free lot the forecast and fulfilment of its chosen purposes. And for what was man thus gifted with a consciousness of thought, a power of self-inspection, a capability of controlling even his own strong passions, and bending all to the accomplishment of one lifeabsorbing object? Why was man, thus highly gifted, placed to struggle and to sympathise with his fellowman? Was it that he should dedicate his undying energies to the merest insect task of procuring a brief and petty subsistence? Was it for this, oh beneficent Giver of life and power! was it for this thou gavest man dominion over all thy creatures? Nay, rather, he who thus circumscribes his own life, basely renounces his noblest inheritance; and another shall lead him, and rule over him. What can distinguish man most nobly from his fellows? What, save the greater power of influencing all for good? To attain this power, to exert this God-like influence, is the truest and proudest object of human life. This alone can shed a lustre over life's brief struggle, and cast an undying radiance throughout succeeding generations. If you seek an object worth the living for, let it be to make the world your debtor.'

Even so, brave sir!' adds a fourth in chilling accents; fondly anticipating a lively and indefatigable appreciation of all that you haven't done, as the most touching acknowledgment of your wondrous merits. What is life? sayest thou. The caterer of death: a cold and withering mockery: a goodly-seeming tree, whose sweetest fruit is gilded rottenness. Joy to thy proud aspirings, thy yearning sympathies, thy lofty purposes, thy bold and generous trust in human gratitude! Fond dreamer! a cold and bitter morning is at hand: happy for thee if death relieve thy folly from its hideous awakening. Dream on until thine eyes are opened to the stark reality; and then-nay, shrink not from thy hard-earned portion-look to receive wretchedness for thy pride, coldness for thy sympathy, misrepresentation for thy noblest purposes, and a freezing mixture for thine expected gratitude, turning all into an iceberg. Oh, 'tis a brave world to try the toughness of a heart! Your veriest earthworm is life's true philosopher he looks for nothing, and he finds all he seeks.'

:

Peace, troubling spirit!' exclaims a deep, stern voice, in tones of mingled sorrow and reproof; nor with thy bitter sarcasms thus belie thy Maker's wondrous plan. Despite thy mockery, man has indeed a noble purpose to achieve; and high or low, or rich or poor, may equally attain it. Nor is man's destiny a poisoned drop, a foul anomaly in God's fair universe. But what is man? Bethink thee well. Why should he thus have dominion over all, and become the chosen delegate of Omnipotence? The answer should afford a clue to the mystery of his being. He is an image of the Self-Existent. He only of earth's inhabitants, by a conscious and voluntary effort, can mould and fashion his own life's character; he only can look into his own mind, and deliberately choose whether he will indulge his natural and hereditary inclinations, or whether he will struggle to conform his whole future life to some standard of excellence which his intellect recognises and approves; he only can say to the enticements and promptings of his own dark passions, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" He only can momentarily determine, and thus seemingly create, his own life's destiny. He only can subdue and govern his own little world within; and it is only then that he can worthily influence the larger world without. Such is the tenure by which alone man stands at the head of God's creation; and such is the inalienable birthright, the essential characteristic, of every human being: and thus is man an image of his Maker. The Omnipotent Creator is alone the I AMthe Self-Existent: the dependent creature is the I will be-the self-determining. What, then, is it that we may be, if we will? What is that which no power can determine for us? In short, what is the great business

of human life? Simply this:-to bring our own shortsighted, scattered, and isolated wills into harmony and conjunction, and thus into voluntary dependence upon the one Immutable, All-perfect Will. Not vaunting ourselves in, or looking wistfully to, our own vain strength; but trustfully yielding our entire selfhood to the guidance of truth and justice, and thus becoming the voluntary and conscious channels of an all-perfect, universal Love-happy, and dispensing happiness, while heaven and earth endure! Surely this is a purpose not all-unworthy of the Wisdom that could frame the illimit able and wondrous universe! And should we murmur if a parent's love should seek to purify, instead of pampering, our stubborn wills? Could not the Power that so clothes the field, and guides the instincts of the brute creation, have as easily insured our earthly happiness, if that were all? Oh man, turn not thus heedless from thy loftiest yearnings! This wide and visible universe, with its bitter trials and its fleeting joys, is but the seminary of immortal souls!'

