"And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit."-Eccl. i. 17.

I

THEN had my conversation much among people of

no religion, being ashamed to be counted religious, or do anything that was called religious. In this restless state I let in every sort of notion that rose in that day, and for a time applied myself to examine them, and get out of them whatever good could be found; but still sorrow and trouble was the end of all. I was at length ready to conclude that though the Lord and His truth were certain, yet they are not now made known to any upon earth; and I determined no more to inquire or look after God.

So for some time I took no notice of any religion, but minded recreation, as it is called; and went after it into many excesses and vanities-as foolish mirth, carding, dancing, and singing. I frequented music assemblies, and made vain visits where there were jovial feastings. But in the midst of all this my heart was often sad and pained beyond expression. I was not hurried into those follies by being captivated by them, but from not having found in religion what I had sought and longed after. I would often say within myself, what are they all to me? I could easily leave all this; for it hath not my heart, it is not my delight, it hath not power over me. I had rather serve the Lord, if I could indeed feel and know that which would be acceptable to Him.

O Lord suffer me no more to fall in with any false way, but show me the Truth.-Mary Springett, 1650.

1

"And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not."—Jer. xlv. 5.

B

EFORE he was eighteen years of age, William

Penn had been sent to the Continent by his father, Admiral Penn, for the purpose not only of ordinary travel, but especially to have spread before him the allurements of a gay courtly life, in their most fascinating forms. By this means the father hoped to supplant and drive away the serious impressions his mind had received when an Oxford student, from the Quaker preaching of Thomas Loe.

William Penn was expelled from the University for refusing to wear the college cap and gown; for discussing among his fellow students the wickedness and absurdity of religious persecution; and, more especially, for asserting the scriptural truth of Quaker doctrines. No gentle measures awaited his return home after his expulsion. But it was in vain that the stern, authoritative admiral insisted on the abandonment of every new religious idea the son had taken up.

Personal flagellation and solitary confinement followed, till the father became aware that the religious convictions even of a youth of sixteen or seventeen were not so to be overcome. At length, when severity failed, continental travel was resolved on, and no arrangements were spared that could render it attractive. William Penn went abroad under the highest auspices, and with the companionship his father entirely approved of.-Penns and Peningtons.

"Take us the foxes, the little foxes, that spoil the vines: for our vines have tender grapes."-Solomon's Song ii. 15.

N little more than two years, Wm. Penn returned

IN

without any visible remains of the Quaker predilections of his Oxford life. He had acquired the air and bearing of a noble young cavalier, and, withal, manifested such powers of thought and conversation, ability in speaking of what he had observed abroad, that his father and mother were delighted.

It was evident he had just seen enough of courtly life to be transiently dazzled by its exterior graces, without having been tainted by its vices. A considerable portion of those two years had been spent in perfecting his theological studies in France, under the guidance of Moses Amyrault, a learned professor of divinity of the Reformed French Church.

And now that he had returned home, the admiral, conscious that his active mind must have real occupation, proposed that he should be entered as a student of law at Lincoln's Inn. Thus, too, he hoped to perfect the education of the son whom he expected to succeed him in the peerage, which was already awaiting his acceptance under the title of Lord Weymouth.

His father marked the serious thoughtfulness of his manner, and his manifest desire to withdraw from fashionable life. In remembrance of the past, he became alarmed, and forthwith resolved to send his son on a visit to his friend, the Duke of Ormond, then Lord Deputy in Ireland.-Penns and Peningtons.