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reason it is a matter rarely referred to in polished society; and this accounts for your being hitherto uninformed on the subject. But truly, sir, if the inhabitants of the place from whence you came are not liable to any similar misfortune, I advise you to betake yourself back again with all speed; for be assured there is no escape here-nor could I guaranty your safety even for a single hour!"

17. "Alas!" replied the adventurer, "I must submit to the conditions of my enterprise, of which, till now, I little understood the import. But explain to me, I beseech you, something more of the nature and consequence of this wondrous change, and tell me at what period it commonly happens to man." While he thus spoke, his voice faltered, and his whole frame shook violently; his countenance was as pale as death.

18. By this time his companion, finding the discourse becoming more serious than was agreeable, declared he must refer him to the priests for further information, this subject being very much out of his province. "How!" exclaimed the stranger, "then I cannot have understood you. Do the priests only die? are not you to die also ?"

19. His friend, evading these questions, hastily conducted his importunate companion to one of their magnificent temples, where he gladly consigned him to the instructions of the priesthood. The emotion which the stranger had betrayed, when he received the first idea of death, was yet slight in comparison with that which he experienced as soon as he gathered, from the discourses of the priests, some notions of immortality, and of the alternative of happiness or misery in a future state.

20. But this agony of mind was exchanged for transport, when he learned that, by the performance of certain conditions before death, the state of happiness might be secured. His eagerness to learn the nature of these terms, excited the surprise and even the contempt of his sacred teachers. They advised him to remain satisfied for the present with the instructions he had received, and defer the remainder of the discussion till to-morrow.

21." How!" exclaimed the novice, "say ye not that death may come at any hour? may it not come this hour? and what if it should come before I have performed these conditions? O! withhold not the excellent knowledge from me a single moment!" The priests, suppressing a smile at this simplicity, then proceeded to explain their theology to their attentive auditor.

22. But who can describe the ecstasy of his happiness, when he was given to understand the required conditions were, gene

rally, of easy and pleasant performance, and the occasional difficulties, which might attend them, would entirely cease with the short term of his earthly existence. "If, then, I understand you rightly," said he to his instructors, "this event which you call death, and which seems in itself strangely terrible, is most desirable and blissful.

23. "What a favor is this which is granted to me, in being sent to inhabit a planet in which I can die!" The priests again exchanged smiles with each other; but their ridicule was wholly lost on the enraptured stranger. When the first transports of his emotion had subsided, he began to reflect with more uneasiness on the time he had already lost since his arrival. 24. "Alas! what have I been doing?" exclaimed he. "This gold which I have been collecting, tell me, reverend priests, will it avail me any thing when the thirty or forty years are expired, which you say, I may possibly sojourn in your planet?" "Nay," replied the priests, "but verily you will find it of excellent use so long as you remain in it.”

25. "A very little of it shall suffice me," replied he; "for consider how soon this period will be past. What avails it what my condition may be for so short a season? I will betake myself from this hour, to the grand concerns of which you have so charitably informed me.'

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26. Accordingly, from that period, continues the legend, the stranger devoted himself to the performance of those conditions on which, he was told, his future welfare depended-but, in so doing, he had an opposition to encounter wholly unexpected, and for which he was even at a loss to account.

27. By thus devoting his chief attention to his chief interests, he excited the surprise, the contempt, and even the enmity of most of the inhabitants of the city; and they rarely mentioned him but with a term of reproach, which has been variously rendered in all the modern languages. Nothing could equal the stranger's surprise at this circumstance; as well as that of his fellow-citizens appearing, generally, so extremely indifferent as they did, to their own interests.

28. That they should have so little prudence and forethought as to provide only for their necessities and pleasures for that short part of their existence in which they were to remain on this planet, he could consider as the effect of disordered intellect: so that he even returned their incivilities to himself with affectionate expostulation, accompanied by lively emotions of compassion and amazement.

29. If ever he was tempted for a moment to violate any of the conditions of his future happiness, he bewailed his own madness with agonizing emotions; and to all the invitations he received from others to do any thing inconsistent with his real interests, he had but one answer"Oh," he would say, “I am to die-I am to die."

LESSON LII.

Earthquake in Calabria.-GOLDSMITH.

1. IN 1638, the celebrated father Kircher, and four others, were on a journey to visit Mount Etna, and the wonders in Calabria, the southern extremity of Italy. Having hired a boat, they left Messina in Sicily, for Euphemia a city in Calabria. Having crossed the strait, they landed at the promontory of Pelorus, where they were detained, for some time, by bad weather.

