out your case pretty closely. But I will still vindicate the Church of England from the heavy charges you prefer against her. Holding the same doctrines, and following the example of the early Church, if she hesitate in assuming to herself the high title of 'infallibility,' she is the guardian and defender of that which was, and is, infallible; she is the preserver of the faith once delivered to the Saints, and therefore worthy of implicit trust."

Geraldine here pressed her hand to her forehead, and remained some time silent: at length she exclaimed, "Then, uncle, I think I understand at last! -As the Church of England is, in essentials, exactly the same with the early Catholic Church of the first five centuries, inasmuch as that Church was infallible, because still pure from its apostolic founders, so also is the Church of England; but she cannot enforce any thing that is not proved to have been held by that early Church, and, of course, must not deny any thing, clearly flowing from that Apostolic source?"

"You are right, Geraldine,"

"Well! uncle, I am satisfied; and I believe, shall shall be now, from this time, a very high Church woman, following strictly all the rules laid down for my practice in the Book of Common Prayer,' and endeavouring to recall all the wandering sheep of the flock into the one fold. My next interesting task will be the study of those pure ages in Church history, with which we claim kindred and communion; and, in the mean time, I thank you, my dear kind uncle, for all your patience and trouble with me. But for you, I should have confounded our Church with the other Protestant communities; but for you, I should ere this have mistaken, as you have said, the reverse of wrong for right,' and have become a Roman Catholic !"

CHAPTER IX.

If God, like man, his purpose could renew,
His laws could vary, or his plans undo,
Desponding faith would drop its cheerless wing,
Religion deaden to a lifeless thing.

Borce.

THE Library at Elverton Hall had once been the principal room in the old mansion; the noble suite, comprising saloon, anti-rooms, and dining-room, with the conservatory, having been built by General Carrington's father, together forming a somewhat uncouth wing, every thing being permitted to the irregular order of the Elizabethan or old manorhouse style, in which the building had been encased. The original date was far anterior, and to this date belonged the library and noted hall, the latter reaching, with its midway gallery, to the top of the building, and exhibiting specimens of oak-work and of painted glass, that still excited the admiration of the connoisseur, and subjected its owner to the penalty of appointing one day in the week, in which visitors, conducted by the late housekeeper, Mrs. Goodwin, were permitted to view this hall, and, as the good woman termed them, the "state apartments," in which the spacious and well-filled library was included. No visitors, however, had approached since the raging of the cholera, and Geraldine fearlessly descended, on the following morning, by her private staircase, to the library, to look over the list of books, and bring back to her uncle an account of the various ecclesiastical histories there

to be found. Having read the catalogue, she had just mounted one of the moveable steps, which, like a pulpit and its stair, were in each corner of the room, when she perceived Mr. Everard suddenly arrested, and gazing at her with eyes extended and with lips apart.-Greeting him gaily from her elévated station, Geraldine bade him mount, and help her to remove from their shelves the works she required; but Mr. Everard stirred not, and called to her not to change her position, and, above all, not to look at him, with which seemingly capricious and unaccountable request Geraldine complied, during a few seconds; after which, having secured the first volumes of Fuller, Mosheim, and Milner, she slowly descended the steps, and stood by the side of her old friend. "Ah! those eyes," cried he, they spoil every thing! When they are turned away, and as you stood just now, I thought I saw your mother, as she used to stand, full twenty years ago, mounted upon those very steps, forgetting even to bring away the treasure of learning she had found, and there she would read motionless for hours. Ah! that was a mind, which, from its very fullness, was enlarged to boundless charity. You inherit from her, Geraldine his eagerness for knowledge-but you live in better times."

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"And what was the theological result of these deep studies of my beloved mother?" said Geraldine, her dark eyes filling with tears, which moved the old gentleman to forgive their shape and hue.

"The result," said he, "led her to accompany me to my Utopia: but alas! the thread of her sweet life was snapped!-Ah me! .... we will talk of other things, girl.-Tell me the present state of your mind?"

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Why it is this," said Geraldine: "I am bound to believe, till I am forced to disbelieve, that my Church is the pure Apostolic Church of those early VOL. I.-10

centuries, which were undeviatingly faithful to the doctrines preached by the Apostles. I am wishing, therefore, to establish this truth on my mind, by reading Protestant Church History again, with deeper attention than when in the school-room. My uncle Edmund presented me, years ago, with Milner's History; but the Warden tells me that Joseph Milner, though a well-meaning man, is a weak historian, and recommends Mosheim. I therefore intend to read both; and, as facts are my aim, and not sentiments, I care not who is high or who is low Church."

"Mosheim was neither," said Mr. Everard; "he was a Dutch Lutheran, and the work is dedicated to his patron, the Prince of Orange."

"Better and better!" cried Geraldine; "he will then be impartial, as far as the Church of England is concerned. But how strange it is, Mr. Everard, that my uncle should be liberal enough to recommend the historical accuracy of one, whose Church, on the awful question of the Eucharist, differs so much from the Church of England!"

"Ah! not so much," replied he, "as would apnear in the cavils of controversy. My theory is, hat, if those of opposite creeds would but calmly listen to the statement of those apparently opposed to them, there would be but little discordance left in the world."

"But surely, Mr. Everard, between the Protestant and the Romanist

"Do not call the Roman Catholics by any nickname, unless, in return, you can bear yourself to be called 'heretic,' The Universal Church, in communion with its chief bishop, the Roman Pontiff, takes the title of Catholic, or Roman Catholic, and between this Church and that of the Reformed Church of England, there is so little difference, that I verily believe, if the Pope had, in the sixteenth

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he century, understood the limits of his temporal authority, as well as he now understands them, and if our kings had never been blindly flattered into the usurpation of the spiritual authority, and if, also, matters of mere discipline had been treated in a spirit of mutual concession, I say, we never should have had to mourn over this rending asunder the seamless robe of Christ."

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Still, Mr. Everard, you must allow, that the differences between the Churches comprise more than a misunderstanding of terms, or a mere quarrel of supremacy."

"Not at first replied he. "All that Luther wanted, was a reform of abuses-and there he was right; as in our times, the friends of the Establishment are very justly wishing for the same reform of abuses. But watch the progress of all these reforms, when they shall be forced upon the Church by the indignation of the people, instead of being wisely and promptly undertaken by the rulers. You will find that, not content with doing away with pluralities and sinecures, and the surplus riches of the Church Establishment of England, the Liturgy will be attacked,-first abridged, then abolished,the Sacraments considered empty forms,-and the Lord of Misrule will gain the ascendancy, and put all to the rout, because our Leo the Tenth and his cardinals will not see their danger-a danger, all the greater from the taste of reform which this nation has already had, and which like the taste of blood to the wild beasts in the arena, excites to more."

"And what will be the end of all this?" said Geraldine.

"The bringing in of my Utopia," replied Mr. Everard.

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'Or, in other words," returned she, “that uni