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time, though he was a cotemporary of Bolingbroke, Pope and Addison.

45. "As to the authority of this witness, in all matters relating to the French court at that time, it may be set down as being more baseless than the fabric of a vision."-Quarterly Review.

The witness here alluded to is Madame Campan, and the article from which I quote is a well-written review of O'Meara's work. This writer is herein flatly contradicted by the reviewer, as to the well remembered aspersion upon the character of Maria Antoinette, which O'Meara gives, as upon Bonaparte's own authority. Several facts are cited, which certainly do very materially affect the credibility of this "witness." They also insist that Bonaparte was, in reality, born in 1675, and not in 1769, as he pretended, alleging that this pretence originated from the fact, that it was in the last named year that Corsica became a French dependeney. Very likely.

46. It is very true, that Napoleon asked the physician-inchief whether it would not be an act of humanity to administer opium to those soldiers who were infected with the plague ?"-Las Casas.

There is a curious discrepancy between the statements said to have been made by Napoleon concerning the poisoning of the Jaffa invalids, and those made by this author. It has been charged that Bonaparte poisoned sixty sick soldiers at Jaffa, by way of ridding himself of these useless cumberers of his march. Marshal Bertrand believed it, if we may credit Las Casas, up to the time of his residence at St. Helena. Bonaparte declares that the invalids who were infected with the plague were only seven in number. Las Casas's allegation places the number far below the commonly received report, and considerably above that of the General, and fixes it at twenty! Then Napoleon also says that it was a professional man, and not himself, who proposed the administration of opium. But here our author is again expressly contradictory of the General: for what says he on p. 107, vol. i.? "It is very true that Napoleon asked the physician-in-chief whether it would not be an act of humanity to administer opium to them?" And on the 109th p. of vol. i., he further asserts, that he ascertained to a certainty, that, at the time in dispute, there was not a single grain of opium for the use (I suppose he means the proper and necessary use) of the sick, in the medicine chest.

Yet, so entirely inconsistent is the supposition that Bonaparte, with all his known and proverbial love of, and attention to his soldiers, could have deliberately poisoned a score of them, when wounded and sick in his camp, that I find my mind perfectly prepared to receive the most favorable impression with reference to his humanity. I must therefore withhold my belief from the story as related by Las Casas, at least, for the pre

sent.

ARISTOTLE.

J. F. O.

The learned Averroes declared that he read Aristotle over forty-one times before he perfectly understood him. It is more than probable he was far from understanding him at last.

TO DR. J. T. S.

On hearing that a Gentleman had told him he looked old.

1836.

Yes, years have fled, and with them too,
Are hopes that sprung in joy and glee-
But still I see no change in you,
You seem unaltered still to me.

They say that Love is ever blind-
And that he is so, I agree;

For others say you've changed, they find,
But you look unaltered still to me.

The rapid steps of Time have moved
Through grief and joy unconsiously—
And you, my first and only love,
Can never altered look to me.

In eyes once bright with health and youth,
The same expression still I see-
And though you may be changed, in truth,
You cannot altered look to me.

Thou wert less grave in days of yore,
And now thy cheek may paler be;
The days of early love are o'er,
But still you look unchanged to me.
Tho' time with silent, sure decay,
Has wrought his fading work in me-
The' you, perhaps, have marked his way,
I cannot find this change in thee.

E. A. S.

CHATTERTON'S LAST THOUGHTS. Oh! brightly breaks upon my spirit now The feeling that another world is nigh; And though the damp of death is on my brow, I leave unbrooked the sneers that bid me die. Too cold and bleak my journey here hath been,Too long my soul within itself hath shrunk,Misunderstood-nor strength, nor skill to wean The heart from yearnings, early, wildly drunk. Awaits the misplaced, nor asks how came they there, Oh! if a world, where troubles are no more, need not here my bitter feelings pour, Nor tell the gloomy depth of my despairEnough that Hope is mouldering on her bier; Enough the pleadings Penury can make; The proud neglected seeks no pitying tear, Nor even deigns one sympathy to wake. What, if the pampered point unto my grave, And say the guilty suicide lies there!

I

I'll hear them not! They had the power to save;
They knew I hungered; but they did not care.
Alone I stand-unpropped my falling mind--
I turn me where the Earth at least is kind;
And ask that Savior to forgive the deed,
Who, christians say, forbids it in his creed.

Norfolk, August, 1837.

E. G. C.

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instead of leaping upon me like a hyena, as I anticipated, dove, and with a mortal yell passed clean under my horse's belly, and, before he could diminish his mo

OR, THE ADVENTURES OF ABEL STINGFLYER, A. M. mentum, disappeared over the parapetless bridge into

A TRAGIC TALE.

By the Author of "The South-West" and "Lafitte.”

A hundred mouths, a hundred tongues,
And throat of brass inspired with iron lungs.

