very ill state of health; and his eldest sister, whom he invited to come into the country with him, was not inclined to take upon herself the self-denying duties of a nurse; but the youngest, as soon as she knew of his illness, wrote him an affectionate letter, offering her services; which affected him the more, as he said, because her property gave her ample means of seeking pleasure any where. She prepared the house for his reception; and when he arrived, and stepped out of the carriage, pale, feeble, and emaciated, and she tenderly assisting him, it was, as you may suppose, a time of weeping to us all. His health is now much improved, and he is very grateful for her unremitting attentions. When I was last there, and she brought him some refreshment on returning from his ride, he said, 'She is still, in your language, heaping coals of fire on my head; but she covers them so with the asbestos of kindness, that I do not feel them burn.'

"But we are just come to the entrance into the grounds, Sir; and I will, if you please, ride forward and announce you."

No one wished to prevent this; and the worthy man was soon out of sight, and had a few minutes to tell Miss Rashleigh of the congenial character of her expected guests. Neither she nor her brother had quite forgotten Mr. D'Arcy, though he only spent a day with them when they were quite children, for they long spoke of him as " that kind gentleman ;" and to possess, generally, the affection of children, is no bad test of benevolence.

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Though the steward had merely mentioned to Mr. R. the name of the visitors, he soon discovered what sort of persons they were, and after their departure, said to his sister, There is something peculiar, Emily, about you religious people; you have some mysterious bond of sympathy, some instinct of friendship, affection, and benevolence, some warmth of heart, of a very different temperature from this cold world. You met the D'Arcy's nearly as strangers, and in a few hours you parted, with mutual embraces and expressions of regard, as old and attached friends. I should have thought it was only a kind of party feeling, of sectarian attachment, if it had not been, that the overflowings of their benevolence extended to me also; for they were so solicitous about my health, so anxious to recommend what would be beneficial to me, so apparently sincere in their wish that I would visit them, to try change of air; and Mr. D'Arcy's religious observations to me, notwithstanding the enthusiasm which tinctured them, were evidently designed to promote what he considered necessary to my future safety. Then their motives for going to reside in so undesirable a country as Ireland, when they might live in splendour at home; their reasons for refusing to spend a day or two with us, to which they were evidently much inclined, all relating to inconveniences and disappointments which others might suffer; taking into consideration even the extra fatigue of their servants, and increased labour of their horses; all evinced that a disinterested desire to promote the hap

K

piness of others was their prevailing motive, as I know it is yours."

Above

"It is no mysterious bond of union, my dear Henry, but a simple and rational one, similar to that in which all attachments originate, only that the sources of Christian affection are purer and more elevated. These sources are, moral excellence, sympathy of feeling, oneness of interests, and the expectation of dwelling together in the same happy and eternal home. all, devotedness to the same adorable Benefactor and Redeemer, grateful love to whom produces what you call the overflowings of benevolence to all men, a wish to make every creature happy. Can you not believe that such a disposition is indispensably necessary, if we would enter into the society of heaven? and that if it were universal here, it would bring paradise again upon earth ?"

CHAPTER XII.

SELF-LOVE, AND PROPER PRIDE.

THE Conversation of the travellers naturally turned on the character and circumstances of the family they had just quitted, and Mrs. Cecil afterwards said, “ Mr. Rashleigh's mistaken charity brought to my remembrance some opinions I have met with in pious writers, respecting self-love, where it is either entirely condemned as a motive of action, or confounded with selfishness."

'Yes, I have often noticed this error. Those writers have treated self-love as an evil spirit, which must be exorcised and cast out, rather than an original and necessary principle of our nature, which piety, in proportion as it prevails, will restore to its primitive state, when it was quite in harmony with supreme love to God, and universal benevolence to man."

"And so far is it," said Mrs. Cecil, "from being the same thing as selfishness, that a regard to our own true happiness, which is real self-love, will lead us perpetually to practise self-denial."

"It will; and where men have no higher motive, it is very useful as a restraint upon vice, and thus becomes the source of much human happiness. When enlight

ened by knowledge, and under the influence of reason, it causes the future to predominate over the present, and leads mankind to prefer the solid advantages of life to the immediate gratification of passion. It also induces many benevolent actions, in expectation of the recompense of gratitude, or the rewards of fame. But self-love has not sufficient energy to overcome strong and sudden temptations to evil, nor to resist a prevailing sin, which brings little discredit; nor will it pervade and regulate all our conduct in the intercourse of life. The hopes by which it is inspired must be visible, if distant, for self-love has no faith, and affords no security for those virtues which do not bear the full promise of an earthly reward."

"Then you think self-love innocent and useful, as the secondary motive of our actions?"

Assuredly I do. It appears to me that Scripture no less than reason sanctions this view of it; for, while obedience to God is enforced from love to him, it is also pressed upon us from regard to our own happiness here, and to an everlasting reward in heaven."

"But as there is no danger that we shall love ourselves too little ?" said Eliza, "do you think any particular evil will arise from a mistake on this point?"

"Some evil, my dear Eliza, will arise from all errors in moral and religious sentiment; and this has produced more serious ones than you perhaps imagine. It was from a false view of the nature of the self-denial required by Christianity, that ascetic habits, with all the follies and vices resulting from them, arose in