Reader, dost thou still ask-What is life? We reply, with deepest reverence-Essentially, it is the only Absolute Existence: the spring of all activity: the inmost reality of all substance. Its high and hallowed name is Love-eternal, all-inspiring, all-encircling Love. This material, steadfast, and imperishable creation, with its countless activities and forms of use, so perfectly and inextricably apportioned to our sensuous powers, and so wondrously ministering to our highest wants, is but the outmost vesture of Omnipotence-the ultimate, yet ceaseless and infinitely-certain emanation of Him who alone is essential Life, essential Substance. All this seeming solidity, impenetrability, and absolute extension, is but the fixed and necessary relation which external objects bear to our sensuous perceptions: the true certainty of nature, and of nature's laws, arises from the whole created universe, with its innumerable inhabitants, being momentarily dependent for existence upon the one eternal Source of all truth, order, and perfection. Even man, with all his high capacities, is no self-dependent atom in the circle of existence. He may indeed thus isolate the whole aim and conscious effort of his being; but even then, he is no self-sustaining, independent unit; he does but abuse the power for good in which he is beneficently and momentarily upheld. Our life is essentially a continued choosing of good or evil. We may either look to our own wishes as our highest rule of right and wrong, and to their gratification as the ruling motive of our voluntary efforts; or we may look to infinite and eternal Truth for guidance, and to the good of all as the single, earnest aim of our existence. In either case, our own misery or happiness is simply the necessary consequence of our choice, not the motive deliberately chosen. In the one case, we strive to appropriate the enjoyments of others to ourselves, and instead of succeeding, lose even our own in the struggle; in the other case, we strive to impart our own delight to others, and having done so, find our highest happiness in theirs. This is the essential difference between selfishness and disinterested Christian love; and notwithstanding all the sophistry that has been uttered on the subject, they are, and ever must be, as a rule of life, altogether distinct and opposite. To walk worthily our appointed course on earth, we must continually strive to live a life of usefulness, from a principle of duty, and of good-will to all; and it is only in proportion as we do so, that we can dispose our hearts to receive those higher and purer influences which an infinite Love and Goodness is ever yearning to impart. What, then, is the truest poetry of life? It is that which awakens in our conscious souls the deepest, the fullest response; it is the chosen purpose for which we fain would live. The means by which it may be realised are infinitely various, according to the nature and extent of our several capacities. And yet one God created all, and one unspeakable purpose breathes through all His works: the highest poetry must draw our hearts to Him.

'Let it be a lobster,' said he; I hear them bawling about: a small lobster, mind-and cheap of course.' 'Oh yes, sir; small and cheap,' replied Jemima, treasuring the description.

And we shall want some bread and butter-only a little butter, for Mrs Magnus Smith is particular in the article, and will see about it in the morning herself. Do you mind?'

'Oh yes, sir.'

'Oh yes, sir!'

When he was gone, Jemima went to and fro about her business, getting the supper by heart, till she should have time to make a memorandum of it; and no sooner had the door shut, then it was stealthily opened again by Mrs Plumley, already in her bonnet and shawl, who, having watched the lodger out of sight, hurried after

the reference.

Presently Mr Plumley came in, and after casting a severe look upon Jemima, who was viewed in the light of a culprit, walked solemnly up the stair, and seated himself in the desert drawing-room. He scorned to ask for Mrs Plumley, although he could not but think that the silence of the house was still more awful than usual. In a little while, however, his meditations were disturbed by a smart rap at the street-door; and on the principle that it never rains but it pours, a second lodger made his appearance. This was a middle-aged gentleman, like the other, apparently a most respectable man-although the dusk being now a little advanced, Mr Plumley could not see him very well-who had come up with his wife by the rail, whose name was Mr Thompson, and who wanted to enter that evening. This gentleman likewise preferred the second floor, which Mr Plumley very innocently let to him.

