be permitted to enjoy the privilege of nursing my little one myself; but should that pleasure be denied me, I know not how I could commit my child to the care of one who, for the sake of gain, had abandoned her own. Besides, as the attention of Finch has always been confined to the affairs of dress and personal decoration, I should imagine that in the concerns of the nursery, she would be found as inexperienced as myself."

The visitor rallied my cousin on her antiquated prejudices, and the preposterous infringement on the laws of rank which she meditated in her absurd intention to devote herself to her offspring. Ellen politely rebutted the banter; but she was not to be moved from her purpose. She became a devoted mother, and never have I seen a more lovely group of children, than those who rewarded her maternal care; and it is well, that since the time to which I refer, many mothers, even of higher ranks, do not think it a matter of course" to commit their children to "wet nurses.

It was in reference to this conversation, the substance of which was related by my cousin, that my uncle and others expressed their just reprehension of the senseless phrase "of course."

"Whenever," said Mr. Mortimer, “a person makes use of the phrase in conversation, it always puts me upon my guard; I directly imagine that he is proposing something very foolish, laying claim to something very unreasonable. The very phrase seems designed to put an end to all investigation."

or

"Yes," said my uncle, "it almost always implies a consciousness that the proposition so flippantly assumed will not bear investigation; and that the only way to attain the end, is by taking for granted what may be true and just, or what may be quite the reverse. I have often been amused to see persons, who are in the habit of saying things are of course,' thrown into utter perplexity by the simple question, 'But is it so ?' or, 'But why is it so ?' Taking a matter of course is an easy way of cutting off all such troublesome inquiries."

Frank asked what really was the meaning of the phrase. My uncle replied that he supposed it to mean, something following, as the natural or necessary consequence, of an incontrovertible truth, or a well-established claim: for example, "The sun has risen; of course

it is.light"-"I have purchased a horse; of course it is mine."

"As Mrs. Harrington used it," said my cousin Ellen, "it seemed to express an unmeaning compliance with custom or fashion. People in a certain line of life usually do so; therefore, be the thing right or wrong, agreeable or disagreeable, wise or foolish, as a matter of course we must do it.

"Yes," observed my uncle, "the laws of custom are very arbitrary, and leave little room for free agency in the exercise of our own judgment or inclinations. 'Of course' we must live, and dress, and spend, as other people in our line of life do, or we are branded as transgressors against the laws of fashion; and must expect, if we maintain our own preferences, to be banished from the circle to which we should otherwise of right belong. I believe the happiness of many families is sacrificed to a mean compliance with the expectations of others who have no right to form any expectations about them."

"Yes," said Mr. Mortimer, "I often hear persons sigh for a retreat from the turmoil and gaiety of fashionable life, and the enjoyment of domestic repose, who are withheld from it solely because they cannot brave the considerations, 'But how will it appear?' 'What will people say ?' 'Is it not expected, as a matter of course, that we should meet in the circles of fashionable society, however uncongenial with our taste and inclination ?' "

"I do not know any thing," said my uncle, "that has a more direct tendency to hoodwink the mind as to the distinction between right and wrong, than a blind subjection to the arbitrary laws of fashion. Many people satisfy themselves that of course' they must have this,

and 'of course' they must do that, which they have in fact no right whatever to have or do, and which they cannot have or do without sin. Oh it would be a fearful list if we could see the names of all who are led into sin and ruin, simply for want of daring to think and act for themselves. They begin by some little concession, which they admit to be wrong, or in gentler terms, not quite right: but they must do as other people do, and they go on till conscience becomes so blinded and hardened, that it can no longer discern between good and evil. It is a dangerous thing once to admit the hackneyed claim, 'of course

we have any hesitancy. The moment that hesitancy is felt, nothing should induce us to take the step suggested as a matter of course. The very assumption should lead us to exercise double caution in scrutinizing whatever is proposed, and in adopting it, if at all, not as a matter of course, but a matter of conviction."

"The phrase," observed Mr. Mortimer, "is often employed by selfish people to enforce their arbitrary and unjust requirements, and to take advantage of the simplicity of those with whom they have to do, by making it appear that their proposal is too self-evident to need a question, as if that alone could be right and fair, which a little consideration would detect as altogether onesided and unjust. Such crafty persons are not unfrequently known to exult in the success of their schemes, and to laugh at the credulity of those who had suffered themselves to be imposed upon by them. I have also known instances, in which the phrase has been employed by persons of the same dishonourable character as a loose kind of assent to a claim which they never intended to discharge, an engagement which they had no intention to fulfil. I recollect being amused and pleased at the shrewd bluntness with which an honest countryman answered a person of the description to which I have just alluded, of whom he was making a purchase. Of course, you will do so and so,' said the wily seller, that is a matter regularly expected.' 'Stop!' replied the rustic, none of your matters of course for me; that is what you have no right to expect, and what I have no intention to grant: so it shall not be set down in the agreement.' Some stipulation was proposed by the other party. Oh, of course, of course,' replied the seller, 'there will be no difficulty on that score.' 'Then,' rejoined the purchaser, there is no difficulty about it, we will have it set down in the deed. It will make no odds to you; and for my part, I had much rather have it under your hand and seal, than merely understand it as a matter of course.""

