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virtues when exercised with proper discretion; but man owes a paramount duty to society, with which none of the weaknesses, however amiable, of his nature should be allowed to interfere. It is no mercy to pardon and let loose upon the community one who, having already been convicted of manifold delinquencies, only waits a convenient season for adding to the catalogue of his crimes; and what is larceny, or felony, or even treason, compared with the perpetration of the outrages above attempted to be described ?-We pause for a reply.

Summer is a most delectable-a most glorious season. We, who are fond of basking as a lizard, and whose inward spirit dances and exults like a very mote in the sun-beam, always hail its approach with rapture; but our anticipations of bright and serene days of blue, cloudless, and transparent skies-of shadows the deeper from intensity of surrounding light-of yellow corn-fields, listless rambles, and lassitude rejoicing in green and sunny banks-are allayed by this one consideration, that

Waked by the summer ray, the reptile young
Come winged abroad. From every chink
And secret corner, where they slept away
The wintry storms; by myriads forth at once,
Swarming they pour.

Go where you will, it is not possible

to escape these " winged reptiles."

They abound exceedingly in all sunny spots; nor in the shady lane do they not haunt every bush, and lie perdu under every leaf, thence sallying forth on the luckless wight who presumes to molest their "solitary reign;" they hang with deliberate importunity over the path of the sauntering pedestrian, and fly with the flying horseman, like the black cares (that is to say, blue devils) described by the Roman lyrist. Within doors they infest, harpy-like,

numbers increase in a frightful 'progressive ratio from year to year; and it has at length become absolutely necessary that some decisive measures should be adopted to counteract the growing evil.

Upon the whole, he would not, perhaps, be considered to speak rashly or unadvisedly, who should affirm, that no earthly creature, of the same insignificant character and pretensions, is the agent of nearly so much mischief as the fly. What a blessed order of things would immediately ensue, if every one of them was to be entirely swept away from the face of the earth! This most wished-for event, we fear, it will never be our lot to witness; but it may be permitted to a sincere patriot, in his benevolent and enthusiastic zeal for the well-being of his country, to indulge in aspirations that are tinged with a shade of extravagance. With respect, however, to the above mentioned vermin, the idea of their total annihilation may not be altogether chimerical. We know that the extirpation of wolves from England was accomplished by the commutation of an annual tribute for a certain number of their heads; and it is well worth the consideration of the

legislature, whether, by adopting a somewhat similar principle, they may not rid the British dominions of an equally great and crying nuisance. The noble Duke, now at the head of his Majesty's Government, has it in his power to add another ray to his illustrious name, to secure the approbation and gratitude of all classes of the community, and to render his ministry forever memorable, by the accomplishment of so desirable an object. In the mean time, let the Society of Arts offer their next large gold medal to the person who shall invent the most ingenious and destructive fly-trap. A certain quantity of quassia might be

the dinner-tableDiripiuntque dapes, contactuque omnia fœdant distributed gratis at Apothecaries'

Immundo

and hover in impending clouds over the sugar basin at tea; in the pantry it is buz; in the dairy it is buz; in the kitchen it is buz; one loud, longcontinued and monotonous buz: Their

Hall, as vaccinatory matter is at the Cow-pox Hospital, with very considerable effect; and an act of parliament should be passed without delay, declaring the wilful destruction of a spider to be felony.

SUNSET MEDITATIONS.

BY DELTA.

Tell Fortune of her blindness,
Tell Nature of decay,

Tell Friendship of unkindness,

And Justice of delay.-SIR WALTER RALEIGH.

THE sun goes ploughing down the seas

Of glory in the gorgeous west; The deep, unruffled by a breeze,

Through all its waves is hush'd to rest; Silence is on the mountain's breast,

And slumber in the stirless grove, As here, an unaccustom'd guest, Beneath these aged elms I rove.

Trees of my boyhood! to my mind

Ye conjure far-departed scenes, And, as fond Memory looks behind,

Though many a dim year intervenes, The past awakens; brightly greens

Time's faded landscapes on my view, And Hope, even yet, confiding, leans On what seem'd firm, and proved untrue.