When Mr Thompson was going out, he told Jemima that they should want something to eat before going to bed.

'Oh yes, sir,' said Jemima, conning her lesson-'a lobster'

Well, that is a good thought-let it be a lobster. small one will do.'

'And cheap of course,' added Jemima.

A

'Of course you are a sensible girl: and we shall want a little bread and butter.'

'Oh yes, sir; a little butter will do, I know, for the good lady is particular in the article, and will see after it herself in the morning.'

Upon my word, you are a sharp, thoughtful creature; and I say, my dear, you will not forget a pint of beer. That's all.' Mr Plumley dogged him out, to see after the reference; and Jemima, elated with the unaccustomed praise she had received, ran down to the kitchen to make her memoranda. This she accomplished by placing one of her pattens on a plate on the dresser to represent the lobster, and fixing the other upright against the wall for the pint-pot; a bit of bathbrick and a slice of carrot serving for the loaf and the print of butter. As a new thought struck her, she selected the tiniest lump from a handful of small coal, and placed it on the patten in the plate, to denote the moderate size of the lobster; and then, after indulging in an admiring glance at the supper, though terrified at the loss of time, she threw away the rest of the small coal, and flinging herself madly upon the loaf, set to work to cut bread and butter for her master and mistress's tea.

When Mr and Mrs Magnus Smith came that evening at the hour agreed upon, they were for some time engaged in a critical inspection of their new abode; and upon the whole they were well satisfied with their bargain. Their sitting-room, it is true, was finished, so far as the builder and house-carpenter's work went, like a bedroom; for these gentlemen magnanimously disregard the customs of the London majority, and determine that the second floor shall consist of bedrooms to the end of time. But although a little low in the roof,

bare of cornice, and scraggy about the chimney, it was nothing less than genteel. The furniture, nevertheless, was scanty; for people have not the more furniture that they have a larger house than they require. The chairs, made of imitation rosewood, and cane-bottomed, hollowed to one another' across the wide channels between; the square mahogany table in the middle of the floor was small, even with the addition of two narrow wings kept expanded by brackets; and the the wall by a chair's breadth, and left the apertures of the windows altogether uncovered. The works of art on the mantelpiece were two small lions in white china, and a small church in the middle, of the same material. Above the church there hung in a black frame an almanac of the year 1827; and on the other walls were disposed Androcles and the Lion, and an original drawing representing two ships sailing before the wind to opposite points of the compass play of seamanship which would have delighted Allan Cunningham, whose celebrated outward-bound vessel, enjoying a wet sheet and a flowing sea,' and 'a wind that follows fast,' contrives somehow, notwithstanding, to leave Old England on the lee.'

a dis

When Mr and Mrs Thompson arrived, the former inquired if he could see the gentleman;' and on being told that he was already in the room, he strode at once up the stairs; but Mrs T. lingered behind to say a word to Jemima.

"You have remembered supper, have you?' 'Oh yes, mum; I have an excellent memory, if missus will only leave it alone.'

'You have a nice quiet place here, haven't you?' 'Oh yes, mum, uncommon quiet-desperate quiet; you will not hear a word a-piece from the three of us in a week.'

'Dear me, how odd! But she is a (whispering)—a comfortable person-one that one might put up witheh? What's your name?'

'Jemima. Oh yes, mum. She is very comfortable, if she would only keep her hands off things that's of consequence. But that lobster!-you don't know the trouble I had about it; and as for the pint-pot, my back was no sooner turned than-whisk!-off it went behind the door like a shot!'

That is awful!' said Mrs Thompson in dismay. 'What ever are we to do?'

