the whole human species was thus de- | among themselves in bartering for feadelivered of its sorrows; though, at the tures- -one was trucking a lock of gray same time, as we stood round the heap, hairs for a carbuncle, another was and surveyed the several materials of making over a short waist for a pair of which it was composed, there was scarce round shoulders, and a third cheapena mortal in this vast multitude who did ing a bad face for a lost reputation; but not discover what he thought blessings on all these occasions there was not one and pleasures of life, and wonder how of them who did not think the new blemthe owners of them ever came to look ish, as soon as she got it into her possesupon them as burdens and grievances. sion, much more disagreeable than the old one. I made the same observation on every other misfortune or calamity, which every one in the assembly brought upon himself in lieu of what he had parted with; whether it be that all the evils which befall us are, in some measure, suited and proportioned to our strength, or that every evil becomse more supportable by our being accus. tomed to it, I shall not determine. As we were regarding very attentively this confusion of miseries, this chaos of calamity, Jupiter issued out a second proclamation, that every one was now at liberty to exchange his affliction, and to return to his habitation with any such bundle as should be allotted to him. Upon this, Fancy began again to bestir herself, and, parceling out the whole heap with incredible activity, recommended to every one his particular packet. The hurry and confusion at this time was not to be expressed. Some observations which I made upon the occasion, I shall communicate to the public. A venerable, gray-headed man, who had laid down the cholic, and who, I found, wanted an heir to his estate, snatched up an undutiful son, who had been thrown into the heap by his angry father. The graceless youth, in less than a quarter of an hour, pulled the old gentleman by the beard, and had liked to have knocked his brains out; so that, meeting the true father, who came toward him with a fit of the gripes, he begged him to take his son again, and give him back his cholic; they were incapable, either of them, to recede from the choice they had made. A poor galley-slave, who had thrown down his chains, took up the gout instead, but made such wry faces that one might easily perceive he was no great gainer by the bargain. It was pleasant enough to see the several exchanges that were made-for sickness against poverty, hunger against want of appetite, and care against pain. The female world were very busy I could not from my heart forbe pitying the poor hump-back gentlema, mentioned before, who went off a veri well-shaped person with a stone in hs bladder; nor the fine gentleman who he d struck up this bargain with him, th t limped through a whole assembly of li dies, who used to admire him, with a pair of shoulders peeping over his head. I must not omit my own particular adventure. My friend with a long vis age had no sooner taken upon him my short face but he made such a grotesque figure in it that, as I looked at him, I could not forbear laughing at myself, insomuch that I put my own face out of countenance. The poor gentleman was so sensible of the ridicule, that I found he was ashamed of what he had done; on the other side, I found that I myself had no great reason to triumph, for as I went to touch my forehead, I missed the place, and clapped my finger upon my upper lip Besides, as my nose was exceedingly prominent, I gave it two or three unlucky knocks, as I was playing my hand about my face, and aiming at some other part of it. I saw two other gentlemen by me, who were in the same ridiculous circumstances. These had made a fool ish swap between a couple of thick | to be drawn out of this vision, I learned bandy legs and two long trap-sticks that from it never to repine at my own mishad no calves to them. One of these fortunes, or to envy the happiness of looked like a man walking upon stilts, and another, since it is impossible for any was so lifted up into the air above his man to form a right judgment of his ordinary height, that his head turned neighbor's sufferings; for which reason, round with it; while the other made also, I have determined never to think such awkward circles, as he attempted to too lightly of another s complaints, but walk, that he scarcely knew how to to regard the sorrows of my fellow-creamove forward upon his new supporters. tures with sentiments of humanity and Observing him to be a pleasant kind of compassion. fellow, I stuck my cane in the ground, and told him I would lay him a bottle of wine that he did not march up to it on a line that I drew for him in a quarter of an hour. The heap was at last distributed among the two sexes, who made a most piteous sight as they wandered up and down under the pressure of their several burdens. The whole plain was filled with murmurs and complaints, groans and lamentations. Jupiter, at length, taking compassion on the mortals, ordered poor them a second time to lay down their loads, with a design to give every one his own again. They discharged themselves with a great deal of