which attracted and charmed us. I have not forgotten the tears which flowed, when this unlookedfor stranger poured out at our evening worship confessions, petitions, and gratitudes exactly our own, and how from that hour the wide Atlantic seemed bridged for us by sympathies which the world could not interfere with.

After him came another and another, each new guest in the course of years introducing his friend, the characters of all in degree fraught with those principles which prepare the mind for exalted intercourse, based on plans and hopes which will live when the world and its life are extinct.

Our earliest specimens of men from the other hemisphere were not merchants, but pastors exhausted by their labors in pursuit of health and relaxation, and students in pursuit of knowledge. And noble specimens they were of keen investigation, lively perception of novelty, acute dissection of truth, and bold assertion of Christian principle, as the rule and guide of their motives. It is not to be wondered at that such associates should engage and enliven the mind, and that after long years of distant contemplation, an opportunity of seeing them at home should be embraced with willingness. Neither is it surprising, that such being the char

acter of our first transatlantic acquaintances, their successors should have been like-minded, or that when these welcome visits were at last returned, they should have opened for the guest whom they so generously cherished, a vein of ore precious and rich in its rewards to the feeble and unworthy hand that worked it.

Others have described the festivities, the political institutions, the energetic mercantile pursuits of the Americans. Perhaps a path yet scarcely trodden may furnish some points of interest, from one who numbered amongst her early and valued friends, J. M. Mason, D.D., and his young friend Bruen, who acted as the keys to open Society's gate for her. One whose attention has been directed as much to the Christianity and philanthropic exertions of the people as to their noble rivers and rich plains, and as much to the lively and influential Christian sentiments of their women, as to their domestic virtues and personal loveliness.

It is to the Christian and social habits of this interesting people that access has been chiefly afforded, and with them chiefly that sympathies have been exchanged. Abhorring the vulgar soul that uses the hospitalities of a country to go home and criticize domestic habits, as much as the treacherous,

seeming reserve, which points its tale so as to mark infallibly the parties alluded to, while it affects to withhold the names, my remarks and details are sincere and affectionate as are my feelings; accompanied by that respectful reserve which becomes a friend, pledged as much by grateful regard as by sympathy to feel and act as becomes brotherly love.

A passage in the conclusion of Dickens' "American Notes," one of the best in the book, is quoted verbatim as the best expression of my own sentiments, only adding to "cultivation and refinement" a more essential quality which he has omitted-I mean Christian principle.

"The Americans are by nature frank, brave, cordial, hospitable, and affectionate-cultivation and refinement seem but to enhance their warmth of heart and ardent enthusiasm, and it is the possession of these latter qualities in a most remarkable degree which renders an educated American one of the most endearing and most generous of friends. I never was so won upon as by this class; never yielded up my full confidence and esteem so readily and so pleasurably as to them; never can make again in half a year so many friends, for whom I seem to entertain the regard of half a life."*

* Dickens' American Notes, vol. i. p. 288.

The Children.

OUR ancestors are the root of the tree, our aged the trunk, our youths the branches, and our children the coronal of leaves and blossoms-and who that anticipates the future prosperity of a country can fail to cast a lively observation on the blossoms, and to watch the spring-time? Who that has experienced the parental instincts, which are interwoven with the very life of the heart; who that has seen children grow out of infancy into manhood, and out of ignorance into maturing wisdom, can dwell in a country and be admitted into its domestic scenes, without casting an earnest eye over the little ones, the light of the dwelling, the source of its freshest interest?

English children in the presence of strangers are reserved and shy. They feel that the nursery and school-room are their proper spheres of action, and that they are only brought out at times, as it were, to be shown to particular friends.

Scotch children are bashful and awkward, and as if constitution or climate had not done enough for them in that respect, their parents too often repress them as if they were ashamed of them, or afraid of some outburst of ill-manners, when the poor things are behaving their very best. This partly arises. from the reserve of the mothers, who, with hearts flowing with affection, press it down and cover it up, as if they feared it might be suspected by a stranger.

Most unlike to these is the sentiment of the American, both parent and child. The little citizen seems to feel at a surprisingly early age, that he has a part to act on the stage of the world, and is willing enough to act a little before his time. And the parents, full of frank, simple emotion, bring their little treasure under notice, and ask you, with pride and joy, "Don't you think my Charley is a brave little fellow?" or, "Did you ever see such a quick eye as my Austin's?" or, "Is she not a pretty little darling?" or, "Did you ever see such a cunning little thing?" (The word cunning, according to some old English use of it, meaning in this application nothing like sly, but neat, tidy, or expert-looking.) If the children are not at home, you will be shown their pictures, or told their histories, or if the arrow of death has stricken any of them, the stroke,