WAR;-A DREAM.

I LIVED on the frontiers of a province, || "What senseless ferocity! do they wear the through which a hundred thousand men were passing the regular order of their march, the animating voice of martial music, their obedience to the commands of their officers, and the fire of courage which kindled in their eyes, and glowed in their countenances, presented the most awful and interesting spectacle. I began to reflect on the motive which could have gathered so many thousand men together around the same standards. If they are led by virtue, if they strike the brow of the proud tyrants of the earth, I mentally exclaimed, of the lawless oppressors of nations, they deserve our respect and our love; they are the brave defenders of the sacred rights of humanity.

midst of winter, when cold and hunger oppressed || gentlemen's seats and opulent villages, which af.

us: how many times I have slept on the snowy ground, exposed to the biting north; yet, I must own, that I have met with many happy moments; I have tasted more than once the delightful joy of vengeance. One day, after spending two months in the midst of incessant dangers and fatigues, we stormed and forced the gates of a fortified town. Whilst breaking open every house, and pillaging the goods of the citizens, I perceived a lovely woman, who, with dishevelled hair, and holding a baby in her arms, attempted to conceal herself. My thirst for plunder immediately turned into a luxurious passion; every thing is allowed in the storming of a place; I killed two companions of mine who wished to seize her before me, stifled the child, whose screams importuned my ears, and, intoxicated with pleasure, set fire to the four corners of the house." "You make me shudder." ،، What, for that only? why, the human species is like the grass of the fields; it is no sooner cut down, than it grows again. Oh! we showed no mercy: it was forbidden us, we did not let one stone stand upon another. I say nothing of many other he. roical deeds, so common among brave soldiers like us. I have twice run the gauntlet, and my own friends, forced to execute the sentence, have caused my blood to stream from my shoulders. But I have been avenged, and my officers, quiet spectators of the correction, have often praised the vigour of my arm. I have at last returned to my first colours, profiting by the amnesty granted to deserters, and hope to rise here quicker than before." "How so?"-" How so? the war has just began, and we will take care to keep it up as long as we can. Look at yonder regiment, newly raised, in a month there will not, perhaps, remain one in twenty of those fine soldiers; then you may be sure that I will volunteer into it, and will get a bounty."-"What! is it possible that you should entertain such thoughts?"" I am not the only one, my companions, my officers think the same, and you know we inherit only from the dead." I looked upon this man with terror, and left him, after advising him to be huThis advice made him smile, and I has

mane.

tily rushed away.

forded us an inexhaustible source of pillage. But our colonel has incurred the minister's displeasure, and we all bear its weight."

I retired to my own house, and sought a relief in books from the painful ideas which saddened my soul. I chose the famous work of Grouus, and began to read it; but the cool way in which he describes the most cruel actions, and his long and useless definitions of the art of slaughtering our fellow creatures, filled me with disgust, Never was such an important subject so ill treated. What, must the surface of the earth be deluged with blood! and shall we prostitute our praise, by bestowing it upon the being who commits numerous murders in the face of day, because the voice of trumpets, and the thunder of cannons proclaim them aloud to the admiring world! whilst we hang the obscure robber, who stabs his victims whilst shrouded in midnight darkness. This author clads the hideous fiend of war with a mantle of purple, veils the horror that frowns in its features, and crowns its forehead with a dia. dem. Then, whilst the monster reddens with hu man gore, he prostrates himself, and hails it as the giver of glory and fame. Who, thought I, will dare to strip this idol of its ornaments, to re veal the terrific spectre, who tramples on the gasping corpse of children, maidens, and help less aged men; who snuffs exulting the scent of slaughter and death, through the vast extent of empires, and hovers over the surface of the ra vaged world? I then burned Grotius's book, hoping that this century would not roll over our heads without being honoured with a work of a directly opposite tendency.

