hildren of nature, but are the excrescences of
overwrought refinement, and though their baneful influence has indeed
penetrated to the country and corrupted many there, the fountain-head was
amongst crowded houses where nature is scarcely known. I am not one of
those who look for perfection amongst the rural population of any
country; perfection is not to be found amongst the children of the fall,
be their abode where it may; but until the heart disbelieve the existence
of a God, there is still hope for the possessor, however stained with
crime he may be, for even Simon the Magician was converted. But when the
heart is once steeled with infidelity, infidelity confirmed by carnal
reasoning, an exuberance of the grace of God is required to melt it,
which is seldom or never manifested; for we read in the blessed book that
the Pharisee and the Wizard became receptacles of grace, but where is
mention made of the conversion of the sneering Sadducee? and is the
modern infidel aught but a Sadducee of later date?

_To be continued_.

To the Rev. Andrew Brandram

(_Endorsed_: recd. Feb. 29th, 1836)
_Journal continued_

BADAJOZ, 10th _January_ 1836.

The night had closed in before we reached Evora, and having taken leave
of my friends, who kindly requested me to consider their house my home,
myself and my little party proceeded to the Largo de San Francisco, where
was a hostelry, which the muleteer informed me was the best in the town.
We rode into the kitchen, at the extreme end of which was the stable, as
is customary in Portugal. The house was kept by an aged gypsy-like
female and her daughter, a fine blooming girl about eighteen years of
age. The house was large; in the upper story was a very long room, like
a granary, extending nearly the whole length of the house; the further
end was partitioned off, and formed a tolerably comfortable chamber, but
rather cold, the floor being of tiles, as was that of the large room in
which the muleteers were accustomed to sleep on the furniture of their
mules. Having supped I went to bed, and after having offered up my
devotions to Him who had protected me through a dangerous journey, I
slept soundly till the morning.

Evora is a walled town, but not regularly fortified, and could not
sustain a siege of a day. It has five gates; before