But no mischief did occur, at least for a long time, from this
mysterious quarter. Tamar did not again visit the place; and in a short
time thought no more of the matter.

The happy days of childhood were passing away with Tamar, and sorrow was
coming on her patrons, from a quarter which poor Mrs. Margaret had long
darkly anticipated; but whilst these heavy clouds were hanging over the
house of Dymock, a few, though not very important events intervened.

Mr. Dymock, by fits and snatches, had given such lessons to Tamar as had
enabled her to proceed, by her own exertions, in several branches of
knowledge quite out of the sphere of Mrs. Margaret.

Amongst these was the history of the Jews, carried on in connection
between the New and Old Testament, and afterwards in Christian times,
and to these he added certain crude views of prophecy; for he was
resolved that Tamar was a Jewess, and he had talked himself into the
belief that she was of some distinguished family.

It is no difficult matter to impress young persons with ideas of their
own importance; and none are more liable to receive such impressions,
than those who, like Tamar, are in the dark respecting their origin.

The point on which Mr. Dymock failed in his interpretations of prophecy,
is not unfrequently mistaken, even in this more enlightened age. He
never considered or understood, that all prophecy is delivered in
figurative language; every prophecy in the Old Testament having first a
literal and incomplete fulfilment, the complete and spiritual fulfilment
being future. He did not see that the Jews, according to the flesh, were
types of the Spiritual Israel; that David was the emblem of the