Again I roam the fields of youth,

How sweet of scent, how bright of bloom, Warm Boyhood, with its heart of truth, Is there; and faces, which the tomb Enshrouded long ago, illume

The prospect with their living smiles; Even now, from out Oblivion's womb,

Its varnish'd phantoms Fancy wiles.

Yes, from the bustling din of life,

"Tis sweet unspeakably to turn
To times and days devoid of strife;
And conjure from the silent urn
Hearts, which with ours were wont to burn,
Ere Care bedimm'd the bloom of Joy,
Or Time had taught the soul to mourn
The baffled prospects of the Boy!

Ah! then we little guess'd how Wealth
Could rob the spirit of its rest;
Opinion was unfetter'd; Health

Diffused a noonday through the breast; Sorrow had come not to molest

With racking dreams the peaceful night; And in its hopes the heart was blest

At evening fall, and opening light.

Pent in the city den, where man

Encounters man in daily strife, Where words and actions, squared by plan, Show nothing but the prose of life,We come to look on earth, as rife Alone with sordid schemes and lies; Yet feel that Resolution's knife

Would vainly cut the Gordian ties.

Down to our paltry fates we bow,
And, month by month, and year by year,
We steel our sympathies, and go

Headlong in Error's wild career;

We mock the doubts, and scorn the fear
That tender Conscience erst betray'd,
And boldly sin, and widely veer
From duty's dictates, undismay'd ;

Till on some eve, methinks like this,
When green the earth, and blue the skies,
When, slumbering as it were in bliss,
Earth, wrapt in holy quiet, lies,
We start to find that otherwise
Swell'd the young heart in such a scene,
When open'd first on Wonder's eyes
A world so soft, and so serene !

Then do we feel the worthlessness
Of what we pant for and pursue;
And yearn for pleasures, which could bless
The simple heart, when life was new:
Fond Memory sickens at the view

Of what hath been, no more to be,―
Visions that pass'd like vernal dew,

Or leaves from shorn November's tree!

Yes! he who knows the world must feel

"Tis futile, fickle all at best,
And that 'twere wise to sternly steel
Against its random darts the breast.
How is the inmost soul distrest,

To find that those, who owed us good, Should turn, when needed, like the rest, In heartless, base ingratitude!

How sweet the evening gleams and glowsThe homeward sea-mews flit aroundThe ocean breathes a calm repose,

Unrippled, and without a sound. Peaks of the west! the scene ye bound, Illumed above, but dark beneathThe sun glares o'er the blue profound, A giant smiling even in death!

Oh Nature, when our eyes survey

The priceless charms thou hast in store, Art's tinsel trappings fade away,

We learn to love thee more and more; There is a pleasure on the shore,

And beauty in the leafy wood,
Which bid the baffled heart deplore,
That e'er for guilt was barter'd good!

Alas! too late we feel and know,
That pleasure in our souls must dwell;
That pomp is only gilded woe;

And Flattery's voice a tinkling bell;
In vain would Passion's bosom swell
Against the fate we sought and found;
The soul, that sleeps in Error's cell,
Awakes in Misery's fetters bound!

THE REV. THOMAS CHALMERS, D. D.

PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH.

[In the fifth number of the last volume of the Atheneum, we inserted, as one of our "Sketches of Contemporary Authors, &c." a notice of the Rev. Dr. Chalmers. The brilliant speech made at the late meeting in Edinburgh, by this powerful and eminent divine, in favor of Catholic Emancipation, and which has been re-published in many of the American papers, renders the following additional notice of him, by a gentleman who has known him long and intimately, peculiarly seasonable. It contains more of the anecdotical parts of a biography than the former paper.]

DR. CHALMERS was born (about fifty years ago) in the small borough of Austruther-Wester, in the county of

Fife.

