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ly promoted by giving to the rising
generation, a better grounded, and
more solid, but less extended educa-
tion; an education that would, at
least, deter the inexperienced from
falling into the follies so much to be
deprecated, of vanity, pride, and
conceit; and occasion the justness
of the lines in Pope to be less fre-
quently verified:

"A little learning is a dangerous thing,
Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring;
Their shallow draughts intoxicate the brain,
But drinking largely sobers us again," &c.

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THE FINDING OF MOSES.

THE far-stretching Nilus one chrysolite seems,
And bright is the heav'n from his bosom that beams;
But ne'er hath his billow reflected before

A form so divine, as approaches his shore.

Like the star that first gems the still brow of the night,
She comes-and her maidens are lost in her light;
Like that star gliding down to the slumbering wave
She hastens her pearly-pure bosom to lave.

But, daughter of Pharaoh! the boast of the land!
What spell now arrests that fleet foot in the sand?

Why bends that keen eye o'er the flags spreading yonder?
Why cluster, ye damsels, in silence around her?

Chills the crocodile-god that pure bosom with fear?
Or is crocodile-man with his wiles lurking near?
No-staid is that footstep, and staid is that eye,
But of danger she dreams not—no danger is nigh.
'Tis yon garlanded skiff, by the brink of the stream,
Like the cloud-built pagoda of day's dying beam-
Like the fairy-fraught car o'er the moon-beam that strays,
Has flutter'd her bosom, and fetter'd her gaze.

And her maidens have sped with the fleetness of thought,
And the trophy, triumphant, before her have brought;

"Tis of bulrushes built, and betokens an art

That is Nature's alone-that but springs of the heart.

So goodly the casket, oh! who may divine

The price of the jewel that's treasured within!

'Tis display'd-a sweet babe, while she looks, looka again,
And the innocent wept, and he wept not in vain.

'TIS

THE ADVENTURER'S STORY.

IS a melancholy thing for those who possess any romance of character, to find how little of the savage is now remaining to us. Men very generally wear skirts to their coats, and brigands, pirates, bandit chiefs, and others of the same interesting species, are growing very tame. 'Gad! it was a satisfaction to be pilfered in those days, when a tall horseman in black, struck with the appearance of your travelling carriage, insinuated a pale aristocratic hand, and declared as he was a gentleman, that your purse was all he desired. But this, after all, was but a silly mode of entertainment, compared with the horrible delights of an all but murder in Italy, or the Black Forest. Singular the sweetness of being torn from your family, thumped on the head by genuine desperadoes, gagged, blindfolded, handcuffed, or what not, and after a fortnight of bread and water, giving up half your patrimony as a ransom. Ye mountains of Abruzzi, and ye dear villains, who were wont to murder so beautifully, though I have never myself been slain, nor robbed of aught but two bad pocket handkerchiefs, somewhere near Covent Garden.-Oh! sabres, scymitars, caves, and all other bloody places! -Oh! money and lives lost! What rapturous visions do these holy ideas excite !

Such have been the exclamations of some amongst the giddy rout, who rush from merry England for excitement abroad. I grieve for the professor of these tenets, that police laws, like snuffers, have cleared away so many thieves;-it is distressing to think, that even Lord Cochrane should have taken arms against the pirates, and that so few adventures being to be had now-a-days, foreign land is no longer desirable, as a genteel means of procuring them.

This is not much to the purpose. -I had a friend, who, with knap

sack on back, launched himself from England, to forget, if possible, the vile common places of his native land, He was a man of singular temper— perhaps I should call him rather too heteroclite, but that his crotchets were generally harmless. Yet the being a continual exception to the common rule of humanity, made his companions rather more like so many dittos of each other than was agree. able,-for their little deviations and. small eccentricities, seemed very ordinary by the side of his exceeding crookedness.

We left Falmouth, together in a Mediterranean packet. France was dull, and land-travelling insipid, unless the road happened to be unfrequented. But a first voyage is a sad tamer of your wild spirits. And when poor Roberts appeared on deck after his noviciate of sickness, it was strange to hear him babble of his relations, and wonder how far it might be to Gibraltar.

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And," said he, "I should like to know how Napoleon looked in a gale of wind? Was he faint of heart think you, when these desperate lurches, here's one,―take care Ned

take care!-I thought we had been down!-Eh? they call that a sea, don't they?-these hanged sailors are never satisfied but with a hurricane, But I was asking just now, whether Alexander,-no, whether Napoleon was likely to suffer much from this torture, which I can't help thinking"

Here was a pause, during which all the features of his face seemed to undergo a change of position;-his lips quivered, but uttered nought.

