my imagination more and more, and shewed itself in more hideous colours. What! I said to myself, does this miserable woman so utterly despise God's denunciations of everlasting woe to drunkards, as to think that she cannot sufficiently prove her contempt for them by merely transgressing the divine command, but she must do it on the very day which God has hallowed for himself? Is she not content, as others are, to cover her crime with darkness from the eyes of men at least; (for the darkness is no darkness to God; to him darkness and light are both the same) but must she come forth, bold and shameless before the light of God's sun, and challenge the public gaze? To intoxicate herself on a week-day is, it seems, to her too simple and poor a wickedness; too like the common wickedness of frail and sinful men; she does it on the Sabbath; aye, on the Sabbath-morn, lest any particle of the holy day might admit of a holy thought. Whilst the very bells are chiming for church, and the people with their minister on the way, she braves them all; that is the moment which she chooses for shewing herself abroad, undaunted and unaffected by the hallowed sounds, or by any consideration of the holy work which is about to begin. But God forbid that I should not pray for her soul, which she seems so eagerly bent to destroy! She herself, perchance, knows not how to pray, even in a sober moment. But, if she does, will God, in his justice, permit her ever again to see such a moment? One such moment, with an inclination to spend it in prayer, might be worth a world to her. May he in his mercy grant her many! But that righteous Being might say, I have warned her, and she has taken no heed; it is but now that I struck her neighbour by her own husband's

hand; and this thoughtless woman lays it not to heart. Nay, so much does she scorn my warnings, that she surpasses her neighbour in the very crime which produced her neighbour's terrible death. She commits the same crime on my holy day of rest and prayer! Shall I not punish with a tenfold wrath? Who will plead for her, or pretend to extenuate an offence like this?""

Here I stopped; for at this moment Mrs. Costar, being quite overpowered by so solemn and terrific an application of God's dealings to her own case, sunk down upon a chair. I had observed, and I was glad to observe it, that for some time she had supported herself with difficulty. From the beginning her eyes had been fixed on the ground; and by degrees her face had been quite averted from mine. Then a trembling seemed to seize her, and her knees, I thought, knocked against each other; and had there not been a chair behind her, she must have fallen to the floor. I now came close to her in her distress, and said immediately in a soothing tone, "I have only been telling you my own reflections, Mrs. Costar, as I went along after I had passed you on that unfortunate day. God has not dealt with you, as I feared he might do. He has been gracious to you, abundantly gracious. You have found some one to plead for you, whom God would not refuse; and so he has granted you time for sorrow, remorse, and repentance, Use it, Mrs. Costar, and entreat your blessed Saviour Jesus Christ to go on interceding for you, and to send his Holy Spirit to help you."

She was unable to make me any reply. She sat with her elbow resting upon a table, and she covered her face with her hand. Thus I left her; but, in

passing Mrs. Worsley's door, I mentioned Mrs. Costar's situation, and her probable want of assistance, which Mrs. Worsley promised at once to afford her. I gave her also some little books for their joint perusal, with which the side pocket of my great coat was generally furnished. This being done, I hastened to another quarter, hoping for more occasions of selfcongratulation, and thankfulness to Providence, that a day had not been lost.

§ 3. The White Family, &c.

Nor many days afterwards I was informed that there were several poor persons at my back-door, desirous of speaking with me; which, indeed, was almost daily the case, but I mention this in particular, because when I came to them, the first face which I saw was that of old Mrs. South, and she began immediately to weep, and to complain that she was in great distress. "No wonder, Mrs. South," I said, "you spend in drink, as soon as you get it, what should be kept to buy bread and fuel in time of need." Upon this she appealed to a woman standing by her side, as Mrs. Costar had done to Mrs. Worsley, to testify for her that the reports of her drunkenness were all false. So I turned to this woman, and begged that she would not speak upon the matter at all; “ for, if you tell a lie," I said," you will make God your enemy; and if you tell the truth, the wicked old woman here will never cease to persecute you." Then turning again to Mrs. South, I said, "If your tears are counterfeit,

VOL. III.

M

which I rather suspect, it is not fit that you should profit by them; and, indeed, they will only lead me to have the worse opinion of you. But should they be real tears, and forced from you by want, you know where to go for relief; you are close to your own parish, where you may be taken care of according to the merciful laws of your country. If y you cry because I am angry with you, you know how to recover my favour, which will be for your good in every way, At present I shall do nothing for you. If I gave you money, the next pot-house would have it.”

After this I despatched the rest of the cases waiting for me, and at the same time a woman drove up to the court-yard in a chaise-cart, and besought me to grant an order for her husband to be received into the hospital; one of our surgeons having pronounced that a leg must be amputated without delay. It was a Saturday, and not the proper day for admission of inpatients; but the urgency of the circumstances made it necessary to overlook forms; and I must do the managers of the hospital the justice to say, that, if there was room, and the loss of time might be of consequence to the sick person, they were as ready to overlook forms as the subscribers themselves. The order, therefore, adapted to the case, was speedily put into the woman's hands; she mounted her cart, whipped her horse, and was out of sight in a moment. Her whole manner indicated her opinion of the absolute necessity of haste.

The husband of this woman, whose name was White, was reported to be one of the most profligate in my parish. God knows whether this were true. All the low vices of intoxication, fornication, lying, and swearing were as familiar to him, so it was said,

as his every-day clothes; and that he pursued both them, and many others, with a high hand, and without any apparent care for God or devil. Not even the array of a court of justice, and the awful solemnity of an oath, could bind him, they told me, to speak the truth. For a friend arraigned there, (and he had many such,) it seemed as if he would affirm anything, however false and improbable; but his zeal always betrayed him, and he went away constantly branded with some deeper stigma upon his character. Yet he respected or feared me; and he never passed me without the acknowledgment of my office by a bow, although I had compelled him to pay me tithes ; not perhaps what was my due, but enough to excite his hostility. However, I had done him one small favour. He wished to keep a slaughter-house, and when I had ascertained the sentiments of those most nearly concerned, I certified for him, to enable him to do it. Never was there a man, I should think, more fit for such a business. In Utopia he would have been above all value for butchery. His habitation, too, near to the famous cluster, had the same advantage of being out of the public notice, and also out of the way of persons likely to complain of the disagreeable stench which he was about to create. In the end, he added the boiling of bones to his other trade, by which both the quantity and the quality of the stench were grievously augmented.

I had long been desirous of opening an intercourse with this man; but I never saw him except in his chaise-cart, and I did not discover, that, with all the ruddiness of health in his countenance, he had a diseased leg, which for two or three years sioned him at times a great deal of pain.

had occaHe had