conscientiously upright in all their transactions with their fellow-men from a feeling of pure selfishness.

Mr. Jenkins was received by Mr. Lovegood with the greatest cordiality. He apologised for the liberty he had taken in calling to ask a favour from one on whose friendship he had no claims; but was told that no apology was needed. Mr. Jenkins then mentioned the position in which he was placed by the unfortunate result of his literary adventure; and Mr. Lovegood, so far from rebuking him for his folly, inquired whether he could name any other way in which he could act the part of a friend to him.

Mr. Jenkins suggested that, if he could procure an engagement on any of the daily papers, either as reporter or stated contributor, he thought he might yet be able to make his way in the world.

"An engagement as stated contributor to a daily journal is," remarked Mr. Lovegood, "very

rarely to be met with.

The situation of a

reporter might, probably, with a great deal of exertion and influence, be procured; but it is a most arduous and harassing situation."

"I am well aware of that," replied Joseph, "but I would willingly submit to any amount of labour, and encounter any measure of fatigue, to be put in the way of earning a livelihood for myself."

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"Do you think," inquired Mr. Lovegood,

you are competent for the situation of a parliamentary reporter? I do not mean in a literary sense, but in reference to the requisite facility of catching and transferring to paper the words which fall from a speaker's lips."

"I am aware," answered Joseph, "that great mechanical dexterity, as well as superior literary taste, is necessary to constitute an efficient reporter; but I think that, if I possess the latter qualification, I shall not be found wanting in the former."

"The situation of a reporter to a daily

paper," observed Mr. Lovegood, "is one of great respectability, though gentlemen of the press do not rank so high in public estimation here as in France. It is one, moreover, which furnishes, perhaps, better opportunities for obtaining an insight into the manifold mysteries of metropolitan life, than any other that could be named. But that very circumstance only renders it the more perilous in a moral point of view. You have to meet with all sorts of persons, and mix in all descriptions of society; and, unless one's mind be well fortified with right principles, he is in great danger of being damaged by the contact."

Mr. Jenkins remarked, in an unassuming tone, that he trusted his mind and conduct were under the government of moral principles. "Moral principles," remarked Mr. Lovegood,

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are very good in themselves; but they do not constitute a sufficient protection to any one, especially a young man, when surrounded by powerful temptations to stray from virtue's

paths. Thousands of young men yearly bring with them to London irreproachable moral characters, who, in the short space of ten or twelve months, become so thoroughly contaminated by the corrupt practices of those with whom they associate, as to cease even to do outward homage to virtue, and to glory in the very things which, before they launched on the ocean of London life, they could not have contemplated without horror. Unless that divine grace which is brought to light by the Gospel, reign in the heart, and restrain and regulate the life, there can be no security even for one's moral rectitude, amidst the formidable temptations with which the metropolis abounds."

To this Joseph made no reply. He knew nothing, experimentally, of the heaven-born principles of which the other spoke. He was a moral man, but nothing more.

"I am intimately acquainted," resumed Mr. Lovegood, "with the editor of one of the morning papers. I will speak to him about

you; and I have no doubt that, should there be now or soon afterwards, a vacancy on the establishment with which he is connected, he will be happy to give you an opportunity of testing your competency for the situation."

Mr. Jenkins heartily thanked him for the many striking proofs he had afforded of his friendship, and took his leave.