WHE

HEN Chariftes heard the tale of woe, indignation and pity ftruggled equally within his break. Both put in their pleas for audience. Both were admitted. But as indignation was firft excited, and as every part of the flory contributed to keep it alive and vigorous, it could bear restraint no longer, but burft forth into the following exclamation:

-"O, Cenforioufnefs! how I hate thee! Thou black and malignant offfpring of guilty confcioufnefs and bafe fufpicion. I abhor thy character from my very foul; and fly the tenement where thou refideft, knowing that a legion of devils befides poffefs it. Armed on all fides with their envenomed darts thou iffueft from the cell of darkness to fpread confufion and jealoufy through the world.

How complicated are the forms this fiend of Erebus affumes! Sometimes like deftruction the wasteth at noon-day-fpreading havock before heaven's brighteft face with an unblushing countenance. And as her fell purpofe fuits, the at other times veils her face in clouds, and, like an arrow, fieth in darkness. We are not provided for- for then we are unconscious of her black defigns. There is no efcaping them when drawn with a fecret and invifible hand.-Avaunt thou magic hand for 'twas dipped in Acheron.

"How feelingly do I utter thefe exclamations! I must give them vent. My foul is tremblingly alive all o'er,' to the hated fenfe of cenforioufnefs its foul and deftructive influence.—I have felt it myself. I know the covert manner by which the goodness of per

fonal character is frequently brought in queftion-and I know the mischief it hath done beyond all the broad and open attacks of profeffed malice. Half words-diftant hints-fhrugs and fmiles-whifpers and oblique looksa cold affent or the bare hesitating approbation have left the mind brooding with fufpicions, and hovering between doubt and certainty without being able to fix on any thing.- But I cannot enumerate all thy forms—nor diftinguifh all thy dreffes-thou parent of difcord, and nurfe of jealoufy. They are as numerous as thy nature is malignant. But I would bury thee in darknefs, whence thou arifeft, and blot even thy remembrance from the world for ever.

"And, oh! thou faireft daughter of the skies, meek-eyed Charity! be mine. Diftil thy gentle influences on my heart, and ever may it be awake to love and pity. 'Tis thine to vindicate the cause of injured innocence: -to wipe the tear from off the virgin's cheek, when malice armed with dark infinuations and keen reproach hath driven her to the fhades to weep in filence.-Oh!-the tears are facred. Ye minifters of love-guardians of the chafte and fair, catch them ere they fall -like pearls they will adorn your filver wings, and sparkle with mild radiance in the courts above. Bear them-oh! bear them to the throne of him, wha is a father of the fatherlefs, and defpifeth not the facrifices, of a broken heart."

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perly done without him; for this reafon, when an embaffy was to be undertaken, he would exprefs his concern, that he could not be at Florence and, other places at the fame time. On these

occafions

occafions he would make ufe of the words of my motto, the English of which is, "If, I go, who will stay here? If I ftay, who will go?" To judge properly of our own merits is a perfection which few men attain; and in our decifions on this point, vanity more frequently prevails over reason, than diffidence over truth.

"To be too much fatisfied with our own merits (fays an ancient philofopher) is a folly; to be too diffident of ourfelves, is a weaknefs." If, however, we nicely examine things as they pafs before us in the commerce of this life, we shall find that the bold, forward, and affuming man, however fhallow his abilities may be, will always rife upon the wreck of timid, bafhful, and concealed merit. To what caufe fhall we attribute the fuccefs of quacks in phyfic, initerant preachers of religion, and pettifoggers of the law, but to the uncommon fhare of impudence they poffefs, which prejudices the minds of the ignorant, and obfcures the underftandings of the rich and lazy, who are above the trouble of reflection? If we take a general view of fociety, we fhall foon be convinced, that the loquacious man, who affirms the truth of a matter without timidity, who pofitively vouches for fact what he afferts, and affumes the authority of fome great perfon of his acquaintance to fupport it, will be Jiftened to with attention; while the modeft few, who perhaps may know the whole to be falfe, will not dare to oppofe him, left they fhould be overpowered by a multiplicity of words, and overwhelmed by a torrent of impudence.

It is indeed a misfortune for a man to be of too timid a difpofition, and to be fearful of fupporting his own argument, when he has truth and reason on his fide, fince, with fuch a difpofition, he can hardly be expected even to make any tolerable figure in life. On the other hand, it is laughable enough to fee the imaginary and affected confequence of fome people, who, like Dante, confider themfelves as the life and foul, as the primum mobile of thofe machines, in the motions of which they are perhaps as little concerned, as the organblower is in producing thofe enchant

ing ftrains which arife from the delicate touch of the organist.

