pilgrim, went barefoot and in palmer's weeds, with staff and scrip. In passing through cities, he sent his train forwards, himself following alone in the rear in all humility, and bearing patiently the insults of the rabble. He took the way through Italy to Constantinople, where his piety and charity obtained for him the respect of the emperor and the Greek nobles. The former tendered him presents, and forbade his subjects to receive payment for articles furnished to the Norman duke; but the pilgrim refused the gifts, and ordered his people to pay for every thing. The emperor commanded that no wood should be furnished to him, in order that he might be compelled to receive it free from the royal magazines; but Robert purchased a large quantity of nuts, the shells of which he used as fuel. During his journey through Asia Minor, he fell sick, and caused himself to be transported in a litter by Saracens. Meeting a Norman pilgrim, who was returning home, he inquired if he had any message to send. "Tell my people," said he, "that thou hast met me where I was borne of devils into paradise." Before the gates of Jerusalem, Robert found a crowd of needy pilgrims, too poor to pay the entrance money, and awaiting the arrival of some wealthy and generous fellow pilgrim, who might open for them the holy city. For each of these he paid a golden byzant. The Muslims admired his devotion and munificence; and an Emôr caused all that he had paid for the pilgrims to be restored to him; but Robert immediately distributed it among the poor pilgrims, and made to the Muslims also costly presents. He died on his way home, at the city of Nicea; and the relics that he had collected, were deposited in the abbey of Cerisy, which he had founded. About this time, the conversion of the Hungarians to Christianity, which took place gradually at the close of the tenth and in the first half of the eleventh centuries, opened a new route for pilgrims to the holy sepulchre; since they could now traverse the whole distance to Constantinople by land, through a Christian country. One of the first to avail himself of this route, was the bishop Zietbert of Cambray, in A.D. 1054. He was attended by so great a company of pilgrims, that the party nu was called exercitus Domini, "the Lord's host." The king of Hungary at first distrusted the intentions of this merous body, having been but little accustomed to the sight of pilgrims; but he afterwards treated them with kindness. The pilgrims travelled by land as far as to Laodicea, in Syria; and then took ship on account of the insecurity of the country. But being driven back by a storm, and learning from other pilgrims, that the Christians were then excluded from the holy places in Jerusalem, and treated with indignity, the bishop and his companions returned to France. The same route was followed by count William of Angoulême, about A.D. 1062, attended by some of his counsellors, several abbots, and a large company of noblemen. They too were treated with great courtesy by the king of Hungary in their passage through his dominions. But the most celebrated pilgrimage of this period, was that of several German bishops in A.D. 1065, which is mentioned by all the chroniclers of that age. The party was composed of Siegfried, archbishop of Naintz, and the bishops Günther of Bamberg, Otho of Ratisbon, and William of Utrecht, followed by no less than seven thousand persons both rich and poor. Among these, was Ingulphus, the English secretary of William the conqueror, who with others joined the party from Normandy, attracted by the fame of the immense preparations. The bishops travelled with great pomp, carrying with them dishes and vessels of gold and silver, and also costly tapestry, which was hung up around their seats whenever they made a halt. Bishop Günther of Bamberg was celebrated for his personal beauty, as well as for his talents and learning; so that wherever the pilgrims came, a crowd ran together to get a sight of the handsome bishop, and made sometimes so much disturbance, that his companions had to urge him to show himself to the people. They set off in the autumn of A.D. 1064, taking the route through Hungary to Constantinople, and reached Syria in safety. But the rumour of their wealth, and the pomp with which they travelled, had preceded them, and excited the cupidity of the wandering predatory hordes, with which Palestine has ever been infested. On the day before Easter, they were attacked by a large body of these Arabs in the vicinity of Ramleh, and, after losing many of their companions, were compelled to take refuge in a neighbouring village, where was a decayed castle or place enclosed by a wall, in which they could defend themselves, and where they were besieged by the Arabs. the staff in their hand, and the wallet at their backs.” "I COULD NOT LIVE WITHOUT IT." So said one of my uncle's under gardeners, whom old Anthony was endeavouring to convince that his daily potations of strong ale, and especially the occasional accompaniment of a glass of spirits, were not only unnecessary, but injurious; not only super him for labour on which he laid great stress, and protecting him against injury from the changes of weather to which his calling exposed him, but were actually chargeable with producing that languor and depression of which he often complained, and for which he deemed them a sovereign remedy: moreover, as having much to do with a scanty wardrobe, an empty purse, and certain domestic disquietudes, all of which and sundry other evils he ascribed to the badness of the times, the heavy pressure of taxes, and the mismanagement or bad temper of his wife. On the third day, exhausted by hunger and thirst, they