"What can't you help thinking, Roberts?"

"Eh?-Think? was I thinking? -what can it matter,-to-morrow Ned, to-morrow we'll talk all about it-better weather then,-I hope to-morrow”—

And so saying, he tottered down

the ladder to his hospital birth below.

All this was forgotten on the morning of our arrival at Cadiz. I had just made my appearance on deck, when he came up to me rubbing his hands, with a real chuckle. "At last, Ned; at last.-Just look around you, my boy; did you ever see such a bay? Yonder's St. Mary's, and that's Chiclona, and this large white town on the shore is Cadiz itself, and those dark hills, are called-let's see-St. Mary's-Chiclana.—No, hang it !-I've forgotten their name. But never mind; look at these ships-scarcely two of a nation, ye see. That odd little thing with the raking masts is a brig of war from Brazil. They are just saluting her. She's the first that ever was saluted. Then see a Sardinian cruizer, and the Barbary flag. Oh! but I haven't yet introduced you to my friend." And he pointed to the harbour pilot, who had just come on board,- dark ill-favoured dog, scowling beneath a flat round hat, ornamented with tags and tassels.

-a

"There's a man for you;" cried my Cicerone," he does not understand a word of English, I promise you. Isn't there rogue written on his countenance? I only wish I could converse with him a little."

And with that he darted off to the Spaniard, and commenced a strange parley, wherein all his knowledge of Greek, Latin, and French was employed. This was only interrupted by the arrival of the shore-boat, in which we were soon conveyed to land. Roberts was in ecstacies. He thought the quay the masterpiece of human labour;-the gateway-a triumphal arch for Jupiter himself. Then the various people in their national costumes: the priest bowing to the salutations of the mob; the venders of fruit at their little stalls; the military in French uniforms! 'Twas almost too much for him.

We had agreed to assemble, after our rambles, at an English inn, kept by one Wall, a fellow countryman. There was provided a repast, seem

ingly all dainties, after our sea privations, and with true relish was it discussed. But one of our party failed in the agreement; Roberts had not arrived. The captain began to be nervous; where to seek him, or with what success, he could not guess, and in less than an hour he must set sail for Gibraltar. Well! the time passed on, and we were almost in despair, when in rushed our mislaid friend; breathless, and, according to Sternhold and Hopkins, "flying all abroad." He took a chair, put out his hand towards me, and addressed the packet master :—

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Captain, I must leave you. Not for long, perhaps, but leave you I

must.

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By no means; and surely my good fellow❞—

"Hush, now, no waste of breath they are waiting for me. All I have to say is--once more and lastly,

can you refuse this glorious expedition over the hills in a new country, and so avoid that hanged tossing about at sea?"

"And how shall you like the easy motion of your mule, think you?" "I care not."

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"And the language-have you an interpreter?"

"Pooh! who wants one? Not I I want nothing of the sort; but I did expect that you, Ned, would have liked my scheme; I thought you were just the man. But never mind; give me your haud, old fellow, we shall meet at Gib., and I'll tell you all about it."

He was off in a moment; but the hour for our meeting was not so soon as he then arranged it to be.

A long while after this occurrence,

I was sitting in a coffee-room at Venice with an old friend; and, for aught I know, talking of this very person and these same events, when a tall man, with light coloured nioustachoes, and a red Albanian cap, entered the apartment. He was giving directions to the waiter, in French; and when at length he sate down at the common table with ourselves, it was not at first evident that his sunburnt visage was that of my eccentric crony, Roberts. Such, however, was the case. To recognise him was not easy, but his eyes had no sooner fallen on me, than he exclaimed with all his former heartiness," What, my good friend, Ned, are you here? Well! the very last person! And you too, Harvey? This is a pleasure! I fancied I was come to a land of strangers, and I am greeted by two of the best fellows I ever knew." And so saying, he grasped us heartily by the hand, with a force that might almost have seemed unfriendly.

"I am not the same youth, you see, as when you left me."

6.

Pardon me," said I," when you left us."

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Aye, aye, it was so; well, never mind that; I have since then seen strange things."

"And what became of you after you trotted away from Cadiz?"

"Why, why-I tell you what, Ned, about that we'll say nothing ;perhaps 'twas a foolish affair- but 'tis past; and now for other matters."

"But my dear Roberts-" "No, Ned-I entreat you, as you love me, not a syllable about it."