The speaker was a tall, spare man, with thin flanks, broad shoulders, and high-cheeked bones, having a Scottish physiognomy, with an homely expression of Yankee shrewdness and intelligence. His long, sharp nose, flanked by hollow cheeks, his peaked chin, and lantern jaws, made up a configuration, which has not inaptly been denominated a "hatchet face." His mouth was of formidable width, garnished with very firm,

the river beneath. On hearing the plunge, I alighted from my horse, who was not a little terrified at the unceremonious use the strange being had made of his body, hastily descended the precipitous bank of the stream, and as the diver rose to the surface, which he did after Dryden. a brief immersion, a few yards below the bridge, seizing him by the skirts of his long gown, I dragged him One sultry summer afternoon, in eighteen hundred on shore. Gathering himself up slowly, he at length, and thirty-five, I was riding, with my umbrella held after much spluttering and blowing, and catching of his perpendicularly above my head, and at an easy amble-breath, stood upright on his legs; then grasping my for the sun was fiery hot, and I had travelled far-hand, by dint of a great deal of gulping and sobbing-through the principal street of Port Gibson, one of the for the poor man could barely articulate for want of pleasantest villages in the state of Mississippi. As I wind-he essayed to express his thanks for my timely was about to cross a long and venerable looking bridge aid, without which, he asseverated, he should assuredly on the northern outskirts of the town, I was startled by "have died in the flood of great waters which passed a loud and prolonged outcry behind me, as if its utterer over his soul; but that he had been saved from the great were in imminent peril and great bodily fear. I turned deep, and also from the barbed arrow of the pursuer, my head, at the same time reining up, and beheld a from which latter danger, by the help of the Lord and strange figure swiftly approaching me, sending forth at my horse, and peradventure through his sudden abluthe same time the most lamentable cries, the last still tion, he had marvellously been delivered." louder than the preceding. But his voice did not so much surprise me, as the eccentricity of his locomotion and the oddity of his appearance. He was a tall and gaunt man, without hat or shoes, and a calico scholar's gown streamed behind him in the wind, created by his rapid motion. His advance was not direct, but zig-zag: now he would dart with velocity to the right, and now as swiftly to the left, anon plunging under the bushes lining the road-side, and then diving down, and scram-white teeth, generously displayed by the flexibility of bling on all-fours in the middle of the road, kicking his heels into the air, and tossing the dust about him in clouds, so as to render him for the time invisible: he would then rise again with a fearful yell, and bolt forward in a right line, as if charging at me, filling the air with his cries all the while, and waving his arms wildly above his head, which at intervals received blows from his desperate fists, each one sufficient to fell an ox. I gazed in admiration on this singular spectacle, it may be, not without some misgivings of personal damage, to qualify which, in some degree, I turned the head of my horse, so as to interpose it between my person and the threatened danger. Onward he came, enveloped in a cloud of dust, at the best speed human legs could bestow; and disdaining to fly, I prepared to meet the charge as firmly as the valiant Knight of La Mancha would have done in the same circumstances. My steed, however, showed the better part of valor, and, notwith-constituted the only outward teguments. From all standing much coaxing and soothing, began to wax skittish, and as the danger grew more imminent, he suddenly made a demi-volte across the bridge, and turned broadside to the enemy, which was close aboard of us, thereby effectually blockading the highway. Hardly had he effected this change in his position, before the madman or apparition, for I deemed it to be one or the other, coming in such a questionable shape,'

his loose lips, which, whenever he spoke, retired as it were from before them. His eyes were of a pale blue color, round and prominent, hereby promising, to speak phrenologically, the organ of language large, which promise his lingual attainments, as subsequently ascertained by me, did not belie. A pair of red, shaggy brows projected over them, like a well-wooded crag; they were rather darker than his hair, which, if owned by a lady, I should term auburn; but growing as it did on a male pow, which for ruggedness of outline, might have been hewn into its present shape with a broadaxe, I shall call it red, unqualifiedly. His age might have been forty; and in his stockings as he now was, he stood no less than six feet one inch in height--of which goodly length of limb and body, a pair of white drilling trowsers, woollen short hose, a cotton shirt, with a broad ruffle, and his long calico gown aforesaid,

points, including the points of his chin and nose, and every available corner of his strait and matted hair, here, in continuous streams-there, in large drops, chasing one another in quick succession, the water descended towards the earth from the person of this dripping Nereus, while the woful expression of his physnomy, which judging from the combination of features it exhibited, was naturally sufficiently lugubrious, VOL. III.-75

non est levare, which being interpreted, signifieth-the swift of foot fleeth in vain. Reascend thy steed, my

or inn, where, peradventure, through the agency of mine host's kitchen fire, I may restore my garments to their pristine condition, and there will I unfold the causes of these effects, to which thou hast but now borne witness."

was now enhanced ten-fold. His first act on getting to his feet, and after gazing wildly about in the air, and minutely surveying his person, as if in search of some-friend, and I will accompany thee to yonder hostelry thing which he dreaded to encounter, was to grasp my hand, and gasping for breath, at intervals strive to articulate his thanks for the service I had rendered him. Although I could not but smile at his ludicrous figure and aspect, I felt disposed to commisserate and serve one whom I believed not to be in his right mind, in which opinion I was confirmed when he alluded to an "armed pursuer," whom he seemed every now and then to seek in the air, there having been none yet visi-a little parlor adjoining the bar-room, and closing the ble to my eyes.

