insults which he had formerly received from this perfidious enemy. For seven years before, under colour of a treaty of peace, himself and all his attendants were made prisoners; and, being carried to Carthage, were thrown into a dungeon. There they remained for some time, deprived of all the comforts of life, treated with the utmost inhumanity, and every moment in expectation of death. By an unexpected, but happy reverse of fortune, he obtained his liberty, was restored to his friends, and is now at the head of a numerous army, carrying terror and destruction among that very people who had bound him in chains, and confined him within the walls of a prison. "Who would have expected," says Valerius Maximus, "that this Cornelius should be led from the consular chair to a dungeon, and from a dungeon to the highest honours of the state?" Vicissitudes of this kind are not without example, to instruct the wise man not to be too much depressed by bad, nor too much elated by good fortune.

VAL. MAX. lib. vi. 9.

Good unexpected, evil unforeseen,

Appear by turns, as fortune shifts the scene:
Some rais'd aloft, come tumbling down amain,
Then fall so hard, they bound and rise again.
What then remains, but, after past annoy,
To take the good vicissitude of joy;

To thank the gracious gods for what they give,
Possess our souls, and, while we live, to live.
DRYD, PAL. and ARC.

HONOUR.

SENTIMENTS.

NOT all the threats or favours of a crown,
A prince's whisper, or a tyrant's frown,

Can awe the spirit or aflure the mind
Of him who to strict honour is inclin'd.

On higher springs true men of honour move,
Free is their service, and inbought their love:
When danger calls and honour leads the
With joy they follow, and with pride obey.

way,

Honour, that spark of the celestial fire,
That above nature makes mankind aspire;
Enmobles the rade passions of our frame,
With thirst of glory, and desire of fame:

The richest treasure of a generous breast,
That gives the stamp and standard to the rest;
Wit, strength, and courage, are wild dang tous force,
Unless this soften and direct their course.

There is nothing honourable that is not innocent, and nothing mean but what has guilt in it. He who can say to himself, "I do as much good and am as virtuous as my most earnest endeavours will allow me," whatever be his station in the world, is to himself possessed of the highest honour: but false notions of honour are the greatest depravities of human nature, by giving wrong, ambitious, and false ideas of what is good and laudable.

EXAMPLES.

"THE Spanish historians relate a memorable instance of honour and regard to truth. A Spanish cavalier in a sudden quarrel slew a Moorish gentleman, and fled. His pursuers soon lost sight of him, for he had unperceived thrown himself over a garden wall. The owner,

a Moor, happening to be in his garden, was addressed by the Spaniard on his knees, who acquainted him with his case, and implored concealment. "Eat this," said the Moor, (giving him half a peach) "you now know that you may confide in my protection." He then locked him up in his garden apartment, telling him as soon as it was night he would provide for his escape to a place of greater safety. The Moor then went into his house, where he had but just seated himself, when a great crowd, with loud lamentations, came to his gate, bringing the corpse of his son, who had just been killed by a Spaniard. When the first shock of surprise was a little over, he learnt from the description given, that the fatal deed was done by the very person then in his power. He mentioned this to no one; but as soon as it was dark retired to his garden, as if to grieve alone, giving orders that none should follow him. Then accosting the Spaniard, he said, "Christian, the person you have killed is my son, his body is now in my house. You ought to suffer; but you have eaten with me, and I have given you my faith, which must not be broken." He then led the astonished Spaniard to his stables, and mounted him on one of his fleetest horses, and said,

Fly far, while the night can cover you; you will be safe in the morning. You are indeed guilty of my son's blood: but God is just and good, and I thank him I am innocent of your's, and that my faith given is preserved."

This point of honour is most religiously observed by the Arabs and Saracens, from whom it was adopted by the Moors of Africa, and by them was brought into Spain; the effects of which remain to this day so that when there is any fear of a war breaking out between England and Spain, an English merchant there, who apprehends the confiscation of his goods as those of an enemy, thinks them safe if he can get a Spaniard to take charge of them; for the Spaniard secures them as his own, and faithfully re-delivers them, or pays the value,' whenever the Englishman demands them. One instance of Spanish honour cannot but still be fresh in the memomany living, and deserves to be handed down to the latest posterity.

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of

IN the year 1746, when we were in hot war with Spain, the Elizabeth of London, captain William Edwards, coming through the Gulph from Jamaica, rịchly laden, met with a most violent storin, in which the ship sprung a leak, that obliged them, for the saving of their lives, to run into the Havamah, a Spanish port. The captain went on shore, and directly waited on the governor, told the occasion of his putting in, and that he surrendered the ship as a prize, and himself and his men as prisoners of war, only requesting good quarter. "No, Sir," replied the Spanish governor, "if we had taken you in fair war at sea, or approaching our coast with hostile intentions, your ship would then have been a prize, and your people prisoners; but when, distressed by a tempest, you come into our ports for the safety of your lives, we the enemies, being men, are bound as such by the laws of humanity to afford relief to distressed men who ask it of us. We cannot even against our enemies take advantage of an act of God. You have leave therefore to unload your ship, if that be necessary, to stop the leak; you may refit her here, and traffic so far as shall be necessary to pay the charges; you may then depart, and I will give you a pass to be in force till you are beyond Bermuda: if after that you are taken, you will then be a lawful prize; but now you are only a stranger, and have a stranger's right to safety and protection." The ship accordingly departed, and arrived safe in London.

A REMARKABLE instance of the like honour is recorded of a poor unenlightened African negro in captain Snelgrave's account of his voyage to Guinea.

A New England sloop, trading there in 1752, left a second mate, William Murray, sick on shore, and sailed without him. Murray was at the house of a black, named Cudjoe, with whom he had contracted an acquaintance during their trade. He recovered; and the sloop being gone, he continued with his black friend till some other opportunity should offer of his getting home. In the mean time a Dutch ship came into the road, and some of the blacks coming on board her, were treacherously seized and carried off as their slaves. The rela

tions and friends, transported with sudden rage, ran to the house of Cudjoe, to take revenge by killing Murray. Cudjoe stopt them at the door, and demanded what they wanted. The white men," said they, "have carried away our brothers and sons, and we will kill all white men. Give us the white man you have in your house, for we will kill him.” Nay," said Cudjoe, "the white men that carried away your relations are bad men, kill them when you can take them; but this white man is a good man, and you must not kill him.”

But he is a white man," they cried;" and thewhite men are all bad men, we will kill them all.". Nay," says he, you must not kill a man that has done no harm, only for being white. This man is my friend, my house is his post, I am his soldier, and must fight for him; you must kill me before you can kill him. What good man will ever come again under my roof, if I let my floor be stained with a good man's blood "

The negroes seeing his resolution, and being convineed by his discourse that they were wrong, went away ashamed. In a few days Murray ventured abroad again with his friend Cudjoe, when several of them took him by the hand, and told him, "They were glad they had not killed him; for as he was a good (meaning innocent) man, their God would have been very angry, and would have spoiled their fishing."

CLEOMENES, king of Sparta, sent a herald to acquaint the people of Magalopolis, that he would restore to them the possession of their city, provided they would renounce their league with the Achæans, and enter into a friendship and confederacy with Sparta. But, notwithstanding this offer was extremely advantageous, they declined it without the least hesitation; and rather' chose to see themselves deprived of their estates, in short, of every thing that was dear and valuable to them, than violate the faith they had sworn to their allies. The famous Philopomen, who was then at Messene, contributed not a little to this generous resolution.

ROLLIN'S ANT. HIST. vol. ix.