gentle, bearing, we had already noticed, on our approach, as he passed, and respectfully saluted us; and whom we did not fail to recognize by the descriptions and encomiums of the ancient herdsman. He was the eldest, we learned, of a large family; and being a youth of talents, was, after receiving an excellent education, at no small sacrifices on the part of his father, appointed to a curacy near his native place. He was looked up to as the future staff of his family; for old Maurice Dunn was only one of those small land-owners belonging to the better class of yeomanry-a class, unfortunately, now nearly extinct in England. In addition to his own little property, be held the chief part of his farm under Lord L, by means of which, with laudable industry, he was enabled to support a numerous family, and bring up one of his sons to a profession, then, always the worthy ambition of men of his class, to say nothing of making himself comfortable during his latter days.

"Among his most constant hearers were Mrs. Dillon and her daughter; and in the character both of a pastor and tutor, Maurice Dunn was admitted like a friend, more than a visitor, at the lady's house. Here his fine taste and natural skill in music, drawing, and almost every accomplishment, recommended him to his pupils far more than his knowledge of the severer branches of learning. But no one, in the circle he knew, boasted of the same irresistible interest and attractions in his eyes, as the beautiful, the graceful, and the gentlesouled, intelligent Margaret.

"Was it possible, then, that, by any dark conspiracy of the fates, it had become the bounden duty of Maurice Dunn to unite the fair hand of the being he most adored upon earth to another; to pronounce the nuptial benediction on her as a bride, and to consign all his cherished love to unavailing bitterness and tears? From the rude, unvarnished account of our ancient chronicler, so dreadful a sacrifice appeared about to be made; and in that mode, and under those evil auspices, which leave not a moral possibility of escape.

"Finding this melancholy wedding was to take place next day, and that the church lay in our route, we agreed, before retiring to rest, to accompany our worthy host to witness the ceremony.

"The next morning saw us on our way to the church of L- Upon our arrival, we found that the bridal procession was already there, and had passed into the interior of the holy edifice.

"We took our station as near as the throng permitted us, to the altar. The minister already stood before it the bride and bridegroom at a little distance; and we could easily distinguish their countenances, and observe all that passed. The rest of the party comprised Lord L's friends, the bride's, and those of the young minister; among the last of whom was seen his venerable father, whose eye frequently turned, with an expression of pride and pleasure, on his son. That son, indeed, seemed one to deserve the admiration with which he was so generally regarded: his noble figure, handsome features, and dignified air and deport ment, contrasted strongly with the mean and insig nificant appearance, spite of his gilded trappings, that marked the bridegroom.

"But what most riveted my attention, was the singularly resolute and concentrated expression in the features of the minister, as if they had been well schooled to some desperate task. Firm in spirit, and calm in mood, he looked like one whose thoughts were above, or absent from, all considerations of the scene by which he was surrounded; as if the world, its weal or woe, with all its vicissi tudes, marriages, or deaths, were alike indifferent events to him. Yet a close observer might detect traces of something forced and strange, that excited a painful sensation in the beholder, and seemed to betoken little of a peaceful mind.

"And now my fancy began to fill up the rude and simple sketch of him, drawn by our aged guide; after what I had heard, there was a meaning in all I saw. Sudden gleams of thought seemed to "come and go like shadows" flitting across his brain, and darkening on his features, even against his resolute will. An unearthly paleness sat upon 2D. SERIES, NO. 11.—VOL. I.

his brow, strongly contrasted with the hectic glow that flushed his cheek. There was a slight convulsive motion of the eye-brows and the edge of the lips, which neither the bent brow, nor the fixed expression of the month, could quite repress. The same nervous affection, I was near enough to observe, was in his hands-they trembled, though his general demeanour was firm and collected. What most struck me, were a restlessness and eagerness of purpose, mixed with a feeling of intense pain, which were plainly reflected in the face of our honest guide, presenting a perfect picture of rustic perturbation, curiosity, and awe.