pleasure; after which the phantom who had led them into such gross delusions was commanded to disappear. There was sent in her stead a goddess of a quite differcat figure; her motions were steady and composed, and her aspect serious but cheerful. She every now and then cast her eyes toward heaven, and fixed them upon Jupiter. Her name was Patience. She had no sooner placed herself by the mount of sorrows, but, what I thought very remarkable, the whole heap sunk to such a degree that it did not appear a third part so big as it was before. She afterward returned every man his own proper calamity, and, teaching him how to bear it in the most commodious manner, he marched off with it contentedly, being very well pleased that he had not been left to his own choice as to the kind of evils which fell to his lot. Besides the several pieces of morality MY PSALM. [John Greenleaf Whittier; born in Haverhill, Mass, 1808.1 I MOURN no more my vanished years; An April rain of smiles and tears, My heart is young again. The west winds blow, and singing low, No longer forward, nor behind, The woods shall wear their robes of praise, The south wind softly sigh; Not less shall manly deed and word Make not the blade less strong. Enough that blessings undeserved, That more and more a providence Of love is understood, Making the springs of time and sense, Sweet with eternal good. That death seems but a covered way, That care and trial seem at last, That all the jarring notes of life And so the shadows fall apart, THE HAPPY SOUL. ISAAC WATTS. O happy soul, that lives on high, While men lie groveling here! His hopes are fixed above the sky, And faith forbids his fear. His conscience knows no secret stings; To form a life, whose holy springs His pleasures rise from things unseen, ELOQUENCE OF THE SCRIPTURES. STACKHOUSE. IF we consider the nature of cloquence in general, as it is defined by Aristotle, to be a faculty of persuasion, which Cicero makes to consist in three things, instructing, delighting, and moving our reader's or hearer's mind, we shall find that the Holy Scriptures have a fair claim to these several properties. For where can we meet with such a plain representation of things in point of history, and such cogent arguments in point of precept, as this one volumo furnishes us with? Where is there a history written more simply and naturally, and at the same time more nobly and loftily, than that of the creation of the world? Where are the great lessons of mortality taught with such force and perspicuity, (except in the sermons of Christ, and the writings of the apostles.) as in the book of Deuter. onomy? Where is the whole compass of devotion in the several forms of confession, petition, supplication, thanksgivings, vows, and praises, so punctually taught us as in the book of Psalms? Where are the rules of wisdom and prudence so convincingly laid down as in the Proverbs of Solomon, and the choice sentences of Ecclesiastes? Where vice and impiety of all kinds more justly displayed, and more fully confuted than in the threats and admonitions of the prophets? And what do the little warmths which may be raised in the fancy by an artificial composure and vehemence of style signify, in comparison of those strong impulses and movements which the Holy Scriptures make upon good men's souls, when they represent the fright ful justice of an angry God to stubborn offenders, and the bowels of his compassion and unspeakable kindness to all true penitents and faithful servants? The Holy Scripture, indeed, has none of those flashy ornaments of speech wherewith human compositions so plentifully abound; but then it has a sufficient stock of real and peculiar beauties to recommend it. To give one instance for all out of the history of Joseph and his family; the whole relation, indeed, is extremely natural, but the manner of his discovering himself to his brethren is inimitable: And Joseph could no longer refrain himself; but, lifting up his voice, with tears, said: I am Joseph; doth my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him; for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said to his brethren, Come near me. I pray you; and they came near. And he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt." Nothing, certainly, can be a more lively description of Joseph's tender respect for his father and love for his brethren; and, in like manner, when his brethren returned and told their father in what splendor and glory his son Joseph lived, it is said that Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not; but when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent for him, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived; and Israel said, It is enough; Joseph my son is yet alive: I will go and see him before I die." Here is such a contrast of different passions, of utter despondency, dawning hope and confirmed faith, triumphant joy and paternal af fection, as no orator in the world could express more movingly, in a more easy manner, or shorter compass of words. Nay, more: had I leisure to gratify the curious, I might easily show that those very figures and schemes of speech which are so much admired in profane authors, as their great beauties and