10. "But that inqui'ry is now grown tasteless and irksome. I have been for some time unsettled and distracted: my mind is disturbed with a thousand perplexities of doubt and vanities of imagination, which hourly prevail upon me, because I have no opportunities of relaxation or diversion. I am sometimes ashamed to think that I could not secure myself from vice but by retiring from the exercise of virtue, and begin to suspect that I was rather impelled by resentment, than led by devotion, into solitude.

11. " 'My fancy riots in scenes of folly, and I lament that I have lost so much, and have gained so little. In solitude, if I escape the example of bad men, I want likewise the counsel and conversation of the good. I have been long comparing the evils with the advantages of society, and resolve to return into the world to-morrow. The life of a solitary man will be certainly miserable, but not certainly devout."

12. They heard his resolution with surprise, but, after a short pause, offered to conduct hini to Cairo. He dug up a considerable treasure which he had hid among the rocks, and accompanied them to the city, on which, as he approached it, he gazed with rapture. JOHNSON.

CXXXIV.

VALUE OF A GOOD CHARACTER.

1. DURING the war of independence in North America, a plain farmer, Richard Jackson by name, was apprehended under such circumstances as proved, beyond all doubt, his purpose of joining the king's forces; an intention which he was too honest to deny. Accordingly, he was delivered over to the high sheriff, and committed to the county jail. The prison was in such a state that he might have found little difficulty in escaping; but he considered himself as in the hands of authority, such as it was, and the same principle of duty which led him to take arms made him equally ready to endure the consequences.

2. After lying there a few days, he applied to the sheriff for leave to go out and work by day, promising that he would return regularly at night. His character for simple integrity was so well known, that permission was given, without hesitation; and, for eight months, Jackson went out every day to labor, and as

duly came back to prison at night. In the 1onth of May the sheriff prepared to conduct him to Springfield, where he was to be tried for high treason. Jackson said this would be a needless trouble and expense; he could save the sheriff bōth, and go just as well by himself.

3. His word was once more taken, and he set off alone, to present himself for trial and certain condemnation. On the way he was overtaken in the woods by Mr. Edwards, a member of the Council of Massachusetts, which, at that time, was the supreme executive of the state. This gentleman asked him whither he was going. "To Springfield, sir," was his answer, "to be tried for my life."

4. To this casual interview Jackson owed his escape, when, having been found guilty, and condemned to death, application was made to the Council for mercy. The evidence and the sentence were stated, and the president put the question whether a pardon should be granted. It was opposed by the first speaker: the case, he said, was perfectly clear; the act was unquestionably high treason, and the proof complete; and if mercy were shown in this case, he saw no reason why it should not be granted in every other.

5. Few governments have understood how just and politic it is to be merciful: this hard-hearted opinion accorded with the temper of the times, and was acquiesced in by one member after another, till it came to Mr. Edwards's turn to speak. Instead of delivering his opinion, he simply related the whole story of Jackson's singular demeanor, and what had passed between them in the woods.

6. For the honor of Massachusetts, and of human nature, not a man was found to weaken its effect by one of those dry legal remarks, which, like a blast of the desert, wither the heart they reach. The Council began to hesitate, and when a member ventured to say that such a man certainly ought not to be sent to the gallows, a natural feeling of humanity and justice prevailed, and a pardon was immediately made out.

7. Never was a stronger proof exhibited that honesty is wisdom. And yet, it was not the man's honesty, but his child

like simplicity, which saved his life; without that simplicity his integrity would have availed him little: in fact, it was his crime; for it was for doing what, according to the principles wherein he had been born and bred, he believed to be his duty, that he was brought to trial and condemned. — This it is which renders civil and religious wars so peculiarly dreadful; and, in the history of such wars, every incident which serves to reconcile us to humanity ought carefully to be preserved.

LONDON QUARTERLY REVIEW.

CXXXV.

EARLY PIETY.

1. By cool Si-lo'am's shady rill

How sweet the lily grows!

How sweet the breath beneath the hill
Of Sharon's dewy rose !

