small slate-stones had been fixed at their heads, with initials indicating the remains of their inhabitants. But time had crumbled several of these. What a powerful example of the instability of earthly memorials was here exhibited! and what a humiliating lesson did these little mounds pronounce! I stood on the grave of my venerated great, great grandfather, and reflected that he who had so often wandered over the fields near me,-who had been guided across the troubled ocean by a Divine hand, in search of a peaceful asylum,-was gone forever from these scenes; and his remains were reposing beneath me. Every thing of him that was human, was confined to this narrow spot. His beloved wife lay at his side; and the remains of many of his dear connexions, were deposited around his. The affection of his descendants had enclosed these by a wall, and here they had ever since rested undisturbed. It seemed as if I were holding a communion with the dead; and the objects around me, impressing me with awe, reminded me that the beings with whom I was in company, did once exist on this earth, and partook of the joys and sorrows of mortality. They had fulfilled the duties of their stations (as the written evidences of their piety, in my possession, bear ample witness) and were doubtless gathered by their Lord into that eternal rest which he has prepared for his people. If they had not, little would it avail them now, that for more than a century their bones have rested in peace, and the breath of neglect and desolation has not swept over their graves;—that, during their lives, the charms of friendship and the varied delights of social life, were their's;-and, VOL. VII.4

that this favoured spot of the globe afforded them a retreat from heavy persecutions.

Yes! here, under the wise policy and mild government of the founder of Pennsylvania, they found a settlement where they could meet together and worship the Lord of nature, the God of their salvation, according to the dictates of their consciences, unmolested by fines, imprisonments, and vexatious impositions: and, here, closing their days, with gratitude to him who had graciously conducted them through life, they slept in the bosom of their Redeemer.

While I stood and contemplated these mounds which designated the places of their remains, I remembered that the pious doctor Fothergill and his sister had made a similar visit, after many years absence, to drop "the grateful tribute of a tear, at the side of an honoured parent's grave. To see that his sepulchre was not laid waste," says he, "to the beasts of the field, but secured from the ravages of neglect, was, to us, a pleasing duty. Firmly persuaded that we had not the least cause to mourn on his account, and nothing left more becoming us, than to call to mind his precepts and his example,—we left the solitary spot with hearts full of reverent thankfulness, that such was our father, and that we were so far favoured as to be able to remember him with gratitude and affection."

What matters it that the names of such worthies are now remembered no more, or called but transiently before the view of tenderness, in the hour of converse, or the moments of solemn communion! The world, busy with its present concerns, forgets, or cares not that these have ever lived; yet the state of society at this day may owe much of the com

forts, and improvements, and knowledge, now enjoyed, to the labours and energies of those who are thus unheeded and forgotten. But their names are written in the book of life, and "gloriously enrolled in the records of eternity; and when the memory of the proud and self-exalted shall have passed away, these shall be had in everlasting remembrance."

The cemetery thus visited, was entirely overrun with weeds, although there is an annuity laid on part of Phineas Pemberton's new farm, for the purpose of keeping it in order. With great difficulty I could discern, among the briars and bushes, the remains of twelve graves. The slate-stones at their heads had considerably crumbled, particularly near their tops where the initials had been inscribed; and I was mortified at being enabled to find only five of them certainly designated. Time, who defaces all visible objects, had here effectually done his oblivious work. Those indicated by the initials, were, James Harrison, Agnes Harrison, Lydia Wharmby, Phineas Pemberton, and Phebe, his wife. These graves were in a small enclosure, in one corner of the larger burial ground.

On coming to the close of the life of Phineas Pemberton, I pause a moment, to contemplate the great simplicity and integrity of his character. In following him through his various early trials, and sufferings for the testimony of Truth,-his imprisonments and vexatious treatment from an ignorant and deluded populace,—his migration to this country,the various offices of great trust and importance which he held ;—we see him acting in one uniform manner, dictated by a pure conscience, and conducted by that exalted sense of correct feeling, which

guided him in all his ways. A great number of letters addressed to him, are left among his papers, which evince the high esteem in which he was held by his contemporaries; and the events of his life show the peculiar favour of Providence towards him, making him in many instances, as it were, a conspicuous example of the blessings attendant on a course of righteousness and humble devotion. His faithfulness in his native land, to those testimonies of Truth which he believed himself called to bear, left a sweet savour behind him in the hearts of his friends, and tended to their support and encouragement in a like dedication. "The Truth was honoured by his uprightness, and well spoken of by his meek walking." His literary attainments, too, considering the days of darkness and ignorance in which he lived, exhibit a mind far superior to the common rank. There are several Essays which he left, in prose and verse, though chiefly tinctured with the polemic spirit, into which the infant Society of Friends was driven by the attacks of the malicious and interested; yet evidencing, however, the true independence and candor of a mind conscious of being on the right side of the question.

He had lost his mother before he was six years of age, and therefore owed little of the correct principles and mental discipline he observed, to maternal instruction and kindness. By his own industry and effort he attained to the station and character, both of mind and place at which he arrived. The estate he left at his death, was respectable; among which were "Grove Place," which afterwards was sold to Willoughby Warder, for £550-the farm of three hundred and fifty-four acres, on which he last

resided, and which was left to his son Israel, who named the two divisions of it," Bolton" and "Wigan," in remembrance of the country of his father; -about forty acres of land in Bristol, and eight hundred acres in Wrightstown, -a lot in High street, Philadelphia, and his furniture, implements of husbandry, bonds, &c. appraised at £ 953.

Nine children were the issue of his marriage with the amiable Phebe Harrison; none by Alice Hodgson. His widow married about two years after his death, to Thomas Bradford, a widower.

One of the productions of Phineas Pemberton may be inserted in this place, as it gives a very interesting history of the establishment of the Yearly Meeting of Friends of Pennsylvania, and touches on those sufferings of early Friends, which induced them to fix on this part of the globe, as an asylum from heavy persecutions. It is in the form of an Epistle, and was intended as a preface to the Book of Minutes.

"AN EPISTLE.

Being a short testimony of the Lord's goodness to us, in the settling of ourselves in these parts of the world, and an account of the first setting up of our Yearly Meeting.

Dear Friends,-It hath pleased God, in his infinite goodness and good providence, to give us, his people, who were and are in scorn called Quakers, a lot and inheritance in this new, remote, and, formerly to us, unknown part of the world, now called America: into which desert and wilderness he hath called, drawn, and allured many of us, and here hath given us of the comforts of his house, and