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Oh! who would not welcome that moment's returning,

When passion first wak'd a new life thro his frame;

And his soul, like the wood, that grows precious in burning,

Gave out all its sweets to love's exquisite flame. (M)

TO NIGHT.

BY HORACE Twiss, Esq.

Oh! cast not a damp on this hour of delight, Nor check the glad pulse that is bounding to

night;

The scene sparkles gaily and bids us be blest, For fled are the visions of sorrow and fear, The suushine ofbeauty is warm on the breast, And all that is lovely seems loveliest here.

To-night not a tear must be suffer'd to roll, But the drops that may fall from the brim of the bowl;

For tho' like the bubbles that float in our wine,

Werise on thesurface,andfadewitha breath, Yet the bubbles themselves have a moment to shine,

Aud they dance on the wave, 'ere they sink into death.

Tales.

(M.)

Songs.

I SAW FROM THE BEECH.

An Irish Melody,

By T. MOORE, Esq.

I saw from the beach, when the morning was shining,

A bark o'er the waters move gloriously on; I came when the sun o'er the beach was de

clining,

The bark was still there, but the waters were gone.

Ah! such is the fate of our life's early promise, So passing the spring-tide of joy we have known;

Each wave that we danc'd on at morning ebbs from us,

And leaves us, at eve, on the bleak shore alone.

Ne'er tell me of glories serenely adorning The close of our day, the calm eve of our night;

Give me back, give me back the wild freshness of morning,

Her clouds and her tears are worth evening's best lighht.

STORY OF ALBERT BANE. WHEN I was, last autumn, at my friend Colonel Caustic's in the country, I saw there on a visit to Miss Caustic, a young gentleman and his sister, children of a neighbour of the Colonel, with whose appearance and manner I was peculiarly pleased. "The history of their parents," said my friend, "is somewhat particular and I love to tell it, as I do every thing that is to the honour of our nature. Man is so poor a thing taken in the gross, that when I meet with an instance of nobleness in detail, I am fain to rest upon it long, and to recal it often; as, in coming hither over our barren hills, you would look with double delight on a spot of cultivation or of beauty.

The father of those young folks, whose looks you were struck with, was a gentleman of considerable domains and extensive influence on the northern frontier of our country. In his youth he lived, as it was then more the fashion than it is now, at the seat of his ancestors, surrounded with Gothic grandeur,

and compassed with feudal followers and dependants, all of whom could trace their connection, at a period more or less remote, with the family of their chief. Every domestic in his house bore the family-name, and looked on himself as in a certain degree partaking its dignity, and sharing its fortunes. Of these, one was in a particular manner the favourite of his master. Albert Bane, (the surname, you know, is generally lost in a name descriptive of the individual) had been his companion from his infancy. Of an age so much more advanced as to enable him to be a sort of tutor to his youthful lord. Albert had early taught him the rural exercises and rural amusements, in which himself was eminently skilful; he had attended him in the course of his education at home, of his travels abroad, and was still the constant companion of his excursions, and the associate of his sports.

"On one of these latter occasions, a favourite dog of Albert's, whom he had trained himself, and of whose qualities he was proud, happened to mar the sport which his master expected, who, irritated at the disappointment, and having his gun ready cocked in his hand, fired at the animal, which, however, in the hurry of his resentment, he missed. Albert, to whom Oscar was a child, remonstrated against the rashness of the deed, in a manner rather too warm for his master, 'ruffled as he was with the accident, and conscious of being in the wrong, to bear. In his passion he struck his faithful attendant; who suffered the indignity in silence, and retiring, rather in grief than in anger, left his native country that very night; and when he reached the nearest town, enlisted with a recruiting party of a regiment then on foreign service. It was in the beginning of the war with France which broke out in 1744, rendered remarkable for the rebellion which the policy of the French court excited, in which some of the first families of the Highlands were unfortunately engaged. Among those who joined the standard of Charles, was the master of Albert.

