abilities; and, like some of the weaker animals, they learn to make up in cunning what they want in strength and courage; and thus a lad, who, perhaps, prides himself on his frankness, generosity, and honour, forms a host of servile imitators to characters of meanness and artifice."

"Yes, uncle," replied Frank; "I have seen something of this in the influence of my schoolfellow. Though he is reckoned a hero himself, his satellites are generally mean-spirited, cringing, and cowardly. And though he generally comes off himself with flying colours, he often leads others into terrible scrapes. I do not mean ungenerously on his part; but merely as he stimulates them by his example. I wish he could be induced to consider the real consequence of his exploits, both on himself and others; and then, I think, he would not be so ready to say, 'I don't care.'"

"Do not imagine," said Mrs. Mortimer, "that all the mischief, or all the hardihood of youth, is confined to the nobler sex. I can assure you, school girls have quite as much of it in their way. The challenge may often be heard among them, as applied to some transgression of the established laws of the school, Dare you do so and so? I dare.' I sometimes smile to recollect the serious tone and manner with which a steady, little, oldfashioned girl used to reply,

'I dare do all that may become a man,
Who dares do more, is none.'

Perhaps there was a degree of pomposity in the appropriation of the phraseology; but it would be well for school girls, and school boys too, if their

daring were kept within the range of the sentiment. Then, there was a ditty in vogue among school girls in my day, which seems to intimate that Don't care' is a phrase adopted by those who practise eye service. I am afraid it is so, whether among pupils or servants. It is this,

"I think," said my uncle, "Don't care is often used as an expression of contempt of delegated authority. I have known servants, who, though they would receive with all obsequiousness the direct command of a master, would spurn at the same command, if communicated through the medium of a fellow servant, and say, 'I don't care for him.'"

I recollected having frequently heard one of my schoolfellows say, "I don't care for him; he is only an usher" who looked upon as it quite another thing, if it could be said to him, "But himself says, You must do it; or, Leave

Mr.

off doing it."

"Ah," said my uncle, "that is a very common error. People forget that by their contempt of any legitimate authority, however subordinate, they contemn the source of power, however exalted. A loyal subject of any state dare not indulge a perverse or contemptuous spirit against the meanest officer, who is the representative of the sovereign. And in families and schools, as well as states, the Christian law is, 'Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.

Whosoever, therefore, resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist, shall receive to themselves damnation,' Rom. xiii. 1, 2. Do not you think, Samuel, that this makes it a serious offence, to despise any who, in the providence of God, are set over us?"

"Yes, indeed, it does, uncle. I think my schoolfellow cannot know this, or cannot have thought of it, or he would not dare to say that he does not care for anybody but the master."

"I have known some young people indulge, and even express, as rebellious and contemptuous a spirit against their parents, whose authority certainly comes next to that of God. I can think, at this moment, of at least two young persons, who, when the choice of their society, or the change of a situation, or the selection of a partner for life, was under discussion, on being admonished, But your parents will not approve of it,' have replied in the spirit, if not in the very words, 'I don't care for that; I am old enough now to be my own master. I shall choose for myself, and do as I please.'

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"And, uncle, what became of them?"

"You may well ask, Samuel, as if you were afraid to hear. I could tell you melancholy tales of the consequences resulting from filial irreverence and disobedience; but I cannot tell you of one young person who did not care for the wishes, the feelings, and the counsels of his parents, on whom the blessing of God was seen to rest; or who became, in any respect, eminent and honourable."

In the course of the conversation, Mrs. Mortimer remarked, that the phrase, “I don't care," was often used as the expression of foolhardiness.

She mentioned a fine young man, with whom Mr. Mortimer was acquainted, who was in the habit of exposing his health in the most reckless and un、 called-for manner, in defiance of all admonition and remonstrance. On one occasion, rather from a spirit of bravado, than from any real occasion to go at that particular time, he would set off to walk several miles, over a bleak, unsheltered common, in the midst of pouring rain. His friends in vain endeavoured to dissuade him. He said, he did not care for being wet through; nothing ever hurt him. Some one present reminded him of the homely adage, "The pitcher may go often to the well, and be broken at last." He derided the warning, but he verified it: for in that rash expedition he caught a violent cold, which settled on his lungs, and soon wasted his strength, and brought him down to the grave. During his illness, he felt and acknowledged his foolhardiness to have been a great sin, and trembled at having to answer for the guilt of throwing away his life for a vain bravado.

My uncle mentioned another lamentable instance of the fatal results of foolhardiness. A youth, on being placed apprentice to a druggist, received from his master repeated cautions, (rendered especially necessary by the inflammable nature of many substances continually employed in their business,) to be very careful of fire; never to go into certain parts of the warehouse with a lighted candle; never to neglect snuffing a candle, lest a spark should fall from the overgrown snuff; and whatever other cautions he considered requisite. The youth was for a time observant of his master's orders; but, by degrees, he became remiss

:

and careless and, not unfrequently, when reminded by a fellow servant, that he was transgressing the master's injunction, and admonished of the danger, he would reply, "Nonsense! What do I care for that? There is no danger at all: I have done it scores of times, and no harm ever came of it." Poor fellow! he did it once too often; for, in consequence of his carelessness and presumption, in the very matters in which he had been so often warned, his master's house was burned down, and several lives were lost, including his own.

The like presumption is often seen in trifling with moral danger. "Oh," says the thoughtless youth, "there is no danger, no harm in it; I have done it many times, and I am none the worse for it:" and so, "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil," Eccles. viii. 11, and they flatter themselves that there is no evil in sin.

"I don't care what it costs." "That," observed Mrs. Mortimer, "is no uncommon phrase. I think, uncle, you have often been vexed to hear it."

"Yes; indeed I have. Horses, carriages, paintings, whatever he saw and fancied, was ordered home without consideration. If his poor, meek, pensive wife presumed to ask, 'But what will it cost? Is it not too expensive? Can we afford to have it?' she only got some rude reply- Mind your own affairs,'-and, perhaps, 'I don't care what it costs; I am determined to have it, let it cost what it will. What it costs is of no consequence

*Though my uncle did not name the party of whom he spoke, there is no doubt he alluded to the Captain.