“What a dreary thing, my dear children, must be despair—afflicted by an accusing conscience, and bereft of hope! What would this wicked man have given, after he had parted with his ill-gotten wealth, to have found the child alive! but that felicity was denied him living; he was to die in affliction.

“The wicked Hugo was taken to prison to await his punishments.—But let us turn to a more agreeable subject—the honest wood cutter, who could refuse all the allurements of wealth, because it was ill-gotten; even his wife Gertrude, who loved riches, disdained to enjoy them on such terms. What a lesson does this afford to us to be noble in mind, and to resist temptation! The good do not feel any of the violent passions; they are moderate and temperate in all they do; they are undisturbed, and through all the changes of life may depend on that Providence, the recollection of which occasioned the great and good Jonas Hanway; who founded the Marine Society, to use the motto—‘Never Despair.’

“Never, then, my dear children, suffer your young minds to long after riches, when they cannot be purchased by fair and honest means; for you may rest assured that it is much better to prefer,

FINIS.