Зображення сторінки
PDF
ePub

of both the houses, in which office he first established a weekly conveyance of letters into all parts of the kingdom. His emoluments being considerable, the Common Council of London endeavored to erect an office in opposition to his, but were checked by a resolution of the Commons, declaring that the office of Post Master was in the sole disposal of Parliament. In 1657, a regular Post Office was erected by Cromwell and his Parliament upon nearly the same model as the present system, with the same rates of postage as were continued till the reign of Anne. After the restoration, (in 1660) a similar office was established by statute.

CORSICA.

THIS French island, the native country of Buonaparte, is 50 leagues in length and about 15 in breadth. The number of inhabitants is 180,000, and they are described as "undisciplinedmountaineers, who think themselves free, when they can assassinate their enemies; and religious, when they practice nothing but superstitions, and forget the principles of peace and of christiani

ty."

Chains of granite mountains occupy the greater part of the island, some of whose summits are 8000 feet high, and covered with perpetual snow. The soil (like that of New England) is silicious, being chiefly formed of decomposed granite. It contains, however, a considerable quantity of animal and vegetable matter; and is in some places very fertile. Agriculture is in its infancy; the Corsican plough is nothing but a piece of wood pointed with iron, which merely scratches the earth. The Corsicans are poor, temperate, and lazy. The soil is owned by the government, communes, and individuals, and the want of established limits between the proprietors is a continual source of disputes. Much of the land is situated at a great distance from the villages to which it belongs; the territory of one village is 30 miles distant. A great portion of their inhabitants live upon the produce of their sheep and goats, and have no other property; these lead' a wandering life like the Tartars.— Two or three districts, where agriculture is more advanced, produce wine, oil, tobacco, silk, figs, raisins, almonds, &c. There is a flourishing Greek colony at Cargese, which was established many centuries ago. There are large tracts of land covered with bushes, and forests of pine and oak are numerous. The oaks are much deformed and mutilated in consequence of the inhabitants cutting off the branches in the winter, that their cattle may feed upon the leaves. Horses, asses, mules, horned cattle, sheep, goats and hogs

are numerous in Corsica, but are all small and degraded. No care is taken of them; there are no stables, folds, or barns; all animals live at all seasons in the open fields or woods. The horses and cattle are ill looking and lean; they are so accustomed to live upon what they can pick up, that they refuse hay when it is offered to them. The inhabitants mount these little horses, and with no bridle but a cord round the nose, ascend and descend the steep hills and mountains. The flesh of the oxen is miserable. The cows have but little milk; cow's milk is used only in the cities, for in the country it is all consumed by the calves, which suck their dams until they are dry. The sheep and goats are all of a black color; with their milk, cheese is made, which is an important article of food. The Corsicans are clothed with coarse stuffs made from the wool of the sheep and the hair of the goats. Wild boars are very common in the island, and there are many hogs of a mixed breed, produced by the wild boar and the domestic sow.

ORIGINAL MISCELLANY,

LUCIFER.

SON OF THE MORNING! where art thou?

Where is thy heaven-born glory now?
Borne down by the Eternal's will,
O'erpowered, but retaining still
Some portion of thy nobler part,
Sublime, in ruin, still thou art.

SON OF THE MORNING! once thy form
Was, with celestial beauty, warm:

The matchless grace which once it showed,
In the third Heaven's refulgence glowed.
What peerless notes were on thy tongue,
When loud the blest "Hosanna" rung!

Thou wert, the brightest in the zone
Of Seraphs round the Eternal's throne.
That view was open unto thee

Which mortal eye can never see ;

Thy feet, with Heaven's own radiance bright,

Once trod the paths of living light.

None, but the arm of Might Divine,

Could hurl thee from a seat like thine.

SON OF THE MORNING! where art thou?
Where is thy heaven-born glory now?

Thy form ;-there is a grandeur there;

But, 'tis the grandeur of despair:

There is a radiance in thine eyes;

But 'tis the fire that never dies.
Still, in thy degradation, great;
Despising Time and scorning Fate!

Redeeming Love is not for thee:
Immutable is Heaven's decree.-
Ages shall pass to ages gone,
Eternity will circle on ;

All mortal joy and woe shall cease,
All nature's motion be at peace;
But Thou must stand, from all apart,

And be, forever, what thou art!
Immutable thy fate must be ;

Redeeming Love is not for thee.

THE MEDITATIONS OF NICHOLAS QUITAM, ESQ.

No. 1.
Introduction.

"Perhaps it may not be quite apropos :
But it may serve the work for portico."

G.

