct during public worship. "How is it," asked my uncle, "that you keep awake on other days? I have often heard you at the pianoforte for a much longer time than that of public worship; and you seldom discover indications of drowsiness when the afternoon is spent in cheerful conversation or interesting reading." "Well, sir, I really do not know the reason; but I always am sleepy during sermon time, and I cannot shake it off, try how I will." My dear young friend, let me not offend you if I question the sincerity of your efforts. really think, if you went to the house of God with the full expectation of hearing truths, the most important and interesting, and in which your own personal and everlasting welfare is deeply involved, you would find no more difficulty in keeping up a wakeful attention than you would in reading a

letter from a beloved friend, or in any other pursuit fully congenial to your feelings. It is easy to keep the attention to that upon which the heart is fixed."

Similar remarks my uncle made to persons who complained of a bad memory, and said they could not help it; it was of no use for them to try to remember what they heard in the house of God. "Can you not," he would say, "recollect an engagement of pleasure? Then your memory is quite capable of retaining recollections of the engagements of duty. Do you forget, as soon as you have heard, the particulars of an entertaining story, or the circumstances of a remarkable adventure through which you have passed? It is only to bring home to your own business and bosom the instructions of the sanctuary, or the contents of the sacred volume, and they will be remembered, as they justly claim to be, with as much distinctness and delight."

"I cannot give satisfaction to my employers; it is of no use to try; I am always blamed, do what I will." Such are the frequent complaints of persons in subordinate stations. "Have you learned to obey?" my uncle would inquire. "Among all the methods of pleasing which you say you have tried in vain, have you ever tried this, or if at all, have you tried perseveringly and habitually, to do what you are desired, and when you are desired, and as you are desired? If not, do not charge your employers with unreasonableness and caprice, though they are not pleased with you."

The footman who usually waited at table had gone to see his friends, and, in consequence, one of the housemaids was employed to remove the breakfast things. She placed a tray of china half

on and half off a table, near the door, and returned for a pile of plates. These she placed on the outer side of the tray, already almost on the balance. This additional weight overset the whole concern with a tremendous crash, which quickly brought Mrs. Rogers, and a posse more, to see what was the matter. "Oh, you careless, careless girl!" exclaimed Mrs. Rogers, how could I think of trusting you with the china?" clucking with her tongue against the roof of her mouth, or groaning forth her unavailing lamentations, as she picked up piece by piece of the broken china, and arrested the flowing stream from the cream-pot, which disfigured a yard or more of a handsome new carpet. The author of the mischief stood overwhelmed at the destruction she had occasioned. At length, with sobs that rendered her words almost inarticulate, she replied, "Indeed, ma'am, I was not careless, I minded it all the time; but let me try how I will, I cannot help doing mischief; I am sure I am fated to it; and it is of no use to try."

My uncle, not fully entering into Mrs. Rogers's distresses and lamentations, though of course not pleased at the waste and destruction of his property, took occasion to correct the foolish notion of the poor girl, and endeavoured to convince her that her misfortunes resulted, not from any fatality, but from her own frequent transgressions of the laws of common sense. "If," said my uncle, "you were to stand on one foot, at the edge of a precipice, it is more than probable you would fall over, especially if you attempted to hold in your hands a heavy weight: and how could you expect the teaboard to stand, when you placed it in just as dangerous a situation? A heavy body will always

You know it is so with

weigh down a light one. a pair of scales. For that reason, whenever you set anything out of your hand, take care that you set it on something solid enough to bear it. If the stand or table is not large enough to take the whole size of the article you wish to place upon it, put the middle of one to the middle of the other, so that the tray, or whatever else it may be, shall project half a foot on each side, rather than a foot on one side. If the tray also is loaded, see that the heaviest part of its load is on the middle. Now, mind;" (here my uncle goodnaturedly showed her what he meant ;) if you had thus placed the tray straight on the middle of the stand,-instead of putting it on cornerwise, with one large corner off; and if, when you brought the heavy pile of plates, you had put them on the middle of the board-instead of putting them on the corner, more than half off the table, by which their weight naturally tilted down the whole, there was no fatality that could have caused this accident. Use your own reason and judgment, attend to the instructions you receive, and endeavour to make yourself familiar with the reasons why one method is safer and better than another, and you will seldom occasion such mischievous accidents as this. But let me tell you, that it is sinful, as well as foolish, to talk about being fated to do wrong, either in little matters or great. This is charging our follies upon God; and, if you indulge a habit, in trifling things, of saying, I cannot help doing wrong,' It is of no use to try to do right,' 'Misfortunes will happen to me,' and many other such foolish sayings, I am afraid will apply the same sort of unreasonable reasoning to things

you

of the greatest moment; that you will sin against God, and ruin your own soul, and imagine that you cannot help it, you are fated to it, and it is of no use to try to avert it. But, in either case, these foolish excuses will neither do away the blame of neglect or misconduct, nor prevent the unhappy results."

"I cannot learn this new way, sir, and it is of no use to try: so I hope you will be so kind as to find me some other sort of employment." So said Simon Smith, on his return from a fruitless attempt to be initiated into a system of adult teachmg. The said Simon was a shoemaker by trade, but as he never could learn (or rather, never did learn) the art of measuring accurately, his shelves were generally stocked with "misfits," which he was obliged to sell at reduced prices; generally when he was distressed for ready money, in consequence of some new failure in satisfactorily accomplishing an order, on the payment for which he had calculated for the support of his family, or the purchase of materials. The patience of

customers was wearied out by the vexation of always having their shoes brought home, either too long or too short, too narrow or too wide; and one after another dropped off, till poor Simon and his family were often at their wit's end for subsistence and, at last, the whole stock of misfits was sold off to pay the rent. Simon had always been rather of a reading turn. The neighbours reckoned him a great scholar and as he sometimes put into rhyme a few verses of Scripture, or gave the rhyme of other people a fresh measure and connexion, he was, moreover, reputed 'something considerable of a poet." As the shoe

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