chilled with horror, I was thus addressed by the radiance that flamed before me.

Carazan, thy worship has not been accepted, because it was not prompted by the love of God; neither can thy righteousness be rewarded, because it was not produced by love of man; for thy own sake only, hast thou rendered to every man his due; and thou hast approached the Almighty only for thyself. Thou hast not looked up with gratitude, nor round thee with kindness. Around thee, thou hast, indeed, beheld vice and folly; but if vice and folly could justify thy parsimony, would they not condemn the bounty of Heaven? If not upon the foolish and vicious, where shall the sun diffuse its light, or the clouds distill their dew? where shall the lips of the spring breathe fragrance, or the hand of autumn diffuse plenty? remember, Carazan, that thou hast shut compassion from thine heart, and grasped thy treasure with a hand of iron: thou hast lived for thyself; and therefore, henceforth forever thou shalt subsist alone. From the light of heaven, and from the society of all beings, shalt thou be driven; solitude shall protract the lingering hours of eternity, and darkness aggravate the horrors of despair.' At the moment I was driven by some secret and irresistable power through the glowing system of creation, and passed innumerable worlds in a moment. As I approached the verge of nature, I perceived the shadows of total and boundless vacuity deepen before me! a dreadful region of eternal silence, solitude and darkness! unutterable horror seized me

at the prospect, and this exclamation burst from me with all the vehemence of desire.

'O! that I had been doomed forever to the common receptacle of impenitence and guilt! there society would have alleviated the torment of despair, and the rage of fire could not have excluded the comfort of light. Or if I had been condemned to reside on a comet, that would return but once in a thousand years to the regions of light and life; the hope of these periods, however distant, would cheer me in the dreary interval of cold and darkness, and the vicissitude would divide eternity into time.' While this thought passed over my mind, I lost sight of the remotest star, and the last glimmering of light was quenched in utter darkness. The agonies of despair every moment increased, as every moment augmented my distance from the last habitable world. I reflected with intolerable anguish, that when ten thousand thousand years had carried me beyond the reach of all but that power who fills infinitude, I should still look forward into an immense abyss of darkness, through which I should still drive without succor, and without society, farther and farther still, forever and ever. I then stretched out my hands towards the regions of existence, with an emotion that awakened me. Thus have I been taught to estimate society, like every other blessing, by its loss. My heart is warmed to liberality; and I am zealous to communicate the happiness which I feel, to those from whom it is derived; for the society of one wretch whom in the pride of prosperity I would

have spurned from my door, would, in the dreadful solitude to which I was condemned, have been more highly prized, than the gold of Afric, or the gems of Golconda.

At this reflection upon his dream, Carazan became suddenly silent, and looked upward in an extacy of gratitude and devotion. The multitude were struck at once with the precept and example; and the Caliph, to whom the event was related, that he might be liberal beyond the power of gold, commanded it to be recorded for the benefit of posterity.

COVETOUSNESS ITS OWN PUNISHMENT.

In the city of Mexico, as we are told by that famous and much to be depended on historian Father Giardino, there lived a certain gentleman, called Don Cavanilla Quignata Lorenzano, who had once followed the profession of a scrivener, but had now betaken himself to that honorable useful employment, the assisting of his fellow creatures with a portion of his own wealth at cent. per cent. interest, vulgarly denominated usury. This worshipful person in the fiftieth and fourth year of his age, entered into a contract of matrimony with the virtuous Donna Estifania Montenella, in the eight and thirtieth year of hers. To this transaction he was the rather induced, not more on account of the beauty of her person and the qualities of her mind, than because she was very rich, and as careful of her money as he was of his. Already had Lorenzano passed ten good years with his dame in the honorable state of holy matrimony, without however enjoying the comforts of a family of children; for the want of which blesing he comforted himself in public, by expressing his thankfulness to Providence for being thus freed of a multitude of cares, and in private by the thoughts of the great expense he was thus saved; for as the prudent Lorenzano hardly allowed himself the necessaries of life, wisely considering that his riches,great as they were, might make to them

selves wings and fly away, you may judge whether he would have relished the expense attending the feeding, the clothing, and educating a numerous family. He was wise from observation; for his father disinherited his elder brother, because he was a thoughtless, gay, extravagant youth, and left his fortune to Lorenzano, whose dispositions were similar to his own. Of this he had many proofs; but one in particular determined him; for, when a favorite dog which was warmly attached to Lorenzano, having grown up with him from his infancy, had become too old to go abroad to find its food in the dung-hills or on the streets, he had shut it out of the house, and allowed it to die for want.

When Lorenzano had not occasion to go to market for the purpose of victuals, an expedition which he took perhaps twice a month, he seldom left the house. When he appeared in the street, the children used to run after him, and a mischievous little rogue would often pick an onion out of his pocket through the holes of his old cloak as he was travelling homeward loaded with vegetables.

His coat was so ancient, and had been so often patched, that few people in Mexico remembered its original color; the thrifty Donna Estifania had exerted her skill on it with such success, that it not only fortified her good man from the inclemency of the weather, but might have defended him from the effect of a bullet had it been aimed at him. Of similar or superior strength were a pair of jack