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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."

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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."

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 ne 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 Etna 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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5. He sat alone, of all the crowd
That lately throng'd around,—
The ocean winds were piping loud,
He did not heed their sound,
They ask'd him of that city's fate,
But reason's reign was o'er-
He pointed to her ruin'd state,
Then fled-and spoke no more.

LESSON LIII.

The Starling.-STERNE.

1. BESHREW the sombre* pencil! said I vauntingly—for 1 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.

"So-lil-o-quy, a speech made by one alone to himself.

twisted and double twisted so fast with wire, there was no getting it open without pulling the cage to pieces-I took both hands to it.

7. The bird flew to the place where I was attempting his deliverance, and thrusting his head through the trellis, pressed his breast against it as if impatient.-I fear, poor creature! said I, I cannot set thee at liberty-"No," said the Starling.-"I can't get out, I can't get out," said the Starling.

8. I never had my affections more tenderly awakened; nor do I remember an incident in my life, where the dissipated spirits, to which my reason had been a bubble, were so sudden ly called home.

9. Mechanical as the notes were, yet so true in tune to nature were they chanted, that in one moment they overthrew all ny systematic reasonings upon the Bastile; and I heavily walked up stairs, unsaying every word I had said in going down them.

10. Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, slavery!—still thou art a bitter draught! and though thousands in all ages have been made to drink of thee, thou art no less bitter on that

account.

11. "Tis thou, liberty-thrice sweet and gracious goddesswhom all in public or in private worship, whose taste is grateful, and ever will be so, till nature herself shall change-no tint of words can spot thy snowy mantle, or chymic power turn thy sceptre into iron-with thee to smile upon him as he eats his crust, the swain is happier than his monarch, from whose court thou art exiled.

12. Gracious Heaven! Grant me but health, thou great Bestower of it, and give me but this fair goddess as my companion—and shower down thy mitres,* if it seem good unto thy divine Providence, upon those heads which are aching for them.

13. The bird in his cage pursued me into my room; I sat down close by my table, and leaning my head upon my hand, I began to figure to myself the miseries of confinement; I was in a right frame for it, and so I gave full scope to my imagina

tion.

14. I was going to begin with the millions of my fellow creatures born to no inheritance but slavery; but finding, however affecting the picture was, that I could not bring it near me, and * Mitre, a kind of crown, or ornament, worn on the head by bishops on solemn occasions

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