2. Lo! such the child whose early feet
The paths of peace have trod;
Whose secret heart, with influence sweet,
Is upward drawn to God.

3. By cool Siloam's shady rill
The lily must decay,

The rose that blooms beneath the hill

Must shortly fade away.

4 And soon, too soon, the wintry hour
Of man's maturer age

Will shake the soul with sorrow's power,

And stormy passion's rage.

5. O! Thou, whose infant feet were found
Within thy Father's shrine,

Whose years, with changeless virtue crowned,

Were all alike divine,

6. Dependent on thy bounteous breath,

We seek thy grace alone,

In childhood, manhood, age and death,
To keep us still thine own.

BISHOP HEBER.

CXXXVI.

- FALSE NOTIONS IN REGARD TO GENIUS.

1.. THE labors requisite to form the public speaker are by no means duly appreciated. An absurd idea prevails among our scholars, that the finest productions of the mind are the fruits of hasty impulse, the unfoldings of a sudden thought, the brief visitations of a fortunate hour or evening, the flashings of intuition, or the gleamings of fancy. Genius is often compared to lightning from the cloud, or the sudden bursting out of a secret fountain.

2. And eloquence is regarded as if it were a kind of inspiration. When a man has made a happy effort, he is next possessed with an absurd ambition to have it thought that it cost him nothing. He will say, perhaps, that it was a three hours' work. Now, it is not enough to maintain that nothing could be more injurious to our youth than this way of thinking; for the truth is, that nothing can be more false.

3. The mistake lies in confounding with the mere arrangement of thoughts, or the manual labor of putting them on paper, the long previous preparation of mind, the settled habits of thought. It has taken but three hours, perhaps, to compose an admirable piece of poetry, or a fine speech; but the reflections of three years, or of thirty, may have been tending to that result. DEWEY.

1. ALL the comely, the stately, the pleasant, the useful works, which we do view with delight, or enjoy with comfort, Industry did contrive them, Industry did frame them. Industry reared those magnificent fabrics, and those commodious houses; it formed those goodly pictures and statues; it raised those convenient causeways, those bridges, those aqueducts; it planted those fine gardens with various flowers and fruits; it clothed those pleasant fields with corn and grass; it built those ships, whereby we plough the seas, reaping the commodities of foreign nations. 2. It hath subjected all creatures to our command and ser

vice, enabling us to subdue the fiercest, to catch the wildest, to render the gentler sort more tractable and useful to us. It taught us, from the wool of the sheep, from the hair of the goat, from the labors of the silk-worm, to weave us clothes, to keep us warm, and make us fine and gay. It helpeth us from the inmost bowels of the earth to fetch divers needful tools and utensils.

3. It collected mankind into cities, and compacted them into orderly societies, and devised wholesome laws, under shelter whereof we enjoy safety and peace, wealth and plenty, mutual succor and defence, sweet conversation and beneficial commerce. It, by meditation did invent all those sciences whereby our minds are enriched and ennobled, our manners are refined and polished, our curiosity is satisfied, our life is benefited.

ISAAC BARROW.

CXXXVIII. · -PETER THE GREAT AND THE DESERTER.

SCENE II.

MRS. STANMITZ - PETER THE GREAT OFFICER.

(For the preceding scene, see page 211.)

Stanmitz. WELL, mother, I must n't be skulking about here in Moscow any longer. I must leave you, and go back to Holland to my trade. At the risk of my life I came here, and at the risk of my life I must go back.

Mrs. Stanmitz. Ah! Michael, Michael, if it hadn't been for your turning deserter, you might have been a corporal by this time!

Sta. Look you, mother, -I was made a soldier against my will, and the more I saw of a soldier's life the more I hated it. As a poor Journeyman carpenter, I am at least free and independent; and if you will come with me to Holland, you shall take care of my wages and keep house for me.

Mrs. S. I should be a drag upon you, Michael. You will be wanting to get married, by and by; moreover, it will be hard for me to leave the old home at my time of life.

Sta. Sone one is knocking at the door. Wait, mother, till I have concealed myself. [Enter Peter the Great, disguised.