I now also observed his father's eye directed towards Maurice Dunn, with an uneasy look, as if, for the first time, he had detected something that gave him pain. He then looked towards the bride and bridegroom with the same uneasy glance, as if to inquire the meaning of what he saw. Other eyes, too, were directed towards the Minister; but he seemed too deeply absorbed in his own thoughts to heed what was passing around him. If his eye met another's, it was with fixed coldness and almost haughtiness of air. Yet that pride appeared forced, as if there were something he wished to conceal from the scorn or pity of the world. To me, the expression of his face, though composed, was one of suffering, deep-seated and intense-so well subdued, as scarcely to be detected without previous knowledge of the cause. It might be the effect of mere physical pain or sickness, not of the heart; and there seemed too much pride in his stern eye to betray its existence, were it there. Altogether, his bearing was decidedly not that of a holy minister, prepared to pronounce a nuptial blessing upon the happy, the beautiful, and young; for, what had that expression of pride and reckless indifference to do with an occasion like this? On the contrary, he seemed to glory in despising all those human sympathies and attachments, which he was there called upon to hallow and unite.

"As thus stern he stood and looked, how fared it with that lovely and gentle bride, who had come to claim his nuptial benediction upon herself and ber ill-assorted lord? Had she, indeed, selected such a lover in some hour of wounded pride or scorn, when her heart had been crushed or wrung with anguish; or was the marriage, yet more fearfully, her evil lot? Was it with such a being she had wandered during the summer season of her love, amidst the forest bowers, and heaths, and hills, of her native spot; was it with him she had visited the sorrowing and the sick, and gladdened the hearts of the orphan and the widow, and made the homes and hearts of the poor and comfortless sing for joy? Ah no! He was not her companion-it was with Maurice Dunn, that minister of wretchedness who was about to wed her to another, that she had talked in sweet communion of spirit, during these sacred and too well-remembered walks. But they were driven to fulfil their evil destiny there was no retreat, no escape, for Maurice Dunn. He had vowed it, and to redeem his pledge, he now stood a sacrifice at the altar of his God. He knew his love was hopeless, and she, too, knew it; yet, had he spoken the word, she would have flown with him, even to the uttermost ends of the earth. Alas! this one hope she had garnered up in her heart, as a last resource; but he had urged it not; and she there stood before him-all her woman's pride and desperation, added to the tortures of her love, summoned to bear her through the dreaded task. A strange unnatural lustre shone in her eye; it could be seen through the folds of her veil; and one instinctively turned away from it. with something of the same wild or perturbed feeling-a feeling that seemed to spread its contagious sympathy to all around. Her face was exquisitely beautiful, but almost as white as the dress she wore; and she looked most lovely, in spite of the deep seated sadness it betrayed. Her figure was strikingly graceful; her head was slightly drooping; but there was an air of dignity in her whole deportment, as if emulating that of him who stood before her in the fixed and concentrated passion of his doom.

་་
"It appeared to me, as if there prevailed through
3 x
155.-VOL. XIII.

the whole party, a certain consciousness of something wrong-of some struggle, or some impending evil, to be encountered; but this I attributed to mere fancy, until, subsequently, it was remarked to have been felt by others as well as myself.

"While engaged in reading the marriage service, which he pronounced in a bold and clear tone, the young minister had his eye somewhat sternly fixed

on the two beings he addressed; his calm brow, his lofty figure, and deep-toned voice giving double solemnity to his words. At length he took the bride's hand, as if to place it in that of her intended lord; and it was then, for the first time, that one thrill of feeling seemed to shake his whole frame. He almost started back, as if he

had trodden on a serpent; for he had felt that hand more deathly cold and trembling than his own. Each seemed to recognize the death-damp touch, and, shuddering, to shrink from it. To me it was evident that she sought to release her hand at the moment when it was placed in that of the bridegroom; but the minister, recovering himself almost instantaneously, hurried over the remaining service, and still more rapidly uttered the nuptial blessing.

