But let what will, below stairs light the faggot, "Troth Pat, there's nothing strange in your surprise," Said Peter, "I myself felt equal wonder, When first the Steam Boat met my startled eyes, With speed of light'ning, and with noise of thunder--Such rapid motion, without oars or sails, Made one at first believe 'twas drawn by whales," "Upon my soul," cried Pat, " a natty guess--- And yet they say that elephants so big, Says Peter---"there's no witcheraft in the case, "Avast! friend Pimley," answered honest Pat, You might as well convince me by your blarney, Of water boiled, I know the power and use, With mischief too, as well as good, 'tis big, 'Tis excellent for scalding a fat pig, But ugly business, if it scalded you-- In short, your friend, tho' sprung from cónntry folks, Is not to be entrapped by city jokes!" Peter aware that reasoning would be vain, Soon as the Steam Boat had dismissed her train, Took him on board the actual case to prove, Pat stepped on board, tho' not with right good will, To neighbours, Pat's return was always dear, And ever come with budget full of news-- Truth might not always give him things worth mention--. What then? he draws, like others, from invention, But all Pat's former story telling glory, Among the clowns who heard the wondrous tale, He had a restiff steed, ycleped a garron, Now then, quoth John, if boiling water forces John fixed a day for trying on his nag, Short time was lost in waiting for the trial, Jump sure enough he did, and gallop too, Unhurt in body, but in mind distrest, Sad from the ground the baffled artist rose, "For accident," said he, "I'll let it pass, A thing quite credible with steed so vicious, But would esteem it as a jest delicious, And well they might both mock me and despise, For giving credit to Pat's monstrous lies," STANZAS. As lightly o'er yon moonlight sea, A silvery mist at times will flee, Bat shadow not the placid main; Lending the mirror'd light a softer grace, Like modesty's bright veil on beauty's face. 'Tis thus above the sinless soul, In its own purity arrayed, And lightly on the surface fade; Whilst calmly bright, and free from every stain, The smiles of Heaven, enshrined within, remain. THE ENTHUSIAST. Again, fair images, ye flutter near, As erst ye shone to cheer the mourner's eye! Like sunbeams conquering a cloudy sky! But ah! they cannot hear my closing song, Those hearts for whom my earliest lays were tried,--- And dumb the echoing spirits that replied; To men unknown my griefs must I impart, Again it comes! a long unwonted feeling, A wish for that calm solemn phantom land,--- Like Eol's harp, by varying breezes fanned, And silent shudders shew a heart unmanned FROM GOETHF, BY ANSTER. After a long and eventful life, which has laid many a burthen on mỹ weary spirit, though it has also sent many a rushing tide of bliss through this still impassioned heart, I am at last sheltered in the depth of a solitude, which I have been able to create around myself in the midst of the din and bustle, the elaborate trifling, the pompous nothingness, and the plain, downright, plodding industry;-the rapidly and harshly alternating sights and sounds of revelry and of wretchedness; the tu multuous pleasures, whose voice is as loud as the shriek of the agonizing pangs that are fearfully endured, or-more fearfully ended---and that too, in close neighbourhood, which makes the contrast more shocking, and the condensation of ill-assorted shapes of trial and enjoyment, of heroic suffering and selfish profligacy, of cant and religion, pretence and sincerity, into one narrow spot, nothing short of a grotesque and monstrous exhibition of tragi-comedy: in the midst of all those objects that go to compose the material of a large and popular city, and that truly convert it into a miniature of that huge panorama, of bewildering dreams and conflicting passions denominated THE WORLD. It is not in wrath or in bitterness, but in gentle sorrow, that I have gradually withdrawn from every thing like active co-operation in the stirring scenes that are in progress around me :---though I still love to pursue into its recesses the worth which shrinks from the broad and vulgar admiration of a boisterous crowd, and is sure to receive at my hands the homage so congenial to its own over-timid and sensitive nature, as well as the support and encouragement so necessary to sustain its hopes and counterbalance its înfirmities;---and though I have yet remaining, sympathy, full and fresh enough, to listen with interest to the history of some unnoticed sufferer, and soothe the pangs it is no longer in my power to heal. The activity of mere bodily exertion is considerably abridged by my advanced age, and the current of my affections has grown somewhat slow and languid in proportion as the physical channels, through which they have been used to flow, are worn away and enfeebled:-while the fountain itself, as its sanctuary is crumbling fast into decay about it, and the ruins are splashing into its bosom and choaking its bed, is as pure as ever, but not so deep or so sparkling. The greatest events that have ever chequered the destinies of mankind have happened in my day: and I have not only witnessed but borne a considerable part in them. In the prime of manhood, when my frame was vigorous and proudly erect, when the great passions that urged me to the field of ambition and glory, struggled fiercely, and, for a while, triumphantly, with the softer and more insinuating ones that invited me to luxurious repose, the mighty conflict between the new and fascinating opinions that were then broached and were spreading rapidly over the world, and the old institutions of government, religion and manners, which they aimed at unsettling and overthrowing, not only kindled the zeal and awakened the alarms of those who were more immediately concerned in propagating the one and in upholding the other; but sent its fire into the very heart of domestic life, in the most retired recesses of the most distant provinces;-where every youthful spirit was animated by the dazzling picture of that LIBERTY, which alone was said to be capable of working out the regeneration and purging away all the dross and abuses of mankind. To the young, thus panting for wild and terrible enjoyment, and thirsting after that beauteous vision displayed by the genius of poets, orators, phiFosophers and theorists, and ineffectually decried by the humble and cal culating prudence of sober-minded and timid men, it was a matter of no consideration whatever-not worth the trouble of reflection-what a vast amount of confusion and bloodshed, of public devastation and ruin, of private anguish and destitution and guilt, would be offered as the price of this political redemption; and what a hecatomb of broken hearts and wrecked hopes-of innocence violated,-beauty defaced and dishonoured, and happiness crushed,-would be immolated on the altar, and involve in disgrace at once the temple, the priests, and their deity!! If these gloomy and disheartening anticipations did actually occur to some one of the visionaries who joined to the ardour of a sanguine temperament, the sedateness and steadiness of a reflecting mind; they were quickly dismissed as unworthy of the thinker himself, and as unsuited to the grandeur of the vast enterprise which-whatever might be its issue, the weal or the woe of millions-still held out in that very grandeur, its most seductive temptation to the noble-minded and inexperienced; which, moreover, if |