Remounting my horse, the stranger gravely strode along by the bridle, until we came to the tavern he had pointed out, when inviting me in, he led the way into

door behind him mysteriously, he placed a vacant chair for me on one side of a small stand, while he occupied another opposite. After a short and rather awkward silence, during which he leaned his arms upon the table, and manifested much embarrassment, while the blood mounted to his forehead, as if he felt that he was about to make a humiliating explanation-an inkling of humor, nevertheless, lurking the while about his mouth and in the corner of his eye, as if he felt a disposition to smile at what really gave him pain. I therefore, remarked that, although I felt a certain degree of curiosity to learn the causes which led to his catastrophe, I did not wish him to feel that the circumstances of our meeting called in the least for the extension of his confidence towards me, and that if it gave him pain to make the explanation he had volunteered, I should insist upon his withholding it; and thus speaking, I rose to leave the room, and pursue my journey.

At my suggestion and with my assistance, he stripped off his gown, and by dint of twisting it into a sort of rope-a process well understood by the washer-women-we expelled the water, visibly to the comfort of its unfortunate owner, who thrust his lengthy arms into its sleeves again, with an ejaculation, or grunt of satisfaction. The once gentleman-like ruffle, shorn of its honors of starch and platting, hung saturated and melancholy upon his broad breast: this we saw was a damage irremediable and altogether passing the shirt by, and also his nether tegument, which adhered to the cuticle like a super-hide, the aqueous gentleman gravely and silently seated himself upon the bank, and pulled off his short hose (whose brevity, it should have been before remarked, in conjunction with the brevity of his pantaloons, left at all times an inch of his brawny shins visible in the interstices,) and having rung them vigorously, drew them on again with much labor, ejaculating at in- "Of a surety, friend," he said, laying his hand lightly tervals, "hic labor est, hic labor est, quidem," being now upon my arm, "rightly hast thou interpreted my inshrunk to one third of their original size, before cover- ward emotions. It is true I possess not the moral ing the ancle, whereas, now only aspiring to that alti-virtus, or courage, needful to the laying open of my tude with full two inches of interval. Then rising and rubbing the water out of his thick hair, with the skirt of his gown, he addressed me, as I was about to reascend the bank to my horse, seeing that my Samaritan-mit in writing that, which from malus pudor, or foolish like services were no longer in requisition. His face was now dry, and he had recovered both his voice and self-possession, and so collected was the expression of his eyes, and so sedate his demeanor, that I changed my opinion as to his sanity, and believed that he must have been under the influence of some inexplicable terror, when he accomplished those gymnics I have described, which were so foreign to his present respectable appearance and discreet deportment. I therefore listened with some curiosity to what he was about to utter, anticipating a strange éclaircissement.

weakness. But thou shalt not be disappointed; that which I have spoken I will do; leave me thy name and place of abode, and by course of post I will trans

shamefacedness, I have not the tongue to give thee orally, and so shalt thou be informed of the vis-a-terge, which is to say, the rearward propelling force, which urged me so discourteously beneath your steed, and into the deep waters; and moreover, of that which hath been the cause of all my terrestrial trials, yea, even an arrow under my fifth rib."

This was uttered, like his former language, with a nasal twang, and in a slow and peculiar manner, with a distinct articulation of every syllable, and accenting the participial termination, ed, and the adverbial, ly, with an emphatic drawl.

"Certes, my friend, I should feel inclinated to be facetious at this expose, as it may be termed, of my Leaving my address with this singular character, natural infirmity, but I never was more sorely pressed. with my curiosity no ways abated, I resumed my jour Verily the danger was imminent that beset me! Peri-ney. Three weeks afterwards, I received the followissem ni periissem: by ablution was I saved from greater ing manuscript, inclosed in a stout envelope of brown detriment. That I should have passed beneath the stomach of your equus, or steed, is a rudeness that calleth for an anoλoyia, or apology, which herewith I formally tender, as is befitting one, whose vocation lieth in instilling the humane letters into the minds of the rising generation. Verily I could laugh with thee, were I not sorely vexed that my fears should have betrayed me into such unseemly and indiscreet skipping and prancing, like one non compos mentis, rather than a grave senior and instructer of youth. Surely, experience hath long shown me, that in these flights, cursus

paper, superscribed in handsome and clear chirography, which was evidently penned with elaborate care, and post marked PAID: besides the address, to the superscription were appended the following words: "Covering seven sheets of Foolscap, with an Epistle. These with speed and carefulness," which were written in a somewhat smaller character than the superscription, and near the left hand corner.

Omitting the writer's learned epistle, addressed to myself confidentially-slightly revising the style, which was cumbrous, somewhat prolix, and pedantic-and

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