"The fatal words were pronounced; and as he closed the book, he raised his eyes to the bride's face, as if to take one farewell look. Their eyes met: she felt and returned that look-but with a wild expression of woman's agony and reproach, which years have not since obliterated from my

memory, nor from that, I think, of any one who witnessed it. It would appear as if till then she had believed it impossible, that he whom she loved would meet her there to execute so fearful and soul-rending a sentence on all her love. It appeared to have chilled the very life-blood in her veins, for, regardless of all else around her, she stood rooted to the spot, as if entranced in woe. She still kept her eye fixed on the minister, who had shrunk in apparent terror from that one heart-rending look; but, as if in answer to it, bis own was now directed towards his father, sur. rounded by his numerous family. She under. stood him it was the sole reply he could give;

and stretching out her hand to him, as if to beg his forgiveness for upbraiding him, she let her head fall upon his breast, and wept.

Thus was divulged the previous secret of their love all that had before passed,-thus were revealed 'their cruel sufferings, their vain prayers and tears, sternly enforced duty, and sad submission to their fate. This painful scene was accompanied by mingled murmurs and imprecations, or by sobs and tears from every spectator ;-but a more trying crisis was at hand. With that one distracted look, and the tears of her he had just wedded to another wet upon his bosom, were crowned the sufferings of the young martyr to love and duty. After fixing his eye upon his father, and supporting the sobbing bride for a moment in his arms, he saw and felt no more, His heart was broken; agony had burst its walls. The blood rushed in torrents through his mouth and ears, and he fell dead at the foot of the altar.

"One piercing shrike was heard above every other voice, as the young distracted bride threw herself in passionate agony on her lover's body; and the house of God resounded only with the voice of grief. Long insensibility came merci. fully to her relief, and in that state the unhappy lady was borne from the church,-ber white bridal robes stained with the blood of him to whom she would have been happy to be united even in death. Nor was it very long before the prayer which ever after rose to her lips, was granted to her sufferings.

"Accompanied by my friend, I instantly left the place; and in the deep sequestered solitudes of the woods and mountains, we for a time sought to forget the painful impression this event had produced.

"It was about two years after our return, that we requested one of our friends, then on a visit near the village of L-, to inquire into the fate of the unhappy bride. He visited the churchyard, and near the humbler stone that marked the

grave of Maurice Dunn, rose the family vault of the lords of L-: the last name that had been there inscribed, was that of Margaret, Countess of L-, who died in the twenty-first year of her age. It was only the second of her ill-starred marriage."-p. 82-94.

REVIEW.-Edinburgh Cabinet Library, Vol. IV. Palestine. 12mo. pp. 448. Simpkin and Marshall. London. 1831. In the first volume of this series, we were introduced to the frozen regions of the north, and rendered familiar with darkness, danger, icebergs, and polar bears. The second conducted us to the arid wastes of Africa, and made us acquainted with the intolerable fierceness of a perpendicular sun, with burning sands, the want of water, and the ferocious tribes, both of men and animals, that traverse these inhospitable abodes. By the third, we were led into Egypt, the cradle of the arts, to range along the banks of the majestic Nile, to reflect on mouldering ruins, and to contemplate some of the most ancient monuments in the world. The fourth volume invites us to make the tour of Palestine, to visit mountains and valleys, seas and rivers, lakes and fountains, cities and villages, that are immediately connected with events, rendered venerable by the lapse of time, and consecrated by the sanctions of holy writ.

In this volume we have nine chapters, which furnish introductory observations; history of the Hebrew commonwealth; historical outline from the accession of Saul to the destruction of Jerusalem; on the literature and religious usages of the ancient Hebrews; destruction of Jerusalem; description of the country south and east of Jerusalem; description of the country northward of Jerusalem; the history of Palestine from the fall of Jerusalem to the present time; and the natural history of Palestine. Under these general heads, much interesting matter is arranged; and although a considerable portion is derived from the information and authority of scripture, it is pleasing to observe, that these statements are corroborated by the testimony of many authors, to whom the declarations of the Bible were probably unknown, and over whom, if they had been acquainted with its statements, it would have extended no commanding influence.