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if

Very proper;" observed my uncle, "the general exercise of such firmness and straightforwardness would not only repel unjust encroachments at the time of making arrangements, but would tend much to prevent quarrels afterwards, which are perpetually resulting from

the parties at first, which it is made a matter of false delicacy to forbear to press for, or rather to affect to despise. Those, who are most ready to say Of course; it is all right;'It is unnecessary to look into it,' are by no means the least apt to detect and complain of injury. The way to walk safely, peacefully, and honourably, is to take nothing for granted; but to know well the ground on which we tread, and then to step forward with decision and vigour.'

"But is there no sense," asked Frank, "in which it is proper to take things as matters of course ?"

"Yes," replied my uncle; "but they are too generally overlooked, especially by persons in the habit of using the phrase in the unmeaning or improper manner of which we have been speaking. We should habitually expect the natural consequences of things: thus, if I squander my property, of course' I shall be poor; if I indulge in excess, 'of course' I shall be unhealthy; if I commit sin, of course' I shall suffer for it; if I neglect to discharge my duty in any relation, of course' I cannot enjoy the comforts arising from that relation; if I live at variance with my conscience, ' of course' I must be a stranger to inward satisfaction and peace. If we thus habitually connected in our minds cause and consequence, it would have a powerful tendency to guard us against temptation, to deter us from the first step in a forbidden path. It is one grand device of Satan in working upon the children of men, to dissever, in imagination, those things which are inseparably connected in reality; and lead the sinner, when he hears the curses of God against sin to bless himself in his heart, and to say, I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart,' "Deut. xxix. 19.

"The habitual discharge of every known duty ought to be with the Christian a matter of course; a matter which admits no sort of question, or hesitation, or evasion. When once the path of duty is clearly ascertained as marked in the unerring law of God, it cannot be necessary that we should be perpetually recurring to the question, Ought those directions to be obeyed? ought that path to be pursued ?' Of course' they ought; the only question is, How may we best lay aside every weight,

6

and most vigorously, efficiently, and patiently run the race set before us? "The practical influence of the principles we have embraced should be a matter of course. If we believe the value of the soul and the vanity of the world, of course we shall no longer set them in doubtful competition, Mark viii. 36, 37. If it is with us a settled point, that we cannot serve God and Mammon, Matt. vi. 24; of course there will be decision in our practice; we shall not seem to be halting between two opinions, 1 Kings xviii. 21; but our steady course will unhesitatingly proclaim the fixed determination, "I will serve the Lord,' Josh. xxiv. 15. If we discern the value and superiority of heaven above earth, of course we shall set our affections on things above, and not on things of the earth, Col. iii. 2. If the love of Christ be shed abroad in our hearts by the power of the Holy Ghost, the love of Christ will constrain us to judge and act upon the principle, that we are not our own, but His who died for us, and rose again. O, my friends, if❘ such are our principles, what manner of persons ought we to be! and if those principles do not produce in us their natural and proper results, have we not reason to question whether indeed we be Christians ? Christian consistency ought to be a matter of course with Christian professors. Fashion sets up

a

false standard, and we are at li berty to disregard it; but religion sets up a fair and just standard, and we are bound to conform to it. We have a high vocation and a high destination; and we ought constantly to feel that we cannot degrade ourselves by acting unworthily of them. To say that a man is a Christian ought to be tantamount with saying that he is a man of truth, uprightness, fidelity, honour, benevolence, generosity, purity, holy superiority to the world, having his conversation in heaven. 'I fear God,' said Joseph, with dignified simplicity; and those to whom he spoke justly considered it a sufficient pledge that he would not act unjustly or oppressively to them, Gen. xlii. 18. 'Should such a man as I flee?' said holy Nehemiah, and strengthened him self to face all the opposers of the work of God, Neh. vi. 11. Oh that as professors of religion, we might all take the same high and honourable standing, and lodge a testimony in the consciences of all who observe us that, because we

ON THE FORMATION OF A HORTUS
SICCUS.