That borough and the neighboring one of Austruther-Easter have always had a soul of literature. The Doctor's father was a clothier and draper; a man of the most exemplary piety, of well-informed mind, great liberality of sentiment, and the most delightful manners. He had many sons and daughters, the greater part of whom have fallen victims to disease, at the most promising period of life; and he had to sustain one of the most painful family afflictions to which man can be subjected. But still he was resigned, cheerful, and even playful, and showed that the most punctual attendance to the duties of religion, (for there was religious worship in his family every morning and evening,) instead of damping the pleasure of social intercourse, imparts to it its highest zest. We have deemed it proper to state this circumstance (which we do from the very delightful recollection of our personal knowledge) in order that we may be spared the formal refutation of a calumny which has been sometimes brought against Dr. Chalmers both by the unthinking part of the public, and by those psuedo-religionists who can find no Christianity but in a mysterious and

miraculous conversion,—the class of persons whom Chalmers used so well to characterise as "gossiping malignants." Those persons have said that Chalmers was at one time a sceptic, and that he was converted in we know not what wonderful manner. Now, apart from our personal knowledge that such is not the fact, we appeal to the understanding of any unbiassed reader, whether one who had been instructed in his early years by the precepts and the example of such a father, and who continued with him in all the reciprocal affection of a loved and a loving man, could have been a sceptic on those great doctrines of which he witnessed such delightful effects. To have done so he must have been equally destitute of discernment and feeling,-qualities without which no man ever was, or ever can be, the tithe of a Dr. Chalmers.

At

From his earliest years Dr. Chalmers was enthusiastically fond of reading, so that when a little boy in the chimney-corner with his book, he got the name of "the minister," not from any view to his future profession, but from his delight being in books. the same time he was a most active and energetic boy, and when he did enter into sports he took the lead. In very early life indeed, that restless activity of mind, and that determination to seize and to master all subjects, even the most contrary, which has enabled him to do so much more than almost any other man of his time, were abundantly conspicuous. progress at school was rapid; he went early to college, and, while but a youth, he did the duty of mathematical professor. Though above the average, his attainments in classical literature were not very great. The bent of his mind lay more towards subjects of which the practical application was more obvious. He was a mathematician, a natural philoso

His

pher, and, though there was no regular professor of that science at St. Andrews, a chemist.

About the close of the last century he was admitted to orders, and soon after went to assist the Rev. Dr. Charteries, a venerable and eminent preacher near the border. Some years after this the College of St. Andrew's appointed him to the church of Kilmeny, where he set about the discharge of his duties with great energy; but he was not very popular at the outset. This arose, in part, from the want of mental correspondence between the inhabitants of a country parish and a man of so much energy as their pastor, and partly from that very energy itself. He had the utmost dislike of gossiping, cared not much for forms of rustic politeness, and could not find half occupation for his time in his parochial labors. Accordingly, he took to a number of other avocations: he lectured in the different towns on chemistry and other subjects; he became an officer of a volunteer corps, and he wrote a book on the resources of the country, besides pamphlets on some of the topics of the day; and when the Edinburgh Encyclopedia was projected, he was invited to be a contributor, and engaged to furnish the article "Christianity;" which he afterwards completed with so much ability. These supplemental avocations had nothing improper in them; and yet they were not usual among the Doctor's professional brethren, who generally filled up the intervals of their time in visiting and conversations; but the event has shown that, instead of the mental activity which Chalmers thus kept up being injurious to the very highest theological powers, they have been the chief means of developing them. And, though there be not much merit in publishing a prophecy after the event, it was in these very causes of want of village popularity, that the friends of Dr. Chalmers placed their new hopes of the eminence to which he would rise.

Even then, he was a most wonderful man. All life and energy,

he was

here, there, and everywhere, both bodily and mentally. Mathematics, botany, conchology, astronomy, politics, political economy, theology, polemics, he was at them all; and yet his most intimate friends hardly knew when he studied. Indeed the whole of his progress seemed more like the inspiration of heaven, than that of any other man that we ever knew or heard of. Mention a new subject to him, with which you had made yourself familiar, and a week after he would beat you upon it; the cause seemed to be this: he did not plod over books, and become the retailer of recorded opinions. He thought himself, set every one with whom he met thinking, and then generalized the whole. We have often been quite astonished at the quantity of information which we had acquired during a few hours conversation with Chalmers, upon a subject of which neither of us knew much at the outset.

