bigny would not have been known, had not Cecilia revealed them; so that her confession was evidently not a mere acknowledgment, wrung from her by circumstances, but a full outpouring of the heart. Her husband does not relent in his determination to part from her, leaving her to enjoy his fortune in England, while he himself engages in the foreign service of his country.

But, so long as her friend was thus alienated from her husband, at the time too when she was really more than ever worthy of his love, Helen could not be happy. Still the marriage ceremony was performed; the General gave away the bride. At the public breakfast, Lady Davenant, feeble as she was, appeared, and in presence of some of the slanderers who had contributed to bring about these unpleasant results, takes the opportunity to expose their malice, and to a sufficient extent, to undeceive the world; but the exertion is too great for her strength.

'She suffered herself to be carried up the steps into her own apartment by the General, who laid her on the sofa in her dressing-room. She looked round on them, and saw that all were there whom she loved; but there was an alteration in her appearance which struck them all, and most the General, who had least expected it. She held out her hand to him, and fixing her eyes upon him with deathful expression, calmly smiled, and said, "You would not believe this could be; but now you see it must be, and soon. We have no time to lose," continued she, and moving very cautiously and feebly, she half-raised herself"Yes," said she, a moment is granted to me, thank Heaven!" She rose with sudden power, and threw herself on her knees at the General's feet; it was done before he could stop her.

"For heaven's sake!" cried he, "Lady Davenant!-I conjure youyou"

She would not be raised. "No," said she, "here I die, if I appeal to you in vain-to your justice, General Clarendon, to which, as far as I know, none ever appealed in vain-and shall I be the first?- -a mother for her child-a dying mother for your wife-for my dear Cecilia-once dear to you.'

His face was instantly covered with his hands.

"Not to your love," continued she-" if that be gone to your justice I appeal, and MUST be heard, if you are what I think you: if you are not, why, go-go, instantly-go, and leave your wife, innocent as she is, to be deemed guilty-Part from her, at the moment when the only fault she committed has been repaired

Throw her from you when, by the sacrifice of all that was dear to her, she has proved her truth-Yes, you know that she has spoken the whole, the perfect truth

"6 I know it!" exclaimed he.

دو

"Give her up to the whole world of slanderers!-destroy her character! If now her husband separate from her, her good name is lost for ever! If now her husband protect her not

Her husband turned, and clasped her in his arms. Lady Davenant rose and blessed him-blessed them both; and they knelt beside her, and she joined their hands.

"Now," said she, "I give my daughter to a husband worthy of her, and she more worthy of that noble heart than when first his. Her only fault was mine-mine-my early neglect: it is repaired-I die in peace! You make my last moments the happiest! Helen, my dearest Helen, now, and not till now, happy -perfectly happy in Love and Truth!"

In reading this very interesting work, we were less pleased with the character of Churchill, than most of the others, though it is evidently labored by the writer. It probably represents an individual or a class, and therefore may inspire more interest at home than abroad. We were not pleased with the affectation of employing French phrases, where English would answer better; there is a knowing air about the practice, more worthy of second-rate scribblers, wishing to astonish the natives, than of a lady of Miss Edgeworth's real attainments. But the moral of the work is unexceptionable; and we believe that the moral effect of it will be such as amply to reward the excellent writer. She has called the attention of all classes, for this book will be in every hand,-to the essential importance of truth. Sir Thomas Brown says, that the devils do not lie, for if they did hell could not subsist: how this may be, we do not know, though we never imagined that they were particularly scrupulous in regard to this indulgence; but certain it is, that a great proportion of the suffering and dissension of social life, is owing to this prevailing transgression. There is not however so much deliberate falsehood, as indifference to the truth; the latter is quite too general; and he, who is careless of the truth, is not far removed from the liar. Even by those who desire to practice the virtue, it is not always understood; some suppose sincerity to consist in blurting out their hasty and unformed opinions,-in making every man sensible of their prejudice against him, and in never suppress

ing any idle thought or feeling, which comes into their head or heart. It is scarcely necessary to say, that when openness degenerates into brutality, as it sometimes does in those who boast of it, it ceases to be a virtue; where it is genuine, it is kind and gentle, as well as resolved and firm. It is not truth that so often offends; it is some passion indulged under its name; thanks then are due to the powerful writer, who shows us what the virtue really is, and impresses us with a sense of its importance, excellence and attraction.

ART. VIII.-Miss Peabody's Key to History.

Key to History. Parts I., II., and III. By Elizabeth P. PEABODY. Boston. 1833.

