He chose the most pathetic psalms, and chapters from the book of Job, and read them aloud to his maid, as applicable to his own case; and when she, moved with compassion for the innocent sufferer, expressed aloud her pity for him, he told her with quiet, unquestioning submission, that all God's children must suffer affliction.

An aged guide of souls has declared it as his experience, that to the young death is but like passing from one room to another. Το this child the angels that were to convey him to Abraham's bosom, dispelled with their brightness the darkness of the transit. A writer, who himself has had bitter experience of the subject of which he treats, refers to a solemn passage of De Quincey, relating to the solitude which seems to be, sooner or later, appointed for us all. Applying this grave thought to the case of a young child, he continues, but only to think of that sweet little soul, left to meet death alone! Snatched from life, from mother, sisters, brothers, and all the charms of existence! He is driving out now through the dear scenes that he loves, but next week he will have to travel alone beyond the stars into eternity.' It may be that some dim idea of this loneliness stirring in him, caused this dear child with passionate pleadings to beseech those who tended him to die with him; for he said he knew he should not live. For six days he languished in great suffering; but the day before his death he called his father to him, and, in a more serious manner than usual, told him, that for all he loved him so dearly, he should give his house, and land, and all his fine things to his brother Jack; for he should have none of them. He sought the prayers of those around him. ... So in pious breathings his soul passed away, to follow 'the child Jesus, that Lamb of God, in a white robe, whithersoever he goeth.' His death occurred on the 27th of January; it was not until the 14th of February that Evelyn communicated his loss to Sir Richard Browne, and this loss was followed seven weeks later by the death of the youngest child George.

The merciful severity of her language, and the prominence given to the religious element in the education of her children, were quite in accordance with the tone of thought which prevailed amongst the more excellent of her century. Religious instruction, far from being confined to a stated lesson imparted in a short hour spared from accomplishments, was the ground-work on which the whole system rested. Habits of self-restraint were early enforced, and a deep sense of moral responsibility inculcated; for a careless, thoughtless childhood was not by these guides of youth held a meet preparation for a godly and Christian life.

The whole system of early training, at this time, tended strongly to eradicate that frivolity of temper, and unreality of tone, which stunt so fatally the growth of all moral and mental excellence. On the other hand, it especially fostered that childlike spirit that wins its way into the Kingdom of Heaven. But severity did not necessarily include harshness, even if sometimes.it unfortunately assumed that form. Children, though permitted less familiarity of address than at present, were, perhaps, admitted to still more constant intercourse with their parents.

In Evelyn's time, it is true, 'colleges of young gentlewomen,' as he termed them, existed in the environs of London. But generally female education was not only conducted at home, but the mother was herself the chief instructor there. For, though accepting assistance from other sources, she was not content to depute her highest duty wholly to the hands of another. It was by their mother, then, that the young daughters were instructed in the household duties. And, whilst in these and in her works of charity they contributed their aid, she led and joined in their devotions. In one instance, an oratory was added to the nursery for this purpose. Thus at the rising of the sun, and the going down thereof, the incense of praise, and the pure offering of infant lips ascended an acceptable sacrifice on high.

Amongst those holy homes where religion was nurtured, and virtue throve, must be numbered that of the Evelyns. Here, as time wore on, the gaps which death had made were mercifully filled up again, and an example of a Christian family was afforded to a degenerate age. Hence one of its members briefly but forcibly described it, as 'this home, where we serve God above all things.'

But, beside the wide circle of their acquaintance having connected them with some of the most noteworthy personages of their day, the minuteness of detail into which Evelyn in his 'Diary' has entered, admits us into a familiarity with the inmates of Sayes Court, hardly to be obtained from more elaborate biographies.

And it is as presenting a pleasing picture of an English home that it is offered in illustration of domestic life of the seventeenth century. What Mrs. Evelyn's idea of a woman's duty was, and that to which her own practice conformed, she in a few words has told us. She considered 'the care of children's education, observing a husband's commands, assisting the sick, relieving the poor, and being serviceable to her friends, of sufficient weight to employ the most improved capacities.'

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ELIZABETH SADLER-WIFE OF REV. DR. WALKER.

From her childhood Elizabeth Sadler had been of a grave and thoughtful disposition. She was intrusted by her mother as her little housekeeper, and her father, with whom she was an especial favorite, would not even examine the accounts she kept for him, so assured was he of her accuracy, and her prudent expenditure. In infancy her health had been impaired, in consequence of having been half starved by the nurse, with whom she had been placed in the country. The ailing body dimmed the luster of the soul within, and lent a tinge of melancholy to her early years; which, as she grew older, deepened into darker dejection. I was,' she says, 'of a pensive nature-God saw it good that I should bear the yoke in my youth.' Childish thoughts weighed upon her memory as though they had been crimes of deepest dye. She records, though with gratitude for her deliverance, how having been once sent by her mother to her store-room for some fruit, she took up an apple 'good for food, and pleasant to the eyes,' but before even raising it to her lips, she recognized the fault to which she was tempted, and laid it down again untasted. On another occasion, when her father reproved her for an improper expression which she had been reported to him. as having employed in a moment of anger, in the agony of shame and remorse, aroused by his rebuke, she denied the offense with which she was charged. Deep was her repentance, and unfeigned her abhorrence of this falsehood, into which she had been betrayed. Even in after years it was bewailed exceedingly; and never again to her dying day was her lips sullied by an untruth. But the mind. on which failings like these weighed with the sense of heavy guilt was, if in a state of innocence, not in a state of health. Thus predisposed, when mental trials of a peculiar nature assailed her, she fell a helpless victim beneath their power.

