-to go back, as it were, to the early ages of the church, and carry on my enquiries from those who lived in the sunset, so to speak, of the apostolic age, up to the present hour, and thus discover what the truth is, and who they are who possess it. I began with the first century, and to my surprise, and utter rebuking, I found that St. Clement was a Pope-that St. Ignatius, the friend and follower of St. John, held the Real Presencethat St. Irenæus taught the Primacy of the Papal chair—that Tertullian derived the usage of praying for the dead, as he says himself, through tradition, from the apostles-that

"My dear Sir," said Bohan, interrupting his lecturer, "as you talk of the Fathers and the Apostles together, permit me to repeat to you what an old man, a Protestant, once said to me when I was urging the same arguments to him: 'Why,' replied this poor, uneducated man to me, why do you talk to me about the Fathers; they may be all very good men, for any thing I know; but talk to me about the Grandfathers-I am far better acquainted with them!'"

"What did the fool mean?" asked the priest, somewhat angrily.

"Oh, he was no fool, either; for though he knew nothing about the Fathers, and was totally unlearned, he always upset me with his Grandfathers."

"Will you tell me what he meant by that absurd expression ?"

"He meant the apostles; he had a New Testament constantly in his pocket; though indeed he had little occasion, for I think. he had it all in his head !"

"Oh, one of your modern Biblicals! And is it to an ignorant and untaught man, you now turn for your religion? Remember the words of St. Jerome: 'In all menial arts, there must be some one to show the way; the art of understanding the Scriptures alone is open to every reader! Here, learned or unlearned, we can all interpret! The tatling old woman, the doting old man, the wordy sophist, all, all here presume; they tear texts asunder, and dare to become teachers before they have learned !' "

"Yes," replied Bohan, calmly, "that identical passage was hrought under my eye, and I copied it, and read it to my friend, whom, I must admit, as far as human learning is considered, to be an ignorant and untaught man."

"Well, how did he meet it ?"

"Oh, in his usual quiet way: he told me that St. Paul was as great a man as St. Jerome; and that his opinion was, that those who were unskilful in the WORD of righteousness, were babes; and that St. Peter, another good man, orders all Christians to be ready to give a reason of their faith to any who may ask it from them and where, he added, can a poor, hard-working fellow like me, who has but little time to run from Father Jack to Father Gill, find better reasons than what are contained in this snug little pocket companion, pulling out a Protestant Testament."

"Bohan," said the priest, "I would have been right glad to see you, for your own sake, as well as that of your worthy family, had you come to me less arrogant and presuming. I have run the rounds of heresy, from Simon Magus down to Luther; and my own conviction long ago was that of Fenelon's-' either Catholic or Deist!" You seem to think otherwise. I trust your motives are not of those base kind which too usually actuate the miserable defaulters from our holy church. Remember the Law Church will not always retain her grasp of her ill-gotten and ill-spent lucre. Beware! Permit me to show you to the door. I will be happy to see you when your mind is humbled and more docile. Good evening, Sir!"

This was Bohan's first failure. He passed that night on the street; but his mind was so agitated with conflicting emotions, that he heeded not the hours as they rolled slowly away. What stung him most keenly was the imputation of base motives, which, to a young mind, ardent in its love of truth, and eager to acquire knowledge, was cutting in the extreme. Yet such is ever the policy of the Church of Rome, at least in Ireland. Base motives are invariably attributed to all who quit her communion, seemingly from this twofold reason-to affix a stigma on the act itself, and bring it into contempt and disgrace, and because the Romish religion, being almost a religion of ceremonies and externals, can permit its adherents to rank high as devotees and religionists, without enabling them to comprehend at all the glorious principle of true and simple faith, which being based equally on the feelings and the understanding, can keep widely apart from the contamination of lucre-motives. Towards morning he became more composed, and his visions of horror and despair departed with the darkness of the night. Naturally of a confident and cheerful disposition, he thought that he might easily procure a situation, and that supporting himself by his talents, he would prosecute his studies and researches in obscurity, until his mind became fully decided. "The flatterer hope still leads us on." He was an entire week in D, and still nobody knew him, and, of course, no situation offered. As he had only a few shillings in his pocket when he arrived in the metropolis, his clothes and trunks became his resource for subsistence.

