happy we might all have been at this very moment! We should have had nothing to vex or pain us, and we should never be naughty. It is owing to their wickedness we are all inclined to sin.

Emily. You may depend upon it, Willie, Satan would tempt us just as he tempted Adam and Eve; and I think we should be as likely to sin as they were. I am very glad I was not the first woman. How shocking it 'must be to feel I had brought trouble upon all that would be born till the end of the world!

Eliza. For my part, if I get to heaven, I shall certainly be more thankful than I ever could have been, if I had always lived a holy life in Eden. Jesus Christ would not then have suffered and died for me; and of course I could not have loved him as my Redeemer. Mamma, you do not say any thing: what do you think about it?

Mamma.-As I was not formed holy, I may not be able to imagine what is the happiness of such a being; but I cannot believe it exceeds the bliss of a poor wretched sinner, who is received into the kingdom of heaven; because the Son of God, the Lord of life and glory, loved him so much as to suffer, in his stead, the dreadful punishment due to sin. O my children, what inexpressible gratitude is due to God who "so loved us!" May you have a lively sense of his infinite mercy, and at this tender age love your Saviour with all your heart!

Eliza.-I hope we shall, dear mamma, and.

live all together in heaven. Among the pleasures we shall have there, it will be a great one to me to hear a full account of the creation. If Raphael had favoured me with his company, I should have asked a great many questions about it. Is nothing said of Eve's talking with the angel?

Mamma.-Milton tells us that Eve, as well as her husband, was attentive to the story; but no mention is made of her speaking in the presence of the angel. They were filled with astonishment at his wonderful relation, and Adam made inquiries which led their illustrious guest to continue his narrative.

After the Son of God had gained a complete victory over Satan and his legions, he returned in triumph, and the Father appointed him to create the world:

Immediate are the acts of God, more swift
Than time or motion; but to human ears
Cannot, without process of speech, be told;
So told as earthly notion can receive.

On the first day God created light, which

From her native east,

To journey through the airy gloom began,
Sphered in a radiant cloud; for yet the sun

Was not.

God saw the light was good;

And light from darkness by the hemisphere
Divided: light the day, and darkness night
He named.

The celestial choirs celebrated the first day, and striking their golden harps, they praised God and his works. The firmament was the work of the second day, sung by evening and morning chorus. Then God said:

Be gather'd now, ye waters under heaven,
Into one place, and let dry land appear.
Immediately the mountains huge appear

Emergent, and their broad bare backs upheave
Into the clouds,

Leaving a capacious bed for the waters.

Thither they

Hasted with glad precipitance, uproll'd

As drops on drops conglobing from the dry;
Part rise in crystal wall, or ridge direct,

For haste; such flight the great command impress'd
On the swift floods.

God next commanded the earth to put forth grass, herbs, and fruit trees.

He scarce had said, when the bare earth, till then
Desert and bare, unsightly, unadorn'd,

Brought forth the tender grass, whose verdure clad
Her universal face with pleasant green;

Then herbs of every leaf, that sudden flower'd,
Opening their various colours, and made gay
Her bosom, smelling sweet.

Then shrubs and trees of every kind sprang forth, and so adorned the earth that it seemed like heaven.

God saw that it was good:

So even and morn recorded the third day.

The Almighty created the sun, moon, and

stars;

And set them in the firmament of heaven
To illuminate the earth, and rule the day
In their vicissitude, and rule the night,
And light from darkness to divide.

Then, first adorn'd

With his bright luminaries that set and rose,

Glad evening and glad morn crown'd the fourth day. Birds, fishes, and creeping things, generated in the waters, were produced:

The waters thus

With fish replenish'd, and the air with fowl,
Evening and morn solemnized the fifth day.

The last morning of creation arose; and obe'dient to the word of Jehovah, there sprang from the earth innumerable living creatures, those beasts we now call wild, the cattle of all kinds, and every creeping thing.

You may suppose, my dear children, Raphael's auditors lost not a word of what I have repeated. He continued:.

There wanted yet the master-work, the end
Of all yet done.

He form'd thee, Adam, thee, O man,
Dust of the ground, and in thy nostrils breathed
The breath of life; in his own image he
Created thee, in the image of God

Express, and thou becam'st a living soul.
He brought thee into this delicious grave,
This garden, planted with the trees of God,
Delectable both to behold and taste,

And freely all their pleasant fruit for food
Gave thee; all sorts are here that all th' earth yields,
Variety without end; but of the tree

Which, tasted, works knowledge of good and evil,
Thou may'st not; in the day thou eat'st, thou dy'st;
Death is the penalty imposed, beware,

And govern well thy appetite, lest Sin

Surprise thee, and her black attendant, Death.
Here finish'd He, and all that He had made
View'd, and behold all was entirely good;

So even and morn accomplish'd the sixth day.

When the Creator returned to his high abode,

he was

Follow'd with acclamations and the sound
Symphonious of ten thousand harps that tuned
Angelic symphonies; the earth the air

Resounded.

William.-Thank you, thank you, dear mamma, for entertaining us so long. I suppose we must not ask you to tell us any more this evening.

Mamma. No, my dear, you have heard more than sufficient for one day; but I was unwilling to break off the story before Raphael concluded his account of the creation; particularly as I shall be too much engaged to proceed with it to-morrow.

Mamma.

CHAPTER VII.

The angel ended, and in Adam's ear

So charming left his voice, that he awhile

Thought him still speaking, still stood fix'd to hear.

He thanked the divine historian in the most grateful terms for so far satisfying his curiosity; but something of doubt still remained respecting the motion of the heavenly bodies. By his countenance he seemed

Ent'ring on studious thoughts abstruse; which Eve
Perceiving, where she sat retired in sight,
With loveliness majestic from her seat,

And grace that won who saw to wish her stay,
Rose, and went forth among her fruits and flowers.

Eliza.-I do not like her going away, just as if she had not sense enough to understand such conversation.

Mamma.-Our poet does her the justice to say, she went not because she was incapable of comprehending or being delighted with the discourse, but she chose to hear the remainder of Raphael's communications from Adam's lips.

Her husband the relator she preferr'd

Before the angel.

The benevolent seraph did not blame Adam