back my thoughts, by means of the brilliant object before me, to the contemplation of that "blessed city, which hath no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it; for the glory of God doth lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof."

I have been the more particular in recording my precise feelings at the period in question, because they tend to confirm an opinion which I have long entertained,-in common, I believe, with yourself and others,-that we very rarely realize even those objects that seem, in our every day speculations, to be the most interesting to our hearts. We are so much in the habit of uttering the awful words-Almighty, heaven, hell, eternity, divine justice, holiness, &c. without attaching to them, in all their magnitude, the ideas of which such words are the symbols, that we become overwhelmed with much of the astonishment that accompanies a new and alarming discovery, if, at any time, the ideas themselves are suddenly and forcibly impressed upon us; and it is probably this vagueness of conception, experienced even by those whose minds are not altogether unexercised on the subject of religion, that enables others, devoid of all reflection whatever, to stand on the very brink of that precipice which divides the world of

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time from the regions of eternity, not only with apparent, but frequently, I am persuaded, with real tranquillity. How much is it to be lamented, that we do not keep in mind a truth which no one can pretend to dispute, that our indifference or blindness to danger, whether it be temporal or eternal, cannot possibly remove or diminish the extent of it.

Some time after the shades of night had enveloped us, I descended to the cuddy, in quest of a blanket to shelter me from the increasing cold; and the scene of desolation that there presented itself was melancholy in the extreme. The place which, only a few short hours before, had been the seat of kindly intercourse, and of social gaiety, was now entirely deserted, save by a few miserable wretches, who were either stretched in irrecoverable intoxication on the floor, or prowling about like beasts of prey, in search of plunder. The sofas, drawers, and other articles of furniture, the due arrangement of which had cost so much thought and pains, were now broken into a thousand pieces, and scattered in confusion around me. Some of the geese and other poultry, escaped from their confinement, were cackling in the cuddy; while a solitary pig, wandering from its sty in the forecastle, was ranging at large in undisturbed possession of

the Brussels carpet that covered one of the cabins. Glad to retire from a scene so cheerless and affecting, and rendered more dismal by the smoke which was oozing up from below, I returned to the poop, where I again found amongst the few officers that remained, Captain Cobb, Colonel Fearon, Lieutenants Ruxton, Booth, and Evans, superintending with unabated zeal, the removal of the rapidly diminishing sufferers, as the boats successively arrived for their conveyance.

The alarm and impatience of the people increased in a high ratio as the night advanced; and our fears, amid the surrounding darkness, were fed as much by the groundless or exaggerated reports of the timid, as by the real and evident approach of the fatal crisis itself. With the view to insure a greater probability of being discovered by those in the boats, some of the more collected and hardy soldiers (for I think almost all the sailors had already effected their escape) took the precaution to tie towels and such like articles round their heads, previously to their committing themselves to the water.

As the boats were nearly three quarters of an hour absent between each trip, which period was necessarily spent by those in the

wreck in a state of fearful inactivity,―abundant opportunity was afforded for collecting the sentiments of many of the unhappy men around me; some of whom, after remaining perhaps for a while in silent abstraction, would suddenly burst forth, as if awakened from some terrible dream to a still more frightful reality, into a long train of loud and desponding lamentation, that gradually subsided into its former stillness.

It was during those trying intervals of rest, that religious instruction and consolation appeared to be the most required, and the most acceptable. Some there were, accordingly, who endeavoured to dispense it agreeably to the visible wants and feelings of the earnest hearers. On one of those occasions, especially, the officer to whom I have already alluded, was entreated to pray. His prayer was short, but was frequently broken by the exclamations of assent to some of its confessions, that were wrung from the afflicted hearts of his honest auditors.

I know not in what manner, under those circumstances, spiritual hope or comfort could have been ministered to my afflicted companions, by those who regard works, either wholly or partly, as the means of propitiating

Divine Justice, rather than the evidence and fruits of that faith which pacifies the conscience and purifies the heart. But in some few cases, at least, where the individuals deplored the want of time for repentance and good works, I well remember that no arguments tended to sooth their troubled minds, but those which went directly to assure them of the freeness and fulness of that grace which is not refused, even in the eleventh hour, to the very chief of sinners. And if any of those to whom I now allude, have been spared to read this record of their feelings in the prospect of death, it will be well for them to keep solemnly in mind the vows they then took upon them, and to seek to improve that season of probation which they so earnestly besought, and which has been so mercifully extended to them,-by humbly and incessantly applying for accessions of that faith which they are sensible removed the terrors of their awakened consciences, and can alone enable them henceforward to live in a sober, righteous, and godly manner,-and thereby give the only unquestionable proof of their love to God, and their interest in the great salvation of his Son Jesus Christ.

If, on reading this imperfect narrative, any persons beyond the immediate circle of my com