and created a restlessness in the mind that nothing could allay but the certainty of conviction. But as no opportunity promised an early solution of the difficulty, I altered my position as far as it was in my power, drew the lappets of my travelling cap over my ears to exclude the chill of dawn, threw myself into a posture for sleep, and resolved to wait the return of day to determine the point that could not otherwise be settled, and immediately fell into a dose, out of which I was soon startled by a sudden jerk of the carriage, when I found myself actually speaking to the Unknown.

"I beg your pardon: did I understand you to express a desire to have the window drawn higher?" In the same silver tone that had before so harmoniously vibrated on my ear, she replied:

"I did not make any request, sir; but, perhaps, it would be better to exclude more of the chill air."

The opportunity was not to be lost, and I continued:

"You have probably been more successful than I have, in being able to sleep throughout

the night, and this has occasioned your feeling the cold more sensibly."

"Indeed," said she, "I have not slept at all, not for want of inclination, for I confess myself much fatigued, but for other reasons."

This, thought I, is an additional proof of delicacy: she must be fair! But let me be cautious. I will philosophize to convince her that both her companions are not dealers in gas or drapery.

"I know nothing,” said I, “so painful as to struggle against human weakness by opposing the suggestions of reason to the solicitations of nature."

"And yet,” she replied, "he who cannot do this has the business of life to learn, for duty and inclination are for ever at variance.”

She is certainly an angel, thought I.

"True," I replied; "but my observation was intended to apply only to matters of trifling import, such as refusing to sleep, however inviting, from a consideration that it would be better to avoid it."

"But," she continued, "it is equally true, when applied to things of the greatest moment."

It is clear, I again thought, that the fair Unknown is in love, and immediately I conjured up before me hard-hearted parents and love-stricken swains:money with consent, and poverty with the choice of the heart, and all the train of evils that follows the want of not making what we desire subservient to what we ought to do; in other words, not making inclination give way to duty.

"All contention in this case," said I, "might be avoided by the parties concerned giving way to each other; such as require the performance of duty should consider how they may exact it in a way to infringe least upon the inclinations of those who should pay it, whilst the latter, should be equally considerate in complying with the demand made upon them by those who are entitled to their obedience."

"This," said she, is all very well in a worldly point of view; but in a spiritual sense, the only one in which I am to be understood, no such compromise can be ever conceived."

"In a spiritual sense, undoubtedly, you are right, ma'am !" and I became dumb.

Here I was at sea again: I had evidently mistaken the point of the compass on which I

was sailing. The angel disappeared; love flew away; the fair was changed into a stern female religionist, and I was as much in the dark as ever, and yet I might have remembered that the sleeping Cerberus at my side commenced observations by a moral reflection. Who can they be? Perhaps a deputation from the christianised Jews, or from the Church Missionary Society, to promote their respective causes in the country, or some of the existing tribe of adherents to the belief in Joanna Southcote; or, what is still more probable, a nun and her guardian duenna on their return from Germany to work Hohenlohe miracles! I was lost in the mazes of conjecture, yet, that I might obtain the object curiosity so provokingly held out, I continued: —

"I have been so much in the habit of talking only upon the most common-place topics, when travelling in this way, that I avoid the solemn subject of religion upon such occasions, and therefore did not admit the consideration of it while you were speaking; indeed, I am one of those who think the subject should not be obtruded into general discourse; for although conversation may be regulated by religious thoughts and feelings, it is taking from the

seriousness and detracting from the dignity of religion to bring it, uncalled, into every passing occurrence, and mixing it with the ordinary pursuits and pleasures of life."

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That," replied she, " is precisely my opinion; and it is against such a practice that I am ever inclined to take offence."

Here, again, I was in the dark: she has nothing more to do with the Jews and Missionaries than with Prince Hohenlohe, or any other impostor.

She continued: "I can give no softer name to this habit than by calling it cant, which goes the length of weakening the genuine feelings of religion: but, sir, you must be as well aware as I am of the fashion in conversation now-a-days turning uniformly to this one point. It was after the popular mode of thinking that I conceived your observations indirectly aimed at a serious object, which led me to give the subject the turn it has taken; but I can assure you, from actual, and, I believe I may say, from a very extensive general observation, and from experience, principally,,I am sorry to say, among my own relatives and friends, that nothing is now thought of, nothing admitted into the mind, in