hoping, one hour after another, for soine agreeable tidings: but in vain! Discontented did I retire to bed and melancholy I lay there through the whole night without any sleep. At last the morning dawned, and I arose: mid-day drew near, and I received uo day, but in a different place each time, an interview with Charlotte. It ap peared that I was not wholly indifferent to Charlotte; and in case I was right in that opinion, I intended to marry her as soon as I should procure a situation which might produce me a sufficient income." The milliner promised to do all that was in her power; she kept her word, and procured me many secret interviews. By degrees our hearts were led from the simple feeling of friendship and esteem to the most tender affection for each other, and Charlotte yielded message. herself to this affection with the less At length, I received, about half hesitation, as I had never violated an hour afterwards, a letter from the either my duty or respect towards milliner, desiring me to go to her, her; and her parents also were faunder pretence of fetching the things vourably inclined towards my frequent which I had ordered. I soon repaired visits. thither, and what was my joy when I met there the object of my love! "Ah! how I rejoice," said I, "to find you here, dear girl: ever since I had the happiness of being acquainted with you, I have thought of nothing else but you! How blissful should I esteem myself, should I not be indifferent to you! You alone are the cause why I bave returned so soon to Weimar the articles of millinery were bespoken only that I might have an opportunity of seeing and speaking to you." I immediately counterordered the things, and gave the milJiner some louis d'ors as a compensation. By this means I rendered her devoted to my interest. She befriended Charlotte truly, answered me several questions, and at length offered that we might pass the afternoon at her house. On my part this proposal was readily accepted but Charlotte could remain only till church was over, because she had to go out with her parents. Happy should I have been this time if the preacher had extended his sermon to an hour in length; the time flew merrily with us, in kissing, laughing, and jesting, and, ere we were aware of it, the time of parting arrived. I begged for permission to return scon to Weimar, and which permission I soon obtained, When Charlotte was gone, I disclosed myself to the milliner, and promised her some liberal presents, if she could procure, every Saturday or Sun. Thus passed the last part of my academical life happily and sweetly away. I was beloved, and I loved tenderly in return: I travelled backwards and forwards indeed more than heretofore: but, on the other hand, I endeavoured to employ every quarter of an hour that I was away in the most assiduous study. At length, however, the time drew near when I should have to leave Jena; I disclosed this to my Charlotte, and she answer. ed me by a flood of tears. I took her by the hand, and asked her if she would marry me, if I endeavoured to procure myself a situation? "Most willingly," she replied; but my answer to this question does not depend merely upon myself, but upon my parents, and they have often said to me that they would never give their consent to my marriage till I should be demanded by a man of property, and possessing, likewise, a competent situation." As to what concerns the first," I answered, "I certainly cannot cell myself rich, in comparison with your wealth; yet, I possess sufficient to marry you without any dowry; and as to what concerns the last, I will endeavour, with as little delay as pos sible, to obtain some post; I will also, if you are willing, disclose my intentions to your parents, and ask you at their hands." She willingly consented; and I availed myself, therefore, of an opportunity, when I happened to be alone with her parents, to disclose to of these drop off during the term them my wishes, and I received nei- allotted, or soon after: many others ther an assent nor a denial. You become learned brewers, soldiers,and my daughter are yet young," hussars, beggars, &c. &c.; but there said the father to me;" do not be still remains, in all parts, a greater too hasty: you may, perhaps, find number remaining than the state resome one you may like better, and quires, and the colleges cannot emobtain, through them, a good situa- ploy the best among them, so early fion. I am glad that you have a par- as they might wish, because there are tiality for my daughter; but, with others whom they must also help regard to your request, I can say no- unless they would leave them to thing decidedly to that before you have bread: if my daughter then thinks as she does now, I will put no obstacles in your way. I know the custom of your country, if you do not, sooner or later, attain to some employment: but, I imagine it is much the