On the road I met with a whole company of soldiers, who loudly murmured; still deceived by the inspiration of my heart, I fancied they cursed the horrors of war. "Undoubtedly," I || exclaimed, "humanity pleads the cause of those whom you are compelled to murder," all," one of them replied; "we are sent into a wretched country, where there is nothing else to plunder than the cottages of pour miserable pea sants, whilst we leave a rich province, full of

"Not at

Yielding to the melancholy ideas that stole upon me, I threw myself upon a couch; but scarcely had sleep closed my eyes, when I found I was transported into a foreign land, and stood in a wide extended plain. There, more than eighty thousand soldiers had spread their beds of straw beneath light and sheltering tents. Such an interesting spectacle had never struck my sight. Here men seemed to enjoy the pristine liberty of the antediluvian ages, far from the cor rupted towns where vice and dissipation hold their court. I approached them; but what was my sorrow, when I perceived they were armed with murderous weapons, when I deseried-a battery of thirty cannon geometrically pointed, and, when looking at myself, I saw I was dressed in regi mentals, a knapsack on my back, a long tube which dealt forth death loaded my hands, and the infernal bayonet hung by my side. On a sudden the drums were beaten; like Horace and Demosthenes, arms, and attempted to run away: but i was am philosophically threw down my

small point faintly lighted; whilst I waded rapidly through damp and thick darkness. Instead of the deafening thunders of war, a calm and universal silence reigned around me. Light sport of the winds, I began to feel anxious about my fate, when my feet touched a more solid ground. I then perceived I was become a skeleton of a daz

rested, the names of coward, treacherous mortal, astounded my ears; and I was reminded of the oaths I had taken the night before. "Yester day," they told me, "whilst you were drunk you promised"--"I promised!-Alas! gentlemen, I must have been shamefully intoxicated when I promised to slay my fellow creatures." 1 was about to make a long speech, to prove that Izling whiteness, yet I was not displeased or disought not to be compelled to fight, but they would not hear my reasons, and I was dragged away by the obedient crowd. The thunder of man, which in a day destroys more men than the thunder of Heaven does in ages, gave the signal for the battle. The sky was on a sudden wrapped in flames, then darkened with clouds of smoke. Hissing bullets flew around us; whilst our officers animated and impelled the obedient files of soldiers, who rushed forward to deluge with their blood the heaps of corpses which strewed the field. Compelled to fire my musket, like the rest of my companions, I shot the empty air, and preferred death to killing a fellow creature. Pale with horror, I was forced to proceed; and those who rallied at my fears attempted to drown theirs in strong and intoxicating liquors. What a dreadful scene was spread around me! the blasted abode of the damned could not present a more terrific spectacle. Mournful shrieks, the rattling peals of cannon, the bursting thunder of the bombs deafened our ears, and hardened every heart. Panting bodies lay in the midst of expiring horses; others half crushed beneath the merciless feet of men, dragged themselves along the ground, and, howling with anguish, called in vain for mercy. Here, wan and gory faces, with matted hair, lingered gasping in the expectation of death; and there, despair and suffering, and all the scenes of horror started up by war, all the wounds, the varied torments which it inflicts, burst upon the sight. Nature and humanity were incessantly outraged by sacrilegious hands; the birds of the air flew away struck with dismay; whilst a cloud of hungry ravens watched with screams of exultation each bloody carcase, each mangled limb that strewed the earth. I pursued my way over the heaps of the wounded, and the teeth of a dying wretch were fastening on my leg, when a man, more impetuous than the fiery courser which he rode, grasping the hair of my uncovered head, lifted high his murderous steel, but a burning cannon ball spared him the trouble of killing me, and scattered afar my lacerated limbs.

gusted with this sudden change. And in reality I cannot conceive why we shrink at the sight of fleshless bones, the timber frame of a building is equally deserving of our admiration as its outward ornaments.

My white skeleton soon found itself in company with other skeletons of the same nature, and equally naked. Our bones clashed together, and, formed a loud and far-heard rattling noise, which filled me with an involuntary terror, and made me loath my abode. I viewed the surrounding crowd with anxiety and apprehension. Ail their motions were quick and rough, and though reduced to the most deplorable state, they held their heads proudly erect. Heavy clouds rolled over us, and darted the flaming arrows of lightning, which shed a red glare over the hovering gloom.

No one was ever so glad to be slain as I was at this moment. I soon lost sight of the field of battle, and of those senseless beings, who, led by a deceitful phantom of glory, slaughter each other. The earth assumed the appearance of a No. XXIV. Vol. III.

