As it is one of the chief subjects of this biographical sketch to supply great moral lessons, the reader must bear with us while we pursue the consequences of this first wayward stride of our hero still a little farther. We, in this diluvial age of tracts and tract distributors, ought to know that this is a world of temptation, and that human nature, even when fortified with the best intentions, is but human nature. Men, and we grieve to say it, women too, sometimes slip and fall while the tracts are in their hands, and the words of better books upon their lips. Remorse and contrition may be genuine at the moment of their development, but let it not be forgotten that, like certain chemical compounds, they are volatile, and if freely exposed, will soon lose their inherent virtues. To some of these substances an ordinary cork will serve as a preservative for a considerable length of time, but others, to be safe, require to be hermetically sealed. Nothing could have been more genuine than the repentance of Rab during the sederunt we have described, but there is reason to fear that the cold mutton had the effect of making him regard his error with some degree of complacency. Not that he had any desire to glory in his shame-by no means-all that we now insinuate is that the well-meant reward had a modifying effect upon that regret which ought always to be a fixed product in the mind of every true convert. Rab was either too honest or too obtuse, to have any wish to sin over again for the sake of being again restored by the same means; but the stopper of his resolution was still too loose to resist the volatilising effect of temptation and opportunity.

It was in the evening the maternal parent had gone to make arrangements for earning the next day's one and three-pence, and had not yet returned. The male parent was in bed, in a state of somnolescent convalescence, from an unusually busy week's run at the sign of the "Herring," and his ill-farred pocket companion, the pipe, lay grinning and ghastly at the fireside a clean, snod fire-place, in a clean, well arranged, and tolerably furnished apartment, which was at once kitchen, parlour, dining room, and everything else, save the little closet in which Rab cribbed during the night. We say it was a December evening, not more than one week after the occurrence of the interesting incident at the Place. The pipe, short, black, and murky, which, like its owner, had been the subject of many fiery trials, was still unconsumed, but certainly not purified. This most forbidding, pestilent, and repulsive old stager, which all but the most inveterate and vitrified of smokers would have loathed, had still the effect of awakening Rab's dormant desire for a whiff! He took it up, eyed it for a moment, looked round to make sure that his opportunity was safe. While searching for a match his resolution began to waver-Mrs Divitt, Miss Jessina, and the seventy-two reasons, all rushed into his mind, and he had sagacity enough to perceive that there could not possibly be any carneous consummation this time. He laid down the tempter. Had he thrown it in the fire he might have been safe, but there it lay. He paced too and fro for sometime, at every turn taking a side glance at the old barracoon beauty. He

once more took it up; with spasmodic effort, burst asunder the withes of his better resolution, and in another moment was luxuriating in the false paradise of a sensual delight. He smoked eagerly that he might have it all over before the arrival of his mother, but he had miscalculated the effects of his folly in thus tampering with such a cutty. He suddenly felt sick, and the sickness rapidly increased to a degree that caused him to lose the benefit of that part of his supper, which had still been lodging about the epigastric region. To complete his misfortune his mother made her appearance, and found him in a state of physical prostration, which greatly alarmed her. Her suspicions were awakened, and in peremptory tone, she commanded the victim to tell her if he too had been drinking. Rab, in the most lubberly accents, and with his usual labial laxness, considerably increased by the nausea, informed her of the real cause. That kind mother's words were few-mournfully few, but well ordered :"Ye'r a bonnie pair-a bonnie pair!" said she, with a sardonic grin, as she glanced first at the bed, and then at the chair in which her darling had deposited himself, with his face, as she afterwards expressed it, "like a dish-clout."

By patience and a generous cup of tea, Rab gradually recovered, and then it was that his kind mother administered to him a word in season, with considerable earnestness, and with a very fervently expressed assurance, that if she ever knew of him making any fresh attempt to renew his acquaintance with the pipe, she would most undoubtedly appeal to his better judgment in a still more striking manner. Rab was fully convinced that she meant what she said, and we have reason to believe that this, fully more than the seventy-two reasons, proved salutary.

On the compensating principle, Rab, so far as man in his shortsighted reason can perceive, ought to have had a fit of indigestion on the night of, or the day after, the sederunt at the Place, but let the young remember, that nature in her dealings with mankind, does not always insist on the ready money. She sometimes keeps running accounts, but will at sometime or other demand a settlement. In the instance just referred to, some may suppose that she forgave, but nothing can be more fallacious-she only gave him credit, and it is not improbable that in the latter case, she run the two bills into one, the losing of his supper being an equivalent for her forbearance on the former occasion.

In thus pursuing the foot-prints of Rab, we come now to a wide level plain, which from its sameness and want of prominent object, does not require any lengthened description. Great historical events were no doubt taking place in the world around him-nations fighting with nations, sects contending with sects, kings dying, and kings being crowned, subjects coming into the world, and going out of it in multitudes, thousands rejoicing in prosperity, and thousands pining in adversity; but Rab continued to trudge about in his own little world, doing as he was bid, ready always for his meals and always getting them; lying down at night and rising in the morning,

and allowing the great outer world to wag as it pleased, without being at all concerned about it. The establishment continued to prosper; Divitt continued to coruscate, Rogers to cough, and Leake to dole out the petty cash. This latter gentleman, however, had not neglected his tutorial duties—still taught his sabbath class, and under the excellent counsel of Mrs Divitt, kept strict surveillance over the moral and intellectual interests of their common protegé. If Rab can be said to have had any ambition, it was still to master the hair-stroke which perplexed him so much, under the erudite Hickes, and which he saw in perfection in the caligraphy of Leake, which, as Rab very sagaciously remarked, was all hair-stroke together. In Rab's quilloquial displays, there was no hair-stroke at all-his hands were too hoofish for nice manipulation—his mark was however, broadly legible, and therefore there is no use in making any farther noise on the subject.