made known their readiness to capitulate. The chief sheikh, with sixteen others, was admitted into the castle, but rejected all proposals for the purchase of their free-fluous, for the matter of strengthening dom and safe escort, and would hear of nothing but an unconditional surrender. Unwinding his turban, and making with it a noose, he threw it around the neck of bishop Günther, exclaiming, that he was his property, and he would suck his blood, and hang him up like a dog before the door. The bishop felled him to the earth with a blow; the sheikh and his followers were seized and bound; and the pilgrims, elated by this turn of affairs, continued the contest with renewed vigour. The prisoners were exposed upon the walls, where the combat was hottest and the shower of arrows thickest; and a person with a drawn sword was stationed by each, threatening to cut off his head, if the Arabs did not cease from the attack. The son of the chief shiekh now held back his followers, in order to save his father's life; and meantime, the governor of Ramleh came up with a force in aid of the pilgrims, at whose approach the Arabs fled. The prisoners were delivered over to the governor; and he recognized with pleasure in the sheikh a rebel chief, who had for many years given great trouble to the Egyptian khalif, and several times defeated the forces sent against him. The governor now caused the pilgrims to be escorted in safety to Jerusalem, and back again to the sea, receiving for his civility and aid a present of five hundred gold byzants. But of the original host of seven thousand pilgrims, only two thousand lived to return to their native land; and the bishop Günther also died on the way back, in Hungary. Ingulphus and others returned through Italy; and he observes of his own companions, "That they sallied from Normandy, thirty stout and well-appointed horsemen; but that they repassed the Alps, twenty miserable palmers, with "To be sure," said Anthony, 66 we do live in fearful times; things are strangely altered, even since I was a boy; and yet I don't know that we have any right to complain. The wise man tells us that we should not say that the former times were better than the present. Those who are steady and industrious, and put their trust in God, are somehow or other helped to get along now, and they did no more formerly. But however the times may be, people in general are much more heavily taxed by their folly and vanity and vice than the amount of king's taxes and parish taxes put together. You think it hard that a working man like you should give sixpence in the pound of all his earnings towards poor's rates, and perhaps sixpence or a shilling more for duty upon leather and glass and many other useful articles used in every family, which you really cannot well do without; but did it ever strike you, John Wilkins, that you spend more than a shilling or eighteenpence in the pound on what you are not at all obliged to purchase, and which is not at all useful, or in any way conducive to the welfare of yourself or your family ?” Why, true, sir," replied 66 Some time afterwards, when I was again visiting at my uncle's, I asked Anthony, whether or not he succeeded in persuading John Wilkins of the possibility of living without spirits and strong beer. 66 zance. John, with some hesitation, "I know and obliging: every one of the servants people say it does no good. The doctor spoke well of him for his kind willinghas told me so again and again, and I ness to serve and assist them, and Frank don't myself know that there is much and myself remembered him as having good in it; but I have been used to it often contributed to our pleasures. He so long, that I could not live without it." | had the good will and the good word of Well, I dare say you feel so, John; every body. My uncle, as well as old but to my thinking, it is a great pity to Anthony, thought it the more necessary let anything, that is not in itself necessary, to interpose a caution where his example so get ahead of us as to make us fancy might be dangerous. I recollect his saythat we can't do without it. But, at all ing, how very different matters would events, I would try whether or not that have been, if John Wilkins, instead of was a mere fancy. You most likely passed indulging the notion that he could not the first years of your life without such live without it, had formed and mainthings; and, if you would but try, it is tained the resolution that he would do. likely you might find your latter years without it. This he illustrated by two greatly improved by going back to the facts that had come under his own cognigood old fashion. At any rate, try it for "A somewhat celebrated man, a week; I'll answer for it, it will not kill with whom," said my uncle, " in my you in that time.” youth, I was more than once in company, had been for many years a great snuff taker. He never forgot his snuff-box many minutes together, and fancied that it was absolutely essential to his comfort, if not to his very existence; but he was convinced to the contrary, and wisely acted on his conviction. Whether he accidentally lost his box, or whether his pocket was picked, so it was, that, going along St. Paul's-church-yard, he missed his snuff-box, and instantly resolved that he would never take another pinch of snuff; nor did he ever suffer himself to break that resolution. I need not say," continued my uncle, " that he was never the worse for it; and that when the first effort of self-denial was achieved, the inclination to resume the nasty habit gradually subsided, and left him at full liberty to enjoy his moral triumph. He who has commenced a practice that has grown into a destroyer