WHEN any rumor of unknown events comes to our ears, albeit according to the accustomed fashion of the workings of nature, we straightway ask ourselves or inquire of others, who hath told this?-and if we be well assured of the credibility of him who bears the tidings as aforesaid, after due hesitation, we stand firmly bound to believe the same: but otherwise we dubitate and ponder long, and finally deny the truth thereof, even from the lack of faithful confidence in the narrator. Doubt beseemeth the wise, lest they be led away blindly into errors. So, if one come unto him expert in the weighty matters of law, or to one skilled in the physical science, he would gladly be made acquainted with the report and estimation of the counsellor or the physician, that he may surrender himself up to his guidance, and earnestly remedy his wrong according to the advice of the one, and have restoration of his health by the prescriptions of the other. Now these things being so, and moreover, there being many cavillers on all places of this planet, called the earth, it seems good to me, to show what was the origin, and who the author of the goodly meditations more fully set forth hereinafter, that none may presume to refuse listening and assent thereto, by reason that they be not certified of their correctness. The discovery and method of obtaining the venera

ble relics was after this wise. My professional abode is located in one of the edifices of the ancient time, which have sturdily resisted the inroads of innovation, and stand among the gaudy brick structures of our own age, as monumental emblems of the simple virtues of our ancestors. Alas! how many comfortless changes have luxury and ostentatious wealth wrought even on the household arrangements of our fathers. They were not giants: therefore they did not raise their roofs to the clouds, and elevate their rooms to the height of the stature of man four times told. They were not blind; and therefore they did not enclose their homes with immeasurable sheets of glass, fixed in huge windows, pouring the whole flood of day light upon their eyes. They did not pride themselves on girlish graces; and therefore they did not hang round their apartments with fearful mirrors ample enough to reflect the stern visages of an army. They loved the cheerful hearth: and delighted to see its merry blaze go roaring up the chimney, and therefore they did not shut up that honest creature, fire, in iron prisons, and compel him to look out through grates and bars.-But we wander away from the straight pathway of our narrative-A still recess in the edifice whereof mention has above been made, was, in former days, the cubiculum of my much honored friend, Nicholas Quitam, whose addition was written Esquire, now gath ered to his fathers;-peace be to his memory! The little opening devised for the admission of the pleasant sun-beams had been darkened by the fabrics of those cunning weavers, the Spiders, who were co-tenants with him of a residence, where no horrible broom or outrageous brush was suffered to disturb the immemorial dust, or interrupt their labors. Right gratefully did they repay the kind protection of the departed luminary of the law, by hanging around his walls, the folds of their rich drapery, and seizing the vagabond flies, who came bustling and buzzing into his territories, like conceited and addled headed coxcombs. Many thoughts crossed my mind as I entered the still retreat on the noon of a summer day. Even as was that twilight gloom, so do men make themselves a dim abode, by darkening the windows of the soul, causing themselves thereby to stumble in the obscurity. As the patriarchal laborers spread out their nets among the dust of years, so does error weave his threads around the most venerable institutions. Much more should I have mused with my usual sobriety, had not my at tention been led captive by an antique article of furniture gravely holding its place in a corner. It was constructed with the profus

ion of carving and chisselling and of the massive proportions, characterising the good old times when utility and beauty were joined in lawful wedlock, and lived as man and and wife together, though now long since divorced. There was much contrivance and advantage, letting alone the fluting of the strong and sturdy posts; for the builder had made it, "a triple debt to pay" as one of our poets almost says; vidilicet; as table, chest, and chair. And herein, if it were not an interruption too tedious for endurance, I could lament with a mournful lamentation, the disuse of those stout structures of noble oak which sustained the weary frames of our ancestors. Such were those which stood in the feudal halls, to receive the mailed persons of the guests who came from the wars of the Holy Land, and told of the bold bearing of England's Lion Hearted Richard, and Palestine's noble Saladin. Those had a manly and solid character, and when they went into the presence of the stately dames and bright eyed damsels, then were they decked in gorgeous apparel, and the coverings of cushions were daintily em"broidered with roses and quaint figures of flowers by the needles of our great-great-grandmothers and their handmaidens. It may be, howsoever, that I speak from the overflowing bitterness of a prejudiced heart: for from that day, the dolefulest mine eyes have seen, when Allice, my beloved wife, did destroy the venerated seat, which had been the ornament and glory of my paternal fireside (may Heaven, in its mercy, forgive her therefore-I cannot)-and did place instead thereof, a half starved upstart of a frame of pine sticks and Indian reeds, daintily daubed with paint after the similitude of shells with their mouths gaping wide open and terrible to behold; from that woful period, I have detested these vile falltraps with great indignation and hatred. For when I placed myself down on the sickly and consumptive chair with keen vexation, I straightway descended upon certain brazen vehicles, called handirons, and thence perigrinated onward, till I arrived among the hot embers and scalding ashes, much to the detriment of my then present peace and dignity and afterwards of my ease: as certain pestilent neighbors were made swift witnesses and competent testifiers of my misfortune and calamity: and with abominable memory, do take unfit occasions to stir up my grief for the loss of my old favorite, and keep alight the embers of sorrow by reminding me of the deplorable destruction of my esteemed friend. And when I have instructed the professors of Arts to furnish me with a seat whereon I may safely recline my tired limbs, and have calculated with pain

« НазадПродовжити »