Her father was of good family in Stratfordshire, who entered in business for himself at the age of twenty-one, as a druggist, in London, and attained wealth. Of his country tastes, her father had always retained a great love of flowers. His shop was filled with plants in bloom, cheering his eye in the intervals of business; and at times these treasures were transferred to the parlor windows above. Thither his unhappy daughter would steal to refresh her weary soul with their 'calm loveliness;' and, gazing one day on a Chalcedon Iris, full of the impresses of God's curious workmanship,' her heart was suddenly lifted in adoring gratitude to Him who had so clothed it with beauty. The Ancient Mariner' was not

more instantly relieved of his accursed burden when the words of blessing broke from his lips, than she in that hour from the blank wretchedness of Atheism. But the confusion of her thoughts and the tumult of fancy continued. Sleep forsook her. For six months she was never conscious that she slept. Her tears became her meat day and night, for even in taking necessary nourishment she feared to permit herself some sinful gratification.

Becoming alarmed for her health, her father tried medical skill without any perceptible benefit. But change of scene and society, and the quiet of the country (at Barnston) restored her to a calm cheerfulness, in which frame of mind she made the acquaintance of Rev. Dr. Walker, of Croydon, who became deeply interested in her case and in herself. On one of his 'consolatory visits,' he found himself alone in her parlor, and whilst he walked up and down there, impatiently expecting her appearance, he opened a large folio Bible that lay upon a desk, when his eyes fell upon the words :'House and riches are inheritance of fathers, and a prudent wife is from the Lord.' He had with carnest prayer sought direction in the step he had been meditating, and with such a confirmation of his purpose, he hesitated no longer. Soon afterward, when he went to buy the wedding-ring, the first which was offered to him had inscribed on it the posy:-'Joined in one, by Christ alone!' He sought no further, and fortunately the ring fitted the lady's finger as perfectly as the motto coincided with his taste. They were married at Hammersmith, in July, 1650.

The morning was

The bride sought omens of her future fate. lowering,' she says, 'with small rain, and very likely to be a wet day, which was uncomfortable, and much troubled me: but, recollecting myself, my thoughts suggested to me, what is the matter for these clouds, if the Sun of Righteousness shine through them on us? I had not got to the water side, and into the boat, but the sun expelled the clouds to my comfort; it broke forth and shined with that vigor and splendor, that to the best of my observation, which had great impression on me, I do not know that the sun disappeared one moment that day, from the first time I saw it, to the going down of it, but was as clear and bright a day as ever my eyes beheld.' The omen promised truly for her future. Our whole married life,' wrote her husband forty years afterward, 'was like the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds, and as clear shining after rain.'

They appear, indeed, to have been entirely happy in each other.

Where they differed, they never disagreed; and, though he sometimes reproved her for maintaining her own opinion too tenaciously, he had the candor to confess that she was generally in the right. And this, though her conclusions were not always based on the orderly chain of reasoning upon which his own proceeded; as in one instance he relates:

She would often come into my study to me, and when I have asked her, what the would have, she would reply, 'Nothing, my dear, but to ask thee how thou doest, and see if thou wantest any thing,' and then, with an endearing smile, would say, 'Dost thou love me?' to which, when I replied, 'Most dearly;' 'I know it abundantly,' she would answer, 'to my comfort, but I love to hear thee tell me so.' And once, when I was adding the reasons of my love, and began, first, for conscience, she stopped me before I could proceed, as she was very quick: Ah, my dear, I allow conscience to be an excellent principle in all we do, but like it worst in conjugal affection. I would have thee love me, not because thou must, but because thou wilt, not as a duty, but delight. We are prone to reluctate against what is imposed, but take pleasure in what we choose.'

From autobiographical memoranda kept by herself, and not seen by any eye but her own during her life, her husband compiled a memoir of Mrs. Walker after her death, from which this brief abstract is taken :

An Old-fashioned Christian Woman.

A model to the ladies of her own day, she would hardly meet the standard of modern requirements. Dr. Walker, it is true, endowed a free school at Fyfield, so that there was not one child untaught in the parish. Yet it was to her own children that Mrs. Walker was especially sedulous in imparting Christian principles and useful accomplishments. She theorized, it may be, but little upon the want of thrift and management amongst the lower orders, but her own house was ruled with diligence, and her servants vigilantly superintended. For she both directed and instructed her maids in 'cookery, brewing, baking, dairy, ordering linen, in which her neatness was curious, and such like.' Her system of almsgiving may not have been very elaborate in its arrangement, but she would rise in the night to assist a neighbor in sickness. She made herself feared as well as loved. Madam Walker, standing up in her pew to frown down whisperers in the sermon, struck awe into the souls of her husband's parishionBut as many prayers were offered for her by them, as though, to use their own words, 'she was a queen.' Brought up as she had been in a town, the control of a country ménage would, it was augured by her friends, be likely to fail in her hands. But, neither despising the difficulties that awaited her, nor despairing of overcoming them, she soon mastered all the necessary details of her duties, and belied the unfavorable previsions that had been formed.

ers.

The early dawn found her engaged in prayer, and after this dedication of the day to God, at six o'clock she called her maids, heard them read a chapter in the Bible, and then herself superintended their labors; for 'though she was neither her own cook, nor dairy-maid, yet was she always clerk of her little kitchen.' She afterward occupied herself with her needle until the hour of family prayer, at which all the laborers on the farm, as well as the household servants, were assembled; and, if any worked by the piece instead of the day,