"After the battle of Culloden, so fatal to that party, this gentleman, along with others who had escaped the slaughter of the field, sheltered themselves from the rage of the unsparing soldiery among the distant recesses of their country. To

him his native mountains offered an asylum; and thither he naturally fled for protection. Acquainted in the pursuits of the chace with every secret path and unworn track, he lived for a considerable time, like the deer of his forest, close hid all day, and only venturing down at the fall of the evening, to obtain from some of his cottagers, whose fidelity he could trust, a scanty and precarious support. I have often heard him, for he is one of my oldest acquaintances, describe the scene of his hiding-place, at a later period, when he could recollect it in its sublimity, without its horror. At times,' said he, when I ventured to the edge of the wood, among some of those inaccessible crags which you remember a few miles from my house, I have heard, in the pauses of the breeze which rolled solemn through the pines beneath me, the distant voices of the soldiers, shouting in answer to one another amidst the inhuman search. I have heard their shots re-echoed from cliff to cliff, and seen reflected from the deep still lake below, the gleam of those fires which consumed the cottages of my people. Sometimes shame and indignation well nigh overcame my fear, and I have prepared to rush down the steep, unarmed as I was, and to die at once by the swords of my enemies; but the instinctive love of life prevailed, and starting as the roe bounded by me, I have again shrunk back to the shelter I had left.

'One day,' continued he, the noise was nearer than usual; and at last, from the cave in which I lay, I heard the parties immediately below so close to me, that I could distinguish the words they spoke. After some time of horrible suspence, the voices grew weaker and more distant; and at last I heard them die away at the further end of the wood. I rose and stole to the mouth of the cave; when suddenly a dog met me, and gave that short quick bark by which they indicate their prey. Amidst the terror of the circumstance, I was yet master enough of myself to discover that the dog was Oscar; and I own to you I felt his appearance like the retribution of justice and of Heaven." Stand!" cried a threatening voice,and a soldier pressed through the thicket, and his bayonet charged. It was Albert! Shame, confusion, and remorse, stopped my utterance, and I stood motionless before him.

"My master!" said he, with the stifled voice of wonder and of fear, and threw himself at my feet. I had recovered my recollection. "You are revenged," said I," I am your prisoner." "Revenged; Alas! you have judged too hardly of me; I have not had one happy day since that fatal one in which I left my master; but I have lived, I hope to save him. The party to which I belong are passed, for I lingered behind them among those woods and rocks which I remembered so well in happier days.---There is, however, no time to be lost. In a few hours this wood will blaze, though they do not suspect it shelters you. Take my dress, which may help your escape, and I will endeavour to dispose of yours. On the coast, to the westward, we have learned there are a small par yofour friends, which, by following the river's track till dusk, and then striking over the shoulder of the hill, you may join without much danger of discovery." I felt the disgrace of owing so much to him I had injured, and remonstrated against exposing him to such imminent danger of its being known that he had favoured my escape, which, from the temper of his commander, I knew would be instant death---Albert, in an agony of fear and distress, besought me to think only of my own safety. "Save us both," said he, " for if you die I cannot live. Perhaps we may meet again; but whatever becomes of Albert, may the blessing of God be with his master."

His

"Albert's prayer was heard. master, by the exercise of talents, which, though he always possessed, adversity only taught him to use, acquired abroad a station of equal honour and emolument; and when the proscriptions of party had ceased, returned home to his own country, where he found Albert advanced to the rank of lieutenant in the army, to which his valour and merit had raised him, married to a lady by whom he had got some little fortune, and the father of an only daughter, for whom nature had done much, and to whose native endowments it was the chief study and delight of her parents to add every thing that art could bestow. The gratitude of the chief was only equalled by the happiness of his follower, whose honest pride was not long after gratified, by his daughter's becoming the wife of that master whom his generous fidelity had saved. That master, by the

clemency of more indulgent and liberal times, was again restored to the domain of his ancestors, and had the satisfaction of seeing the grandson of Albert enjoy the hereditary birth-right of his race." I accompanied Colonel Caustic on a visit to this gentleman's house, and was delighted to observe his grateful attention to his father-in-law, as well as the unassuming happiness of the good old man, conscious of the perfect reward which his former fidelity had met with. Nor did it escape my notice, that the sweet boy and girl, who had been our guests at the Colonel's, had a favourite brown and white spaniel, whom they caressed much after dinner, whose name Oscar.

ROBIN'S SPECTACLES.

A TALE.

was

ROBIN, who, to the plough was bred,
And never learnt to write or read,
Seeing the good old people use,
To read with glasses cross their nose,
Which they for ever wore about them,
And said they could not do without them,
Happen'd one day to come to town,
And, as he sauntered up and down,
He chanc'd to spy where such like things
Hung dangling in a row of strings;
It took him in the head to stop,
And ask the master of the shop,
If he could furnish folk, that need
With glasses that could make them read?
Or sell a pair of, what d'ye call it?
Would fit his nose, and would not gall it?
The man his drawer in one hand took,
The other op'd the bible book,

The drawer contain'd of glasses plenty,
From ninet down to less than twenty;
Some set in horn, and some in leather,
But Robin could approve of neither :
And when a hundred pair he'd try'd,
And still had thrown them all aside,
The man grew pevish-both grew vest,--
And swore he could not read the text.-
"Not read"-"Confound you for a fool,-
'I'll haug, if e'er you went to school.-
"Did you e'er read without the help
"Of spectacles?-Why no, you whelp;
'Do people, who can walk without,
'Buy crutches for to stump about?'