2. At length, wearied by delay, they resolved to prosecute their voyage. But scarcely had they quitted the shore, when all nature seemed to be in motion, and although the air was calm and serene, the sea became violently agitated, covered with bubbles-the gulf of Charybdis* seemed whirled round in an unusual manner,-Mount Ætna sent forth vast volumes of smoke-and Strombolif belched forth flames, with a noise like peals of thunder.

3. Alarmed for their safety, they rowed with all possible haste for the shore;-but no sooner had they landed, than their ears were stunned with a horrid sound, resembling that of an infinite number of carriages driven fiercely forward,-wheels rattling, and thongst crackling. This was followed by a most dreadful earthquake, which shook the place so violently, that they were thrown prostrate on the ground. This paroxysm having ceased, they started for Euphemia, which lay within sight, but looking towards the city, they perceived a frightful dark cloud resting upon the place. Having waited until the cloud had passed away, wonderful to tell,-no city was there;

it had totally sunk;-and in its place a dismal and putrid lake was seen. All was a melancholy solitude, a scene of hideous desolation.

Charybdis, a dangerous whirlpool on the coast of Sicily.

Stromboli, an island in the Tuscan sea, belonging to Sicily. On it is a volcano.

+ Thong, a strap of leather, used as a whip,

4. Proceeding pensively along, in search of some human being for information, they perceived a boy sitting by the shore, who appeared stupified with terror. They asked him concerning the fate of the city;-but he gave them no answer. They intreated, begged him to tell them;-he only gazed on the dismal lake; they offered him food, but he heeded it not ;they tried to rouse him from his insensibility, but pointing to the place of the city, with a shriek he fled, and was seen no more.

The Wild Boy.-CHARLES W. THOMPSON.

1. He sat upon the wave washed shore,
With madness in his eye;

The surges' dash-the breakers' roar-
Passed unregarded by-

He noticed not the billows' roll,
He heeded not their strife-
For terror had usurped his soul,
And stopped the streams of life.

2. They spoke him kindly-but he gazed,
And offered no reply-

They gave him food-he look'd amazed,
And threw the morsel by.

He was as one o'er whom a spell
Of darkness hath been cast;
His spirit seemed alone to dwell
With dangers that were past.

3. The city of his home and heart,
So grand-so gaily bright,
Now touch'd by Fate's unerring dart,
Had vanish'd from his sight.
The earthquake's paralizing shake
Had rent it from its hold-
And nothing but a putrid lake
Its tale of terror told.

4. His kindred there, a numerous band,
Had watch'd his youthful bloom,

In the broad ruin of the land

All-all had met their doom!
But the last night, a mother's voice
Breath'd over him in prayer-
She perished-he was left no choice
But mute and blank despair.

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1. BESHREW the sombre pencil! said I vauntingly-for I envy not its powers, which paints the evils of life with so hard and deadly a coloring. The mind sits terrified at the objects she has magnified herself and blackened: reduce them to their proper size and hue, she overlooks them.

2. 'Tis true, said I, correcting the proposition-the Bastilef is not an evil to be despised-but strip it of its towers-fill up the fosset-unbarricade the doors-call it simply a confinement, and suppose 'tis some tyrant of a distemper and not of a man -which holds you in it-the evil vanishes, and you bear the other half without complaint.

3. I was interrupted in the hey-day of this soliloquy, with a voice which I took to be of a child which complained, "it could not get out."-I looked up and down the passage, and seeing neither man, woman, nor child, I went out without further attention.

4. In my return back through the passage, I heard the same words repeated twice over; and looking up, I saw it was a Starling hung in a little cage-"I can't get out—I can't get out," said the Starling.

5. I stood looking at the bird; and to every person who came through the passage, it ran fluttering to the side towards which they approached it, with the same lamentations of its captivity "I can't get out," said the Starling.

6. God help thee! said I, but I will let thee out, cost what it will; so I turned about the cage to get at the door; it was

* Pronounced som'-ber, gloomy, dull, sad.

+ Pronounced Bas-teel, an old castle in Paris, built between 1369 and 1383, and used as a state prison. It was demolished in 1789.

* Pronounced foss, a ditch.

4 So-lil-o-quy, a speeck made by cne alone to himself.

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