'Oh yes, mum-pattens-coals-lobsters-bath

brick-loaves-carrots-butter-nothing in this world stands her!-not that she isn't comfortable enough, if she would only let other people's things alone.' Mrs Thompson ascended the stairs with nervous trepidation; and hearing voices in the sitting-room, went into the bedroom to make herself fit to be seen, and to collect her thoughts.

Her husband, on going into the room, took it for granted that the stout middle-aged gentleman he saw busying himself about the furniture was the same he had half seen in the dusk, and he bowed sociably to his landlord.

This,' said he, I presume to be your good lady. How do you do, ma'am? I hope you are pretty well?' and Mr and Mrs Magnus Smith returned his politeness with interest, thinking that he was a very comfortable person indeed for a landlord.

These are nice apartments of yours,' said Mr Magnus Smith, and in nice order; but this bell rope I shall get up to-morrow morning-at my own expense, sir.' 'Oh, you are very good, sir.'

'Don't mention it. I am in the habit of doing things liberal. I think, my dear, we have nothing more to say?'

'Nothing at all. It is getting late, and I am tired and sleepy. But don't stand, sir; never mind me;' and she sat down loungingly at the side of the table. Mr Thompson thought this was uncommonly cool, and wished the good people would not bother him on the first night of his new lodgings. He did sit down, how

ever, at the bottom of the table; and Mr Magnus Smith, after staring at him for a moment, sat down at the top. An uncomfortable silence prevailed for a minute or two; but as the man would not go, Mr Magnus Smith at length felt constrained to say something in the way of conversation.

'May I beg, sir,' said he, 'to ask what is your opinion as to what we may expect from these new people this session?' The question was fortunate; for Mr Thompson felt that if he was strong on any subject in this world, it was on politics.

'Sir,' said he, my opinions on such points are not rashly formed; that is all I venture to say in their favour. I do not tell you that they are worth having, but merely that they are well considered; and it is therefore with some confidence I reply that, in my humble judgment, the question you have mooted is involved in doubt-in doubt, sir-the expression I advisedly use, is doubt.'

That is just what I have said all along; and as for Lord John'

'Sir!' interrupted Mr Thompson, laying his hand upon the table firmly-Lord John I will trust to a certain point, but no farther. I will not trust him more than is reasonable, not a jot-I tell him that to his face. Lord John, it is true, is prime minister, and the humble individual who has now the honour of addressing this company is no matter; but there are some men who are Englishmen as well as other men-who have hearts in their bosoms-who have brains in their heads-who have blood in their veins-who have money in their purses-and all which I beg leave to notify respectfully to Lord John with the most supreme indifference as to how he takes it!'

'Sir, you are a brick!' cried Mr Magnus Smith suddenly, as Mr Thompson threw himself back in his chair. I am not in the habit of flattery, and have no occasion to flatter any man, lord or no lord, seeing that I pay my way; but what I say is this, and I say it without disguise, that an individual entertaining such noble sentiments is emphatically a brick! Drink, and pass the pot!'

Now it should have been mentioned that Jemima's supper was upon the table, and among the other good things, a pewter pint-pot; and Mr Thompson having ascertained, though with some difficulty, that the latter contained about as much beer as usually falls to the lot of a lodger's measure, put it straightway to his head. As he drank, however, the pride of oratory wore off; he could not help thinking it a most remarkable thing that he should have been invited in this cavalier manner to drink his own liquor; and he gazed sharply, suspiciously, penetratingly at his vis-à-vis over the pintpot, and even after he had set it down. Mr Magnus Smith thought his landlord was a man of genius, and that this was the look of it. Nevertheless he began to feel a good deal chafed at the pertinacity of the visit; and it was with strong disgust he saw that Mr Thompson had left little more than dregs in the pint-pot.

