Hermippus Redivivus justly observes," do honour to their pres Besides these, there are instances far more extraordimary, which are tolerably well authenticated. It is recorded. that in Bengal there was a certain peasant who reached the age of 336! In America (beyond the British settlements in Fl rida) there died some years ago an Indian prince, who had the full use of his faculties and limbs to the last, who remembered the coming of the Spaniards into those parts: he consequently must have been upwards of 200 years old. There is also an acceum of a man, cauled Francis Secardi Hongo, who, after ARGLYOPO SUCCessureiv ive wives, and having irteen or twenty concipipes, arved at the age of 125 years; and another, i kengears wao utained respectively the extraordinary 3. Sy und Sveurs. eternal solitudes, he finds in that hallowed intercourse ample compensation for the pleasures of society, the comforts of home, and the affectionate endearments of kindred. The awful barrier of the rock for ever interposes between him and the prospect of the world; but it excludes not from his sight the blue heavens, which smile upon him, as it were, with the eye of a father and an everlasting friend. If the wood bear him fruit, he is grateful to him who has thus prepared a table in the wilderness; if he find the clear waters of a brook to quench his thirst withal, he drinks of it with even more delight, because it is the boon of Him, who in the dry and sandy desert did fetch water from the living rock, to refresh a murmuring and thankless generation. This is wisdom!-this is true philosophy!— thus, indeed, may the devout contemplator of Nature's works "find tongues in brooks, sermons in stones, and good in every thing." What a noble view of man! God-like in reason himself-conversing with God! amply, indeed, does he vindicate the divinity of his origin. The anchorites, who forsook the busy scenes of life to muse amidst the solitudes of the desert, or in the gloom of primæval forests, and by the banks of lone sequestered streams, held high communion with heaven; on whom the stars, as they glittered in the vast expanse of air, shot down rays of the divine intelligence; and who, in the mysterious sighings of the gale, as it waved the lofty branches under which they sat, heard the voice of the ever-living God, were a superstitious race no doubt, who forgot in their mystical devotion the first duties of life; but they had noble aspirations, and a sublime sense of religious worship. But when by the irresistible tide of human events, over which man has no controul, he is cast, like a stranded vessel on a lone and desolate sea-beach, far out of the sphere of domestic or social life, environed by the ocean, imprisoned in rocks, an exile forgotten of all men-a wanderer by sea and land for conscience sake; yet still reposing with such implicit faith and singleness of heart, on the kind protecting care of a benevolent and almighty Being, as to be superior to every hardship; cheerful in desolation; familiarly acquainted with and indifferent to every danger, and regarding death no more than as a friend welcome at any hour; neither the hero triumphant amidst the tide of battle, nor the poet in imagining new worlds, nor the philosopher developing the mysteries of the universe, affords so grand a display of the energies of the human soul, or the glorious capabilities of our nature. But to return. Having thus found a stream of water, and, in the wood, a never-failing repast, to supply the wants of nature, he began to think of commencing housekeeper; and being -about to build, as he imagined for life, he determined upon 66 adding to his grotto an apartment outside the rock. This, although being without either spade or mattock he found the earth difficult to deal with, for, to be sure, it had never been stirred since the creation," he raised with marvellous expedition and facility. His next business was to provide himself with some necessary implements of housekeeping, in the construction of which he is equally clever. He cuts a dock for his boat, makes a cart for the conveyance of water, and out of a number of large gourds, which he found growing upon the taller trees, he manufactures pots and pans, and other household utensils. By various experiments upon the different vegetable productions of the island, having furnished his table, in even a sumptuous manner; he began to enjoy himself in his solitary arkoe, like the absolute and sole lord of the country, as he was. There was nothing, indeed, to dispute possession with him—neither man nor beast, nor any animal, but some squirrels, or something like them, in trees, and a few water rats about the lake. Birds there were of various kinds, both in the lake and woods, but such as he had never before seen. There being no fear for the present, it became his business to lay up stores against the season of sickness and dark weather, which last he knew, by the experience of the former year, would be soon upon him. The sun, indeed, he had never seen, since he first entered the gulph, "and though there was very little rain, and but few clouds, yet the brightest day-light never exceeded that of half an hour after sun-set in the summer-time in England, and little more than just reddened the sky." By ekeing out the materials, with which he had stowed his boat, by the soft rushes which he had cut and dried on the banks of the lake, he made himself a very comfortable bed, in which he slept as soundly as he used to do in his hammock; and made very long nights of it, now the dark season was set in. As thus snugly ensconced he lay awake one night or day, he knew not which, he "very plainly heard the sound of several human voices," but though he could distinguish the articulations, the words were unintelligible. Neither did the voices seem at all like such as he "had any where heard before, but much softer, and more musical." He was startled; and rising immediately, took his gun in hand, and stepped on tip-toe into his anti-chamber, where he heard "the voices much plainer, till, after some little time, they, by degrees, died quite away." He was inclined to open the door of his anti-chamber, but owns he was afraid; besides, he could have discovered nothing, by reason of the thick and gloomy wood that surrounded him. He has a thousand surmises "Where should this music be? 'the air, or the earth? How should there be any human beings in his kingdom, and he never yet see them, or any trace of their habitation? But as he had not explored the whole extent of the rock, might there not be innumerable grottos like his own, and this beautiful spot, lonely as it looked, be, after all, very well peopled? Yet, surely, they "don't skulk in their dens, like wild beasts by daylight, and only patrole, for prey, at night? If so, I shall probably, ere long, become a delicious morsel for them an' they meet with me!" This vague fear keeps him much within doors; till hearing no more voices, nor seeing any one, he composed his mind so far, as to think it all a delusion,-to doubt whether he were fully awake when he heard them,-to persuade himself that he had risen in his sleep, in a dream of voices,-calling to mind the stories he had heard of people walking in their sleep,and the strange effects of it;--so the whole notion was now blown over. Alas! for his tranquillity-hardly a week had elapsed, and he is roused afresh by the same sound of voices, and is obliged, at length, to own himself awake. From the languor of the sound, he judges they are at a considerable distance; and again regrets the thickness of the wood, that prevents him from getting a view of the utterers. But the light beginning to return, and not having received any fresh alarm, he partly regained his equanimity; and now put in execution the design he had formed of exploring this island round. The result of his tour was a conviction, that he himself was really and truly the only inhabitant, and that the rock afforded no ingress from the ocean, but by the subterranean gulf, through which he himself had come. To the winds then ride his fears!-there is not one rival or enemy to fear in his whole dominions. He now goes quietly about his own business, and among other employments betakes himself to fishing in the lake, having constructed, very cleverly, a large drag net, of some matweed, which he had accidentally discovered, of the thickness and strength of whipcord. The lake he finds well stocked with fish of various descriptions, which enable him to keep a better table than before. On one occasion, upon casting his net, he met with a resistance that quite amazed him. However, exerting all his might, he finally became conqueror; when he brought up "so shocking a monster," that he was just rising to run for his life, at the very sight. But as he reflected the creature was hampered in the net, and out of its element, he mustered courage to disentangle |