The vain man is often moft ridiculous when he thinks himself most brilliant; for as vanity is always greedy of applaufe, the mind becomes fo biaffed to itself, and the fenfes fo diftempered, that he cannot feel the irony of flattery, and the fatyrical applaufes of fome wit, till the laughter of the whole company roufe him from his lethargy, and awaken him to a just sense of his folly and difgrace.

To hold the balance properly be tween the extremes of vanity and diffidence is a bufinefs that will require little lefs than the study of a man's life, fince the boundary that feparates the one from the other, is as thin as the partition which divides fenfe from thought. The mind that is accustomed to wander through the lawless regions of fancy, and whofe flight is not to be stopped by either reflection, reafon, or philofophy, will receive no improve ment from age and experience; and he, in whofe bofom fuch a mind is feated, will ever be the dupe of his own prejudices, and be infulted or defpifed by the members of every fociety, in which manly and refined converfation holds a place. There is, indeed, a degree of confidence which every man ought to poffefs in himfelf, and which he fhould never give up to the whim and caprice of any one. We fhould not fuffer ourfelves to be laughed out of a virtuous action, nor give up our integrity to the idol of fashion. To value ourfelves as beings of an exalted nature, and as born to rule over, not to imitate, the brute creation, is not to be confidered as a mark of vanity, but as the peculiar province of man. To exert these talents which nature has given us, and to improve them to our own advantage, and the good of the community, in which we live, is certainly our duty; and it is furely no crime to let the world fee and approve them; but that we may not raife enemies, or expose ourselves to ridicule, we fhould juftly rate the few talents which Heaven has beftowed us, and properly weigh our own merit when compared with that of others.

R. J.

ΤΟ

Some of them were in flower, others only in leaf, but all together they give thofe full blown tints which add the richest finishing to a ruin. Such is the beautiful appearance which Tintern Abbey exhibits on the outfide in thofe parts where we can obtain a near view of it. But when we enter it, we fee it in most perfection; at least if we confider it as an independent object, unconnected with landfcape. The roof is gone: but the walls, pillars, and abutments which fupported it, are entire. A few of the pillars indeed have given way; and here and there a piece of the facing of the wall: but in correfpondent parts, one always remains to tell the ftory. The pavement is obliterated: the elevation of the choir is no longer visible: the whole area is reduced to one level; cleared of rubbish, and covered with neat turf clofely fhorn, and interrupted with nothing but the noble columns which formed the ifles, and fupported the tower, When we stood at one end of this awful piece of ruin, and furveyed the whole in one view, the elements of air and earth, its only covering and pavement, and the ground and venerable remains which terminated both, perfect enough to form the perspective; yet broken enough to deftroy the regularity; the eye was above meafure delighted with the beauty, the greatnefs, and no velty of the scene. More picturefque it certainly would have been, if the area, unadorned, had been left with all its rough fragments of ruin fcattered round; and bold was the hand that removed them: yet as the outfide of the ruin, which is the chief object of picturefque curiofity, is ftill left in all its wild and native rudenefs; we excufe, perhaps, we approve the neatnefs, that is introduced within, it may add to the beauty of the scene to its novelty it undoubtedly does. Among other things in this scene of defolation, the poverty and wretchedness of the inhabitants were remarkable. They occupy little

huts, raifed among the ruins of the monaftery; and feem to have no employment but begging, as if a place, once devoted to indolence, could never again become the feat of industry. As we left the abbey, we found the whole hamlet at the gate, either openly foliciting alms; or covertly, under the pretence of carrying us to fome part of the ruins, which each could fhew; and was far fuperior to any thing which could be fhewn by any one elfe. The moft lucrative occafion could not have excited more jealoufy and contention. One poor woman we followed, who had engaged to fhew us the monk's library: he could fearce crawl; fhuffling along her palfied limbs, and meagre, contracted body, by the help of two ticks. She led us through an old gate into a place overfpread with nettles and briars; and pointing to the remnant of a fhattered cloifter, told us that was the place; it was her own manfion: all indeed the meant to tell us, was the ftory of her own wretchednefs: and all the had to fhew us was her own miferable 'habitation. We did not expect to be interested: but we found we were. I never faw fo loathfome a human dwelling; it was a cavity loftily vaulted, between two ruined walls, which streamed with various coloured ftairs of unwholesome dews. The floor was earth, yielding through moisture to the tread. Not the merest utenfil, or furniture of any kind appeared, but a wretched bedstead, fpread with a few rags and drawn into the middle of the cell to prevent its receiving the damp which trickled down the walls. At one end was an aperture which ferved just to let in light enough to difcover the wretchedness within. When we flood in the midft of this cell of mifery, and felt the chilling damps which ftruck us in every direc tion, we were rather furprised, that the wretched inhabitant was still alive; than that he had only just lost the use of her limbs.

POETRY.