sky was cloudless above. This could not long continue, and his restless and aspiring desires were soon gratified to the full. As the sphere of his labours grew larger, Wesley felt the want of more auxiliaries, and he summoned the youth who had been one of the first fruits of his ministry, to employ his zeal and opening talents in the same cause. Trelile obeyed with a mixture of joy and fear, and soon beheld among the numerous congregation those who had known him in his ignorance, and little suspected the talents that so long had slept unnoticed. Here his intimate acquaintance with the prophetic writings stood him in great need; passages of beauty and sorrow flowed fluently from his lips, and did not seem like strange sounds.

From that hour his destiny was decided a mind so highly excited and inflamed, could think no more of daily and laborious application, and he pursued with unquenched ardour the path into which he had been invited. When rising and favouring prospects in the world go hand-in-hand with its applause, what path, however humble, but will have its unshaken votaries? He left his home, and his mission led him to various parts, and to the abodes of strangers, where his reception was almost always favourable. The constant exertion of his talents gradually improved and refined them; and ere very long he became one of the most popular ministers of his illustrious master. He was often astonished at his own success, and at the flattering approvals paid him; and ambition, and something like vanity, began to find a place in the heart that had hitherto been sincere, though enthusiastic. Hitherto he had known life only in its humblest sphere; but now these days of brightness began to appear, and introduced him to richly furnished dwellings and polished inmates he was a guest at tables where luxury was not wanting. He beheld men of information, and well-dressed women, whose looks expressed any thing but displeasure and disappointment, listening attentively to his discourses. And those discourses were aided by a well-formed person, regular features, a large dark eye, in which every meaning of the spirit dwelt, and which was almost shrouded beneath a redundant head of short and curling black hair and his voice was one of those that find an instant passage to the feelings. Few would have recognised in this man the humble and obscure labourer, who, not long before, had toiled on his native rocks.

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This was the path he pursued for a few years, with zeal but little diminished, and with an increase of public esteem and reputation. But his constancy was now to be put to a severe test. In the north of the county lived a widow lady, by no means stricken in years, for her charms were not yet faded, and she was mistress of a good mansion and estate. She had listened on several occasions with delight to the eloquence of young Trelile, and looked on his person with something very much like the eye of affection. He visited at the house, and it was not long ere he perceived that all the possessions he so much admired might become his own. The temptation was great, was almost irresistible; he hesitated long ere he yielded to it. On one hand was a small annual stipend, a life accompanied with almost incessant fatigue and privation, and not seldom contempt and persecution, and no prospect of its ever making him richer in the things of this world; on the other, a large landed property, with a house, that to his eyes seemed splendid. He might with a word call it all his own, together with a bride, whose hand had been often sought by richer pretenders. No more would he be summoned to face the wintry blasts and driving snows, or arrive drenched with the rain at a wretched and obscure cottage, the shivering inmates of which could scarcely furnish him a scanty meal. Nature prevailed over faith in the trial, and he took the hand of the well-endowed widow, and on the morrow gazed around him with rapture on his ample domains. He had indeed risen high and gloriously above his once low estate. The poor, obscure, and ignorant labourer in a few years was become the man of talent, the substantial esquire, caressed by the many, and preferred by beauty and wealth above his superiors, and ease and luxury were his portion for life. Where was now the ardent and

indefatigable minister, to whom day and night, storm and sunshine, were alike in the prosecution of his work, who taught that the smiles and glory of the world were to be trampled in the dust, and its riches counted vain!

The world drew its golden veil over him, and he rested in its shadow, nor felt for a time the loss of the unclouded sun that had brightened on his path. The care and improvement of his grounds now drew his whole attention; he walked in his garden and beneath the shadow of trees now his own, with ceaseless delight, and gazed in the ponds that adorned them, and the flowers that fringed their banks, till hour fled away after hour. How inexpressibly sweet to a poor and dependent man is the first taste of riches! The sense of independence the hourly experience of its innumerable comforts-the rapturbus conviction that Poverty, like an armed man, shall stand and menace us no more, nor hover round the path of those loved ones who come after us-the willing obsequious respect paid by others to the hitherto neglected being the dominion over their smiles and kindnesses who so lately passed him with contemptuous indifference:-all these feelings visited Trelile's mind, and elevated it more than was meet for a man to whom the bitters of life had been familiar. He occasionally received letters from his patron and friend Wesley, warning him to beware of being lulled asleep by the wiles of Prosperity.

