CHAPTER XVII. 



THE RANUNCULUS. 



'You have been plunderinf^ from Hervey,' said a 

 friend good-liumouredly ihe oilier day, who traced, 

 as he thought, a resenfiblance between these cliap- 

 lers and Hervey's Medilaiions, strong enough to 

 warrant the charge. My reply was, simply and 

 truly, that I never had read the b( ok. 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 everv one is supposed lo liave 

 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 I 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 tliere that 

 Christ is set forth as the Sun of RiE^hleousness, 

 leading every reflective mind to follow up the 



