who surrounded their beds, not to make any public acknowledgment of their errors, yet confessed in private the delusions which they had practised upon themselves and others, and the fears by which they were then harassed at the last; while to avoid such compunctious visitings of conscience, Gibbon, Diderot, and Hume, had recourse to mental abstractions, so puerile and trifling as to put philosophy to shame. If, then, you would escape the end of these men, you will renounce your present wretched and wicked sentiments; you will search for that God, whose religion, carefully and impartially studied and considered, will satisfy the most enquiring mind, and humble the pride, even of those who think themselves the wisest; and you will in the end find that philosophy, strictly speaking, sound philosophy, goes hand in hand with revelation, causing the mind to see and acknowledge the true and everlasting God, and the sure blessings he has reserved to mankind, for the merits of his blessed Son. Here," I continued, rising from my seat, and taking up the volume of Paley's Natural Theology that lay near me ; — "here is a work that treats of Anatomy in a way worthy of your consideration. It is strictly philosophical; and if you will read and patiently reflect upon his reasonings, it will, by God's blessing, lead you to a right understanding in these matters, and cause you to make, for the time to come, a better distinction between the workman and his works; between nature and the operations of nature; between material and immaterial, mortal and immortal things. Take it for my sake, for your own sake, aye, and for God's sake! and may he humble the pride of your heart, and enlighten your mind with the knowledge of his divine truth!" The old man received it with a trembling hand. A tear fell from his eye: he took my hand, and having pressed it with warmth and emotion, walked out of the room without speaking a single word. A few days after, I called at his house: the shutters were closed, the door fastened, and there was no one within that I could bring to answer my appeal for admittance; and from that time to the present hour I never could learn any thing respecting him; but I would fain hope that he is become a better, a wiser, and a happier man. 183 THE ABBEY. My new and agreeable friends had returned from Cheltenham to their own home in Worcestershire, and as I felt myself a solitary being without any fixed designs, or any particular inclination to one place more than another, I determined upon turning my steps in the same direction in which they had bent theirs, and to go in search of the picturesque, through a part of the country hitherto unknown to me. I, therefore, after some few days spent in Gloucester, set out for the city of Worcester, and in my progress thither had the good fortune to form an acquaintance with a Mr. Jordan, who had taken a place in the same conveyance with myself, and with the intention of visiting the same part of the country. I found him a man of great knowledge of the world and quickness of understanding; -a man, also, of leisure and fortune. His family he had left at Cheltenham, and taking advantage of the opportunity thus afforded him, had set out for a visit to Glouces |