He read these epistles at first with deep emotion, and replied humbly and sincerely to one who had been more than a father to him, and of whose personal character he stood in the utmost awe. But the voices he heard around him now were not those of mistrust and remonstrance, but of flattery and applause. Guests were not wanting at his well-spread table, and professions of friendship and attachment were poured profusely into his ear. The warm and yet new affection of his bride-often had he gazed on woman's face and met her looks, and not always without emotion, though turned on him, perhaps, with contempt: But now, he was the beloved husband, whose slightest will was law, and all the treasures of woman's affection poured upon him, and by her counted too little, while her fine features were ever turned with delight on his own. It was a new and fascinating existence, to which his feelings yielded implicitly, and an age of unsullied happiness opened on his view.

Many months had now passed away, and summer fled, and autumn, and cold and wintry weather succeeded, and he was compelled to seek his resources within doors. Often now was his blazing hearth surrounded by a jovial and cheerful circle, that loved his society, and his wines and good cheer yet more. The song too went round, and the hours grew late ere the thought of parting came. Yet on a stormy night, when alone, and the wind swept hollow over his dwelling, and through the long avenues of trees beside, with that sound which seldom fails to awake the fancy, his thoughts wandered to the cottage of his parents on his native cliffs, where poor and comfortless they bent over their scanty peat-fire, and thought of their son, while he, encompassed with luxury and every good, thought only, lived only, for himself.

One evening, after a day of most inclement weather, during which the snow had fallen fast, and the tempest, not yet lulled to rest, howled fitfully at intervals, the only sound that broke on the silence around the solitary dwelling, Trelile was seated by his social fire-side, and his wife, who was engaged carelessly with her needle, sat opposite to him, when a horse's tread was heard approaching the door, and a few moments after a stranger entered the parlour, and stood and gazed intently at the persons before him, without uttering a word. Trelile started from his chair, for he distinguished in an instant the features of him who had been the founder of his fortunes, and had drawn him from poverty and obscurity. The venerable man shook the snow and rain from his long white locks, and looked tenderly, yet upbraidingly, at his host, and clasped his hand in his own, that trembled with emotion. To the attentions heaped upon him he returned courteous answers as soon as he had mastered himself. Whoever had once been Wesley's chosen friend, knew well that his was that affection, "stronger than death," that

endured through every adversity and neglect, and fled not even when vice and apostacy invaded the heart on which it had been fixed. Trelile, who had lived in his smile, and thought his approbation the highest meed on earth, now stood self-condemned before him, and shrunk from the glance of his penetrating eye.

Accustomed to implicit and unlimited obedience from his assistants, this founder of a mighty sect was tenacious of his authority, and exercised it sometimes in a very arbitrary manner. But in the youth before him he saw only the all-subduing influence of wealth, joined to other powerful fascinations. He turned the conversation to general subjects, and engaged in it with that softness and ease of manner and perfect courteousness for which he was always distinguished. His countenance was arrayed in smiles, and his expressive eyes beamed with kindness and good-will, while he related many a strange circumstance and trait of character that he had met with in his various journeyings. But gradually his features became more solemn and severe; the character he was speaking of closely resembled the one before him, on whom he fixed a look that penetrated his soul, and, lifting his right hand, as was his custom to command attention, he poured forth a torrent of warning eloquence, in which he set before his hearer the nobleness of voluntary privation and self-denial, the glory of labouring for the good of others, and the future felicity that would await the sacrifice, and ended by a prediction of the misfortunes that would inevitably fellow in case he burst not the silken fetters that bound him. Trelile listened with extreme emotion, his tears flowed fast, and for some moments the visions of past hours of suffering and triumph passed over his thoughts, and he vowed to follow the advice and intreaties of his benefactor.

