I shall only add, that we found our court of scandal so efficacious, that it restored our conversation in a few weeks to its former tone, and entirely banished the spirit of which I have complained.
FOR THE RURAL MAGAZINE.
"THE STORY OF RUTH."
"And, behold, Boaz came from Beth-lehem, and said unto the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless thee."
There are moments in the life of every virtuous man, when the vices and the enormities by which he is surrounded, and above all, the glaring deficiencies which he is compelled to remark, even in those "whom he hath delighted to honour," come back upon the mind with an overpowering force, and spread their disheartening influence over the whole train of his reflections. At such moments, when we have turned with disgust from the corruptions of human nature, and have almost been tempted to seek in "some boundless contiguity of shade," a retreat from their contaminating influence; it is peculiarly delightful to recur to some scene of virtuous enjoyment, or to disperse the gloom which has gathered around us by a reference to the simplicity of other times. While dwelling upon the records of ancient purity, we become conscious of a joyous complacency; the mind is elated in the contemplation of its own capability of happiness, and reposes with delight upon the recollection of those peaceful pleasures, which can only exist among a virtuous people.
There is, perhaps, no narrative to be found among the works of ancient or modern authors, upon which the man who has become weary of the follies of the world, can dwell with more soothing sensations, than upon the story of Ruth. It is not to the unrivalled beauty of its style, nor to the pathetic eloquence which it contains, nor to the affecting nature of its incidents, that it is indebted for its principal attractions. But it is in the delineations of the peculiar practices of a people, who, as yet, had not forgotten the characteristic simplicity of their fathers; and in the striking allusions to their habits of social intercourse, that we feel ourselves most deeply interested. Many have delighted to paint the pleasures of rural life in all their most glowing colours; they have dilated upon its real and its fancied enjoyments; and have laboured to represent it as divested of all that shall darken the lustre of native purity, or detract from the reverence of virtue. But it may well be doubted whether they have ever presented us with so engaging, and yet so perfectly natural a picture, as that which is to be found in the simple and unlaboured narrative of inspiration. In the very salutations between Boaz and his reapers, we seem to have an evidence of that happy equality, and that habitual piety, which are alike the concomitants of untainted simplicity, and the victims of luxury and corruption. "The Lord be with you," was the address of "a mighty man of wealth" to his reapers; "and they answered him, The Lord bless thee." These are doubtless to be considered as the accustomed salutations of the people; and they may frequently have carried with them nothing more than the idea of mere ceremony. But they were salutations which must have originated among a religious people; and it was a ceremony which must have been associated with all that is helpless and dependant in man, and all that is merciful and omnipotent in his Creator.
C.
Most of our readers will probably recollect the amiable and enterprising Elizabeth Fry, who has been for some time past, like the celebrated Howard, engaged in visiting the prisons of England. The peculiarity of the undertaking, for a female, and her unexpected success in drawing the attention of the wretched objects of her care, to something like their native dignity, have excited much interest in the public mind. A copy of the following letter, giving some account of her proceedings in Glasgow, was handed to us, with the privilege of publishing it.—Ed.