marry Lord Montgomery?-change your mind now? My dear cousin, you must be out of your senses!"

"No!" she replied, in a melancholy voice; "but I am afraid I have been very hasty―very foolish. Oh, that I had but received this letter sooner!"

"What business has Morton to interfere?" Mr. Gardner was beginning in an angry tone; but he checked himself. It was better to try what kind words and persuasion might do. She was very young, and might still be worked upon; but if Morton should have made an impression on her heart; if, after all, there should have been some love between them-there was the danger! He trembled at the idea.

"You may read it, if you like, cousin William !" said Helen, with simplicity, holding out the letter to her cousin; I think it will convince you, as it has done me, that I ought to give up this engagement."

Mr. Gardner said nothing; but he took the letter with as much appearance of candour as he could assume, and read to himself as follows:

"I know not, my dearest Helen, where this letter may reach you, nor am I sure with what feelings you may receive it; but I cannot refrain from writing to you on a subject which is very

near my heart, and which has caused me, during the last few days, more painful anxiety than I can well describe.

Chancing the other day to meet with an English newspaper of recent date, judge of my astonishment, when a paragraph met my eye, announcing an engagement between you and Lord Montgomery, as likely very soon to take place! My first feeling was that of utter disbelief; but what I have since heard induces me to think that this report is indeed a true one.— If I am mistaken, and it is only one of the many lies which are constantly told, forgive me for all I am going to say, and think nothing of it ;but if you have really formed such an engagement, I entreat you to attend to me for a few moments, and to remember that this letter is dictated by feelings of affection, as warm and disinterested as were ever felt by any human being."

Mr. Gardner paused, and read the last sentence over again. Feelings of affection, as warm and disinterested!-Hum!" He took a

pinch of snuff, and slowly proceeded.

"You know me, Helen; and you know that, dearly as I have loved, I have never deceived you. I have told you of your faults, and lamented them; and more than all have I la

mented that absence of religious principle-of that love of God within you, to which (had you possessed it) I could have safely trusted you through all the trials and temptations this world can produce. Alas! if you had that one Rock to lean against, you would need no advice, no warning of mine; you would fear no evil!' But you have it not; and therefore it is that I now write to you.

"I know your character, and the ease with which you are led, especially by those you love. You are open to flattery, too, and you are more apt to delude yourself than perhaps any one I know. In the engagement you have formed, have you been influenced by no ambitious friend? have you been led by none but pure and good motives yourself? Ask yourself this question in all sincerity; and if you cannot answer it satisfactorily, pause, before you take a step, which, when once taken, can never be retracted.

"I have seen Lord Montgomery-I know something of his character, and have heard a good deal more. I need not say that I do not believe all I have heard, nor would it be for me to speak of it to you; but I know enough to make me ardently wish, that you should reflect well before you become his wife. Do you admire him, as you should admire one, for whom

you will have to give up all others? Do you respect him, as you should respect one, to whom you are to look for advice, for assistance, and for support? Do you love him, as you should love one, with whom you are to walk through life, and should hope to dwell through eternity? If you do, then I have no more to say. You have every prospect of being happy; and my most fervent prayers that you may be so!"

"Come," thought Mr. Gardner, "there is no love at present. But he is cunning enough to put the dry arguments first, and reserve all that for the end." Another pinch of snuff, and he resumed:

"But if, on the other hand, you have been induced by motives of ambition, or by the persuasion of others, to make this engagement, I again entreat of you to pause. Do not imagine that grandeur and riches can make you happy. Believe me, dear child, you have been happier without, than you can ever be with them. They may please for a time, but they will soon tire you; and though the pleasures they produce will fade away, the temptations and dangers inseparable from them will rather increase.Young, beautiful, and elevated above the crowd, you will be surrounded by flatterers, ready to ensnare your heart; that heart-not your hus

H

band's, as it should be,-that heart, so formed for love! And what safeguard will you have? Oh, Helen! be warned in time.

"It is always, depend upon it, a perilous thing for a woman to marry a man much older than herself; unless she is indeed very certain that he has excited in her bosom feelings of love which no other human being could excite; and unless she can look up to him with a more exalted feeling of esteem, than she ever entertained for any other character. You may believe one who has lived long enough to have some experience in these matters. I have known several matches, where there has been a considerable disparity of years, and I do not hesitate to say, that the greater number have turned out unhappily;-and it must necessarily be so. In order to secure happiness in married life, there must be something like similarity of taste and feeling,-some sort of companionship, in short, between the two. Each should be able to sympathize with, and share the enjoyments of each; and the sufferings and infirmities of age should not overtake the one, before the other is sufficiently sobered to be able to comprehend, and therefore to alleviate them. Now, the tastes and feelings, as well as the pursuits of youth, are not like those of age; and however