At a very early hour on the following morning, his guest bade adieu to his mansion, heedless of the inclemency of the weather, and went on his arduous way, and his horse's tread resounded long on the hollow and frosty ground; and years of sorrow and desolation passed ere he saw his face again. But time softens the most powerful impressions, and Trelile's wonted gaiety and carelessness returned, save that at times that winter's night would pass like a painful vision over his thoughts. But in the following year a great and entire change took place in his situation and happiness:-his wife, but a few years older than himself, fell sick, and after a few weeks of suffering, died; and her child, but a few months old, soon after followed her. It was the first dreadful shock his feelings had ever experienced: he saw the woman who had been the foundress of his fortunes and respectability in the world— who had preferred his love to that of all others-lie dead before him, and the same smile of devoted affection on her lips with which she had always met his presence. It was the last earthly feeling that rested on her features when she died: wife-lover-benefactress-all were before him. And where, he thought with agony, could he hope to meet such a spirit again? She was the first, the only one, that ever truly loved him his lately exulting heart felt all its desolation, and that it was once more left alone in the world. The consolation and sympathy of others were offered in abundance; but he deemed them hollow and unavailing, and given to his fortune more than from regard to himself. His fine possessions, which before had clung so close to his attachments, now hung loosely on them; his gardens and ancient groves looked dreary and desolate. His steps daily wandered to the tomb of his wife: it was strange that in her life he felt not thus passionately towards her, always in her presence, and accustomed to her minute and affectionate attentions; his attachment was almost negative, and no excitement called it forth. And she had died ere her charms had faded, or her love had palled; and gratitude, too, flowing from an oppressed spirit, mingled with the vivid memory of the past, and called up every excellence freshly from the grave. He resolved at last to vary the scene, and seek another land and clime, where the novelty of the objects might perhaps give a new impulse to his mind. He accordingly disposed of his estate and mansion, and bade adieu to

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scenes where, to his view, his happiness had suffered so early a shipwreck. Proceeding to the metropolis, he took a passage in a vessel bound to the West Indies, and, after a prosperous voyage, landed at Port Royal at Jamaica. Previous to his departure from England, however, he had performed an act that duty and charity both required of him, in settling an income on his aged and deserted parents. He met a most hospitable reception from the merchant to whom he carried a letter of introduction, and who invited gay and convivial parties of his friends to meet the stranger; and their high and reckless spirits insensibly produced an effect on his own: they too had left their native land, and adopted this distant country for their own; and the separations of family, or the cherished relatives they had left behind, sat lightly on their thoughts.

Trelile envied the constant and busy excitement of mind their profession afforded them; and, feeling the want of a similar resource, he resolved to explore the interior of the country. He quitted the town, and bent his course towards the lofty ridge called the Blue Mountains, the summits of which look down on splendid scenery, and afford a purer and cooler air than is breathed in the plain beneath. It was the first time he had quitted his native land, or bent his course through scenes so different from those he had hitherto beheld. Their wildness and strangeness delighted his ardent and enterprizing mind, the perpetually brilliant sky, unobscured by a cloud, and the Indian sun, so much fiercer than his own, flaming on his head; and the dews of night, so full of fatality to numbers, sometimes fell on him, when, benighted in the woods, he was far from any cottage or sheltering place. He penetrated the thickest groves, and ascended the loftiest heights, and bore with pleasure the extremest fatigue; for his spirit, like a captive slave set free, burst from its chains with rapture; and the fevered air and the evening damps were sweeter to his feelings than the joys of affluence and all the luxuries he had lately left; for he desired, though he was hardly conscious of it, to fly from himself from the reproachful testimony, sometimes of his own conscience, and the void and restlessness he felt within. In the hut of the negro he often found his home, and envied the content and cheerfulness of spirit of its humble tenants.

Such were the feelings of the time, and little did he foresee how soon they would give place to others of a far different character. There were moments also when his widowed heart fled from the scenes around to that distant land he had left behind; when, wandering through the groves of orange or plantain trees, and oppressed with fatigue and the scorching heats, he sunk down at the foot of one of them for shelter and rest :-in these lonely moments, the home of his own land would rush on his thoughts, when no loneliness was on his heart, and his fair possessions were stretched around him; now, he was an outcast and wanderer. Then the white marble tomb, placed in his garden, rose to his view, where the mother and her infant slept together, and over which he had so often hung and wept. His own native home, and rugged cliffs, wild and dreary, filled up at last the picture of memory; his early years of ignorance and peace, when riches tempted him not, and passion filled not his heart. But the shadows of night came while he dwelt intensely on these reveries, and the plaint of the wood-bird, and the increasing darkness of the grove, warned him to rise and depart.