A mild and angelic voice stole upon my ear, and addressed me thus :-" Thou art now in one of the vales where justice tries the guilty mortals; it is called the Valley of Murderers." "O God of Heaven! is it possible! my heart is, pure; my hands are spotless. I have been forced to join the crowd of the murderers, but I have committed no crime."-"Fear not," replied the voice, many who are innocent are mixed with these barbarians; but I am sent to comfort them, and tell them, that they are placed here, in order when the last trumpet shall sound, to shame those who wished to drag them into guilt. Justice, the eldest daughter of the Supreme Being, visits this valley once every six thousand years, and five hundred more still remain unexpired." I expressed the impatience of my grief at this intelligence, and the voice thus replied: :-" You fancy, perhaps, that ages, years, days, and hours, will roll as slowly as when you inhabited the earth; undeceive yourself, while I speak fifty years are already elapsed." At these words hope cheered my heart, and I observed more attentively the walking skeletons that moved around me. The hardness of their souls still pervaded their bones, and they struck each other as they passed. I then listened to a distant murmur, and distinguished the deep and awful roar of the rapid torrent of ages, which the hand of time poured into the motionless lake of eternity. On a sudden this torrent ceased to, flow. Nature paused awhile; a hundred raging thunders burst from the clouds, and a rain of blood fell upon the M m

guilty. That blood was shed since the birth of the universe, and it deluged every murderer In a few minutes I perceived almost every skeleton covered with stains, which they vainly attempted to wipe away. "Fear none of these spots," said the voice of the comforting angel, "they will be seen on assassins alone; every

drop is the blushing image of a murder. It terrifies and condemns them, it betokens grief, remorse, and despair. Behold their fate, the dreadful hour is come."

[To be continued.]

FAMILIAR LECTURES ON USEFUL SCIENCES.

CULINARY RESEARCHES.
[Continued from Page 216.]

LADIES, who every where else form the charm of society, are misplaced at an epicure's dinner, where the attention must not be divided, but is wholly concentrated on the table, and not on what surrounds it. Also on these important occasions the most silly goose is a personage of more consequence than the most amiable woman. But when the bottle is removed, the fair sex resume their rights with renovated power.

the dishes combined, often paralizes a whole party. Young men, in particular, should pay great attention to this truth; as there are many who think themselves disengaged from an invitation by sending a note a few hours previous to the time appointed. But this is a gross and fatal error, into which no real epicure will ever fall.

A general invitation, without fixing any time, is an unmeaning politeness, and many would The visit of digestion is a sacred duty which find themselves much duped if they were taken all men who understand good living, and who at their word. The only invitations fit to be have not lost their appetite for another occasion, accepted are those when the day is mentioned, will never omit. The length of their visit in and even it is better that it should be given in some countries is regulated according to the de- writing. This observation is very important, gree of excellence of the meal in question. I especially to those who are lately arrived from have heard of some that have lasted for three the country, as it has been the cause of many a hours; but many amphitryons would willingly || squire meeting with a cool reception, and a bad dispense with such marks of gratitude. dinner. Those who arrive in London for the first time should be very cautious with respect to invitations.

Servants should be very careful never to remove a course without having been ordered by their master; and he should never give this order until the guests have formally rejected every dish.

There exists in Paris a rule which is made use of in many families, namely, that those who accept an invitation to dinner, and do not come, are fined five hundred francs, and if the excuse be sent eight and forty hours previous to the appointment, the fine is reduced to three hundred. This rule may appear frivolous, or too severe, to many people; but if we take the trouble of reflecting for a moment, we shall find that the absence of one guest who was anxiously expected, and for which the company had been suited, and

Dinner being to an epicure the most important action of the day, he cannot possibly pay too scrupulous an attention to every thing which relates to it.

In houses where there are not many servants kept, it is almost as uncivil to arrive too early as too late, where the lady perhaps is not yet prepared to receive her guests.

Late dinners are most comfortable and convenient, as the hurry of business being over, the whole mind may be concentrated on the plate, our reflections need not wander for a moment from what we are eating, and afterwards we may "quietly retire to repose.

POETRY,

ORIGINAL AND SELECT.