“And good too, it will be, I am sure," said Mrs. Marvin; "if you have prepared it, the moral will be

excellent."

After this compliment, the schoolmaster could do no less than begin, which he did as follows:

THE WITCH OF DANVERS.

"Mabel Burroughs was an inhabitant of Danvers, Massachusetts. It is not certain that she was a native of that town, neither is the year of her birth accurately known; but in 1719 she bore such evident marks of age, that she became distinguished by the appellation of old maid.'

Such antiquated ladies were much more rare in the then British colonies of America than they are now in our "United States," a confirmation, if any were needed, of the estimation in which liberty is held as well by the women as the men of our Independent Republic. Surely no gentleman will be so uncivil as to suggest that it is from necessity alone that a lady retains her freedom, after she is five and twenty. Certainly that could not, with truth, have been said of Mabel Burroughs. She had been a famous beauty; had had a number of admirers, and was at one time, engaged to be married.

"But Mabel's lover, as lovers have often done since the example of Phaon, proved a recreant. The disappointed fair one did not possess the genius or indulge the despair of the Lesbian maid-Mabel neither rhymed nor raved, nor made any attempt to drown herself. She acted a much more common, and, in truth, more feminine part. She secluded herself from society; became sad and taciturn; grew thin and pale; and finally, as her beauty waned, she resigned herself, uncomplainingly, to neglect and celibacy. No one could conduct more inoffensively, and but for one circumstance, her life would have passed without notice, and this biographical sketch never have appeared.

"It is astonishing what trifling incidents often confer notoriety, and sometimes what is called immortality, on an individual. A well spent, peaceful life has no claims to such a distinction. Something singular must be said, or suffered, or designed, or done. It matters little, whether this something be for good or for evil. He who burns a temple is as long and well remembered as he who builds one. What then is the worth of fame? Nothing, when considered merely as the distinction of having one's name widely known and often repeated. Fame is only valuable and to be coveted, when it brings to the mind of the possessor, while living, the consciousness of good motives and actions; and when he is dead, exhibits a pattern worthy to be imitated."

Here the schoolmaster looked around on his hearers with an expression that said, "am I not right?" Every face responded in the affirmativehe proceeded.

"I said that Mabel Burroughs grew old, and she faded as every fair girl will fade. Beauty is only a rose, a rainbow, a meteor-gone while we are gazing and praising. The once fair young Mabel became sallow, wrinkled, grey, and stooping-she was called ugly' dreadful ugly!' by young maidens who did not possess half the loveliness she exhibited at eighteen. But add two score to eighteen, and what female can command attention by her personal beauty?

"Woman must possess some more lasting charm than is imparted by a set of features or complexion,'

or her reign will be brief as April sunshine, or May flowers.

"But there is another evil under the sun, to which women are subjected. It is to have cultivated minds, and yet be confined to a society that does not understand, and cannot appreciate their merits, talents and intelligence. This not unfrequently happens. And women have so little power of changing their resi dence, varying their pursuits, or extending their acquaintance, that she who has taste and talents ought to consider herself peculiarly fortunate if she is placed where her gifts do not subject her to envy and ill treatment. Should she be so blessed as to enjoy a refined and congenial domestic circle, let her never breathe a wish for a wider theatre of display.

"Had poor Mabel Burroughs possessed the wit and genius of Madame de Stael, or the talents and literature of Miss Edgeworth, it would have added nothing to her popularity in the place where she resided. There, nothing was at that time, (I hope the people have improved) appreciated but good house. wifery, a good visit, and a good talker; and unluckily Mabel did not like to talk, nor to visit, and as she lived alone and never received any company, no one knew much about her domestic management. But the less they knew the more they guessed; till finally as she grew older and more reserved, they first called her odd-then cross-then strange-and then a witch!

It is now matter of grave astonishment that any rational and Christian being should ever have believed that people would sell themselves to the grand enemy of souls, merely on the condition of having power to wrong their neighbours, and ride through the air on a broomstick! Yet such was the firm faith of our ancestors, pious as they unquestionably were, and it seemed that, in those days, learning only made them more credulous. Cotton Mather is a melancholy proof that neither erudition, nor piety, can free the human mind from prejudice and superstition.

"In truth, nothing has so much contributed to enlighten the world as the strivings of men for personal and political liberty, which have been made during the last fifty years, and the study of experimental philosophy.

"With experimental or inductive philosophy, however, the neighbours of old Mabel, as she was usually called, had nothing to do. Circumstances were all they required, after assuming that she was a witch, to prove their hypothesis.-In the first place, she lived in a poor, old, lonely house and alone; then she kept a large black cat, which she had been frequently seen to caress; and, lastly, she had been several times heard, by those who ventured to ap proach her dwelling early in the morning, or near the close of the day, talking, as they drew near her door, and yet when they entered, strange, to say, no one but herself was visible. These were dark and mysterious proceedings, and the more they were canvassed, the more dark and mysterious they became.