And the matter has remained a mystery unto this day. Anon, we came to the subsequent adventures of the hero. The Chroniclers of that period may perhaps tell some of his valiant deeds; his perils by water and flood; his gay enterprises and happy achievements. But for me, poor tale-teller as I am, such a memorial is too weighty. He had been roving up and down the East, a complete knight-errant, and with much success, if to be injured, and beaten,

and maltreated, in all moods, have in them aught that may seem satisfactory. How he descanted upon the Black Flag of the Archipelago, and the freebooters of the Morea! What marvellous 'scapes of annihilation had he undergone! My pulses beat more fiercely than is their wont, as I remind me of his long disasters amongst Jews and Heathens, “Anthropophagi, and men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders." These were recounted in suitably long discourse, and I began to consider him prolix, just at the point when Harvey had set him down as a gasconader. But still he proceeded in wordy toil, and not a bit seem anxious to abate, when one of his hearers showed first symptoms of impatience.

"Roberts," said he; "I beg pardon for interrupting you; but was not your ardour subdued by these everlasting trials of it ?".

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Not in the least, my boy, as you shall hear."

"Nay, but one other word first; -are you still willing to encounter these mishaps, as we should call them, even though you have had such a life of them?"

"Why, yes," replied the other, "if any present themselves."

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Humph!" drawled out Harvey, and sate patiently till the budget was exhausted, and we parted for the night.

On the following morning, as we were sitting together after breakfast, a small dirty piece of paper, folded up in a most careful fashion, was delivered to Roberts. The superscription, written in bold, strong characters, was French; and the contents were expressed in the same language, fortunately for Roberts, who as yet knew scarcely a word of Italian. He read it, twisted his moustache, reread it, smiled, stared, and swallowed at a draught a boiling cup of coffee. Then, mute as the grave, he handed the despatch to me, which ran as follows:-"Sir-We have heard of you, no matter how, down the Adriatic. To-morrow, night, a

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And go he did.

On the following night he marched to the place of rendezvous, with his moustache more than ordinarily cocked up at the corners, in the semblance of a curl. He had been all the morning studying a volume of "Familiar Conversations ;" and to confirm his spirit, a heavy flask had been stored with cordials. It was a raw night, and not a star twinkled as he got into the gondola, manned by the unusual complement of three nien. For a short time a solemn si lence prevailed: but as the canal widened, and gradually merged into the open water, Roberts's anxiety could be no longer restrained.

"Is there any gentleman here named Spalatro ?"

One of the three answered, in bad French, that "the Captain was not with them."

"Where shall we meet him?" “I'may not say.” "What undertaking has he hand to-night-can you tell

that?"

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me

"Not I," was the brief reply; and the uncourteous subaltern gazed back on the canal from the stern of the boat, where he had taken his position.

This sort of mystery, however, was just as it should be; and Ro

berts hummed the fag end of "Row, brothers, row." But the sous of Venice are minstrels by inheritance, and the cue be ng now given, his companions at their oars lacked no vehemence of lungs as each trolled forth a favourite ditty :

"Ninetta Caretta

Se assai piu ben fatta,
Ma st' altra e piu matta
Scaldada da amor."

And the sweet warbler gave place to his fellows, who in shrill falsetto pipes squeaked forth the remnant :

"El'omo xe' un tomo

Lo istizza lo impizza Le Donne che stuzzega

La ponta del cuor.'

This was all very amusing to poor Roberts, who not comprehending a syllable, of course deemed the burthen to be of wars and tumults; but when the Primo Senore, with replenished windpipe, chimed into the chorus,

"El'omo xe' un tomo," &c.

mine hero considered this bellowing somewhat indiscreet, if not unbecoming, in men so circumstanced. But his little plans of reform fell to the ground, for no question could elicit a polysyllabic answer from Spalatro's representative; and surely if to be taciturn were to be seemly, he played his part to perfection.

in

They rowed onward, occasionally talking to each other in a low tone, then bursting forth with some new cauzonets, though seldom without a taste of "Ninetta Caretta." All this while Spalatro's deputy sate moody abstraction, nothing dashed. He spoke not, he sang not, but singular suppressed sounds, like bubbles. at the mouth of a fountain, were half distinguished by his new companion in arms, as playing upon his lips, and only imprisoned by force of pockethandkerchief. It was very cold, and poor Roberts felt as though the enterprise lost somewhat for want of better society. He could not learn in what direction they were steering, nor at what distance was the desired spot, nor the nature of the affair; in short, he was becoming melancholic.

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