And temperate movements, and young purity,
Thou hast a quiet charm, more exquisite
Than all her glories in the blaze of light.
Nor are

To the walks confined

wilderness; amid mankind

Thou mak'st thy footprints visible in flowers,
And thy breath palpable from cultured bowers.
-The garden-ground is thine, and those sweet Beds
Where Flora pillows her young children's heads
The many-tinted hyacinths are there,
Giving their odours to the lavish air
And the dark-smother'd violets, that lie
Wrapping their sweets in their own privacy
The polyanthus, from his cushion'd bed,
Mingling all tints, exalts his varied head
Auriculas, like some soft-scented beaux,
Stand round the parterre, in well-powder'd rows
From her green shining bush

The Indian-rose looks round, with a faint blush-
Just where the green-house stands, a glittering mass
In bright relief, starting from shrubs and grass:
Coy periwinkles, too,

Beneath their leaves peep out with eyes of blue_
And, through the thickets of green underwood,
The warrior wallflower lifts his crest of blood.

-How beautiful each! but oh! 'twere vain to tell
All those fair ministrants of sight and smell.
Behold! the throne of Spring! Nature's proud mart!
Deck'd with the brighter jewelries of art!

And those who walk the farm may find thee there,
Benignant month for thine is still the care
Of the young corn-blade, struggling to the birth
Through the dark tilth of earth;

And, when the small lambs bleat, thou tend'st them well,

Leading the totterers to some shelter'd delly

Till the sun warms them; and the teeming kine,
When the young calf is at the heel, are thine;
And, then, thou mak'st the juicy herbage grow
Till the swold udder gives the milk to flow.

'The world's increase, the springs of life, to thee
Belong, sweet nurse of immortality!

The breath of love is on thy lips! the light

Of an imperishable hope is bright

Within thine azure eye! First-born of Time,

Sweet April month, I hail thee in thy prime!? p. 281.

This is worthy of the Author of Julian; it has all that classic elegance and gentle feeling which constituted the charm of the

best passages in that poëm; and shews, that Sir Aubrey does injustice to himself when he deserts this his proper style. There are some very beautiful Sonnets: the following two, inf partieular, will, we imagine, please our readers.

THE FAMILY PICTURE.

With work in hand, perchance some fairy cap
To deck the little stranger yet to come;
One rosy boy struggling to mount her lap-
The eldest studious, with a book or map-
Her timid girl beside, with a faint bloom
Conning some tale-while, with no gentle tap,
Yon chubby urchin beats his mimio drum,,"
Nor heeds the doubtful frown her eyes assume.
So sits the mother! with her fondest smile
Regarding her sweet little ones the while;
And he, the happy man! to whom belong
These treasures, feels their living charm beguile
All mortal cares, and eyes the prattling throng
With rapture-rising heart, and a thanksgiving tongue.'
*JERUSALEM. FROM A DRAWING.

And sit'st thou there, Oh lost Jerusalem!
Bow'd down, yet something still of royal state
Ennobling thee in ruin? Thee the weight

Of age regards not: thou art as the gem

Undimm'd by time-yet is the diadem

And thrones, that made thee like the common great,
All perished, and thy people desolate;

Thy holiness a scoff, thy power a dream!

The arm of the Omnipotent is on

Thy guiltiness; a living death art thou,

An all-enduring miracle; for God

Hath set, in record of his slaughter'd Son,
His ineffaceable seal upon thy brow,

And cursed the land a dying Saviour trod.'

Art. VIII. A Tribute of Parental Affection to the Memory of a be loved and only Daughter. Containing some Account of the Cha racter and Death of Hannah Jerram; who died May 9, 1823, aged 23. Drawn up by her father Charles Jerram, Vicar of Chobham. 12mo, pp. 288. Second Edition, Price 5s. London, 1824.

SINCE

INCE the publication of Mr. Gilpin's" Monument of Parental Affection to his Son," we have not read any thing so affecting as the narrative contained in this instructive memorial. Miss Jerram's character appears to have been in the highest degree exemplary, and to have been distinguished by some traits of uncommon feminine sweetness. Her fortitude in con

çealing pain, and her self-denial under all circumstances, were such as must, we believe, be considered as peculiar to women, and yet rare in them. In her, the effects of early religious culture were fully realized, and we are extremely glad to find her excellent father expressing his firm persuasion, a persuasion • founded not only on the connexion between cause and effect, • and the declarations contained in the Scriptures, but on a con-. • siderable experience in educating youth, and a long attention

to what is passing in the religious world, that the future life • and character of most persons may be traced to the manner of • their being brought up.'

• I say,' adds Mr. Jerram, most persons, for I am aware that this rule, like all others, admits of exceptions; but I have scarcely ever had an intimate acquaintance with the interior of a family, without being able, pretty correctly, to divine in what manner the young inmates of it would turn out....... No ground pays better for cultivating than that of the infant mind, both as it respects the quality and the quantity of fruit; and it as seldom occurs in the moral as in the natural world, that the reasonable expectations of a harvest are disappointed, where proper means had been employed to secure it. I have often thought that, if the same good sense were shewn in the cultivation of the infant mind as the husbandman discovers in the management of his farm, it would be as rare an event to see a total failure in the former as in the latter. God “honours those who honour him ;"—and every where it will be seen, that “ the hand of the diligent maketh rich."