The chapters which introduce the crusaders to our notice, awaken feelings which no language can accurately express. We look on these renowned devotees of religion, romance, and chivalry, with the mingled emotions of pity, censure, and

admiration. Their courage and perseve rance were perhaps never exceeded, and the sufferings which multitudes among these hordes of adventurers were compelled to endure, appear almost to surpass belief. To them, toil and hardships seemed to give repose; and, from their cheerful submission to calamities, we might be half tempted to imagine that privations constituted a considerable portion of their enjoyment. On most occasions they displayed an arduous and enterprising spirit, which was worthy of a better cause.

Of Jerusalem, the accounts given in this volume are from various travellers, both of ancient and modern times; and, as a natural consequence, we behold this venerable city descending from the most exalted state of splendour, down to the meanest condition of degradation. The history of its vicissitudes cannot be contemplated without melancholy reflections and painful associations. It is still trodden down of the Gentiles, and groaning under the divine displeasure.

The visits and observations of travellers are condensed in this volume almost into an essence. We survey the sacred enclosures, chapels, vaults, and relics, with sufficient minuteness to gratify curiosity, without becoming weary with the tediousness of detail. Not only Jerusalem, but its environs, and all the surrounding country, are crowded with objects deeply interesting to Jews and Christians; and so full of life and animation are the descriptions, that we seem transported into the holy land, to live in departed ages, and to witness with our bodily organs the realities, of which the author furnishes only the descriptive delineations.

Several well-executed wood-cuts illustrate various prominent subjects; but for these, for the modern history of Palestine, and for its natural productions, geological, vegetable, and animal, the reader must have recourse to the work itself. Palestine

will never cease to furnish momentous topics for contemplation to the Christian world; hence, amidst all the gratification which this volume affords, it will be found better calculated to stimulate, than to repress further inquiry.

BRIEF SURVEY OF BOOKS.

1. The Book of Private Devotion, &c. with an Introductory Essay on Prayer, chiefly from the Writings of Hannah More, (Nisbet, London,) is neat in its exterior, but more intrinsically valuable within. The essay is judiciously written;

and the prayers contain a respectable variety. In most instances, these petitions bear their authors' names, among whom we find many of the highest respectability.

2. Daily Communings, Spiritual and Devotional, on select Portions of the Psalms, by Bishop Horne, (Nisbet, London,) command our attention by their pious and intelligent author's name. Horne on the Psalms is a work not likely to sink into oblivion. It is a source whence many inferior "urns draw light." In this little book, each of the psalms, in succession, yields its materials for spiritual musings. The observations are brief, but full of life and genuine devotion.

3. Royal Tablet, (Smith and Doliers, London,) is a novel specimen of art, adapted, in its larger form, to sketching, drawing, writing out exercises in languages, &c.; and, in its pocket shape, is particu. larly useful for memoranda, as the smallest writing is as legible as print. The surface, which is beautifully white, takes the pencil in the most pleasing manner; and, on its being cleaned by moisture, is always restored to its original freshness and purity.

4. The Unsearchable Riches of Christ, by Thomas Brooks, (Book Society, London,) is a neat reprint of a valuable work, which is too well known in the religious world to require any recommendation. It is a book in which learning and piety are so happily combined, that the scholar and the christian may read it with mutual ad. vantage.

5. American Biography - Memoirs of Mrs. Ann Judson and Mrs. Martha Ramsay, (Nisbet, London,) can hardly fail to interest and operate on the mind of every reader. The memoir of Mrs. Ramsay displays the christian character in brilliant colours, under the most trying vicissitudes of fortune; and, perhaps, that of Mrs. Judson is one of the most remarkable and interesting sketches of female biography extant. This latter furnishes a luminous picture of the manners and cruelty of the inhabitants throughout the Burman empire.

6. The Moravians in Greenland, (Nisbet, London,) is a little volume that contains much useful information. It not only traces the progress of the mission in that dreary region, but furnishes an entertaining history of the country, of its productions, and of its inhabitants. Many remarkable incidents are scattered through its pages; and the reader is amused with anecdotes of very singular occurrence.