"THE Magazine of Domestic Economy," which is well entitled to the name it bears, has recently offered the following general observations, resulting from the experience of last year. As the season for operation is now arrived, we copy them for the information and stimulus of our young readers.

"A taste for scientific botany induced us, last summer, to commence collecting English plants, and we applied to one of the most eminent of our native botanists for instructions as to our proceedings. However, experience has been our best teacher as to the details. Some collectors dry the plants in the same form in which they have been gathered, by merely putting them into the papers in which they are to remain; and certainly, by this method, the habit of growth is generally preserved; but the minor peculiarities are unavoidably lost. have seen a fine collection of Alpine plants thus preserved; but it was not quite satisfactory to us, especially as regarded the small specimens. Our method is as follows.

We

"First, as to the size of the specimens.-Each should have at least two open blossoms, and a few buds; the quantity of foliage must be regulated by the habit of the plant; in some cases, it is necessary to exhibit the radical leaves, and even the root; this should always be done in creeping plants, as the buckbean, (Menyanthes trifoliata,) and in some others, as the Campanula rotundifolia, which has received its specific name from the form of its radical leaves. Coloured blotting paper must be used to dry the plants in, as the acid employed to bleach the white injures the colour of the flowers. Take your specimen, and having laid it in its natural form upon the blotting paper, proceed to lay out the parts, beginning at the top of the plant; penny pieces, or halfpence, are the most convenient assistants in this operation, as

they occupy so little room. Lay some of the leaves, with the upper side to the view, some so as to show the under side; and the same as to the flowers. Be careful not to destroy the character of the plant when laying it out, by distorting the stalks; although neatly placed, the original manner of growth may be preserved. Upon the specimens lay two leaves of blotting paper, and upon them a plate of zinc, which should be slightly warmed. Our plates of zinc are the size of a quarter of a sheet of blotting paper, and cost threepence each: zinc is preferable to tin, as being thicker and cheaper. Proceed in this manner with as many specimens as your sheets of zinc will allow; then, placing a sheet of the metal under the pile, load it with weights, or apply any other pressure that may be convenient; the common screw press, used for table linen, is very effectual. Let the plants remain thus for a fortnight or three weeks, at the end of which time most of them will be sufficiently dried and pressed. Bog and water plants require even a longer time.

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Next, as to the size of the paper upon which the specimens are to be fastened. The very large paper gives room for splendid specimens; but unless they be crowded together it is rather extravagant, and upon the whole, we prefer the foolscap size; it is easy, even with the grasses, so to arrange the specimens as to exhibit each part to advantage. We have classed our plants according to the Linnean system, adding the Jussieuan order to the name of each plant; we would therefore recommend that the name and number of the Linnean class be written on the head of each page. Having carefully taken the plants out of the blotting paper, lay each upon the page where it is to remain; and with a little gum, fasten the tip of the leaves, the end of the stalk or roots, and such parts of the flowers as may require it, to the paper. We strongly recommend gum tragacanth for this operation; it is more expensive than gum acacia, but it is neater, stronger, and less troublesome to prepare. Care must be taken not to dissolve too much at one time; as, when not occasionally warmed, it becomes mouldy; it should never be boiled, but dissolved gradually in an earthen or a glass jar.

"Thus the habitat and the time of the year at which the plant flowers, are easily remembered or referred to.

"We suppose it is unnecessary to say any thing respecting the manner in which the young collector should ascertain the class and order to which each specimen belongs; Hooker's British Flora is a necessary and invaluable assistant; although it may be thought an expensive book, no other can supply its place, except indeed the still more expensive, but infinitely more valuable work of Sir J. E. Smith, from which Sir W. J. Hooker's is compiled.

"It is necessary to dry the blotting paper thoroughly after it has been used, both in the air and by the fire; if the least dampness remain in it, the next specimens for which it is used will become mouldy. The zinc also should be wiped and well dried; and if the same can be done about once in a week, while the plants are drying, without disturbing their arrangement, the process will be expedited. Of course, the plants must be placed upon the paper, on one side of the leaf only.

"We assure those of our young readers who are inclined to follow our example in forming a Hortus Siccus of English plants, that they will find it an extremely interesting amusement; and, however limited may be their opportunities of gathering specimens, it is well worth while to make the attempt. Young persons are always prone to form collections; and surely flowers are more instructive and more interesting than the baubles which generally fill a young lady's cabinet."

ELECTRICAL INSECT.

A LARGE and very hairy caterpillar of South America, has lately been exhibited to the Entomological Society of London, by Mr. Yarrell, which has been observed to possess the power of communicating a very powerful electric shock.