CHAPTER XVII. 



THE RANUNCULUS. 



s You have been plundering from Hervey,' said a 

 friend good-humouredly the other day, who traced, 

 as he thought, a resemblance between these chap- 

 ters and Hervey's Meditations, strong enough to 

 warrant the charge. My reply was, simply and 

 truly, that I never had read the book. Indeed, I 

 remembered having seen it in my father's posses- 

 sion, when a child ; but had not perused it. How 

 ever, I resolved to write no more on the subject, 

 until I should have made myself acquainted with 

 a production that every one is supposed to have 

 read : and a rich treat it afforded me. Still I do 

 not see that my poor little chapters have arrived 

 within any degree of comparison with this beauti 

 ful work : nor do T detect a closer approximation 

 of thought than what is founded on the language 

 of that blessed book, by which Hervey interpreted 

 the great volume of creation. It is there thai 

 Christ is set forth as the Sun of Righteousness, 

 leading every reflective mind to follow up the 