7. A Series of Lessons in Prose and Verse, being an Introduction to a Course of Elementary Reading in Science and

Literature, by J. M. M'Culloch, A. M., (Simpkin, London,) every reader will peruse with pleasure. These lessons are intended for the young, for whose instruction they are admirably adapted; but, containing extracts from very many celebrated authors, the sentiments communicated will be found valuable by those of riper years. This book is deserving of a place in every respectable seminary.

8. Memoir of the Rev. Samuel Kilpin, late of Exeter, (Hamilton, London,) is a pleasing biographical sketch of a pious minister, who was made a blessing to the neighbourhood in which he resided. It contains nothing particularly remarkable, yet it is deserving a place among the memoirs of pious usefulness which enrich our libraries. An appendix embraces a memoir of Mr. Kilpin's son.

9. Bible Stories, for the use of Children, by the Rev. Samuel Wood, B.A., (Simpkin, London,) is a plain little book, which will be found useful in the nursery, and in Sunday and other schools. These stories are from the Old Testament; but, being marked as Part I., another may be expected from the New.

10. Addresses for Sunday Schools, with appropriate Prayers, by the Rev. Samuel Wood, B.A., (Hunter, London,) present to the reader many excellent observations, and many passages of a very questionable nature. In a prayer that appears in p. 60, the following reprehensible expression occurs"Let it then be found, that we have been good and virtuous children, and that we deserve to enter into the joy of our Lord." The merit of good works is avowed by Roman Catholics, but by all orthodox Protestants, both churchmen and dissenters, it is justly exploded as heretical and antichristian.

11. The Saints' Everlasting Rest, by Richard Baxter, (Tract Society, London,) appears here in an abridged form. This will so reduce the price of this invaluable work, as to place it in the hands of many to whom its present cost will not be an important object.

12. Questions on the Companion to the Bible, (Religious Tract Society, London,) Sunday-school teachers will be glad to receive into their libraries. It is a little book, calculated to improve the mind in theological knowledge.

13. Eleven Catechisms:- -on English Grammar; English Composition; French Grammar; History of England; Latin Grammar; Zoology; Geography; Works of Creation; History of Scotland; Draw ing; and Christian Instruction, (Simpkin,

London,) are useful little books in their respective departments. They are all intended for learners, and to them they will communicate the elementary principles of scientific knowledge.

14. Considerations on the Necessity and Equity of a National Banking System, &c., (Maclean, Edinburgh,) is another of those Utopian schemes with which the press, in some department or other, every day abounds. Many things look well in theory, which, on reducing to practice, put on a widely different aspect. The author ap. pears to mean well; but we suspect that his plan will end in abortion.

15. Nursing Fathers and Mothers of the Children of the Church, a Sermon, by Greville Ewing, (Westley, London,) contains little to admire, and little to condemn. Like many similar publications, it will live its day, and then quietly retire from the scrutiny of fastidious critics.

16. The System of Exclusion and Denunciation considered, by William Ellery Channing, D. D., (Hunter, London,) though a reprint of what was published in America in 1815, has a strong bearing on the late dissensions which occurred in the anniversary of the British and Foreign Bible Society. It contains much powerful reasonings, and many pertinent remarks. Mr. Gordon, and his associate zealots, would do well to consider its contents.

17. An Essay upon the Wines and strong Drinks of the ancient Hebrews, &c. by the Rev. Moses Stuart, M. A., with a Preface, by John Pye Smith, D.D., (Wilson, London,) brings us immediately within the current of the Temperance Societies, the cause of which it advocates in an able manner. The general purport of this pamphlet is, to discard the use of stimulants altogether, as being injurious to health, and inimical to the pure principles of Christianity. Mr. Stuart's is a wellwritten pamphlet, and Mr. Smith's preface is worthy of its author.

18. A Brief Directory for Evangelical Ministers, (Tract Society, London,) contains extracts from the writings of several celebrated ministers of former days. It has a neat appearance, and the sentiments are admirable; but the utility of giving this publication an isolated existence, is not so apparent.

19. The Commercial Vade - Mecum, (Allen, Glasgow,) supports the common character of these useful works. In addition to the price at per pound and yard, commission, interest, value of foreign coins, &c., it contains a list of all the cities, towns, &c. throughout the British empire, with