Bohan had heard somewhat respecting the zealous benevolence of a dignitary, who had frequently proved himself the friend of those placed in similar circumstances to his own. His first impulse was to proceed at once to his residence, lay his case before him, and he had no doubt but that he would take him by the hand, and rescue him from the horrors of impending want. He had not a single letter to prove his identity; he had no friend to whom he could refer; but trusting to his own personal address, and in the truth and honesty of his story, he determined to introduce himself. Knocking, with trembling hand, at the door, he was informed that his Grace was in the country, and would not be home for a considerable period! This disappointment did not al

together damp him-it was a natural occurrence, and might happen in an hundred instances. Turning from the prelate's door, he repaired to a shop, in which he fancied, from its external appearance, that there must be in the owner blandness and civility. He begged to be permitted to look at the City Directory-glanced over the list of clergymen-and, when he came to a name which struck his eye, as if the letters possessed something intelligible in their peculiar combinations, he would ask an occasional question, and noted a number of their residences in a pocket-book. His plans were laid: purchasing a few sheets of paper, which his scanty finances could scarcely afford, and selecting an obscure tavern, he sat down to draw out a few letters detailing his case, thinking, simple-hearted youth! they would immediately procure him patronage. This was speedily done; and having, with a good deal of anxiety and search, found out the dwellings of the gentlemen to whom they were addressed, he left them all himself, intending to call next day for answers.

Poor fellow he was certainly very ignorant of the world. There was a strain of wildness in his composition calculated to create an unfavourable first impression; and some recent instances of gross deception and imposition did not assist his claims on the sympathies of those to whom he applied. One or two were out, and had left no answers to his letters; others desired him by the servant to call again. Call again! when he had not the price of a meal or a night's lodgings in his pocket! Call again!-oh, that withering "call again," when a man's heart is full, panting and beating when he longs to open the windows of his soul, and beseech you to look into his motives and his feelings-when the pause which occurs between the servant's going up stairs and his return gives you just breathing time to build an airy castle, to be tumbled down more speedily than it was formed. «Oh, aye; 'call again,' indeed!" thought the unfortunate Bohan, as the choking sensation rose to his throat. "Call again!-ye coldhearted men, ye care not though I perish on the street!"

There is one blessing, if we may call it so, or, at least, an advantage, which attends an ardent imagination—it is, that even in the bitterest hour of disappointment and sorrow, it often carries the individual away from present considerations into an airy temple of glory, where reality is forgotten, and the unreal assumes the light and colour of truth. So it was with John Bohan. Wandering up and down, his mind fled from all past and present things, and as visions of future happiness and greatness passed before him, he lived for a few hours perfectly happy and contented.

Towards nightfall, he ventured to call a second time on one of the gentlemen to whom he had written, and found him within. He was admitted. "Are you the young man who sent me this letter ?" "Yes." "Ah! indeed; and what would you wish me to do for you?" "Why, Sir, I thought that, perhaps, I might get assistance in procuring a situation, by which I might be enabled to earn an honest and independent subsistence." "Yes, very good;

but I cannot say that I could be of any great use to you. I have all along acted on the principle that it is injudicious to take the reins, as it were, out of the hands of God's providence, in the matter of conversion. We know that the heart is fearfully corrupt, and that it is extremely apt to substitute a love for secondary things in the place of a love for the truth itself. I have, therefore, always felt that it is dangerous to hold out any bribe whatever to young men to quit the church of Rome, and become Protestants. He in whom the Lord hath begun a good work will certainly carry it on to perfection. God is the preserver of all men, especially of them that believe. So, my young friend, if the work of conversion is begun in your heart, you require no farther aid from man. We cannot take the work out of the hands of God; He will open a door for you that no man can shut; and your temporal path, as well as your spiritual, will become like the light which shineth more and more unto the perfect day."