After a residence of two years in this country, chiefly passed in perpetual changes of residence and scene, he resolved to return to his native land, and took passage in a merchant-ship, bound to Ireland. The voyage was rapid and successful, and unmarked by any incident of peril or storm; and in a few weeks Trelile landed in the harbour of Cork. He touched the shore with deep and undissembled pleasure, and with the firm resolution that no cir cumstances, however adverse, should ever induce him to quit his country again. It was a dark and cloudy day when he landed; no clear Indian sun threw its brilliant glare over the scene, or rich and evergreen foliage spread their shadow; but a keen and chill air prevailed, and the few trees that

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decked the sightless hills around were stripped of every blade of verdure; yet he gazed at all with delight; his whole mind was attuned to the joys of his native land, to the comforts of an English home.

Whoever has wandered, whether to the distant and splendid East, to the land of romance and chivalry, or, nearer home, to the gorgeous cities of the South, will confess that even the clouds of smoke that hung over his own city, or the falling torrents that confined him to the blazing hearth, were dearer to his sight and hearing than any thing beyond the wave that bore them to their native shore. A farther experience of the world had taught him the infinite importance attached to wealth, and that, with a moderate confidence in his own talents and personal appearance, he needed no other passport to the good graces of society. With a spirit reviving from the wounds it had received, he looked around, as if to select the path he should now pursue. He proceeded to Dublin, and spent with pleasure some time in that, in many respects, superb city. At that day travellers were more rare than at present, and seldom annoyed each other by their numbers, in exploring various parts of the empire. It was the season when the Irish House of Commons was assembled, and Trelile took advantage of it to attend their debates; and the eloquence he heard, so far surpassing all he had conceived an idea of, made a profound impression on his mind. But other thoughts and prospects soon drew his whole attention. The appearance of affluence, in the mean time, that attended him, and his prepossessing manners, soon, in that city of hospitality, procured him introductions into attractive and agreeable society. From the gaiety and dissipation that almost invariably prevailed there, he at first was disposed to recede, but insensibly he entered into them with greater ardour and attachment than their more experienced votaries; for, after his long exile, and life of comparative solitude, excitement and indulgence had for him all the charm and power of novelty.

While he thus sailed with the stream, and yielded to the fervid impressions of the hour, he became intimately acquainted with a very interesting Irish family; it consisted only of a mother and daughter, both of the Catholic religion. The former had for some years been a widow, and been left in slender circumstances; and all the latter had to depend on for a dowry was her beauty; but that beauty was of an order that men passionately love-not the calm, blue, mental eye, the clear and reflective forehead, and the slender yet elegant form; but a full, joyous, and resistless loveliness-a large dark eye, that told of an ardent yet tender heart, where all her country's boundless vivacity resided. Trelile saw this woman, and loved her; repeated interviews could only increase his affection, and he thought that, could he obtain her as a companion for life, he should be exquisitely happy. It was in vain that reason whispered to him the wide and impassable difference of religion. To wed a Catholic, every hope, symbol, and ceremony of whose faith was at utter variance with his own-he started at the prospect. How could harmony and union of thought and feeling dwell between them? and from how many sources might regret and discord arise, to mar all the felicity of life? And his friends-those who had known him but lately the stern and decided advocate of another faith,-would they not reproach, ridicule, and condemn him? Still he saw and conversed daily with the beautiful Catholic, who was pleased with and encouraged his attentions, as also did the mother, who saw the advantage of a union with a man of his independent fortune. He knew that he should have fled the fascination, and not have parleyed thus with its power, which was fast laying prostrate his heart and his reason. A love such as this was indeed new to his feelings: his first wife he had married more for the possession of her wealth, than from personal affection. It was true, a softer feeling grew on him afterwards, and, mingled with an ardent gratitude, had made him deeply lament her loss. But this passion for Laura was a new element, in which his soul existed and triumphed, where sights and sounds of loveliness were perpetually around it, and all former attachments now appeared cold and unsatisfactory.