ornaments, are nowhere more conspicuous than in the sacred. One figure, for instance, esteemed very florid among the masters of art, is when all the members of a period begin with the same word. The figure is called anaphora; and yet (if I mistake not) the 15th Psalm affords us a very beautiful passage of this kind: "Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? who shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh uprightly; he that backbiteth not with his tongue; he that maketh much of them that fear the Lord; he that sweareth to his hurt, and changeth not; he that putteth not out his money to usury, nor taketh r ward against the innocent. He that does these things shall never be moved.' The ancient orators took a great deal of pride in ranging finely their antitheta. Cicero is full of this, and uses it man times to a degree of affectation; and yet I can not find any place wherein he has surpassed that passage of the prophet, "He that killeth an ox, is as if he slew a man; he that sacrificeth a lamb, is as if he cut off a dog's neck; he that offereth an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood." But above all other figures that whereon poets and orators love chiefly to dwell, is the hypotyposis. or lively description; and yet we shall hardly find in the best classic authors any thing comparable, in this regard, to the Egyptians' destruction in the Red Sea, related in the song of Moses and Miriam; to the description of the leviathan, in Job; to the descent of God. and a storm at sea, in the Psalmist; to the intrigues of an adulterous woman in the proverbs; to the pride of the Jewish ladies, in Isaiah; and to the plague of locusts, in Joel, which is represented like the ravaging of a country and storming a city by an army: "A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness, and nothing shall escape them. Before their face people shall be pained; all faces shall gather blackness. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; they shall march every one in his way, and they shall not break their ranks. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter into the windows as a thief." The description is more remarkable because the analogy is carried quite throughout without straining; and the whole processes of a conquering army, in the manner of their march, their destroying the provision and burning the country, in their scaling the walls, breaking into houses, and running about the vanquished city, are fully delineated and set before our eyes. excellent art, highly conducive to the clearness and perspicuity of discourse; but when we affirm that it is an art of modern invention in comparison to the times when the sacred penman wrote, and incompatible with the manner of writing which was then in vogue, we, indeed, in Europe, who, in this matter, have taken our examples from Greece, can hardly read any thing with pleasure that is not digested into order and sorted under proper heads; but the eastern nations, who were used to a free way of discourse, and never cramped their notions by methodical limitations, would havo despised a composition of this kind as much as we do a school-boy's theme, with all the formalities of its exordiums, ratios, and confirmations. And if this was no precedent for other nations, much less can we think that God Almighty's method ought to be confined to human laws, which, being designed for the narrowness of our conceptions, might be improper and injurious to His, whose "thoughts are as far above ours as the heavens are higher than the earth." From these few examples (for it would be endless to proceed in instances of this kind), it appears that the Holy Bible is far from being defective in The truth is, inspiration is, in some 'point of eloquence, and (what is a pe- measure, the language of another world, culiar commendation of it) its style is and carries in it the reasoning of full of a graceful variety-sometimes spirits, which, without controversy, is majestic as becomes that "high and vastly different from ours. We, indeed, holy one who inhabiteth eternity," to make things lie plain before our sometimes so low as to answer the other part of his character, "who dwelleth with him that is of an humble spirit," and at all times so proper, and adapted so well to the several subjects it treats of, that whoever considers it attentively will perceive in the narrative parts of it a strain so simple and unaffected, in the prophetic and devotional something so animated and sublime, and in the doctrinal and preceptive such an air of dignity and authority as seems to speak its original divine. We allow, indeed, that method is an understandings, are forced to sort them out into distinct partitions, and consider them little by little, so that, at last, by gradual advances, we may come to a tolerable conception of them; but this is no argument for us to think that pure spirits do reason after this manner. Their understandings are quick and intuitive; they see the whole compass of rational inferences at once, and have no need of those little methodical distinctions which oftentimes help the imperfections of our intellects. Now, though we do not assert that the language of the Holy Scriptures is an |