We have examined, with attention, these works of a very intelligent lady, and being fully convinced of the merit of her system, we take the opportunity to recommend it, in few words, to the notice of our readers. The plan is undoubtedly formed upon correct principles of instruction, and seems to contain within itself the assurance of its own success; but we are well aware that the value of every practical system can only be determined by experiment, and what we ask is, that the one before us may have a fair and impartial trial. Some of our most successful instructers have, we perceive, given a verdict in its favor: perhaps others, and they are many, who have long lamented the want of some such aid in this department of instruction, may find on trial that the defect is here supplied. We speak of the general system: the details may possibly be found, on experiment, to require correction and improvement; but such alterations, if necessary, are very easily made; and the fact that they may be necessary should not be allowed to impair the value of a system, which is, in itself and in substance, good.

The state of education in this country, so far as respects the study of history, has heretofore been sufficiently forlorn. It was regarded as an interlude, of no value, except to fill up the chasms of the graver business of instruction. Not that its importance was not understood; but simply because the means and materials for pursuing the study were very imperfect, and

such as were within reach never had been assembled and made accessible by any connected system. Nor perhaps would it have been possible to form any such system, with the heavy and broken materials which alone existed but a few years ago. They were comprised in such a chaos of lumber, that whoever bad any thing to do with the present,-any care or concern of life to attend to,-was obliged to abandon all hope of forming any intimate acquaintance with the past. The spirit faints at the remembrance of Rollin, Gillies, and Millot, through which the former generation waded, 'dolorous and malecontent,' in search of this kind of information,-those channels in which they found only the dust and bones of antiquity, and could obtain no idea of its living and breathing forms. If any one desired to know something of modern history, he was driven to such writers as Mezerai, Father Daniel, and Mariana, the very sight of whose volumes, compared with the duration of human life, was enough to fill the bravest with despair. The results were such as might have been expected: the idea of history, so formed, was a thing of shreds and patches, more resembling the maps of the Arctic ocean, where land and sea are so harmoniously blended together, than anything which had ever been explored by man. The currents of sacred and classical history came down from the earliest ages in two parallel lines, which, if produced to all eternity, would never meet nor even approach each other. Whoever has suffered from this state of things, which is even now hardly entitled to be regarded as matter of history, will give a hearty welcome to anything in the shape of a system, which promises to deliver the coming generation from an evil under which their fathers suffered and mourned for years.

'The work before us is intended to embrace, when completed, a full course of historical education. By a systematic process, the learner is to be led gradually to a familiarity with the subject, so that the memory shall not be laden with cumbrous and unmanageable materials, but only with such as bear upon the object immediately in view, and these, whether dates, incidents, observations or poetical allusions, so arranged as to be taken in with a single glance of the eye. Things well disposed require but little room; and if a general rule of order can be established, so that the records of nations, men, sciences and opinions, shall each have their place in the mind, the student will have his materials at command, always knowing VOL. XXXIX.-No. 84.

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where to find and how to use them. It is a great thing to begin well and to get the run' of the subject; every young botanist, for example, knows how familiarly a little practice teaches him to refer the new plant to its class and order, where at first all seemed hopeless confusion. In the same manner, if the learner of history begin with a right system of arrangement, the incidents will no longer sit heavy on his mind; each will appear in its proper light and bearing; the spirit of philosophical contemplation will then be able to draw lessons of instruction from them, for information, for improvement, or for forming probable conjectures concerning the destiny of nations or

of men.

Nothing however can be accomplished, unless those who commence the study have a deep interest in it; this of course is to be formed; and to make the learner enter into the spirit of the study at once, is one of the advantages which this system proposes to secure. The study itself, when once fairly entered upon, soon becomes exceedingly attractive, but the works employed in teaching it are often such, as to quench all the enthusiasm which the young mind begins to feel. It depends on the instructer to remove this difficulty; he must be familiar with the treasured wisdom of former times, and be able to select from orators, historians and poets, such passages as will make deep and vivid impressions. It will never do to surrender the mind to a single fascinating writer; the effect of that habit was evident in this country a quarter of a century ago, when the young readers of Hume, republicans though they were by birth and education, were almost to a man in favor of Charles I., forgiving all his usurpations, and thinking on the patriots of the day as cold-blooded fanatics, almost too savage to be men. Nor will it answer, on the other hand, to make an indiscriminate heave-offering of dull writers, since some of them, whose works no mortal would think of journeying through, may have passages which require and repay attention. All this shows the necessity of having accomplished teachers; and yet so wide is the field and so rich and various the attainments required, that no one, who has not made it an almost exclusive study, can ever teach it with success. We fully agree with Miss Peabody in the opinion that it is best to have schools entirely devoted to this study, where the learner may, with small expense of time, be furnished with that right direction in the early steps of the study, which the young cannot