"live any longer than is necessary to render secure the glorious destiny of myself and of my people. But listen to me, Mimer, and do me justice. Conceiving, as thou dost, that thou hast some knowledge of philosophy, thou shouldst not be ignorant that men ought to be governed according to the time, the place, and the circumstances in which they are situated. It was by thyself that I was encouraged to conduct my Scythians from the banks of the Caspian Sea to those of the Tanais; it was thou who gavest me the sword of Mithradates, and madest me conceive unbounded hopes. Leave it to me to adopt the most proper means to realize those hopes; suffer me to employ those illusions which I use, to raise the minds of the barbarians who are under my sway. O, Mimer! it is necessary_to make victors and conquerors of those barbarians, before attempting to make them civilized men. When, unopposed rulers of the finest realms of Europe, my descendants shall tread under foot the ashes of the vanquished Romans, they will then study their laws; they will adopt their maxims; they will become wise sovereigns, after having been fortunate usurpers. But, at present, all that our nation stands in need of is a formidable chief, and subjects sufficiently deceived to be blindly obedient."

Mimer for some time reflected deeply upon this reply from Odin. "At length you triumph," said he, 66 you bring conviction to my mind; you know better than I do the nature of man. To-morrow I will show you that I approve of your project. I will set an example to the rest of the nation, and will seem to it to be more convinced than yourself of the truth of all that you have asserted. I ask of you but one last favour: it is, that Freya may give me the stroke of death. Twenty years have I sighed for her. By your valour you deserved to possess her, and I have never dared either to contend with you for her, or even to make known to her my passion. It was to contribute to her happiness that I served you so well. Now, that I have but a moment to live, I disclose to her my love; I open to her my heart; let her pierce it, and I shalĺ die contented, in dying by her hand."

The day dawned, and every thing was got ready for

the departure and the sacrifice. Some old men, who arranged themselves near the altar, were the only ones who, at first, seemed disposed to take the latter step. Mimer advanced, put himself at their head, and said, "People, who are in part indebted to me for having, in the train of the great Odin, penetrated into this frozen clime, it is my business to reconduct you back to the country from which I drew you, as neither your strength nor mine will allow us to proceed any farther. I will show you the road to the happy land of Asgard. Let us depart. Beautiful and noble Freya! take this sacred poinard and plunge it into my bosom. My spirit, which reluctantly quits thy presence, will soon return, to bring thee news of the country to which I am going. Dear Odin, preserve my head: I will frequently come to animate it, that I may aid thee after death with my counsels, as I have done during my life." Saying these words, he offered his breast to Freya; and, turning away her eyes, and breathing a deep sigh, she struck the blow. Mimer expired, and Odin preserved the bones of his scull, which he caused to be cased in gold, and which he ever after consulted as an unerring oracle, from which he could, he said, receive intelligence of those who, by their death, had been restored to the delicious land of Asgard.

The embarkation, in the mean while, took place, and a landing was safely effected in Scania, notwithstanding the obstacles thrown in the way of it by the Scanian savages. The Scythians, animated by their leader, defeated the natives, penetrated into the country, and soon made themselves masters of it. The Scanian monarch perished in the battle; and his daughter, the fair Usalia, was the prize of the young warrior who had the most distinguished himself. This warrior was Sciols, the eldest son of Odin. His father, who hurried onward to new conquests, established him as king of this country. Then, taking advantage of the ice, which, during a part of the year, fills the strait that divides Scania from Denmark, Odin entered the island of Zealand, which he reduced under his authority as easily as he had reduced Scania.

In the following year he compelled the Jutes and Cimbrians to acknowledge his sway. Each successive

year was marked by new conquests. The second son of Odin subjugated Norway; and the third, the country of the Sueons. Odin, advancing as far as the Elbe, overcame the Angles, and brought under his sway the Saxons and the Salians. The Goths, the Burgundians, the Lombards, and the Vandals, hastened to acknowledge his supremacy, and to send him the flower of their youth, to learn under him the great art of war. The youngest of his sons was bold enough to cross the ocean, to subdue Iceland, to penetrate even to the Orcades, and to extend his empire over Caledonia, Scotland, and Hibernia.

TO BE RESUMED.

AN ESSAY

ON THE

DESIRE OF APPEARING WHAT WE ARE NOT.

