known done.

any female bear torture as she had

HARRIETTE.

Poor young woman! how much she went through. And how firmly she must have believed in Jesus Christ to have borne all the tortures they made her suffer, rather than deny her being one of his followers.

FRANCES.

Yes; she did not deny her Saviour as Peter did, though she had much more temptation to do so. If all the disciples had been like her, they would not have "forsook him and fled."

ANNE.

How much happier is our lot, living as we do, not only in a Christian land, but also in a country where the Protestant religion is established, For we must bear in mind that the early Protestants were persecuted most cruelly, even in many parts of England; though even under the disguise of the Roman Catholic faith, Christianity had so far operated here as to have put a stop to the horrid

tortures I have been relating. Let us not, however, forget that though not called upon to endure all things," there are many Christian duties which we are strictly enjoined to perform, and that the more easy the yoke of Christ is, the more culpable shall we be if we neglect to bear its burthen.

ON THE ORIGIN OF MONKISH

RETIREMENT.

"Not that I mean t'approve, or would enforce

A superstitious and monastic course;

Truth is not local, God alike pervades

And fills the world of traffic and the shades."

COWPER.-Retirement.

ANNE.

WHAT are you reading, Lydia?

LYDIA.

A very melancholy story-the destruction of Croyland monastery, in Mrs. Hack's English Stories.-Oh, this reminds me of something I wanted to ask you the other day when you were not in the room. In different books I have been reading lately, I have met with a great deal about abbeys and monasteries, monks, nuns, and hermits, and I want to know why, and when, persons first began to think it was right to exclude themselves from

the common comforts and enjoyments of life, and to live in solitary and desert places.

ANNE.

Retirement from the world, for a longer or shorter period, according to the nature of the vow which the person had taken, existed for some time before the Christian era; but nothing of this kind was enjoined by Christ or his apostles; on the contrary, every person is by them supposed to live in society, and exhorted to perform its duties. Nor does it appear that the early Christians adopted this mode of life from the principles on which it was afterwards recommended. The first hermits were men, who being driven by persecution to a distance from cities, were happy to conceal themselves in desert places, far from human society; but finding that they could subsist either on the wild fruits of the earth, their own labour, or the charity of others, many by degrees grew fond of that way of living; and their satisfaction in it was, no doubt, increased by the respect that was paid them on account of their great virtue, as men who had given up the world and its enjoyments, for the sake of religion.

LYDIA.

And then others, no doubt, followed their example without having the same cause for it.

ANNE.

Yes; as they were held almost in as great respect as if they had been martyrs and confessors, this, no doubt, induced many others to adopt the same manner of living. At first, also, they did not make any vows, binding themselves to live single, or to renounce the world in any respect, but they mixed with their fellow-creatures whenever they thought they could do so with safety to themselves, or advantage to others.

LYDIA.

So then they who first adopted this mode of life, did so only for convenience, and not from any idea of its being a duty! This seems much more reasonable and conformable to the precepts we meet with in the Bible. They do not appear either, from your account, to have tormented themselves with penances and austerities, as monks and anchorites afterwards did.

ANNE.

Besides the habit of living in solitude, to