Self-deception is far more common than real hypocrisy. In nothing perhaps is this deception more prevalent than in the underrating our weakness when freed from the more immediate and fiery heat of the furnace of temptation. Many a Peter is heard to say, though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee." who, when called to endure for the sake of his Master, will be as ready to exclaim, "I know not the man. All would reign with Christ; few are prepared to suffer with Him. Peter was no hypocrite, but self-deceived.

That man inflicts the deepest injury on true Religion, who deliberately "wounds her in the house of her friends. "Better that a millstone &c. It is worse than Brutus' dagger in Cæsar's heart.

He who has taken up the cross of his Saviour, may be strengthened for the endurance of it by the recollection that it is crested with "a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

The vista of a Christian's life is often one of "much tribulation. He must keep his eye therefore steadily fixed on the distant perspective, remembering it terminates in Hea"Look to the end and thou shalt not do amiss.' One Pisgah view is compensation for a world of sorrow. Before thou puttest thine hand to the plough, stand and count the cost; after thou hast done it "look not back."

ven.

Never expect God's blessing out of God's way. The path of duty is the post of expectation; and he is a proud and little-to-be-respected suppliant, who thinks it too much to wait at his benefactor's door. Though he tarry, wait for him; "wait, I say on the Lord, "

66

Higgins, Printer, Dunstable.

THIS word is used to designate the doctrine better known as the transmigration of souls; the passage of the thinking principle of man into new bodies after death; an opinion which was extensively entertained by many ancient nations, and is not even now obsolete. Some sects of religionists supposed that this removal from one body to another was indefinitely continued; others maintained that it was limited to a longer or shorter period according to the character of the soul thus subjected to purgation. Under various forms and with many modifications this strange sentiment has received the belief of a large portion of mankind.

Having been reading one evening some amusing illustrations of this doctrine, I fell asleep; and fancy, always delighting in strange and wild combinations, seized Metempsychosis as the subject of its vagaries. I found myself in the midst of a crowd of persons who were all engaged in undervaluing each others acquirements, feelings, and modes of life. The learned man frowned on the ignorant, and the latter answered with a laugh of scorn. The man of benevolent emotions stood eyeing the selfish with an expression of pity and contempt; and the selfish ridiculed the tears and sighs of the man of feeling. Every separate character seemed quite unable to appreciate the motives, or enter into the views of his neighbour, so that a painful state of society was produced, without union, and, consequently, without happiness.

On a sudden a decree was passed by a controlling power, to the effect, that the souls of men should transmigrate into the bodies of those who were most opposed to themselves in character and opinion, a consciousness being retained at the same time by each of them, of their former condition. The change took place, and a scene ensued which baffles all description. The most ludicrous combinations were developed, to depict which, would require more art and more time than I possess. Faces which were

cast in the mould of stupidity, beamed strangely with intelligence, like light from a stable-lantern. The most acute countenances were, in a manner blunted by the indwelling of ignorance and dullness. The miserly wretch plentifully distributed money with a hand which seemed bountiful, but with all the old stingy texture of countenance. A calm face, which had never been distorted with passion, was strangely wrenched and pulled into new configurations. If wit consists in the discovery of new and unexpected relations, then the scene before me displayed it in perfection. The parties gazed upon each other with a look which appeared to declare, that they could now sympathize a little with the objects of their former scorn.

But the mere difference of feature, was the least interesting result of the experiment thus tried; the feelings of the powers within furnished more ample scope for curious research. By another stretch of imagination I thought the bodies of all became transparent, so that the machinery of the soul was unfolded in all its wonderful performances. I shall select a few characters from the mass, with whose appearance I was most impressed.

I beheld one man, of confirmed penurious habits, inhabited by the soul of one who was remarkably generous. I observed that by long use, that part

of the body where the spirit resides had become much contracted, so that the generous soul was obliged to force an entrance. When fairly in, its

operations begun, and no spectre could fill with more confusion a party of rustics, than did this new incumbent its wretched vehicle. Whenever an object of distress appeared, his hand was obliged to go into his pocket. If gentlemen called for subscriptions to eharitable or religious institutions, the pen, never before used but to record his gains, now glided over the paper according to the wish of his visiters. What was worse than all, he felt a warming-up within him, which inclined him to give, so that, could he have forgotten all the past he might have settled comfortably with his new character. But as the miser saw his wealth decrease, the mingled emotions of the soul were most striking. As piece after piece disappeared from his coffers, he

grinned horribly a ghastly smile."

After a little time had elapsed, he confessed it was no longer strange to him how some people are obliged to give.

I next fixed my eye upon a man of large dimensions, apparently a farmer;* a man

"Of fair round body, with good capon lined."

Of course no reflection is here intended.-Ed.