THE WISE CHOICE. I WOULD not wear the warrior's wreath ; For love and virtue sink beneath I would not seek my fame to build I would not wear the diadem, For want and wo hath bought each gem, I would not heap the golden chest, No;-let my wreath unsullied be- ABDALLAH AND SABAT. 1. ABDALLAH and Sabat were intimate friends, and being young men of family in Arabia, they agreed to travel together, and to visit foreign countries. They were both zealous Mahometans. Sabat was son of Ibrahim Sabat, a noble family of the line of Beni Sabat, who trace their pedigree to Mahomet. The two friends left Arabia, after paying their adorations at the tomb of their prophet at Mecca, and travelled through Persia, and thence to Cabul. Abdallah was appointed to an office of state under Zemaun Shah, king of the Cabul; and Sabat left him there, and proceeded on a tour through Tartary. 2. While Abdallah remained at Cabul, he was converted to the Christian faith by the perusal of a Bible (as is supposed) belonging to a Christian from Armenia, then residing at Cabul. In the Mahometan states, it is death for a man of rank to become a Christian. Abdallah endeavoured for a time to conceal his conversion, but finding it no longer possible, he determined to flee to some of the Christian churches near the Caspian sea. He accordingly left Cabul in disguise, and had gained the great city of Bochara, in Tartary, when he was met in the streets of that city by his friend Sabat, who immediately recognized him. 3. Sabat had heard of his conversion and flight, and was filled with indignation at his conduct. Abdallah knew his danger, and threw himself at the feet of Sabat. He confessed that he was a Christian, and implored him, by the sacred tie of their former friendship, to let him escape with his life. "But, Sir," said Sabat, when relating the story himself, "I had no pity. I caused my servants to seize him, and I delivered him up to Morad Shah, king of Bochara. 4. "He was sentenced to die, and a herald went through the city of Bochara, announcing the time of his execution. An immense multitude attended, and the chief men of the city. I also went and stood near to Abdallah. He was offered his life if he would abjure Christ, the executioner standing by him with his sword in his hand. No,' said he, (as if the proposition were impossible to be complied with,) I cannot abjure Christ.' Then one of his hands was cut off at the wrist. He stood firm, his arm hanging by his side, with but little motion. 5. "A physician, by desire of the king, offered to heal the wound, if he would recant. He made no an swer, but looked up steadfastly towards heaven, like Stephen the first martyr, his eye streaming with tears. He did not look with anger towards me. He looked at me, but it was benignly, and with the countenance of forgiveness. His other hand was then cut off. But, sir," said Sabat, in his imperfect English, "he never changed, he never changed. And when he bowed his head to receive the blow of death, all Bochara seemed to say, 'What new thing is this?" " QUESTIONS. 1. Where did Abdallah and Sabat belong?-2. What was their religion?-3. Where and by what means did Abdallah become a Christian ?—4. What is the consequence if a Mahometan of rank becomes a Christian?-5. By what means was Abdallah delivered to the king of Bochara for punishment? THE LAND OF REST. THERE is a calm for those who weep, The Soul, of origin divine, GOD's glorious image, freed from clay, The Sun is but a spark of fire, SHALL NEVER-DIE. THE FRENCH REVOLUTION. 1. THE history of the French revolution, and of the events which led to it, has hitherto been written only by party zealots, and those of no very commanding talents or extended views. When hereafter its Tacitus shall arise, what subjects will it afford for his philosophy and for his eloquence! Virtue and vice mixed in mad confusion; the basest passions and the noblest feelings, on all sides, and often in the same breast, struggling together for the mastery.-France made glorious in a thousand hard-fought fields by the universal and unrivalled valour of Frenchmen.-France rendered up a trembling victim to tyrant after tyrant, by the universal cowardice of Frenchmen.-The female character in its greatest elevation and in its deepest depravity.Woman, now dreadful with fiend-like intelligence and malignity, and now, exalted into more than Roman heroism by higher principles than Pagan antiquity ever knew. 2. Throughout the long and dreadful narrative, the historian will never lose sight of the meek and steady virtues of the patriot king. He will describe him, in early youth, in the midst of a corrupt and sensual court, forming his conscience and regulating his life by the mild and holy precepts of Fenelon; surrounded by bigoted or heartless politicians, yet glowing with affection for his people, and eagerly co-operating with the enlightened friends of freedom in the reform of abuses, the limitation of his own powers, and the establishment of popular rights. He will relate, that he staked every thing on this vast and bold experiment of regulated liberty and representative government; and at last voluntarily offered up his life in that cause, rather than purchase it at the expense of the blood of his countrymen. He will portray him, as the danger thickened, summoning all his virtues to his heart, and rising greater and greater in the hour of calamity. 3. Finally, the historian will paint the sorrows and the consolations of his prison-or rather, he will tell that touching story in the plain words of those who saw and loved him to the last; and then, as he follows the king to the place of his death, accompanied by his last and faithful friend, the venerable Abbe Edgeworth, he will insensibly catch that good man's pious enthusiasm, and with him, forgetting the wrongs of the patriot and the sorrows of the husband and the father, in his veneration of the saint and the martyr, he will exclaim at the foot of the scaffold, "Go, Son of St. Louis, ascend to heaven." SILVER AND GOLD. 1. THE circulation of gold and silver in different ages and in different parts of the world, is a curious and interesting, but, in some respects, a difficult subject of investigation. It appears, that those metals were used as a medium of commerce (so early as in the time of Abraham, and that they served as ornamental articles of dress, in a peried little less remote; and, indeed, although we have no authentic information relative to this particular, it is extremely probable that gold and silver were used as ornaments before they were established as a medium of commerce, and the standard whereby to estimate the comparative value of other articles. 2. We may collect from sacred history, that gold and silver, as well as divers kinds of precious stones, were sufficiently plentiful in Egypt at the time of the egress of the Israelites; and the valuable offerings of the people, for the construction of the tabernacle, with all the rich materials of which that structure was composed, as well as those used for the high priest's garments, and in the whole apparatus of religion, were furnished out of those treasures which they had carried out of that country; for no other channel can be discovered, or even with any appearance of probability imagined, by which the Israelites could at that period be supplied with such plenty of those valuable commodities; for they had not then obtained any wealth by the plunder of enemies; the spoils of Midian, being the first considerable acquisition of this kind after their departure from Egypt; and the Midianitish war was an event posterior to the construction of the tabernacle. 3. In regard to commerce, there is no where any mention made, nor the least appearance of any being carried on by the Israelites, whereby they could have obtained such a stock of valuable materials, so soon after their entrance into the wilderness. In their conquests of the land of Canaan, they appear to have sometimes made a considerable booty; but it is not until the reign of David that we observe that profusion |