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Sir Easy, you must know, was fond of farming,

He had been planning new canals and drains,

And ta'en a monstrous deal of pains One day, when he had been explaining His fine improvements, he the question put

Of "How d'ye like 'em ?"-" Very well, Love-but"

"But," cries the Knight, "but what! why arn't they charming?"

For this exception put him in a fright; There was an end to all his cuts, His new canals and draining!

"Then throw away the worser part of it" HAMLET.

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Quite to a skeleton this roving wore him,

And certainly for one who lov'd hilarity, Events like these were much too moving for him; "Besides," says he,

"What other husband in the world would be

"Seut like a card of compliments

about

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Thus, having giv'n his passion vent,

He soon grew cool;

And two hours after, forth he went,
Like a good natur'd fool;
And bought another house,

To make a final trial of his Spouse.

He pitch'd on one, i' th' outskirts of the city,

On which he placed a firm reliance; You couldn't point out one more neat and pretty;

'Twas not too large, 'twas not too small; 'Twas not too low, 'twas not too tall; Neither in Country, nor in Town, But set in happy medium down,

Just like St. Dunstan's Bells between
the Giauts.

My Lady view'd it round and round,
And not a fault was to be found:
The Knight exults, his cares are past,
And he shall happy live at last.
Alas! how blind is map,

Of disappointments how unwitting! One morn, at breakfast sitting, The conversation on contentment ran :"My dear," exclaims the Knight, in pleasant strain,

"You've nothing now of which you can complain."

"No, nothing, Love-but-" "But again! "Madam, I plainly see

"You want to make a butt of me!

"Good Lord! Sir Easy, how you bawl! "Pray hear me out-I like it all: "But just upon that garden wall "A Peacock comes, my ears appalling "Each morn with his continual squalling; "And all the servants do, won't scare it; "I fear my nerves will never bear it!"

Forth rush'd Sir Easy in a roar, And dash'd his tea-cup on the floor, "Confound the Peacock, and his squall! "Now hear me, Madam, once for all; "The house I've got, the house I love, "And curse me, Madam, if I move! "So take it well, or take it ill;

"For let me chuse what house I will, "In town or country, great or small, "You'll find-a Peacock on the Wall!"

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reduce things to their precise philosophical standard, would be to check some of the main wheels of society, and fix half the world in an useless apathy:-If enthusiasm did not add an imaginary value to most of the objects of our pursuit, if fancy did not give them their brightest colours, they would generally wear an appearance too contemptible to excite desire.

Yet a certain philosopher of no small eminence, has considered this passion as irrational and absurd. His reasoning is so singular, that I cannot resist the inclination of quoting it, for the benefit of those who may happen to be unacquainted with the Religion of Nature delineated.

"A man is not known a bit the more to posterity,"---says he,-“ because his name is transmitted to them; he doth not live because his name doth, When it is said, Julius Cæsar subdued Gaul, conquered Pompey, &c. it is the same thing as to say, the conqueror of Pompey was Julius Cæsar; that is, Cæsar and the conqueror of Pompey is the same thing: Cæsar is as much known by one designation as by the other. The amount then is only this; the conqueror of Pompey conquered Pompey; or somebody conquered somebody; or rather, since Pompey is as little known now as Cæsar, somebody conquered somebody."---And he adds by way of reflection, "Such a poor business is this boasted immortality! and such is the thing called glory among us;---to discerning men, this fame is mere air, and what they despise, if not shun."

But surely, as Horatio says to Hamlet "it were to consider too curiously, to consider thus." For though fame with posterity, in the strict analysis of it, should be no more than what it is here described, that somebody acted a distinguished part; yet it would not follow that true philosophy should banish the desire of it from the human breast.

This passion may be wisely implanted in our species, and worthy of cultivation, though the corresponding object should in reality be different fromwhat itappears. Do not many of our most refined, and even contemplative pleasures, owe their existence to mistake? It is but refining

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