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cloud of sadness did indeed pass over it; he smote upon his gentle bosom, and looked up to heaven: but not as if he asked a curse upon their folly. I could rather fancy that every movement of his quivering lip was an aspiration for mercy on their heads. Meantime the tide arose. Already the dashing waters thundered on the shore; the sun was going down, and the fast-gathering clouds threatened to extinguish his departing beams even before their setting. The party had gone far upon their way, and seemed but less sensible of danger as it approached them nearer. I saw the poor despised one pause a moment, and look earnestly hehind him. I, too, looked backward, and perceived the waters had already overflowed some portion of the way we came, so as to make return impossible. The rocks had become almost perpendicular, and while I followed each movement of his eye, again directed forward, I perceived a passage very much like the one he had described. He saw it too. His dimmed eye kindled at the sight, and with more vehemence than before, he rushed forward into the midst of his companions. "Travellers, Brethren, Friends, I do beseech you hear me! The moment is come. Destruction is upon the heads of all of you-another instant, and it falls. A few minutes more, and tide overflows this patha few yards further, and there is no access to the heights-already retreat is cut off from behind you. If you go forward, you must perish. Believe, and you may yet be saved-reject my counsel, and you die."

But they all by this time had grown hardened in their course; they were weary and indisposed to effort. They had heard these threats so often, that they were to them as an idle tale. And now grew they angry at what before they mocked, and, "Cease

thy prating," they exclaimed. "We have heard thy ravings till we are sated of them. Mile by mile thou hast rung these changes in our ears. Let us at least hear something new, if that we needs must listen to thee. Despite thy prophecies and thy prayers for our destruction, we have come on our way in peace; the end is even at hand, and thine eyes shall feast not on the sight of our destruction." He answered, "Revile me as you will-heap scorn and contempt upon my blameless head. Let me be, as I have been, the outcast and the scorn of all men; trample me under your feet as a despised thing; I bear it all, so you but let me save you. Escape, while there is yet a moment, and do with me even as you will. A hundred yards forth, and your doom is fixed for ever. Say, will you yet go ward?" "We will go forward," they replied. "We see as well as thou dost the pass thy cowardice fears. We see the tide has crossed the path before us; but still is it smooth and shallow. We can ford it. And what though yon bold projecting rocks hide something from our view, we believe not that danger is beyond. We are resolved to try it."

for

The Man of Sorrows heard. An agony of conflicting feelings rent his withered form. He clasped his hands upon his bosom as if waiting for power to perform what already he resolved. The calm composedness of grief subdued, gave place to the struggle of despair. His forehead bathed itself with sweat ; his eye was swollen with anguish, and in the attitude of one who must, but cannot, he stood as if irresolute. 'Twas but a moment, and, with the step of one who dooms himself to perish, and goes to effect his purpose, he placed himself in front of the advancing group, and in a voice that startled them to compliance, he exclaimed, “Stand, travel

forth

lers, a moment, for you must. I warned you long, and ye refused to listen. I entreated you, and ye answered me with scorn. Had I not loved you, I had left you to your fate, and saved myself without you. But neither could your slights repulse me nor your wrongs offend. For every blow you struck at this unsheltered bosom, I gave you back a sigh of pity and of love-such love as ye shall witness ere we part. I tell you this path is death, and you believe me not. Be it so. I have shown you the danger; I have shown you the escape: I have reasoned with you, besought you, prayed for you. All is in vain, and there is but one way left. Pause here a moment where you are, and let me try that dreadful pass before you. If I perish not, go on your way in peace, and leave me for the madman and the fool you think me. But if I die in the at

tempt; if, in yon dark waters, ye esteem so shallow, ye see me struggling in the grasp of death; if ye see, as ye stand here in safety, the ingulfing chasm close in upon the earthly form of him whom ye despise-O then! it is all I ask of you to requite the sacrifice, it is all I ask in payment of my love, believe the danger, and escape while it is day."

The travellers stood fixed in mute amazement on the spot. The devoted being advanced to where the waters closed upon the rock. Turning one last, tearful look on those who obstinately had doomed him thus to perish, and spending all that remained to him of life in prayer to heaven for them, "Believe, and be ye saved," he said—and plunged into the waves. A moment he struggled-a moment,

and he was gone.

U 2

SARCASM.

THERE are cases, I fear, where ill-nature, a deliberate desire of giving pain, an envious wish to depreciate what we cannot reach, expends itself in bitter and indiscriminate sarcasm. These cases are beyond our reach; the curse of Ishmael is upon them; their hand is against every man, and every man's hand is against them. The mischief is in the depth of a malignant heart, and heaven alone can mend it. Doubtless, there are others in whom this practice arises from a wish to shine, a settled purpose of exhibiting a peculiar talent; which is certainly not wit, but near enough approaching it to be so called, and in itself sufficiently entertaining. These, too, we must leave. If they like the applause of the world better than its love, its laugh better than its approbation, they must take their choice. But I have met with many jesters of this kind, in whose bosom no malignant passion could be sheltered, and in whose heart, I hope and believe, no desire of applause lause at others' cost could be indulged. In these should consider it a natural trait of character; continued for want of reflection on its dangerous and unholy tendency, or, perhaps, from the difficulty of subduing a late-discovered evil.

These, I would hope, might be prevailed upon to consider the mischief of this thoughtless indulgence

of a natural humour.

But we must leave the scrutiny of motives to Him who knows all things; and strongly urge on all who are conscious of the practice, close self-examination. Whencesoever it arises, it is a habit the most destructive of all affectionate communion, all rational conversation, and all religious sobriety of mind: the enemy at once of piety, taste, and feeling. I would rather take for my companion the dullest spirit that ever hung upon my hands, than be doomed to the society of one of these eternal jesters. Those at least would allow me so much enjoyment as I could find elsewhere, if they could provide me none. But these—whatever is beautiful in character, in nature, in works of taste, in the productions of intellect, they spoil me the enjoyment of, by obtruding on my attention some ludicrous imagination of their own, some mockery of defects that may or may not exist ; affording me a little mirth in exchange for the mind's best and highest gratifications. Would that the molestation of these living Travesties ended here. But it does not. The pain they give to those who are present, is perhaps not very considerable. The weak and timid only are susceptible of these sallies: not the less, but rather the more, inexcusable on that account. Sensible minds care very little about the matter; and if they happen to be fond of mirth, would as soon be made to laugh at themselves as at anybody else. But the injury they do the absent is considerable. It is not possible to measure the unperceived influence of such sallies on the opinion one person forms of another: or to calculate the impressions remaining from them on the mind, without our being conscious whence they came. Surely this is a grave consideration. Would those whose benevolent minds are busied in administering comfort to humanity, who desire to show their love to

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