at present with me; but I seem to spend my days about nothing. I often feel them to be so barren-I fear that I am fallen . . Ah, thanks, Sophia, for having roused me. But assist me now also in retracing my steps to the good way. Point out to me now such employments as shall make me wiser and better. You are, you know, my elder sister; be now also my friend!"

How gladly did I enter into her wishes. We projected together a new way of life; we laid down our plans for the future, and prosecuted this conversation for a considerable time, which afforded me an opportunity of looking into a soul capable of the highest perfection.

What we had so seriously begun, we, however, ended pleasantly. I, for my part, promising Selma, by way of recompense for her lessons in singing and Italian, to teach her Finnish, while she on the other hand vowed to put my patience strongly to the test, as she intended never to learn that language.

Never

When Selma was called down from me to her mother, I felt that I loved her, and indeed for ever. shall I forget how she stood before me when she said: "What matters it if I do weep! Ever tell me the truth! I will act in accordance to it! I will amend!"

And the silent tears on that noble-spirited countenance !-would that Lennartson had seen and heard her. Oh, there are indeed some charming things here on earth!

November 19th.

Selma was right in her prediction. The evening of the masquerade-ball passed with us home-stayers far more agreeably than if we had figured in the first parts

of it. While Selma was about finishing Flora's toilet, I went down to my stepmother and found Felix, the Viking, and the Baron with her. The last-mentioned of the gentlemen was very sparing of words, and frequently turned his eyes towards the door.

When Flora, attended by Selma, entered, in her superb costume, he appeared struck by her beauty; and I also to such a degree, that I could not suppress an exclamation of surprise and delight. We were all in some measure captivated, and Selma's beaming eyes went about collecting subscriptions of praise and sacrifice for the fair Circassian, who stood there in the proud consciousness of her youth, splendour, and beauty. Lennartson's admiration, however, soon cooled, his looks became serious, and when St. Orme came in, arrayed in Turkish costume - he and Flora were to dance together in the quadrille - he suddenly disappeared without taking leave of any body.

On Flora's countenance there was an evident expression of uneasiness; but it soon vanished, and she smiled pleasantly when the Envoyé, amid exquisite oriental compliments, conducted her to the carriage in which her sister was waiting for her. The Viking stayed with us; Felix likewise remained, although he also had intended to be one of the party at the ball.

We talked about Baron Lennartson, and I expressed my joy at his deep sense of woman's worth, which a few evenings ago he had given us to understand. The Viking rejoined:

"There is no one who thinks more highly of woman, and no one who is at the same time more rigorous in his demands upon her. The admiration and affection with which his mother has inspired him seems to have laid the foundation for it."

My questions elicited many a little narrative and anecdote of the Baron's days of childhood and youth, which I have collected together for the following picture:

Lennartson's father, the General, was a man of violent temper and dissolute habits of life. All the care of the children and their education devolved in consequence on their mother, a noble-minded and highly educated but constitutionally delicate lady.

The eldest son, our Lennartson, was in his childhood of feeble health and irritable temper. His mother devoted the greatest care to him, not that blind spoiling, but that tenderly fostering care which soliditates by affection. The gentle mother would frequently sit by the bedside of her boy and read to him about men, who by strength of mind or will had overcome their physical infirmities and become the glory and the benefactors of their country. She would more especially dwell on the great men of her father-land, those energetic and pious characters who, in the combination of those qualities, expressed, if faithful to itself, the principal features of the Swedish national character.

The boy would listen with eager attention, his mind opened to strains of great thoughts, which, nourished in this way on the marrow of heroism, soon invigorated his feeble body. To this also due attention was paid by exercises of a nature and kind calculated to brace up and collect his physical energies. At the age of fifteen years, Lennartson excelled most of his playmates in agility and strength. Soon the mother saw the vital powers of her son's mind break forth in all their fullness, but no less so in all their attendant dangers. Young Lennartson inherited his father's impetuous and inflexible temper. The harshness of his father

towards his mother excited him to the highest degree, and this gave occasion to a scene between father and son which almost broke up the feeble frame of his mother, but, strange enough, also the strength of the hard-hearted husband. He almost feared his son, at least in every thing that concerned his mother, and no longer ventured to transgress against her. This dovelike nature had given birth to an eagle, and the young bird now extended his protecting wings over her. Happy in the affection of her son, but alarmed at the almost fearful character she saw breaking forth from him, she wished to teach this powerful youth selfgovernment, and therefore sought to fortify his mind in that which alone is capable of imparting to all power truth, moderation, and proper balance, namely, true piety.

From an early period she had presented to the view of her son humanity in its highest character; she now endeavoured to convey to his inquiring mind a clear conception of that life and doctrine which had already inspired the filial heart with involuntary affection. In this she adopted a course very different from the generality of parents and teachers. Instead of avoiding those books which are usually regarded as dangerous to piety, she sought them, and read with her youthful son the writings of the most popular atheists and deists from the earliest to the present time, and allowed his reason to exercise itself in comparisons between their doctrines and those, which in AN INCARNATE GOD gives the solution to the problem of life, and in this revelation of His nature and His will, grant the only sure and perfectly adequate warrant, for the fulfilment of the best desires, and most sacred hopes of men on earth.

She allowed him to contend with the rising difficulties, and, as it were, pave his own way into the very heart of life. She it was who raised objections to him against the doctrine of the rationalists; and he it was who confuted them. But the joy which, after the successfully solved difficulties beamed out of the eyes of his mother, no doubt secretly shed light over the youth's mind in his future investigations. And while thus she raised him to an independent and established point of view, she taught him to entertain respect for his opponents, to pay due deference to every honest inquiry, to honour every sincere belief, and to trace the seed of truth even in immature doctrines.

Lennartson frequently made mention of this period of his life as the happiest and richest portion of it. The affectionate looks and approving words of his mother he deemed as his dearest reward. Extremely rare were the instances of her lavishing caresses on him, although he frequently would lay on his knees before her in enthusiastic veneration, and kiss her hand and garments. Sometimes only, during such hours, when she felt that his young heart was too powerfully consumed by longing desires for a return to his affection, did she permit him to lean his burning temples on her bosom, that heaved only for him, but which already a long time past bore within it the seed of death in a cruel and almost incurable disease.

Carefully she concealed from her son the pains by which she had been consumed for many years past. Not until an operation became necessary, did Lennartson ascertain his mother's sufferings and danger. She wished to have him removed during the hour of trial, and endeavoured by an innocent stratagem to delude