These lines powerfully portray the character and the fate of poor Matt, but they have no reference to John Morphew. His character was one of energy and perseverance. His career has, in truth, been a practical illustration of the truth that my first schoolmaster uttered on my leaving his school, namely, "that honour and rewards are ever obtained by diligence." I was visiting at old Mr. Morphew's one day, when his son was about sixteen years of age, when I discovered that he was about to leave my neighbourhood for London. Mr. Morphew had received a letter that morning from a mercantile house with which he used to have transactions, offering to take John into the countinghouse. The old gentleman was evidently grieved at the idea of parting with his son, but he expressed a hope that he would occasionally be allowed to come and see him. "At the same time, John," he observed, "do not let my desire to see you interfere with your duties. It is of the utmost importance that you should be diligent in your undertaking. You must show the firm you are going to serve that you have their interests at heart as well as your own. All who have any intention of doing well for themselves must strive to do well for others. You may exhibit this feeling by a constant and patient perseverance in your duties. Be punctual at your post; be diligent when you are at it, and never leave it till you have performed all that is required of you. It is astonishing what may be done by perseverance. The pleasures of fortune, the fruits of industry, the acquirements of learning, and the monuments of glory, are to be referred to perseverance. All the performances of human art, indeed, at which we look with praise and wonder, are instances of its resistless force. By it the quarry becomes a pyramid, and by it distant countries are united by canals and railways. If we compare the effects of a single stroke of the pickaxe, or of one impression of the spade, with the general design and last effect, we should be overwhelmed by a sense of their disproportion: yet these petty operations, incessantly continued, finally surmount the greatest difficulties: mountains are levelled, and oceans bounded by human industry. Whatever I may hear of you, John, I trust that I shall hear of your diligence." Not many months elapsed before Mr. Morphew heard of John's diligence. Happening to call upon him one morning to inquire if he had heard any thing of my old companion, instead of replying to my question in a direct manner, he put into my hand this letter: "My dear Parents, "It is with great satisfaction that I am enabled at length to make some small return for all your tender care of me in my infancy. I have ever borne my dear father's exhortations to diligence and perseverance in mind, and I trust have acted upon them to the utmost of my power. I have at least so acted as to gain the approbation of my employers. One of them called me into the parlour this day, and thus addressed me: 'I have great satisfaction, John, in stating, that your diligence has gained my approbation, and that of my partners generally. We are highly pleased at your industry and perseverance, and present you with this note as a small token of our approbation.' He added, 'Depend upon it, if you continue as you have commenced, you will not go unrewarded.' I thanked Mr. Rumbold for his kindness, and having promised to serve the firm to the utmost of my power, I retired. I did not look at the amount of the note in the parlour, but I fully concluded that it was a present of five pounds. I thought this a large sum for a present; but, judge of my surprise when on opening it I found the word 'Twenty' written on it. Yes, my dear parents, it was a twenty-pound note that was given to me; and I send it to you that you may be enabled to purchase some of those comforts you denied yourselves for my sake when I was young. I hope I may be enabled to send you still more on a future day; it will be the greatest pleasure of my life to add to your comforts. Hoping that it will give you as much pleasure to receive this note as I have in sending it, I remain, my dear parents, "Your affectionate Son, "JOHN MORPHEW." When Mr. Morphew perceived that I had read this letter, he asked, with evident pride, what I thought of its contents. 66 as I "It is just such a letter," I replied, should have expected John would have written, so soon as it was put into his power to administer to your comforts and depend upon it this will not be the last time you will thus hear of John : the more he has it in his power, the more he will add to your comforts." Many a time since the date of the first act of kindness shown to his parents did John Morphew add to their comforts. Year after year he was rewarded by his employers, and year after year did he offer to his parents the fruits of his industry. The language of his heart at all times seemed to be: "Nature brought me in your debt, What way is there to make requital for it? Should I be then unthankful? I abhor it; The will may serve when pow'r wants in man."- WITHER. For the last few years of their lives John Morphew's parents were enabled by his bounty to live in comparative affluence. During that time the firm had ceased to reward him annually for his diligence—they had taken him into partnership with them. He was, therefore, become a man of considerable importance and wealth, and was enabled to provide bountifully for his parents. Up to the hour of their deaths he was unceasing in his tender care for them, and when they died he paid the last tribute of respect to them in a way that did honour to his filial piety. I saw him drop the last tear over each of their graves, and never did I feel prouder of a friend than I did of John Morphew on those melancholy occasions. I felt that he had acted as a son should act towards his parents—that he had "honoured his father and mother," and that a blessing from on high would rest upon his head. "Honour thy father and thy mother, that thy days may be long in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.” Such is the Divine promise, and it has been verified in the history of my friend John Morphew: he still lives, and is had in honour by all who have any knowledge of his character. I should not be surprised, indeed, one day to find that John Morphew was made "Lord Mayor of London." If he is, no one will congratulate him on his honours with greater sincerity than myself, for there is none of my youthful companions now living whom I hold in higher estimation. Such was the friend whom poor Matt Norden wished myself and my companions to repudiate. Matt himself has seen his error, and confessed it: "he was more worthy of your friendship," he once observed to me, "than I was." Matt also saw the folly of seeking friends merely because they happened to possess money, or were born of noble ancestors. "Merit alone," he said to me on one occasion, "should be the test of friendship." It was the "merit" of John Morphew that endeared him to me in my youth, and which renders him still dear to me as well as to all his friends. Adopting the language of the quaint Fuller, in his description of "The True Gentleman," I may say with regard to John Morphew, "What if he cannot, with the Hevenninghams of Suffolk, count five-andtwenty knights of his family, or tell sixteen |