of his time, or that in any way enthrals his energies and resources, if he desire to end it, must snap it in an instant. If he strive to abate it by degrees, he will find himself relaxing by degrees. Delusions strong as hell will hold him fast, unless he achieve, not the determination to destroy, but the act of destruction. The will and the power are two. S. knew this; and therefore when he resolved to break off snuff-taking, he never allowed himself to take another pinch. Had he taken one, he might, in all probability he would, have taken one more, and then only another; and afterwards only a little bit in a paper; and then he would have died as he lived, a snuff-taker. No, he appears to have discovered the grand secret, that a man's self is the great enemy of : No, sir," said Anthony, shaking his head, it is hard to convince a man against his will. John could not be induced to try whether or not he could live without those things; but, poor fellow! he finds now that he cannot live by them. Without being what is commonly called a drunkard, he has taken enough to ruin his health, and is now apparently very near his end he has not been able to work for a long time, and his family would have been almost starved, but for the kindness of our master. Poor John! he falls a martyr to thinking he could not live without it, and leaves his family destitute of many needful comforts which have been sacrificed to keep him supplied with his unnecessary indispensable and then, what is worst of all, it is to be feared, he thought more about indulging his pleasure, than about saving his soul. Whenever trifles are treated as matters of great importance, it almost always follows, that things of real importance are regarded as trifles; and, for that reason, a wise man will be very jealous of the thing of which he thinks he cannot live without it." : The case of poor Wilkins was several times spoken of in-doors as well as out. My uncle was, in every sense of the word, a kind friend to him as long as he lived, and to his family after him. Wilkins had been a general favourite. He was a fine athletic man, active, clever, himself;' and hence his intolerance of self-indulgence even in a small degree." We were interested in this example of strength of mind, and I hope learned from it to aspire after that ascendancy over ourselves, without which, true greatness and goodness of character cannot exist. My uncle gave us another instance. "Some years ago," said he, 66 a most malignant and contagious fever broke out in this neighbourhood. Its ravages were chiefly confined to the poor in a particular district, characterized by some unfavourable local circumstances, and still more by the dirty and depraved habits of the families resident there. Several deaths had occurred, and fearful apprehensions were entertained of the spread of the calamity, when our medical men suggested the desirableness of attempting to stop the contagion, by removing all the inhabitants, and thoroughly cleansing and purifying their dwellings, clothing, and persons. A liberal subscription was immediately raised, and two buildings, remote from each other, and from the seat of infection, were fitted up; one for the reception of the sick, where they were supplied with every comfort, and attended by nurses from the county hospital, under the direction of the medical men, who thus gained a fair field for the exercise of their professional skill, by the patients being removed from an infected atmosphere, from the real privations of poverty, and from the improper indulgences of selfwilled ignorance. Most of them under proper treatment recovered. The other new building was appropriated to the reception of the apparently uninfected inmates of the dirty cottages;' for that was the name which their dwellings had acquired. On their entrance at the asylum provided for them, their persons were subjected to ablutions, to which most of them had been entire strangers: all woollen garments were destroyed, and linen ones washed; and every thing furnished that was needful for cleanliness and comfort. Meanwhile, the dwellings were cleaned and whitewashed; a stagnant pond cleaned out; each cottage furnished with drain, tank, and other appliances of decency, of which they had before been destitute. Every thing was attended to that could stimulate and encourage the occupants when they should reassemble in their dwellings to commence a course, of which it might be supposed they had now tasted the comforts and advantages, as compared with their former habits. 66 During their temporary residence at the asylum, which lasted several weeks, until it was considered that all remaining danger of infection had passed by, the people were liberally supplied with wholesome food; but they were restrained from some improper indulgences to which they had been accustomed. At this, most of them at first raised bitter complaints; declaring, like poor Wilkins, that they had been used to their drop of spirits,' and could not live without it. However, by firmness and conciliation on the part of those who had the management of the concern, they were reconciled to their privations, and soon assumed a hue of health, vigour, and cheerfulness, unknown before. Some, indeed, only waited for the removal of present restrictions to return to their former courses; but in the case of two families, it proved the turning point of life. We thought,' said one of the parties to another, thought we could not live without it; but now we know the difference; it would be better to die rather than to return to it.' There is reason to believe that the resolution was taken up on good* grounds: it has hitherto been steadily maintained; the aspect of