The rest of the supper, besides the lobster, consisted of a penny loaf, so small and shrunken, that it looked as if it had been made on purpose for lodgers, and a pat of butter about the size and thickness of a half-crown, handsomely ornamented in bas-relief. But the lobster was the great feature of Jemima's spread. It might have been called the General Tom Thumb of lobsters, were it not for its extreme emaciation. The shell was the very smallest shell a lobster ever carried with it out of the sea; yet it was far too wide for the thin wiry meat seen through the fractures. The attention of all the three had been strongly drawn by the affair of the beer to the other furnishings of the table, when in the midst of their contemplation, they found the supper party increased by the appearance of a fourth guest. This was Mrs Thompson, who had probably been listening to the conversation, and who now entered in a negligent evening costume; and saluting Mr and Mrs Magnus Smith in a half-careless half-haughty manner,

looked the landlady to the life. Mr Magnus Smith found a difficulty in identifying her with the individual from whom he had taken the lodgings; but he remarked internally that dress made a great change upon some people, and was even a little daunted by the stiffness with which she sat down opposite his wife, and the look of desperate resolution with which she regarded that lady.

'I hope, mem,' said Mrs Magnus Smith, with rising colour-'I hope you find yourself comfortable? Pray make yourself quite at home-oh, pray do!'

'I always do, mem,' replied Mrs Thompson, 'especially in my own house! I am in the habit of paying my rent, whatever other people may do-although I make no allusions; and when individuals pay their rent, they have a right to consider themselves at home.'

Rent, mem! do you talk to me of rent the first moment I have ever seen your face? Do you question my honesty?'

Oh no!' said Mrs Thompson, with a scornful laugh, I do not question it at all. But perhaps you would like a little lobster?-or some bread and butter?-or you may have a fancy to taste the pint-pot behind the door? Some people are partial to bath-bricks, carrots, and small coal! But I make no allusions-oh no!' Mrs Magnus Smith grew pale with rage at these injurious hints; but being a lady of breeding, she repressed the words that rose to her lips, and snatching up the penny loaf, severed it in two, and spreading one half with half the pat of butter, ate it at Mrs Thompson: who, on the instant, imitated the manœuvre with the other half of the loaf and the remainder of the butter. The two gentlemen, excited by this outbreak of their wives, felt their bristles rise, and glared fiercely at each other. Their position, in fact, was extremely unpleasant. Here were four adults desperately determined upon supper, and now with nothing before them to wreak their appetite upon but a finger-length of lobster. The question of right, however, was still more instant. It was surely a new reading of the law of landlord and tenant to suppose that a man-and not only a man, but a man and his wife-were privileged to intrude upon their lodger's privacy the very first moment of his arrival, and to drink his beer, eat up his bread and butter, and keep him out of his bed for ever.

Sir,' said Mr Magnus Smith, rising indignantly, 'there must be an end of this! Since politeness and forbearance are thrown away upon you, I beg to wish you a particularly good-night!'

Good-night, then,' replied Mr Thompson, rising likewise; good-night, with all my heart and soul; it is what I have been wishing this half hour!'

The two ladies rose, and curtseyed scornfully; and then all four stood still.

Mr Magnus Smith waved his hand with dignity, as if dismissing the company; but Mr Thompson, with less refinement, instead of taking the hint, pointed to the door, as if he had said, 'Get out!' The two gentlemen then suddenly and simultaneously advanced a step nearer to each other, and their wives ranged themselves each on the side of her husband.

'Sir,' said Mr Magnus Smith, if I was not in my own premises, I would put you out at that door!' 'And if I was not in mine,' retorted Mr Thompson, I would throw you out at that window!'

'You insolent, ungrateful individual! What! throw me out of the window, after drinking my beer to the dregs, and seeing your wife devour my bread and butter!'

'Your beer!-your bread and butter! They were my own, and you know it, you intolerable sponge'And both gentlemen ran to the bell to summon evidence of the fact, and drew down upon their heads the whole machinery. In an instant Jemima was in the room, as if called up by enchantment. She had a boot drawn upon one hand, and in the other a blacking brush, a considerable part of the contents of which she