even high wages. Whether a man can be a hero, without appearing so to his servant, or not, he must be benevolent in his eyes, or he is not so at all."

As Sophia was one day showing her father some beautiful engravings, which had been lent her to copy, he recognised, in what Sophia called a "paradisaical cottage," a scene which he had once visited in the county of

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Though this," said he, "is an admirable sketch, it will enable you to form but an imperfect idea of the exquisite beauty of the cottage itself, its situation, and the surrounding grounds; yet it was not a Paradise' to the possessor, for it was the palace of selfishness. The lady, by whose taste the whole was planned, had been trained in the school of extreme indulgence, the best possible school of selfishness, and appeared to consider that money need not to be devoted to any other purpose than that of self-gratification. She early evinced great sensibility to the beauties of nature, and a fondness for gardening, laying out all her pocketmoney in rare plants and flowers, and occupying innumerable hours of vacant thought in imaginary creations of gardens, lawns, and bowers, of surpassing beauty, in which the exhibition of her taste would receive the tribute of universal admiration.

"She had no means, however, of realizing these reveries until the meridian of life, when the death of a rather elderly husband, who left her without family, and in the possession of handsome property, enabled her to gratify these long-cherished tastes.

Happening to visit a watering-place, she was struck with the fine situation of the spot which now forms the site of this cottage, and purchased it. Her house and grounds are quite a scene of enchantment; uniting all that is beautiful in nature, with the most splendid decorations of art. Fragrant creepers twine round every porch, and roses enwreath every pillar; marble halls and staircases lead to saloons, multiplied and reflected in gilded mirrors, and opening into conservatories, where fountains sparkle amidst the varied foliage and glowing hues of plants from every clime.

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But all this was not produced in an hour; nature, still more intractable than living agents, could neither be bribed nor threatened to expedite her work, and bring Mrs. B.'s idol-cottage and gardens to perfection with the rapidity her impatience desired. At length, however, her shrubberies grew into luxuriance; her lawns were gemmed with flowers, her grottoes lined with radiant shells; her artificial rocks embroidered with appropriate plants, and her summer walks canopied with roses and woodbines. Innumerable visitors were attracted, and Mrs. B. found, that one gratification of self was opposed to another; her vanity must suffer loss, if visitors were excluded, or she must become half banished from the scenes of beauty she had raised around her. She sighed to think she had less enjoyment of it than strangers.

"From their gratification she derived no pleasure; therefore, when praises often repeated lost their stimulus, she determined altogether to exclude these intruders upon her privacy, and fully enjoy her own work. But still,

vexations were not banished; blights fell upon the early blossoms, and there were worms in the heart of the roses. She wanted some one to sympathize in her disappointments, approve her plans, and admire her taste; and now, for the first time, she thought she would offer a home to the amiable daughter of a near relative, who had been left in very needy circumstances, by the recent death of both her parents.

"Miss B. gladly accepted the invitation; and having heard much more of the beauties of her cousin's cottage than of the character of its possessor, which she inferred from this disinterested kindness to herself was a truly benevolent one, came to her new abode with high expectations of happiness. She soon, however, found that peace could only be secured by the exercise of perpetual self-denial in every thing which in the least interfered with the pursuits, the prejudices, or the fancies of Mrs. B. Her own desire to promote the enjoyment of others, even if the claims of gratitude had not been superadded, would have led her to endeavour to enter with interest into the tastes of her benefactress, for she knew how much the comfort of life is promoted by sympathy with the innocent pleasures of those with whom we live. Her benevolence was the result of genuine piety, and therefore it was not capricious and occasional, but consistent and universal; and as she soon perceived that Mrs. B. had no idea she was sent into the world for any higher purpose than to please herself, she anxiously endeavoured to secure an interest in her affections, in order to recommend more forcibly the only prin

ciple of true happiness and anti-selfishness, faith in the Redeemer, which 'works by love, and purifies the heart.'

“But Mrs. B. was untouched by all the kind and assiduous attentions of her young companion, who often unwittingly offended; for the former evinced the tyranny of selfishness to such a degree, that

It was

she would not tolerate in another the most innocent tastes not entirely in accordance with her own; and when Miss B. was one day examining with a microscope an insect which had formed for itself a delicious nest in the bosom of a flower, she seemed to consider her in treasonable alliance with the enemies of her parterre. Nor was she merely a despot in taste. Her predominant passion was a love of dominion. her supreme enjoyment to control every thing, from the greatest to the least; from the direction of her husband's property, which she had engrossed during his life, down to the manner in which every body should eat, drink, or sleep; or the precise angle in which they should set a chair by the fire-side. Whatever was done, if not in the exact manner of her dictation, could not be well done. She appeared to think that the patent of every body's will was vested in herself, and that none had a right to fulfil their duties, or enjoy their pleasures, in their own time or way.

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So pervading was her despotism that her household were met at every point by a command or reproof, and they felt as though they were enclosed in a cage of thorns, so that wherever they turned they got a wound. A dependent friend would naturally suffer most from this

tyrannic temper, and poor Miss B. sighed to escape from the iron bondage, though it was unsuspectingly she committed the fatal offence which led to her removal.

"In the few visits she had been able to make to the poor around, she was much pleased with a young woman who had long been confined to her bed, and employed herself in making moss baskets for sale at the neighbouring watering-place. She mentioned to Miss B. that they made a much better price when filled with flowers, and the latter recollecting how many were thrown away by the gardener, who was directed by Mrs. B. daily to remove those that were at all past their prime, promised the young woman a supply from this refuse of the garden, not suspecting to what a puerile extreme her cousin's selfishness extended, until she felt the effects of her indignation on learning that her choice flowers, such as no one else in the neighbourhood possessed, had actually been sold in paltry bouquets, and made quite common.' Miss B. soon perceived that her stay was not desired, and she quitted without regret this palace of selfish discontent.

"Mrs. B., when it was too late, lamented the loss of her ever-obliging companion; became dissatisfied, even in the midst of her Eden; and experienced, as every one must whose schemes are all concentrated in self, that happiness is an exotic not to be forced in such a soil. But, unfortunately, when she left this idol to seek a new one, she did not discover that the fault was not in the place, but in the heart." "Do you consider then, papa," said Sophia, "that no benevolent person