As a friend, his attachment and disinterestedness were unbounded; but he had a great dislike to forms; and though he was very hospitable, his friends very often found him with an empty larder. One day three or four friends called on him; he was just setting out for Edinburgh, but insisted on their dining with him, which was readily agreed to. After giving old Effie (Euphemia) who was the whole of his establishment, her orders, they all sat down to that combination of information and glee, which shortens time most, by actually lengthening it in pleasure and utility. Dinner was soon announced; and two large covered dishes, with a smoking plate of potatoes between, appeared on the table.

"Gentlemen," said Chalmers, "under this cover there is hard fish from Dundee, and under that cover there is hard fish from St. Andrew's ; take your choice." We have been at many and various feasts, but we have seldom enjoyed an evening like that one.

Sometimes there was not even hard fish, but still there was a resource. We have seen John Bouthron's “kail

pot," broth, beef, and all, brought over to the manse-we have helped to bring it. John was a retired farmer, a very plain but very pleasant old

man.

a

We mention these traits in the character of Dr. Chalmers, as most effectual means of refuting and reproving those persons who maintain that formality of deportment is essential to eminence, more especially to clerical eminence, as if dulness were the badge of intellect. Here was the most effective preacher that the age has produced, as innocent certainly, but at the same time as playful as a child. Nor must it be supposed that he was not the same great man and great preacher then as now. Even in his every-day sermons, which he called " short-handers," from their being written in short hand on a slip of paper about double the size of a playing card, there were chains of reasoning, and bursts of imagination and feeling, which we have seldom seen equalled, and never excelled. They were done in no time too; for after a morning's ramble among the rocks and woods in the north of Fife, we have seen him compose a whole sermon in half an hour-aye, in less. Some of his most choice orations were composed thus as for instance, the matchless charity sermon from the text, "Blessed is he that considereth the poor,"-a sermon in which the line between genuine charity, and that ostentatious alms-giving which so often usurps its place, is more clearly marked than in any other composition with which we are acquainted. To mention the good ones would only be to give a list; there are degrees of excellence; but we never heard a sermon, or even a remark of Chalmers, in which there was not some indication of genius-some touch of the hand of a master.

We shall never forget the arch face of a jolly farmer, and the observation that he made to us upon leaving the church one Sunday. The sermon is throughout an argument for temperance; and if we mistake not, it was composed as a college exercise. The

text was, "Look not on the wine when it is red in the cup; for it shall bite as a serpent and sting as an adder." The opening is a very glowing and graphic delineation of the seductions of bacchanalian indulgence; and it began with these words: "There is a pleasure, my brethren, in the progress of intoxication." As we were moving along the churchyard path, the farmer said, "I'm thinking the minister and you have been taking a glass extra last night; for he gi❜es the same account that I myself could have gi'en fifty times."

It was not in the nature of things that a man possessing such talents could remain in concealment. The people began to understand and relish his sermons; some speeches that he made in the General Assembly attracted the notice both of the clergy and of the Scottish barristers, many of whom attended the annual convocations of the kirk in the capacity of ruling elders. From these, and a number of other circumstances, the popularity of Dr. Chalmers was waxing apace, when about the year 1811 a severe and protracted malady had nearly put an end to all his labors. His constitution never had been of that confirmed strength which a mind of so restless energies would have required; and probably he had exposed himself to fatigue and the inclemency of the weather, in a way which one, who thought less about his mind and more about his body, would have avoided. He was attacked by a very severe and obstinate liver complaint, for the removal of which the administration of a great deal of mercury became necessary. The disease was subdued, but before his system had recovered the requisite tone, he resumed his labors; and having exposed himself to cold, the disease returned with more inveteracy and obstinacy than ever. So alarming was the relapse that his physician had to resort to the boldest means of treatment; and what with the disease, and what with the means of cure, he presented for months a spectacle of

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