dence for some days. At last, they entered the house, and went up to her chamber. Several friends were with her at the moment, beside the lady to whose care she had been entrusted from her infancy, and who loved her as much as if she had been her own daughter. Only one of the armed strangers approached her, to avoid terrifying her too much. Notwithstanding this, and the strong reasons she had for hope, rather than for fear, she could not behold his grim visage, and much less feel his rude grasp, without a degree of terror.* At her removal, the company, and particularly her guardian, of whose longexperienced tenderness and fidelity she had ever expressed the deepest sense, notwithstanding their persuasion that the change would be so greatly to her benefit, could not altogether repress emotions of grief. The officers into whose charge she had been ordered, executed their commission. But when in the act of appearing before the stern judge and the inexorable sovereign, to her inexpressible amazement and transport, she found herself in the presence and in the arms of her affectionate and longwished-for parent.

* Death, in its most gentle form, appears somewhat awful even to the pious.

59

ALLEGORY III.

THE TWO FARMS.

Prov. i. 20-33.

A COUNTYRMAN had obtained, at a small annual rent, the leases of two farms.* They were both highly valuable, but extremely different in size; and therefore no one can wonder that they should be let for periods of time proportionably different. But what will appear extraordinary is, that the largest of them was to be held during the greatest number of years as long, indeed, as the occupier would have occasion for it; while the smallest was let to him only for a short term, though its exact length the tenant neither knew nor could ascertain, in consequence of a particular incident.

Notwithstanding the striking inferiority of the latter estate to the former in the two important respects just

In life there are the concerns of two worlds to be regarded.

noticed, it soon appeared to be the favourite. In reality, the charms it possessed were uncommonly great. Childhood, youth, and age, were smitten with them, and discovered a passionate fondness for the farm. People of all humours were sure to meet with something here that suited their respective dispositions. It was admired not only by the rustic who had never stirred from his own neighbourhood, but by the scientific traveller. It contained whatever could delight the senses, or gratify the appetites. Nor did it appear less fascinating to the man who is fond of intellectual improvement and of study, than to the voluptuary.

For these reasons it is the less wonderful that the possessor of it should be mightily pleased with his acquisition. His attachment to it was almost incredible. He preferred its pleasures to all others. He spared no time nor labour, no thought nor expense, in order to render its improvements (in his own opinion) as complete as possible. In consequence of this strong predilection for it, the farm-house; the gardens, whether intended for pleasure or utility; the pasture and the arable lands; in short, all the departments of the estate, whatever might be their nature or application, were speedily brought into

the most excellent order. Nor did he prove less successful in his endeavours to place the different kinds of cattle, or the peasantry on the lands, in a commodious and thriving condition.

Had it been his aim to render equal justice to the large estate which was in his hands, there would not have been a more excellent farmer in all the country. * Unhappily, he distinguished himself as much by his neglect of this, as by his attention to the other. He would never perhaps have gone near it, had it not been for the awe in which he stood of some, who, he knew, were fully sensible of its importance; and so careless was he respecting its state, when he did visit it, that if he had been asked particularly about it, on his return, he could not have

* Religion, far from discountenancing, requires attention to the concerns of the body, and of the present life. What it complains of is, the regarding them as our sole, or at least our principal objects. Nor does it only censure those attentions which are confined during life to the necessities and comforts of a man's own animal nature, or to the admiration and love which ensue, when society is the object of those attentions. It likewise reprobates those modes of cultivating and applying the intellectual and moral powers themselves, which conduce to the pleasures and advantages either of ourselves or others, no longer than during the continuance of man in this life.

replied. For years, its improvement did not cost him a single act of self-denial, exertion, or thought. He would indeed have almost forgotten that he occupied such a farm, had it not been that he was reminded of it sometimes by certain incidents, and at other times by the remonstrances of friends, whom he did not thank, for, what he was pleased to term, their officiousness.

This treatment of an estate which constituted by far the most considerable part of his property, was the more extraordinary, as though at present it exhibited only an unfruitful and dreary waste, yet no ground in the world was better capable of cultivation, or more deserving of it. In truth, there was no possibility of enumerating the various kinds of flowers and fruits that might be rendered

1

congenial to the soil, or of estimating the largeness of the crops it was calculated to produce. To these recommendations I may add, that it was delightfully situated, and that it commanded grand and charming prospects.

It is natural to ask, on what account the possessor of a farm so highly valuable, treated it with a disregard not only most unreasonable in itself, but also most detrimental to his own interest. The principal cause is undoubtedly to be looked for in his own ignorance of the