The experimental advice which is offered by the much respected Writer to parents and instructors, is most judicious and salutary; and the volume will answer an important purpose, if these hints of a father should gain attention in quarters where treatises and strictures on education are read with incredulity as mere ideal theories. Mr. Jerram's remarks on Confirmation are of course intended for members of the Established Church. We cannot refrain, however, from the passing remark, that although Confirmation is rejected by Protestant Dissenters as a sacrament or means of grace, still, provision is made by the constitution of Dissenting churches, for the very same thing that confirmation is represented by pious clergymen to have for its object. The public profession of religion which is required alike in Pædobaptist and Antipædobaptist churches, answers in all respects but that of the episcopal ceremony of imposition, to the following description.

As soon as it is supposed that the mind is properly stored with Christian knowledge, and the heart duly influenced by spiritual principles, and the habits formed by holy living, we are invited to make a public profession of our faith in Jesus Christ, and to seek an

that we

increased portion of the influences of the Holy Spirit, by earnest, prayer and the primitive custom of laying on of hands, may “ continue Christ's faithful soldiers and servants to our life's end.” We are next called upon to bind ourselves, by the most affecting and sacred tokens, to perpetual fidelity to our “ Lord and Master," and to enter into the most intimate union and fellowship with him, by partaking of elements which represent the body that was crucified, and the blood 'which was shed for our eternal salvation. And in order to keep up a perpetual niemory of these inestimable blessings, exalted privileges, and solemn obligations, we are required from time to time, to repeat the sacred ceremony, which is pregnant with such affecting considerations and beneficial results.

Now, on the one hand, it is desirable that it should be known to those of other communions, that this is precisely what is intended by a person's joining a Dissenting church for, though a mystery is sometimes attached to that transaction, we apprehend that the theory of Confirmation will be found satisfactorily to explain and justify the practice of the Dissenters. Had we nothing answering to this institution of the Church in our institutions, it would, we are disposed to admit, be a fair ground of objection. On the other hand, we think that this Scriptural view of the incumbent duty of making such public profession,' as binding upon all persons without exception who have been competently instructed into the truths of Christianity,-unless a moral disqualification for performing a duty, can be held to annul the obligation, this view of the duty which the forms of the Church and the principles of Nonconformity alike embrace, it is of the utmost importance to instil into the minds of the young. The too common practice of deferring this step till a mature or advanced period, rests upon a very mistaken view of the matter,-as if a personal confession or profession of Christ were an optional thing; as if the ordinance of the Lord's. supper was not so much a means of grace, as a reward or premium reserved for a certain stage of religious proficiency; as if this alone of our spiritual privileges lost, under that view, its character as a duty. The consequence of its not being pressed upon the young as specifically their duty, is too plainly seen in the scanty proportion of the congregation wbo, for the most part, are found included in the church,-a fact which sufficiently indicates the existence of error somewhere. The truth is, that what is, on a mistaken principle, indefinitely deferred, is not likely, in the greater number of instances, ever to be performed; for the false view is but too likely to operate through life, while all the obstacles which indecision,

a

false shame, indifférence; scepticism; or fastidiousness can oppose to the step, act with tenfold force in after years.

But to return to the subject of the Memoir before us. Exemplary as was Miss Jerram's character in every point of view, and unmixed as was her reliance for salvation on the atonement and merits of the Saviour, she underwent a conflict with the King of Terrors, which exhibited the very reverse of that calmness and composure that might have been anticipated by her friends. She was filled with dreadful con sternation: her father describes it as such an internal tempest as he had never witnessed. The suddenness with which the summons came upon her, and the consideration of the infinite stake she had in the event of a single moment,' for a time overcame all her fortitude, and rendered her unable to derive comfort from the promises of the Gospel. The circumstances admit of a satisfactory explanation, viewed in this light. At the same time, we think that there is scarcely room to question that the nature of the disease might be assigned as an adequate cause of the extreme distress and agitation which Miss Jerram suffered. To attribute to religion the power of suspending or counteracting the natural effect of disease, would be assigning to it a miraculous operation in ordinary circumstances, for which the Scripture affords no warrant. And yet, unless we suppose this, we must be prepared to expect that the symptoms of disease will shew themselves in a similar manner, whatever be the religious character of the individual. Nor have we any more reason to expect that pious persons shall be uniformly exempted from diseases of the specific kind which occasion such physical distress and agitation, than that they shall be preserved from insanity or delirium. In Miss Jerram's case, the paroxysm was succeeded by a state of the greatest composure, and her actual dissolution was preceded by a frame of mind serene and even cheerful in an unusual degree. She was perfectly sensible of the approach of death; and many minute particulars are mentioned to shew that her tranquillity and undisturbed repose of mind did not arise from the flattering hope of ultimate recovery, but from a settled confidence in the safety of her case, and a firm hope of a happy immortality. That she survived long enough to exhibit this genuine effect of the assurance of faith, was, as regarded her parents, a very merciful and consoling circumstance. But had it been otherwise, doubly painful as would have been the recollection of her sufferings, there could have been no reason to doubt of the safety of her state. There have been instances in which individuals of the most exemplary piety have