same there as here. Were I now to give my consent, I should shackle both you and my daughter and might not length of time cool the love of both? Dismiss these thoughts therefore for the present: try, first of all, if you are successful in procuring some appointment. The number of students becomes, every day, greater and greater, while the number of places remains the same. starve." I knew all this to be very true, and had nothing, therefore, to object to it. I commended myself, consequently, to his future kindness, and to compliance with my request, as soon as I should succeed in establishing myself. I loitered a few hours longer in the place, found an opportunity of speaking to Charlotte alone, implored her to love me still, to continue our interviews, and then returned half contented, half discontented, back to Jena. I had not been many days arrived, when I met with a most melancholy event, and which, at the same time, had no inconsiderable influence upon "A short while ago one of the the after part of my life. I went one lowest offices of the priesthood, which evening to the house of a townsman, hardly produced a hundred and fifty who was my particular friend, to pass a few hours. We had been about dollars a year, became vacant in a certain town. Candidates hastened half an hour together, when a student from all parts to solicit the place. I burst into the room with a sword in happened to be in this very town at his band, pale in his looks, and bewildered in his manner. Full of astothe time, and remained there some nishment at this dreadful and unexdays. An alderman, who had a vote in the election, said to me, The sons pected sight, we all sprung from our of the Muses must be in a very la- seats, some to run away, and others mentable condition just now, for to defend themselves. But the stusome very clever men have offered dent at our feet, and said to us, themselves this time for the vacant with a trembling voice, " Pity an situation; whereas, formerly, no one I come from tried for it but such as were convinced Lichtenhayn, and was proceeding to that they could expect no better.' my home, when a student, who was lying in wait, rushed upon me, as ] was passing through the flesh-market, with the greatest brutality. unfortunate wretch! And he was right. There are, at least, twenty-five (now 37) universities in Germany, and we may conclude that, one with another, there I rebuked him for his assault, are, yearly, 300 students at each, and assured him that I was not the perthese will give a total of 7.500 stu- son whom he meant, that I even dents. Let us suppose, abo, that did not know him, and all besides these students end their academical that I could say in my own justiticourse in three years, as is usually the cation: but, instead of pacifying him, case, and are succeeded by 7,500. I had to endure fresh indignities, and more; it is then no wonder that for my forbearance seemed only to eneach petty office there should be so rage him the more. At length, I Many competitors. It is true, many could contain myself no longer; I drew my sword, as he had already layed. We considered it as our duty his, and he rushed, in the first onset, to save him, as we could not be ceron mine, and, in all probability, has tain whether the wounded man would wounded himself mortally. Heaven live or not: we collected some money is my witness that I have become a for him, disguised his appearance, murderer innocently. In the great went to the church-yard, climbed over est perplexity, unresolved whether to the gate there, and conducted him fly or to stay, I happened to pass by safely to the Saxon village of Zwetyour house, found the door open, and zen. Here he was compelled to renow venture to seek here protection tire for a few hours to bed; and we and an asylum. Oh, have pity on did the same. The next morning we me, a wretched being! Conceal me continued our journey, arrived at only till the search after me is over, Naumburg, took up our abode over that I may save myself by flight!" the Hall, and lived here for some weeks incognito, till we, at last, beard that the wounded man was out of all danger, and almost perfectly recovered. We all trembled at this story, and an indescribable emotion took posses sion of us but there was no time to think of ourselves, for there was a hapless being waiting immediate help from us. We took him by the hand, pushed him into a small closet, and locked him up in the most careful manner. We then hastened to the place where the wounded man lay. They were just about to carry him to his apartments the blood streamed from the wounds which he had received on his head. However, he had yet sufficient strength to say to those around him, "Behold, in me, an example of avenging God. Be warned by my fate which I have justly deserved. Should I die, and should he who has wounded me be taken, I implore you to be his