In its bright, yet softened medium, I soon distinguished with peculiar pleasure a figure of gentle motion, all whose parts were smooth and fair, who seemed to fix my gaze by a power which I turned to like the light itself, and whose expression called the corresponding sense in me into action, and character, and meaning. Sounds of the softest melody accompanied her breathing over me; I listened to them in preference to all others, and my imperfect organs began the work of imitation. My weak attempts appeared to inspire her with delight; she kissed me so as to interrupt the very murmur which gave her joy, and I repeated sounds to secure a repetition of the caressesnor were they barren sounds I uttered, for as I pronounced them, I found the sacred idea of mother awakened in my mind. I say awakened, for there it had long been-it came not as a stranger, but as a friend. Whether I felt more than others I know not; my sensations were limited to my experience; but I was conscious that the idea, MOTHER, with its delights, had been known and enjoyed before.

the

Let me bend with more than common reverence at the mention of that hallowed being! The lower races of animal nature know it no longer than they need its help. Man alone is capable of a grateful sense more lasting than

the benefits conferred. relation of parent and

being from which he cour, all but parental.

He only He only can invert the child, and give to the derived his own, a sucSuch however is nei

ther the feeling, nor can it be the speculation of infancy. Let me return to the condition of my early self.

Other forms occasionally were forced upon my attention the sympathy they excited was different in kind and in degree. One being in particular soon drew to himself a large share of my notice.

"Less winning soft, less amiably mild,
Than that smooth female image,”

there was something awful even in his caresses. He seemed less framed for soothing and repose. His voice roused and somewhat startled it did excite a laugh, but somewhat accompanied with fear.

One female, however, there was still more constantly employed about me than my mother. But the expression of the two could not be mistaken, even by infancy. While the superior softness seemed to look within my eyes, and divine the very wishes of my thought, the coarser being made up in noise and bustle for the want of actual tenderness. By being in constant action she excited attention, and se

cured her power by her arts. I became speedily sensible that much of this effort, however lavished upon me, was not intended to gratify the child alone. The greater portion was levelled at a higher observer: to my mother she was perpetually displaying the volatile force of my little person. I was taught to spring forward in her arms at a sound she uttered, and sometimes continued the action without the command. Before the admiring mother my laughing agility was extravagantly commended; but when we were unattended or unobserved, I was often checked and chidden for the very excellence which distinguished me. At such times a sharply interjected sound of a hissing and disagreeable nature, which I afterwards found was "See! see!" alarmed even myself as to the danger which might follow the too constant exertion of my powers. Infant wilfulness would often spontaneously demand indulgence in her arms, and if a contest arose between us, passion displayed itself in sobs and tears, until I obtained a removal to the bosom of that superior softness, who captivated in so many ways-who silenced the cravings of appetite, and dried up every tear; the trembling lustre of whose blue eyes was like the unclouded expanse above us, rendered intelligible by wisdom and by love.

1

One feeling of infancy I shall run the risk of specifying, which related to my father. Whenever my mother transferred me from her own arms to his, I became instantly sensible of a difference which was comparatively painful. The stronger grasp did not more securely hold : by not yielding to the yielding substance which it compressed, it gave uneasiness and begot fear. There was the awkwardness that attends a want of habit. powerful for its task, and turity in the pupil to be When firmly clasped to the breast of my father, the buttons on his coat felt hard and cutting to my soft, though elastic substance, and if he suddenly kissed my cheek, his manly chin offended the delicate texture of my flesh; but the glow of smart sensation subsided soon when my face renewed its contact with the pillow of my couch, or the far more delightful and more natural pressure of the maternal bo

som.

The arm was too required more maused as its master.

I record these earliest impressions, because I had a mind previously exercised, and, therefore, capable of retaining them. All infancy perceives them, but before language is acquired, objects only transiently affect the brain. Ideas have but little clearness until we fix their lineaments by names; and the greatest of all

poets made no mistake, when he makes Prospero speak thus to Caliban, in that masterwork, the Tempest :

"When thou didst not, savage,

Know thine own meaning, but would'st gabble, like
A thing most brutish, I endow'd thy purposes
With words that made them known.".

But here I drop the nursery, with its attendant pains or sports, and hasten to the period when I might be called a thinking being.

CHAPTER II.

AT the period to which I have alluded, I found myself to be the son of George Sydenham, Esq. and of Sophia his wife, a lady of great personal beauty, and of accomplishments carried much beyond the routine of education, by a disposition of the happiest kind.

The

greatest harmony existed between my parents. Independent as to fortune, their virtues were never fiercely tried and proved by adversity, so that they kept a placid and even tenour in life, were admired for their decorum, and beloved for their beneficence. Without ostentation, they dispensed the blessings of an elegant