Where is the moral of my tale, and what the use of telling it? I have told it because I see that God has his purposes in everything that he has done, and man has his own and disregards them. And every day I hear it disputed with acrimony and much unkindness, what faculties and characters it is better to have or not have, without any consideration of what God has given or withheld; and standards are set up, by which all must be measured, though, alas! they cannot take from or add one cubit to their statures. "There is one glory of the sun, another of the moon, and one star differeth from another in glory." Why do we not censure the sun for outshining the stars, and the pale moon for having no light but what she borrows? Instead of settling for + others what they ought to be, and choosing for ourselves what we will be, would it not be better to examine the condition in which we are actually placed, and the faculties actually committed to us, and consider what was the purpose of heaven in the former, and what the demand of heaven in the occupation of the latter. If we have much, we are not at liberty to put it aside and say we should be better without it-if we have little, we are not at liberty to be dissatisfied and aspiring after more— and surely we are not at liberty to say that another has too much or too little of what God has given. We may have our preferences, but we must not mistake them for standards of right. I may walk in the garden and take which flower pleases me-but I should be a fool if I trampled upon the rest because they are not like it. And I wish indeed that parents in the education of their children, would have no scheme or purpose, but to discover and to forward the purposes of heaven. Then should we not hour have after hour consumed in teaching them what they cannot learn, because it is the fashion-while powers and faculties that might be used for good, are neglected and despised. Then our children would not be taught to aspire to paths for which they are unfit, or to bury talents for which they must give account. The indiscriminate

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discipline of a school would not be thought a meet culti» vation for every cast of character, and a suitable ration for every sphere of duty. The timid snowdrop would not be exposed to the summer sunshine, or the myrtle to the chillness of the mountain breeze, to satisfy the prejudice or the ambition of a parent. It would surely be better that instead of being taught to aim after one character and despise another, every one were accustomed to appreciate her own-to feel what she is called to and fitted for-the capacities she has from nature, the moral purposes to which they may be applied, and the measure of responsibility that pertains to them. Then the superiority which now spends itself in contempt for the less endowed, would be engrossed with the fearful weight of its own responsibilities; and the inferiority which now frets itself in impatience of what it cannot measure, would bless heaven for its easier and less perilous task.

Every character has beauties peculiar to itself, and dangers to which it is peculiarly exposed-and there are duties pertaining to each, apart from the circumstances in which they may be placed. Nothing, therefore, can be more contrary to the manifest order and disposition of providence, than to endeavour to be or do whatever we admire in another, or to force others to be and do whatever we admire in ourselves. Which character of the endless variety that surrounds is the most happy, the most useful, and most deserving to be beloved, it were impossible, I believe, to decide-and if we could, we have gained little by the decision; for we could neither give it to our children nor to ourselves, But of this we may be certain-that individual, of whatever intellectual character, is the happiest, the most useful, and the most beloved of God, if not of men, who has best subserved the purposes of heaven in her creation and endowment-who has most carefully turned to good the faculties she has most cautiously guarded against the evils to which her propensities incline-most justly estimated and

conscientiously fulfilled the duties appropriate to her circumstance and character. The more elevated and distinguished character-no matter how distinguished, by rank, or wealth,or intellect-may tremble on her elevation and be ashamed that before heaven she fills it so unworthily, but must not come down from it. The more lowly in mind or place, may with humility confess the little that she has must be assiduously cultivated to answer even the little that is required-but she must not aspire to be more than God has made her. If we might choose for our children, we should be wise, perhaps-but why do I talk of choosing, when God has determined? To be ambitious for them of talent or intellect, is no other than to be ambitious of wealth, or rank, or other sublunary good-and to make any undue expenditure of time, or care, or money, or, still worse, any compromise of principle for the attainment of it, is to give to vanity what is due else-where-for he who tried wisdom as well as folly, determined of the one as of the other, "This also is vanity." The excessive attempts at this, I do believe in some cases to amount almost to sin-certainly to an over-estimate of what is thus dearly purchased. But on the other hand, as wealth, and rank, and every other earthly distinction, is given of God, and must be used and answered for, so I must believe also that the faculties of the mind are not to be accepted or rejected at our pleasure, as if our task of life were left for us to choose--but to be cultivated, appropriated, and respected, in others and ourselves, as pertaining to our Master, and holden for his service till his coming.

SERIES OF ESSAYS ON THE SUBJECT OF

ARCHITECTURE.

ESSAY THE EIGHTH.

Corinthian Order.

THE Corinthian order is of more recent invention. A fanciful story of its origin is told by Vitruvius, but cannot be relied on as credible history. It seems, however, to mark the date of its introduction; as Callimachus lived towards the end of the Peloponnesian war. The story referred to is thus told. A virgin of Corinth was attacked with a disorder which proved fatal. After her interment the vases which had been the objects of her admiration when alive, were collected by her nurse, and deposited in a basket which she placed on her grave, covering it with a tile to protect it from the weather. The basket was accidentally placed over the roots of an Acanthus. The growth of the plant being impeded by the pressure, the middle leaf and the cauliculi appeared in the spring round the bottom of the basket. The cau liculi, attaching themselves to the surface, grew up, till arrested in their progress by the angles of the tile projecting over the basket; which caused them to incline forward, and assume a spiral form. At this stage of its growth, Callimachus, the sculptor, chancing to pass by the spot, observed the basket and the beauty of the foliage round it; and thence adopted it in the columns of the edifices he afterwards erected in Corinth: whence the order was termed Corinthian.

It is not improbable that this characteristic ornament of the Corinthian style was imported from Egypt. The flower of the Lotus, which generally formed the ornament of the heavy structures of that country, in some of its fantastic varieties, bears a near resemblance to the