defenders; he is innocent, I attacked him, I gave no heed to his remonstrances.' He had scarcely uttered these words when the surgeons came to dress his wounds, and those who were present retired. I had not the least anticipation that this adventure would prove prejudicial to myself. The news that a student had been wounded in Jena soon travelled to Weimar, and so magnified, that the wounded man was reported to have been left dead on the spot: the names, also, of all the students who had assisted the delinquent in his escape were promulgated. In the agitation and confusion of the moment I had never thought to write an account of the accident to my Charlotte, or to tell her that I should be absent, for a while, from Jena, and of course could not be at Weimar on the next Saturday. As I had been expressly mentioned to her as a partisan in this duel, she also, what had never happened before, neither saw me on the Saturday, nor received anv letter from me, and even the letter which I did write to The agitation and anxiety of the her from Naumburg did not reach student, who was concealed in the her till a post later than it ought to closet, was, meanwhile, inexpressible. have done: so that she, at length, The thought of having murdered a painfully persuaded herself that I had man, and of plunging his family, in become unfaithful to her, and that I consequence of it, into the most should never dare to appear openly dreadful distress, made him frequently again in that country. She was conresolve to deliver himself voluntarily vinced also that all hope was now into the hands of justice, as he saw destroyed of ever obtaining the conno other means by which he could sent of her parents to marry me. evince, to the world, his sorrow and To this was added another unpleacontrition for the misfortune: and sant circumstance. Charlotte received, yet, the youth found, in the pure feel- at this very time, proposals of marings of conscious innocence, a strong riage from a man who was her equal in point of wealth, and superior to her in 'birth; and she was more sensibly affected by this circumstance, as her parents supported these proposals with the most urgent entreaties and admo counterbalance to that resolution. He remained in this state of anxiety till the middle of the night, when all was quiet, and the strong commotion which had been excited was al 1 nitions. They considered themselves I received only a brief note from as being absolved from all obligation her, in which she besought me not to towards the absent and defamed hate her, not to ascribe to her the youth who had secured only the guilt of this business, to forget her, daughter's heart, but not the free and and to invoke God in her behalf that explicit consent of both parents ac- he might (as it was so evident that cording to all due forms and ceremo- her parents would plunge her into misery) soon remove her from this earth. I pass over all the rest which this note contained, and which was meant to soothe my anxiety and sor mies. Charlotte's ingenuous and repeated declaration, that such a dereliction from her affection was wholly out of her power, that she abborred, as a deed of infamy, to approach the altar, and under the sanction of the most solemn religious ceremony, to offer perjured vows of conjugal love and esteem, and that even were her heart disengaged, a union with a man whose principles and whose actions were in so many respects opposite to her's, would infallibly have the most fatal consequences to both, not only was ineffectual to make her suitor reinquish his pursuit, but had, also, so little impression upon her parents, that she was still more harassed by them with commands, threats, and reproaches. row. For ten years I kept it as a tender remembrance of her, till at length I lost it in a shipwreck. As a disconsolate husband turns away from the grave in which he has beheld the partner of his life deposited, so turned I away from Weimar towards Jena, wretched and forlorn. The beautiful Athenian hall, where I hitherto had lived so willingly, and where, from affection towards my beloved object, I had remained longer than I had intended, was now a desart waste to me, and the worst place in which I could be. I became weak and miserable; I could rest neither night nor day; every wish to eat or drink forsook me, and my desire of laborious study was totally gone. To this melancholy loss succeeded another, not less afflictive, a few weeks afterwards, which would have driven any other man mad, but which, in all probability, was at that time of eminent service to me, as I was thus, in some measure, drawn off from the reflection on my first mishap. There was, therefore, nothing left for Charlotte to do but to give her Consent to these proposals, and to promise herself to a man, who was, in every respect, disagreeable to her, God! how was I astonished, when I returned to Jena