My brethren, we stand on the borders of an awful gulf, which is swallowing up all things human. And is there, amidst this universal wreck, nothing stable, nothing abiding, nothing immortal, on which poor, frail, dying man can fasten? Ask the hero, ask the statesman, whose wisdom you have been accustomed to revere, and he will tell you. He will tell you, did I say? `told you, from his death-bed; and his illumined spirit, He has already still whispers from the heavens, with well-known eloquence, the solemn admonition :-"Mortals hastening to the tomb, and once the companions of my pilgrimage, take warning and avoid my errors; cultivate the virtues I have recommended; choose the Saviour I have chosen; live disinterestedly; live for immortality; and would you rescue any thing from final dissolution, lay it up in God." Dr. Nett. A SWELLS SOLILOQUY ON THE WAR. 20 I DON'T appwove this hawid waw; Those dweadful bannahs hawt my eyes; Of cawce, the twoilet has its chawms; In cullaws so extwemely loud? And then the ladies-pwecious deals !— To heaw the chawming eweatures talk, I called at Mrs. Gween's last night, s! Vanity Fair. MINISTERING ANGELS. MOTHER, has the dove that nestled, And in darkness gone to rest? It looks up from every flower. And when Night's dark shadows fleeing, Maiden, has thy noble brother, On whose heart thou could'st rely, Hid thee from the cold world's sneor,- Nay, he still can guide and guard thee, Lover, is the light extinguished All its sunshine could impart? Look above! 'tis burning brighter Thou wilt know she hovers near. Orphan, thou most sorely stricken Emily Judson. THE MISER FITLY PUNISHED. In the year 1762, a miser, of the name of Foscue, in France, having amassed enormous wealth by habits of extortion and the most sordid parsimony, was requested by the government to advance a sum of money as a loan. The miser demurred, pretending that he was poor. In order to hide his gold effectually, he dug a deep cave in his cellar, the descent to which was by a ladder, and which was entered by means of a trap-door, to which was attached a springlock. He entered this cave, one day, to gloat over his gold, when the trap-door fell upon him, and the spring-lock, the key to which he had left on the outside, snapped, and held him a prisoner in the cave, where he perished miserably. Some months afterwards a search was made, and his body was found in the midst of money-bags, with a candlestick lying beside it on the floor. In the following lines the miser is supposed to have just entered his cave, and to be soliloquiz og. So, so! all safe! Come forth, my pretty sparklers,- No keen-eyed agent of the government Can see you here. They wanted me, forsooth, To lend you, at the lawful rate of usance, For the state's needs. Ha, ha! my shining pets, I pleaded poverty, and none could prove Ha! could they see These bags of ducats, and that precious pile Is it to see my moneys in a heap All safely lodged under my very roof! What a comfort Here's a fat bag-let me untie the mouth of it. What eloquence! What beauty! What expression! One half so charming? Ah! what sound was that? (The trap-door falls.) The trap-door fallen;-and the spring-lock caught! 'Tis in this pocket,-No. In this?-No. Then I left it at the bottom of the ladder. Ha! 'tis not there. Where then?-Ah! mercy, Heaven! 'Tis in the lock outside! What's to be done? Help, help! Will no one hear? Oh! would that I As force it open. Am I here a prisoner, And no one in the house? no one at hand, Am I entombed alive?-Horrible fate! I sink-I faint beneath the bare conception! (Awakes.) Darkness? Where am I?-I remember now, No dream! The trap-door fell, and here am I I've toiled, and pinched, and screwed, shutting my heart Detested traitors! since I gave you all, Ay, gave my very soul,-can ye do naught For me in this extremity?-Ho! Without there! A thousand ducats for a loaf of bread! Ten thousand ducats for a glass of water! A pile of ingots for a helping hand! Was that a laugh?-Ay, 'twas a fiend that laughed Offended Heaven! have mercy!-I will give In this most dreadful strait! I'll build a church, - Heaven's cause on earth, in human hearts and homes? But must I die here-in my own trap caught? That I have done-make thousands happy with As it is done in heaven-grant me but time! Nor man nor God will heed my shricks! All's lost! Osborne. CÆSAR PASSING THE RUBICON. A GENTLEMAN, speaking of Cæsar's benevolent dispo sition, and of the reluctance with which he entered into the civil war, observes, "How long did he pause upon the brink of the Rubicon?" How came he to the brink of that river? How dared he cross it? Shall a private man respect the boundaries of private property, and shall a man pay no respect to the boundaries of his country's rights? How dared he cross that river?-Oh! but he paused upon the brink. He should have perished on the brink, ere he had crossed it! Why did he pause?—Why does a man's heart palpitate when he is on the point of committing an unlawful deed? Why does the very murderer, his victim sleeping before him, and his glaring eye taking the measure of the blow, strike wide of the mortal part? Because of conscience! 'Twas that made Cæsar pause upon the brink of the Rubicon!-Compassion! What compassion? The compassion of an assassin, that feels a momentary shudder, as his weapon begins to cut! -Cæsar paused upon the brink of the Rubicon! What was the Rubicon? The boundary of Cæsar's province. |