Let us leave Bohan for a moment. To analyze his feelings would be difficult, for they were of a very mixed kind. That a bribe of any description should be held out to induce proselytism would be a matter of serious regret to the humble and singleminded Christian, But the real truth is, that so far from there being inducements for a young man of any prospects in the Roman Catholic Church to become a Protestant, that too often the very reverse is the case. The perpetual sneers and insinuations of Romanists themselves, and the discovery of fraud and imposture in some cases, have made Protestants very chary of their favours and patronage; and we ask whether or not it would be better, in spite of sneers and insinuations, and the discovery, in some instances, of ingratitude, and fraud, and imposture, to extend a patronage and favour, which might be the means of keeping a noble heart from perishing, that had escaped from the toils of superstition and bigotry; or to maintain a cool circumspection -to say, Be thou warmed and clothed," but nevertheless give them not the supplies which are needful; to tell them about a good Providence, forgetful that Providence works by ourselves as well as by others; to commend them in prayer, but assist them not in purse, practically forgetting the Quaker's quaint but very expressive expression, "Friend, I feel somewhat in my pocket for thee !"

At this time, a friend of Bohan's family, who had been deputed by them to endeavour to find him out, and bring him back to what they considered a sense of his duty, arrived in the city. He found the young man in a state of extreme destitution, and apparently very willing to embrace any offer that would rescue him from his deplorable condition. He succeeded to a certain extent. Bohan agreed to visit home, and promised to reconsider all his rashly formed opinions; and, instead of wandering over the vast field of heresy, to do his utmost to bring his mind to submit to the wholesome doctrines and discipline of the church.

It was an evening of exquisite beauty on which he drew near to

home. The sun had just fallen beneath the horizon, arraying his attendant clouds in purple and gold, as he retired; night and day were harmoniously blending together, and the winds were sleeping on the bosom of ocean, except a gentle zephyr, which tript with fairy foot over the dewy flowers. The moon had not yet risen, but the soft radiance which a thousand stars threw over the earth, and the delicious and refreshing air, all combined together to give the evening a talismanic effect over the tender emotions of the heart. "Ah!" he exclaimed, "well do I remember rushing on such a night as this to yonder green knoll, that I might behold the twilight melting into night, and watch the stars stepping out into the firmament, until the heavens were in a glow. Oh! hours of silent peace, of serenity undisturbed, ye will never, never return! The freshness and the vigour of those feelings have passed for ever away, and I am a prey to pride, to ambition, to anxiety of mind!" He paused, as the moon peeped over a distant hill, and then, in an ecstacy, he stretched out his hands, as if in prayer to the DEITY who "sitteth in the circle of the heavens, and the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as grasshoppers before him."

Palace lights of heaven! Thousands of the dwellers in "populous cities pent" may pass their lives untouched by the silent lessons which ye teach; but in all ages there have been hearts in which ye kindle the poetic fire, and in whose souls ye awaken a holy, a celestial feeling, which carries them up from the sluggishness of earth, and bears them away into a "region of invisibles," which the eye and heart of the dull and vulgar mind can neither see or understand.

"How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!

Sit Jessica look how the floor of heaven

Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold!

There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st,
But in his motion like an angel sings,

Still quiring to the young-eyed cherubims:
Such harmony is in immortal souls."

Bohan had sat down to indulge his feelings for a few moments, and to rest himself after a long journey, before he ventured to meet his family. Overcome by fatigue, he dropt asleep, and a dream came over him. He thought he beheld the stars so well known as the Plough, or the Churl's Wain, in high commotion. They no longer moved in their calm, and bright, and stilly career, and sounds were heard which were totally out of chord with the "music of the spheres." Louder and louder grew the sounds, and every luminary in heaven became interested in the contention. One of the Seven Sisters was envious of the popularity of the Pole Star; it would no longer endure that it should continue to be "the observed of all observers," or that it should remain, night after night, the "pivot of the universe," gazing,