THE universal desire of appearing what we are not, has been a common theme with all writers; but while its prevalence convinces us that it is in some measure natural to man, the variety of examples which may hourly be adduced will justify the repeated mention of so hackneyed a subject. We not only see people of all descriptions striving to impose on others a belief of their own riches, virtue, importance, or understanding, but actually struggling to appear happy in the midst of misery, and cheerfully contented with a lot, which they are for ever wishing and endeavouring to render less irksome.

What heightens the absurdity of such conduct, is, an attempt in some men to impose an appearance of happiness from the possession of qualities which they do not even wish to possess. Such is the character of Charles Easy, who pretends never to be moved by the objects around him, who publicly despises the influence of the passions, and ridicules the idea of feeling for another's concerns; he insinuates that to be anxious for what does not immediately relate to a man's own self, is ridiculous and beneath the dignity of a rational being; but maintains that a man of moderate fortune may pass through life without trouble, and without

anxiety, if he can acquire perfect indifference; and he is for ever labouring to convince his friends, that he possesses this quality in the highest degree. I have many years been intimate with Charles, and a short acquaintance discovered the contradictions of his life and professions; he has a heart to feel what his pride endeavours to disguise, and his honest commiseration breaks forth in the midst of his counterfeit indifference; I have seen him suddenly rise with an air of assumed insensibility, at the recital of a tender tale, to hide the tear that glistened in his eye. If the distress of any human being is related in his presence, he will coldly reply, that "people are apt to make the most of such things;" but having artfully become informed of the scene of wretchedness, I have occasionally detected him in the act of visiting and relieving the unfortunate sufferers, while he excused his tenderness by an avowal of mere curiosity; nor are his attentions confined to those of his own species only, for I once saw him eagerly spring forth to deliver a fly from the cruel gripe of a spider; yet when I commended his generosity, he assured me that the only motive for his conduct, was the dissonant buzzing of the captive animal. Thus does my friend pass his life in contriving excuses, for being attended by the brightest ornament of human nature; and prides himself in a dissembled unconcernedness, which he knows he should be miserable in really possessing.

On the contrary, old Allshew is continually preaching up the charms of benevolence, and asserts that all happiness consists in good-nature, which, he says, includes every thing that is meant by the charity of Christian and the philanthropy of heathen philosophers; yet is this man a slave to envy, to resentment, and to spleen, imperious in his family, cruel to his dependents, and quarrelsome to his acquaintance, continually lamenting the insults of the world, and the malignity of others, and professing that he alone is happy, by the habit of putting favourable constructions on premeditated affronts, and parrying insult by the guard of good-nature; yet do his captiousness, his insolence, and his pride, expose him to attacks, which his implacable reKentment converts to never-ceasing hatred.

uire Big is conscious that he left the county in

which his family had long resided, because the neighbourhood refused him that respect, to which neither his rank, fortune, nor understanding had ever entitled him; yet is he continually boasting of influence which he dares not return to exert, and of importance which he never means to resume; solicitous to impress on others a sense of his own consequence, and to convince the world that he is somebody when at home; while he is consuming with melancholy at his own insignificance, and only exists to disguise the fatal truth that he is actually nobody any where.

Poor Ned Cramp is a good-natured thoughtless fellow, who has squandered away a small fortune, to make the world think he has a large one; he talks of money in the funds which he has long sold out, and laments the tardiness of tenants, whose rents he long since assigned to satisfy his creditors; he is constantly advising with his friends how to put out sums on the best security, while he is actually borrowing money at an exorbitant interest; he talks of prudence and economy as "things well enough for people in narrow circumstances," but thanks heaven "he has no need of such virtues to secure the permanency of his happiness;" nor is he induced to impose on others to support a false credit, or to indulge extravagance, but to gratify the vain desire of being thought a monied man. Thus does he waste his days in misery, that he may be deemed happy, and will end them in poverty, that he may be esteemed affluent.

Doctor D** has but one topic in all companies; a few minutes conversation will bring round his favourite subject, and you soon discover, that implicit obedience in a wife, and the strictest subordination to her husband, constitute all his ideas of domestic happiness; his greatest glory seems to arise from the consciousness that he is absolute master in his own family: of this boasted superiority his friends can seldom bear witness, for he rarely invites them to his house. Having dined there lately, I perceived his reason; for during the repast, while he was constantly engaged in asserting his authority, his wife was as anxious to dispute it, and the comforts of conviviality were banished by this domestic contention, which gradually increased till the lady left the table. However the doctor triumphed in