no inward change the contrite heart, the chastened soul-without which priest or penance is of small avail.

Some were oppressed with remorse for offences purely venial; others wretched, having omitted a litany or a prayer. Thoughts perchance the most revolting, were bared with a minuteness that sickened when it failed to appal. Oh that men could so mistake the substance for the shadow, the reality for the show! But there were also saintly creatures, mostly women, who, saving the over-wrought sensibilities of a needlessly anxious and pious nature, knelt before me, sinner that I was, pure and spotless as the angels of light. These, indeed, I comforted with all my might; exhorted to lay aside their fears, to engage heart and soul in the duties of life, with all its crosses and all its cares; that thus God would bless, gently chasten, and one day take them to himself. I trust I did my part by

every wanderer, but penitents like these upraised my flagging spirits. As it was, when the day's dull round was done, I have cast myself on my couch in a passion of tears, bewailing the miserable degradation of my race. I was vowed to receive the heart's confession were it of the humblest of my species; yet who was I that presumed to act as God's vicegerent— God-Creator and Ruler of the universe only Confessor and Absolver of sins-Redeemer and Saviour of mankind!

A PROFLIGATE.

It was in the course of events that the young Cornelia should grow up, and be surrounded with suitors accordant with her high deserts and Christian worth.

Her father was ambitious; it was much he thought to connect his daughter with some

ancient line, the heir of vast domains. Broad acres, and the more metaphysical illusion of a name, were what he coveted; about the more boundless domain of the soul, the fields of intellect, he neither knew nor cared.

What he wanted presented itself in an individual who, saving the accident of birth, had not the faintest pretension to the youthful Cornelia. Rich, it is true, and by convention noble, he was the only offspring of an aged debauchee. Too effeminate for the chase, or other manly pursuit, he crept about enveloped in furs, or lolled in the corner of his chariot. Woe to those who crossed his path, unless their position placed them beyond his reach. No means were too infamous to gratify his malice. He would buy up mortgages, and harass the principals with claims real or supposititious. His only passion was gaming; and this he pursued with a zeal that conferred unusual skill.

In vain Cornelia, in vain her mother entreated the flinty-hearted proprietor; he would listen to no surrender of a father's enormous claims. His daughter, it was his pleasure, should marry this rickety lordling. Meantime Cornelia had given her heart to another, an officer in the garrison, high enough as to rank, but whose only heritage as younger brother was his sword.

"You shall not be sacrificed, sweetest," said her mother; "your rights and mine take precedence of this harsh bidding. Conrad, I know, is confest to your affections; I believe, I trust, he is not unworthy of them. Never shall rude constraint be enforced upon my child!"

Unauthorised, I waited on the proprietor; but dark as night became his lowering brow when he learned my errand.

66

Sir," said he, 'you doubtless mean well,

but my decision is unalterable."

Turning on

his heel, he was about to leave the apartment, but in spite of himself his attention was ar rested.

"What!" I exclaimed: "would you unite your child to a gambler, a very wretch? I can lead you to fathers whom he has ruined, debtors whom he has immured for years; in fine, to those, whom, stripped of fortune and consideration, he has reduced to beggary and despair."

Nor was it unadvisedly I spoke. Coming home from a round of fatiguing visits, I was adjured by a little girl to repair straightway to her mother's, where a stranger lay dying. I hurried as directed, and found in effect a miserable object, his head supported by a young woman, pale, dishevelled, yet of rare beauty.

The dying man feebly raised his head. "I have little to say," he murmured, "and for that little my fast-ebbing strength will hardly suffice. In an