both in this world, and in that which is to come, will be made worse.

You are all now opening a new page in the history of your life, and Servio, feeling a sincere interest in your welfare, has ventured to draw up a few simple reflections, in the hope that they might, in some slight measure, aid you in cultivating that state of the mind and heart which will prove to be your best and only safeguard against blotting that page with folly and with sin.

The Christian part of this Christian country have read with deep concern, and indignant reprobation, the accounts of the utterly disgraceful manner in which "Female Emigration" has been recently conducted; and, had it not been for a well-grounded expectation of succeeding vessels being sent out, with some decent provision for the spiritual wants of the passengers, in the person of a conscientious chaplain, and in the person of a respectable matronsome security against those indolent and disorderly habits being contracted during the voyage, which might prove your bane at the termination of it-the present effort (which claims no higher merit than that of being one in the right direction for good) would never have been put forth; it would but have been a "labour of love" entirely thrown away. The young are, at best, too little inclined to useful thinking, and when, as in the unhappy cases above alluded to, not only useful thought was never encouraged, but vicious thought went hand in hand with vicious practice, such a little work as the present (had emigration

continued under such atrocious circumstances) would have been received with the laugh of folly, the sneer of ridicule, and the heedlessness of sin. Expressing, therefore, my fervent congratulations that you are leaving our shores under better influences, and an earnest hope that these influences may be so improved by you, that you will neither disgrace your country nor yourselves, but reflect honour upon both, let me proceed affectionately to request your attention to some few points, which it appeared more suitable to introduce in a letter than in the "reflections."

In considering the great variety of character which there must always be where any number of persons are collected together, we are naturally led to consider also the variety of their pursuits, their hopes, their fears, their prospects, and their capabilities. This difference must subsist in your characters, and it will shape your individual thoughts and emotions upon leaving your native land. Some among you are, doubtless, young, active, spirited, and full of hope for the future; not insensible to the pain of parting with friends, but cheered and supported by the expectation of sending pleasant tidings to those friends from a distant country. Some, who are older, and who have seen and suffered more, are less cheerful in their spirits, finding it far more difficult than it appears to be to some of their younger companions, to reconcile the heart to the step which the judgment approves. Some, too, there are, in all probability, among you, whose feeble

66

steps and pallid lips betoken infirm health, and these, from their dependent condition, silently plead for that attention from their fellow-passengers which the kind heart is ever ready to bestow. To each and all, I waft my best and heartfelt wishes-better health to these, and to those, renewed cheerfulness and realised expectations. 'Hope on, hope ever," is a maxim well worthy of being echoed from one side of the Atlantic to the other; but is it not plain, to one of the least reflection, that this hope must be built upon the secure foundation of a good character? Character, as you are aware, is nothing more than the result, or growth, of frequent and continued actions-actions form habits, and habits form the character. For instance, if young persons are in the habit, day after day, and week after week, of wasting their time by not rising early in the morning, and of lessening their energy by not putting forth the ability and strength which they possess into the work which lies before them, they will soon become indolent characters; if they show a readiness to transcribe or copy into their own minds, the evil (which, alas! is always near us), the coarse and indecent jest, and the blaspheming tongue, they will soon become vicious characters. But I need not enlarge upon this. It is only adverted to, to bring distinctly before your minds the unspeakable importance of a good character. As soon as you are landed on the country to which you are going, your conduct will be remarked; you will be talked of; you will be noticed; you will be asked what employment

you want, and for what you consider yourselves best qualified, and the success of your whole life may depend upon the steady, virtuous, guarded manner, in which you may determine to conduct yourselves when you first arrive amongst those who at present know nothing of you. Place your sole dependence upon deserving a good name; build up a good reputation; but, in order to build this up, lean wholly upon God-approach his throne humbly and regularly, in the name and as a teachable disciple of Jesus Christ, and all will go well with you; for in this way only can your soul be kept pure, and your various duties be done "decently and in order." If you neglect religion, this neglect will be fatal. You will be left defenceless, and yet be assailed by temptation both from without and from within-you will fall by them-for bold, rash, presumptuous, foolish, mad, would that young person be, who would dare say, in his or her deceitful heart, "I can stand in the midst of this ensnaring world, safe and uninjured, without the gracious aid of my Father and my God."

Let it not be, for one moment, supposed that I intend, or wish, to represent religion under a dark or gloomy aspect. On the contrary, true religion is the most cheerful and sunshiny thing which our restless hearts can search out, in the whole of this bright and beautiful world; for it is nothing less than the spirit of order, of self-improvement, of peace, and of love. When a "soft answer" has been given, and "turned away wrath," is not the answerer happy? When temptation has been re

sisted, and the right word spoken, the right thing done, is not the doer of the Right happy? And when the few comforts of a humble cottager have been made still fewer by the kind bestowment of them upon one still more bowed down by the weight of poverty than herself, who, who will say that the kind self-denier is not happy? She is happy; and while she sits by that fire, which would have been larger had not her own heart been so large, she is content with "its few small embers," and, "nursing them well," "builds up her hope in Heaven." Rest assured, my young friends, that kind manners, right actions, and virtuous thoughts, not only afford internal pleasures which the world can neither give nor take away, but impart to the external world much additional charm. To a good mind-to a mind at peace with itself—the flowers look more beautiful, the fields more green, the sky more blue; there is more music in the song of the birds, more joyousness in the mirth of children, and more of love and purity in the "human face divine." The good, though to the eye of the stranger they may seem surrounded by dark clouds, are cheered with the "sunshine of the breast," and, while walking in a road which to the worldling might appear rough and thorny, do yet gratefully acknowledge that the way of religion is "the way of pleasantness, and that all her paths are peace."

I am now going to address particularly those among you who are young and unmarried, and when I tell you that the little which I have to say, relates