no more in love with law than with virtue, 'if he be forced to it with rudeness and incivilities.'* If, then, ye would bear the burden of the lowly, O ye great feel not only for them, but with! Watch that your pride does not chafe them your power does not wantonly gall. Your worldly inferior is of the class from which the apostles were chosen amidst which the Lord of Creation descended from a throne above the seraphs."

The Parson here paused a moment, and his eye glanced towards the pew near the pulpit, where sat the magnate of Hazeldean. The Squire was leaning his chin thoughtfully on his hand, his brow inclined downwards, and the natural glow of his complexion much heightened.

"But" resumed the Parson softly, without turning to his book, and rather as if prompted by the suggestion of the moment "But he who has cultivated sympathy commits not these errors, or, if committing them, hastens to retract. So natural is sympathy to the good man, that he obeys it mechanically when he suffers his heart to be the monitor of his conscience. In this sympathy behold the bond between rich and poor! By this sympathy, whatever our varying worldly lots, they become what they were meant to be ercises for the virtues more peculiar to each; and thus, if in the body each man bear his own burden, yet in the fellowship of the soul all have common relief in bearing the burdens of each other.

ex

"This is the law of Christ - fulfil it, O my flock!" Here the Parson closed his sermon, and the congregation bowed their heads.

* JEREMY TAYLOR Of Christian Prudence. Part II.

BOOK III.

INITIAL CHAPTER:

Showing how my novel came to be called "My Novel."

"I AM not displeased with your novel, so far as it has gone," said my father graciously; "though as for The Sermon —"

Here I trembled; but the ladies, Heaven bless them; had taken Parson Dale under their special protection; and, observing that my father was puckering up his brows critically, they rushed boldly forward in defence of The Sermon, and Mr. Caxton was forced to beat a retreat. However, like a skilful general, he renewed the assault upon outposts less gallantly guarded. But as it is not my business to betray my weak points, I leave it to the ingenuity of cavillers to discover the places at which the Author of Human Error directed his great guns.

"But," said the Captain, "you are a lad of too much spirit, Pisistratus, to keep us always in the obscure country quarters of Hazeldean you will march us out into open service before you have done with us?"

PISISTRATUS, magisterially, for he has been somewhat nettled by Mr. Caxton's remarks and he puts

on an air of dignity, in order to awe away minor assailants.

"Yes, Captain Roland

---

not yet awhile,

but all in good time. I have not stinted myself in

canvass, and behind my foreground of the Hall and the Parsonage I propose, hereafter, to open some lengthened perspective of the varieties of English life

MR. CAXTON. "Hum!"

BLANCHE, putting her hand on my father's lip. "We shall know better the design, perhaps, when we know the title. Pray, Mr. Author, what is the title?" MY MOTHER, with more animation than usual "Ay, Sisty the title?"

PISISTRATUS, startled.

"The title! By the soul of Cervantes! I have never yet thought of a title!" CAPTAIN ROLAND, solemnly. "There is a great deal in a good title. As a novel reader, I know that by experience."

MR. SQUILLS. "Certainly; there is not a catchpenny in the world but what goes down, if the title be apt and seductive. Witness 'Old Parr's Life Pill's.' Sell by the thousand, Sir, when my 'Pills for Weak Stomachs,' which I believe to be just the same compound, never paid for the advertising."

MR. CAXTON. "Parr's Life Pills! a fine stroke of genius! It is not every one who has a weak sto-. mach, or time to attend to it, if he have. But who would not swallow a pill to live to a hundred and fifty-two?"

--

PISISTRATUS, stirring the fire in great excitement. "My title! title! my what shall be title!" my MR. CAXTON, thrusting his hand into his waistcoat, and in his most didactic of tones. "From a remote period, the choice of a title has perplexed the scribbling portion of mankind. We may guess how their invention has been racked by the strange con

tortions it has produced. To begin with the Hebrews. "The Lips of the Sleeping,' (Labia Dormientium) what book do you suppose that title to designate? A Catalogue of Rabbinical writers! Again, imagine some young lady of old captivated by the sentimental title of "The Pomegranate with its Flower,' and opening on a treatise on the Jewish Ceremonials! Let us turn to the Romans. Aulus Gellius commences his pleasant gossiping 'Noctes' with a list of the titles in fashion in his day. For instance The Muses' and 'The Veil,' 'The Cornucopia,' 'The Beehive,' and 'The Meadow.' Some titles, indeed, were more truculent, and promised food to those who love to sup upon horrors such as 'The Torch,' 'The Poniard,' 'The Stiletto'

PISISTRATUS, impatiently. come to My Novel."

6

"Yes, Sir; but to

MR. CAXTON, unheeding the interruption. "You see, you have a fine choice here, and of a nature pleasing, and not unfamiliar to a classical reader; or you may borrow a hint from the early Dramatic Writers." PISISTRATUS, more hopefully. "Ay! there is something in the Drama akin to the Novel. Now, perhaps, I may catch an idea."

MR. CAXTON. "For instance, the author of the Curiosities of Literature (from whom, by the way, I am plagiarising much of the information I bestow upon you) tells us of a Spanish gentleman who wrote a Comedy, by which he intended to serve what he took for Moral Philosophy."

PISISTRATUS, eagerly. "Well, Sir?"

MR. CAXTON. "And called it "The Pain of the Sleep of the World.'"

My Novel.

13

PISISTRATUS.

"Very comic indeed, Sir." MR. CAXTON. "Grave things were then called Comedies, as old things are now called Novels. Then there are all the titles of early Romance itself at your disposal "Theagenes and Chariclea,' or 'The Ass' of Longus, or 'The Golden Ass' of Apuleius, or the titles of Gothic Romance, such as 'The most elegant, delicious, mellifluous, and delightful History of Perceforest, King of Great Britain,'" And therewith my father ran over a list of names as long as the Directory, and about as amusing.

"Well, to my taste," said my mother, "the novels I used to read when a girl, (for I have not read many since, I am ashamed to say,)

MR. CAXTON. "No, you need not be at all ashamed of it, Kitty."

inviting than any you mention, Austin."

THE CAPTAIN. "True."

MR. SQUILLS.

now-a-days!"

MY MOTHER.

What?'"

THE CAPTAIN.

Gallery'

MR. SQUILLS. Out!'"

"Were much more

PISISTRATUS, pushed to the verge of human endurance, and upsetting tongs, poker, and fire-shovel. "What nonsense you are talking, all of you! For heaven's sake, consider what an important matter we are called upon to decide. It is not now the titles of those very respectable works which issued from the