both the families is in every respect completely changed by it; and their dwellings, at least, are redeemed from the disgraceful epithet ' of the dirty cottages.' we The expression of the poor man, that it would be better to die in forsaking bad habits, than to live in adhering to them, led Mr. Mortimer to mention a case which had come under his own knowledge of a highly talented gentleman, who had suffered himself to be beguiled into the seductive and dangerous habit of taking opium. By the pointed, affectionate, and well-timed remonstrance of a friend, he was led to perceive the criminality and danger of the course he was pursuing. He possessed Christian principle, and he was enabled to call it into exercise. When once his eyes were opened to the truth, he stedfastly resolved, in the strength of Divine grace, to break the snare coute qu'il coute. He was told even by a medical friend, that abruptly to discontinue the use of the powerful sedative, might occasion dangerous irritation of the nerves and spirits. "Be it so," replied he, "I am convinced of my duty; and I commit my life and my reason to Him against whom I have sinned, by yielding to a habit prejudicial to both. He is rich in mercy, and he can preserve both; and if so, may His grace enable me to devote to his service, what has hitherto been shamefully alienated from it. But, should he otherwise appoint, the last energies of my life and reason will be best employed in an effort to forsake what I clearly perceive to be offensive in his sight; and may he graciously pardon and accept." He was enabled to adhere to his purpose. There is no doubt that he experienced many struggles and much suffering, known only to that gracious High Priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities. But the suffering gradually wore away, while the solid satisfaction remained and grew; and the individual was distinguished by high degrees of Christian consistency, enjoyment, and usefulness. On the whole, it seemed pretty plain, that a bad habit, however inveterate, may be broken through, if it is but set about in the right way. "If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct," Eccles. x. 10. But there are innocent and rational indulgences, to which persons have been long accustomed, and which they imagine they cannot live without, till change of circumstances convinces them, that "Man wants but little here below, Nor wants that little long." There was an excellent Christian lady, a friend of my uncle's, at whose house I have often visited. When she was living in the first style of affluence and elegance, (a style to which she had been all her life accustomed, and which, she very naturally thought, she could not do without,) I recollect her being greatly disquieted at the loss of a favourite personal attendant, who married away. She could not find a new servant as expert and conformable to her tastes and habits as the old one had been; and she thought it was impossible to live with such clumsy, awkward people about her. She could not endure herself in the country beyond a certain day in October, nor in London beyond a certain day in May. The lease of the town-house expired; and she was absolutely distressed at the impossibility of finding another in which she could live. All she looked at, she pronounced totally ineligible: there was not a room fit for a library, a drawing-room, or a best bed-chamber; or, if the apartments were sufficiently capacious and elegant to meet her taste, there was a deficiency of some other convenience which she could not possibly live without; and it would at that time have seemed to her like the sentence of death, to intimate to her that she must dispense with her carriage, or her conservatory; or put up with pleasure grounds less extensive, or a retinue of servants less numerous than she had been accustomed to. circum "Mrs. W.," said an eminent minister who visited the family, and who was also on terms of intimacy with my uncle-" Mrs. W. is a pious woman, but far too dependent on stances. That must have been a strangely erroneous education that could subject a woman of her native capabilities and dignity of mind, to the dominion of such trifles as ought to have an ascendency only over the vain and silly. Our friend is not conscious of having her heart set upon money; she is too liberal in the distribution of her property for such a suspicion once to enter her mind; but it is too evident that her heart is set on the indulgences which money procures. "Even her charities, in which her kind heart delights, are among the number. They have never cost her the exercise of self-denial. But should a reverse in circumstances put it out of her power to give at pleasure, or to spend at pleasure, I really think she would go demented." 66 Perhaps," replied my uncle, "it might prove the very occasion of rousing her energies, correcting her foibles, and elevating her affections. Such a reverse is not in her case very probable; at least, I trust her character may be improved without requiring the exercise of any discipline so severe." The reverse, however improbable, was experienced. Years afterwards, I had the privilege of meeting my uncle and the minister referred to in the house of the same lady. It was not the same house; neither the splendid residence in Square, nor the elegant mansion in Brookdale, surrounded with delightful gardens, verdant lawns, and extensive pleasure grounds. It was at a small house in a country town. The dwelling consisted of one parlour, about fourteen feet square, another much smaller; a kitchen, and three bedchambers, with, I believe, an attic. The furniture was neat, but simple; there were a few, a very few cherished |