and, the next Saturday, rode over to Weimar, yet totally ignorant of all that had happened, and now destined to find, in the house of my beloved, the greatest alteration. I received, one morning, a letter The parents caused me to be inform with the unwelcome intelligence that ed that they could not speak to me my guardian had died suddenly, inCharlotte, she dare not see me any volved in debt, and the greater part of more. The whole was to me a riddle, which I knew not how to explain. my patrimony squandered away! — What must have been my feelings on In the agony of my heart, I went this occasion, they can guess who to some friends. Ah! there I heard have ever experienced similar circumall which had happened, and how all stances. Two such severe strokes of my blissful hopes were dashed to fortune, which, from the happiest peces. I was unanimously assured condition, plunged me into the most that Charlotte had been compelled to lamentable state, were, indeed, too betroth herself to another: they had overpowering for so young a man. given her the vilest account of me, wrote, in my affliction, to the magisthat I had fled away to escape from trate of my native town: I made the the hands of justice, and similar most lamentable representations of things! I was deprived of all thought my condition: but received only at these tidings; and, unresolved what the slender consolation in answer, to do, I entreated, I prayed, to have that not more than about eight hun. only some conversation with Char- dred dollars of my patrimony were lotte: but I could not obtain it.. saved. I travelling thou wilt find diversion As my mind recovered, by degrees, At the expense of others, thought I, I its serenity, and as my chagrin abated, thou wilt learn to see the world: by I began to ponder upon the means of proceeding through the world thereafter, for my money now was not sufficient to support me till I should get appointed to some office in the church. Then it was that I felt, in its full force, what Cicero says, "knowledge provides comfort in mi. sery;" for it was that which preserved my mind from sinking under its caJamities. The consciousness that I had employed my time at school and at the university to advantage, and that the industry which I had exerted might become useful, in future, to my fellow creatures, gave me courage and I began, once more, to feel the vivifying influence of peaceful and contented moments. I was particularly happy also that I had finished my studies before the loss of my property, and that so many could and must live with much less money. I at length resolved to unbosom myself to some of the professors, to make them acquainted with my loss, and to entreat them to procure me, the first opportunity, a good tutor's situation. Walch, Schmidt, Wedel, Sukkow, Blasche, Polz, and some others, gave me the most solemn assurances that they would think of me whenever a fit opportunity of so doing should occur. Que Saturday Professor Polz sent his famulus to me, requesting that I would call upon him about eleven o'clock, as he wanted to speak to me. I went to him he gave me a letter from his old friend to read, who had gone to Hamburgh in the capacity of a governor ov tutor, but who had there found an opportunity of obtaining the situation of tutor in the family of a Swedish count, through whom he afterwards got a very good situation. He now requested his friend Pelz to procure him a good tutor for his three sons. Besides a very considerable salary, there were many other fine promises contained in this letter; a draft for whoever should accept the situation was enclosed, and an assignmeut to a merchant at Lubeck who would attend to my embarkation. Of this place accepted without any besitation, because, in my condition, I did not think I could do better. ture. [To be continued.] JOSEPH BLACKET. THIS interesting and promising youth has paid the debt of ma He died lately, after a severe and afflicting decline, at Seaham, near Sunderland, where he went for the recovery of his health. The accounts which we have heard of him proclaim that he was an extraordinary young man. Indeed, his poem of the Times" (for an account of which see Univer sal Mag. for February 1809, p. 120) bespoke no ordinary capacity. He was the protege of Mr. Praft, who kindly and liberally befriended_him; and who, in his poem of the Lower World, thus speaks of him as one of the bards who would have aided the cause which Mr. Pratt advocated in that poem, founded on Lord Erskine's humane bill for preventing and punishing wanton cruelty to animals:And thou, lov'd Blacket, nearest to my breast, Whose muse I cherish as an angel guest; My homage pay, and court at Lature's [mme!. And bless the Providence that made thee This the warm strain thy gentle breast [vely shrine, would feel, Thy heart would dictate, and thy muse re But that dire pthisis* clouds thy beauteous |