fairy; "How do you propose to punish him, when you give him so miraculous a present?""He will abuse it (answered the fairy); he will employ the virtues of it to distress all good men, and to acquire unlimited power. The gifts (continued she) which are a blessing to some, prove a curse to others: prosperity is the source of misfortunes to the vicious: the most effectual means to punish an unjust man severely, and to hasten his destruction, is to raise him to an eminent degree of power."

The fairy went instantly to the palace, where she found Braminto meditating mischief in his closet. She disclosed herself to him under the appearance of an old woman, poorly habited; and said to him, "I have conveyed away from your brother the miraculous ring I lent him, with which he performed such wonders, and acquired so much glory: I bestow it on you, and advise you to make a proper use of it." Braminto replied, with a smile, "I shall not abuse your gift, like my brother, who foolishly employed it to restore the prince, when he might have reigned in his place."

Braminto, now in possession of the ring, applied himself to discover the secrets of families; to perpetrate treasons, murders, villanies; to overhear the counsels of the king, and to de

fraud private persons of their treasures. His invisible crimes astonished the whole nation. The king, perceiving all his secrets discovered, was at a loss to know how to remedy the inconveniency: but, the surprising affluence, and the uncontrollable insolence of Braminto, made him suspect that he had his brother's enchanted ring. He, therefore, employed a foreigner of a hostile nation to detect him; whom he encouraged with a considerable bribe. This man came to Braminto by night; he offered him immense riches and the highest honours in the enemy's country, if he would employ proper spies to betray the counsels of the king.

Braminto readily assented to the proposal, and was carried privately to a merchant (employed for the purpose), who advanced him an hundred thousand pieces of gold for his in tended treasons. Braminto, to convince them of the services he was able to perform, boasted that he had a ring which rendered him invisible when he pleased. The next morning the king sent for him; and, as soon as he came into his presence, ordered him to be seized. The ring was immediately taken from him, and papers found upon him that proved many of his crimes. Florio came to court to intercede for his brother's pardon; but could not prevail.

Braminto was put to death.-So the ring proved more fatal to him, than it had been advantageous to his brother.

The king, thinking to comfort Florio for the justice executed on his wicked brother, restored the ring to him, as the most inestimable present he could make him. The afflicted Florio judged otherwise, and went again to seek after the fairy in the forest. "Receive (said he) your ring the fate of my brother has fully explained to me what I did not so clearly comprehend from your words. Keep for ever from me the detestable instrument of my brother's ruin. Alas! he might still have lived; he would not have overwhelmed his father and his mother with sorrow and disgrace in their old age; he might, perhaps, in time have grown a wise and a happy man, had he never had it in his power to gratify his unreasonable desires. How dangerous a trust is unbounded power! Take back your ring: wretched are they on whom you shall bestow it! One favour only I earnestly request-never give it to any of my friends." FREE-THINKER, Nos. 109, and 110, April 6, and 10, 171

No. XXX.

Suave, mari magno turbantibus æquora ventis,
É terrâ magnum alterius spectare laborem!
Non, quia vexari quemquam est jocunda voluptas ;
Sed, quibus ipse malis caveas, quia cernere suave est!
LUCRETIUS.

How sweet, to stand, when tempests tear the main,
On the firm cliff, and mark the seaman's toil!
Not, that another's danger sooths the soul;
But, from such toil how sweet to feel secure!

Good.

THE sea is the most vast of all the visible objects of nature: and when the wind adds disturbance and motion, to its immensity, there is nothing that seems so dreadfully proportioned to the greatness of its almighty Creator! Yet, as the art of the painter gives us a sensible delight from the representation of prospects, of creatures, or of actions, which in their natures are productive of horror; so we are never more pleased by any descriptions in poetry, than by those which set before us the strongest and liveliest pictures of shipwrecks and storms at sea whether it is, that the soul exults and prides itself in a consciousness of its own capacity to move and conceive so greatly; or, that we derive a sharper taste and enjoy

ment of our own safety, from a comparison with those represented dangers.

All the poets, ancient and modern, have been fond of raising tempests; wherein, for the most part, their own time has been cast away: for they have scattered and weakened the terror they designed to increase, by throwing together all the images that occurred, rather than selecting the most essential and impressive. By means of which perplexing and inconsistent variety, their reader's imagination finds relief, from not clearly discerning their object through the dust which they have raised about it.

It has been observed by the admirers of Homer, that there is a similitude between his manner of thinking, and that of David and Solomon, and others of the Hebrew writers, who owed their excellence to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Methinks this remark, which is much to the honour of that immortal Greek, may gather some new force, if we consider Homer's description of a tempest (which Lon ginus was so justly charmed with), and compare it with that of David in the 107th psalm, which has often been mentioned with wonder by the critics of our own and foreign nations. Both the versions are new; but both the originals are inimitable. I begin with that of the Psalmist.