CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. Introduction

II. Henry Associates with the Gay

III. The Operations of Reason .

IV. A Hint from the Tutor

v. Henry writes a Poem

VI. A new Expedient

VII. A Hint from the Rector

VIII. Henry studies Theology

IX. Henry Converses with his Sisters .

XI. The Rector visits the Hall

XII. Consideration.

xv. Prejudices against Religion

XVI. Religious Experience

CHAP. XVII. Family Religion.

XVIII. Enthusiasts

XIX. True Satisfaction

xx. The Moral Revolution

XXI. Loquacity in Religion

XXII. The Curate

XXIII. Novels .

XXIV. Amusements

xxv. The Authoress

XXVI. Christianity Received

XXVII. Henry Converses with a Plain

OSBORNE;

OR, A TALE FOR THE TIMES.

CHAP. I.

INTRODUCTION.

YE who prefer the plain delineation of human life to the ingenious inventions of fancy; the maxims of truth to the effusions of sensibility; the language of the sober mind to the rhapsody of the excited heart; and what may give permanent instruction to what only administers a transient delight; peruse with candour the pages of Osborne.

As our subject is of a moral nature, we shall engage in no description of scenery imagination will readily supply this omission of poetical prose. The reader may fix the residence of Osborne wherever he pleases, in the east or west, in the north or south, at the foot of a mountain, on the margin of a river, or in the midst of a lovely valley.

Osborne could boast of illustrious ancestors, of ample wealth, and of that respectability which virtue and integrity never fail to confer. He sometimes

B