"Not an individual thought of vindicating poor Mabel by suggesting, that her old, lonely dwelling was the very house in which her parents had resided; where she was born, and which, at their decease she inherited-that she was, of necessity, compelled to live alone, having no relation or friend on earth to reside with her that the heart must have something to love, and she had no living object but her cat, on which to lavish her affections-and, lastly, that she

must talk to herself, or run the risk of losing the use of her tongue, altogether, as nobody around her was willing to hold much converse with the suspected witch.

"Probably these reasons never occurred to the good people of Danvers; if they did they were never mentioned. All seemed united in the opinion, that there were such strong circumstances against old Mabel Burroughs as warranted the accusation of unhallowed acts, constituting witchcraft (a very indefinite crime after all) against her.

"It was fortunate for her, that the darkest period of delusion had passed. The bitter regret for the scenes which had been enacted under the influence of the Salem mania, checked the effervescence of zeal to accuse and punish, and the people practised the more humane method of accusing in order to reclaim.

"The case of Mabel made a great bustle. Her supposed compact with the prince of darkness was regretted or condemned, sighed over or inveighed against, till it was finally the opinion of all, that something must be done. Either she must confess and abandon her wicked ways, or be dealt with and dismissed from the church, of which she was then a member.

"Accordingly the clergyman, the two deacons, and two of the most pious and influential members of the church, were chosen to visit Mabel, at her dwelling, and then and there propound certain questions; and from her answers, it was concluded, the full proof of her guilt, which no one doubted, would be obtained.

"It was near the close of a gloomy November day, that the formidable deputation took their way towards the dwelling of the supposed witch.-She was totally ignorant of the honour intended her, as it had been judged expedient to take her by surprise, as the most likely method of eliciting truth from one whose study was to deceive.

"Mabel's house did, indeed, stand in a wild lonely place, and to reach it you had to pass half a mile, or more, through a thick wood. The gentlemen had been delayed longer than they intended, settling preliminaries, and night was gathering as they entered the shaded path. The tall trees increased the gloom, and the wind, which had all day been very high, seemed to gather furious strength, as it swept through the decaying forest, and scattered its leaves by thousands. It is not strange that those men should imagine the wind uncommonly furious, and that darkness came on with awful rapidity. They did think so; and when, emerging from the wood, they came suddenly upon the house they sought, not one of the five but wished himself a good five miles off. But honour and conscience alike forbade their retreat. The abode of witchcraft was before them. A whole community were eagerly awaiting their report.

"On, therefore, the deputation proceeded; the clergyman, as in duty bound, some steps in advance. As he softly and silently drew near the door, he heard a sound within. He paused-then motioned the party to advance; they cautiously crept forward, and all distinctly heard the same noise. It was not like mortal conversation; it was a low, but continued and monotonous sound, such as no one of the party ever recollected to have heard before. They all trembled. At length, as it did not cease, and as there was no window on the side they stood, through

which to reconnoitre, they were obliged to enter, in order to discover the cause of their alarm.

It was a trying moment. The clergyman laid his hand on the latch of the door, the boldest deacon stood near to support him. The door was thrown open, with the crash and velocity of a thunder-bolt, and the whole party stood before the astonished eyes of Mabel Burroughs!

"She showed no terror, however, at this sudden apparition. Surprised she was; but not a cry of alarm or dismay escaped her. She only drew nearer to her heart that blessed Book from which she had been that moment reading, that consoling promise of the Saviour

"Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."

"The clergyman was a pious, and naturally, a very sensible man. He did not wish to increase his influence over his people by encouraging their superstitious fears. The transactions of former years rushed at once on his mind; he recollected the disgraceful scenes in which the Rev. Mathew Paris was such a distinguished actor, and his cheeks glowed with shame at the thought that he, too, was an abettor of persecution against the innocent. A sudden light seemed imparted to his mind, and he saw at once how a few unimportant circumstances, in the way of living adopted by this poor old woman, had been worked up, by the credulous and wonder-loving into proofs of witchcraft against her. But being convinced himself of her innocence, he so well exerted his clear and strong mind, that before he left her house the whole party acknowledged they believed her not only guiltless of witchcraft, but they saw no reason to doubt that she was a very good Christian.

"It was some time, however, before the prejudice against her subsided; a prejudice that but for the spirited exertions of one rational as well as religious man, would have subjected her to ignominy, if not consigned her to penal inflictions.

"Such is the injurious effect which an ignorant credulity, when fostered by the love of scandal can produce on social happiness."

"And the moral is, that women must not talk scandal, and men must not believe them, if they do," said Ellen, laughing.

"Something to that purpose, I confess," said the schoolmaster.

"An excellent moral, too," said Mrs. Marvin, "though I never can believe that my own sex are more guilty of slanders and scandal than the men."

"Nor do I believe it, nor does any man of sense and observation," said the schoolmaster. "The poli tical slanders in which men only engage, are a hundred fold more gross and wicked and selfish than any which women ever are guilty of. Still it is not a matter of comparative merit, or demerit rather, between the sexes, that we wish now to settle. I would have woman not only perfect herself, but her example ought to be so perfect as to constrain man to follow it. I hold the poet's opinion of the ladies

"Heaven formed ye like angels, and sent ye below, To prophesy peace, to bid charity flow.' And above all, never should any circumstance be permitted to

"Blot from your bosoms that tenderness true,

Which from female to female for ever is due."