"The Description of Castaru.

"Like the violet, which alone
Prospers in some happy shade,
My Castara lives unknowne,
To no looser eye betray'd;

For shee's to herselfe untrue,

Who delights i' th' publicke view.

Such her beauty, as no arts
Have enricht with borrowed grace,
Her high birth no pride imparts,
For she blushes in her place:

Folly boasts a glorious blood;
She is noblest, being good.

Cautious, she knew never yet,
What a wanton courtship meant:
Not speaks loud to boast her wit,
In her silence eloquent.

Of herselfe survey she takes,

But 'tweene men no difference makes,

She obeyes with speedy will

Her grave parents' wise commands;

And so innocent, that ill,

She nor acts, nor understands.

Women's feet runne still astray,

If once to ill they know the way.

She sailes by that rocke, the court,
Where oft honour splits her mast:
And retir'dnesse thinks the port,
Where her fame may anchor cast.
Vertue safely cannot sit,

Where Vice is enthron'd for wit.

She holds that day's pleasure best,
Where sinne waits not on delight;
Without Maske, or ball, or feast,
Sweetly spends a Winter's night.

O're that darknesse, whence is thrust,
Prayer and sleepe oft governs lust.

She her throne makes reason climbe,
While wild passions captive lie;
And each article of time,

Her pure thoughts to heaven flie:
All her vows religious be,

And her love she vows to me."

March 1, 1809.

N° LXV.

Difference between Thought and Action. Elevated sentiments not to be taxed with want of sincerity, nor as useless, because not always followed by practice.

EVERY one is aware of the difference between thought and action. To conceive a plan, and to execute it, require talents so dissimilar, that they but rarely concentre in the same person.

He whose mind is exercised in discriminating the varieties of the human character, will every day meet with men, who, without the power of reasoning, are capable of fixing upon a practical result not inconcordant at least with worldly wisdom. Many may call this an intuitive sagacity; and it sometimes deserves the name. But its appearance of force often, I suspect, proceeds from the weight of its materiality; from its being addressed to the senses, rather than to the intellect.

its execution.

Men of this cast judge of every thing only by "Act," they cry, "and do not talk; words are only wind!" Ideas they consider as vapoury as the fantastic shapes of the clouds,

and as liable to pass away: they judge of the visions of theory as of the imaginations of the insane. Nay, they deem that there is a kind of falsehood and deceit in the expression of sentiments and convictions which are not instantly followed up by practice.

For the ordinary purposes of life, the gracious decrees of Providence have ordered that this low sort of understanding should be sufficient. As long as it keeps within its province, and does not aspire to insult or decry those of higher endowments, it may be pitied, and now and then even approved. But when it ventures to despise "the shadowy tribes of mind:" and to refuse all credit to the elo quence of the head, or the sensibilities of the heart, because action cannot always keep pace with the rapid travels of the soul, it must not complain if it draw down the indignation due to its groveling

nature.

It is almost inconceivable how little understanding is necessary to enable a man to preserve the appearance of a coarse rectitude of conduct through life. If he never venture to reason; if he keep a solemn reserve; and occasionally pronounce a decision on the pending topic in an oracular tone, and act with prudential caution, he will have the credit of possessing good sound common sense: while the most brilliant talents will be thought frothy and

superficial, if they are sometimes too refined for the routine of vulgar business, and sometimes evaporate in speculation.

These narrow and illiberal censurers indeed go much further; they even suspect, and accuse of want of integrity, those whose conceptions and expressions are sometimes too abundant, or too visionary for action. But what can be more ignorant, or more unjust than this stigma?

The contempt of stupidity is, it must be con fessed, very provoking. Why should the dull suppose that nothing is good but according to their own model? Why should they endeavour to lower us down to mere materialism?

It is among the evils which mix themselves in this world with all good, that the very superiority, to which acute and highly-cultivated minds are raised, exposes them to many keen disgusts and mortifications, to which those of a coarser cast are insensible. The former are of a temperament too nice for the common intercourse of society. The rudeness and insults of the obtuse-headed, and the hard-hearted, make too deep an impression on them.

The finer mechanism of their internal emotions is deranged by rough and brutal behaviour. Otherwise, such pitiful and ill-founded animadversions would not for a moment give pain to a wellregulated intellect.