Continued friction will produce heat in lead, or even in ice itself— as, by the friction of years Rab acquired the ability to make an entry, run up a column and discriminate between debit and credit with tolerable facility and accuracy. Indeed the slow and unimaginative character of his intellect, was a sort of safe-guard that prevented him from erring from the common tract in the routine of business. By the advice of Leake, he had taken a session in logic at the famous Swiffle Institution, the benefit of which he frequently acknowledged in after years. To Leake's grinding was he chiefly indebted for being made to understood that the word "premises," of which he heard so much in the class, did not mean the establishment of Divitt, Rogers & Co. Leake, who had himself attended the logic class and taken a prize, delighted to draw Rab into discussions, in order to confound him by a dexterous use of the syllogism. He also endeavoured to make his pupil comprehend the grand Cartesian starting point, “I think, therefore I am," but in respecting the axiom Rab very frequently, though unwittingly, reversed its order thus, "I am, therefore I think,” and although Leake pronounced it to be false, it may be a question whether Magloskie's method was not an improvement on that of the immortal Frenchman. Two very useful axioms fixed themselves indelibly on his mind, and which he loved to repeat-first, "A dog is an animal, but it does not therefore follow that all animals are dogs"-second, "A whole is greater than its parts"—Rab's version being "a hole is greater than its parts ;" and we question if he is, to this day, aware that there is a w in the case at all; nor does it matter, for the maxim is perfect either way. Clergymen and others who have taken the usual course at college, who may be conversant with the works of the renowned Dichtersnoot, and other profound and voluminous thinkers, will no doubt be inclined to regard Rab's logical attainments as superficial, but even that, comparatively speaking, is extremely doubtful.

With his props around him-Mrs Divitt at the right, Mr Leake at the left, Miss Jessina at the back, and his mother at the front-our hero trudged along the way of life tolerably safe, and wonderfully

happy. But in the most common-place and monotonous plain, there are always vegetation and growth, and so was it in the plain over which Rab had just crossed. He was no longer a boy but a young man, with the exuberance of sixteen summers and winters on his head, and in the enjoyment of £30 a-year. The precepts of his mentor were not more beneficial to Rab's mind, than the example of his "getting up" was beneficial to his person. It is true that no mortal surgery can ever make the oak look like the willow, yet for all that a skilful and dexterous application of the pruning knife can sometimes do something, when nature has not been pleased to suit itself to the requirements of the artistic eye. Rab no doubt felt himself powerless to effect any modification on the stupendous arch of olfactory organ, but he kept a pocket comb, the frequent use of which gave his admirers the full benefit of all the forehead which nature had been pleased to bestow on him. He also took some little pains with his neck-tie, and took the experienced advice of his father, when about to order a new pair of unmentionables. In the underclothing department he trusted implicitly to his mother, and in that respect could defy the criticism of the most fastidious. That his digestion too had retained its pristine magnificence, was apparent in the massiveness of his frame, which considerably exceeded that of his guardian, although the latter was five years his senior.

We come now to a very painful incident in the history of the talented, and exemplary, and philanthropic petty-cash-keeper, which, (as the special correspondent burning to give it publicity would say), we wish the interests of truth would allow us to pass over in silence. Leake it appears, had calculated too much on the apparent dullness and vacancy of his rather slow protegé. It is scarcely to be wondered at that Leake was sometimes deceived, for the usual blank and inert expression of Rab's countenance, became still more blank and inert, in proportion to the intensity of his mental operations. On one occasion, when Leake supposed that Rab's wits had gone a wool-gathering, he made an erasure in his book with his penknife, and substituted something else. Leake soon after went out, and Rab, anxious to see what hand his preceptor could make of an operation which, when he himself attempted, left a mark which would attract attention at the distance of a pistol shot, went over to Leake's book, in order to gratify his curiosity by a nearer inspection.

(To be continued.)

A Handy Book of Domestic Homœopathic Practice. By GEORGE EDWARD ALLSHORN, M.D., L.R.C.S.

THIS neatly got up little volume commends itself to the attention of heads of families and others interested in Homœopathic Practice, by

the simplicity and clearness of its arrangement, and the plain manner in which the instructions for the administration of the principal remedies are conveyed. It obviously supplies a want which has been felt, as the larger works of Lawrie and others are too general, and are more adapted for practitioners. This little work on the other hand, by its careful condensation will, we have no doubt, become popular as a family book of Domestic Homœopathic Practice.

ECCLESIASTICAL INTELLIGENCE.

Clerical Presentation.-A meeting of the Cupar Presbytery was held, Rev. Mr W. R. Watson Logie, moderator, when the clerk read a presentation to the church and parish of Monimail in favour of the Rev. James M'Gregor, High Church, Paisley, by the patroness, the Hon. Lady Elizabeth Leslie Melville Cartwright, with the consent of her husband, Thomas Robert Brook Leslie Melville Cartwright, Esq., of Leven and Melville. A letter of acceptance was also read from Mr M'Gregor, along with other relative documents, all of which were sustained.

Kirkpatrick-Juxta-Clerical Presentation. We understand that the Rev. Mr Johnstone, at present assistant to the Rev. William Little, minister of Kirkpatrick-Juxta, has been presented by Mr Agnew of Seuchan to the quoad sacra church, in the parish of Leswalt, near Stranraer, erected at Seuchan. Mr Johnstone is the son of Mr William Johnstone, Rector of Castle-Douglas Academy, and has made himself highly popular, as well as greatly useful, during his stay in this district.