A WALK ON THE HILL. 91 



not be so to us with the requirements of the whole 

 law, were our natures as much restored in all as in part ? 



' On the evening of Monday week I had a long walk 

 among the woods of the hill with a party to whom I 

 was showing " the lions." Lieutenant C and his young 

 wife were there, Lieutenant W , too, and his wife, and 

 Miss - - and the Misses - , with two of the young 



s. The ladies were talking altogether of bonnets 

 and scenery, and London and new patterns, and the two 

 gentlemen were discussing the world afloat, but one of 

 the young people, a fine-spirited boy, was curious about 

 stones and berries and old stories, and so I attached 

 myself to him. You remember the remark of Lamb's 

 brother on the boys of Eton school, " What a pity 'tis 

 that these nice young fellows should in a few years be- 

 come frivolous members of parliament ! " There is as 

 much truth as wit in it. Most of our fine young boys 

 and girls are spoiled in the transition stage when shoot- 

 ing up into men and women, and they do not recover all 

 their lives after. Mere men and women are but poor 

 things, my Lydia ; but it is well to love them as well as 

 we can, they will be better ere the world ends. Your 

 pupil, Miss Harriet, has, for one so young, a great deal 

 of heart about her. Children, it strikes me, are little in 

 their whole minds, in their affections as certainly as in 

 their judgments. There obtains, however, a contrary 

 opinion, from the fact, doubtlessly, that in the present 

 state of the world, children have indisputably some 

 affections, and grown-up people, in most instances, little 

 or none. But this, I am certain, is not according to 

 nature. A warm heart, well cultivated, cannot fail of 

 being warmer in one's twentieth than in one's twelfth 

 year. When a boy I could not love with half the 

 warmth either as a lover or a friend that I can now. 



