love for Giovanni) which would have told her that any world-infamy was to be endured rather than her prostitution to a man whom she did not love; which would have preserved her conscienciousness from the influence of a timorous repentance. Referring, not to her love for her brother, but to her unloving and unholy marriage with Soranzo, we echo the words of the moralist ""Tis pity she's a whore." Both brother and sister, indeed, doubt of their own integrity, and consequently fall short of greatness; for even an action which is criminal and immoral in its effects upon society, may be performed conscienciously, and so satisfactorily justify the actor to himself; whereas the most laudable and beneficial action, if performed against conscience, or without faith in its integrity, is treason against the majesty of a man's own soul, and accuses him of falsehood and evil to that severe judging of his own thoughts, from which there is no appeal, whose sentence is remorse and self-loathing, and a falling away from that unity of spirit without which is no grandeur, nor worth, nor portion in the Infinitude of Power.

REVELATIONS OF TRUTH.

CHAP. XXIV.

It was a damp and raw morning: the sun had not yet arisen, and there was no light save the dim twilight that precedes the dawn.

On a vast and interminable plain were pitched a countless multitude of tents: the dwellings of the first-born of clay.

And I beheld men running to and fro, and busied in their several avocations and they were all equal; and although the morning was cold and gloomy they were not unhappy.

Suddenly a deeper shade overspread the face of Nature; the earth shook; and a voice, whose sound was like the groaning of one in the agonies of a terrible death, was heard crying, Woe unto man! the reign of tyranny hath commenced.

And a thrill of indescribable horror ran through men's hearts when they heard the harsh and sepulchral tones of that voice; and they ceased from their labours, and stood trembling with fearful expectation: and all eyes were turned towards one of the tents, which seemed to dilate, increasing in girth and height till its top reached unto the clouds.

And looking into the tent, I beheld a throne: and upon the throne sate one of a stern and fierce aspect, his brows wreathed with laurel, in his right hand a naked sword, and in his left an even balance.

And he weighed out justice to the people who flocked crouching around the tent: he dealt impartially, yet they hated him; for he forced them to bow down and worship at his footstool, and their worship was the worship of fear.

A dart from an unseen hand pierced his breast, and he fell from the throne. And in his place arose one resembling him in features, yet more stern and terrible, for his countenance bore the expression of a demon: instead of the laurel he wore an iron crown; his sword was bloody; and he spurned far from him the equal balance.

And the fear of the people was changed to hate; and they strove to overturn the throne whereon he sate: but the fiend laughed them to scorn.

And when they were exhausted with their fruitless efforts, he seized a Scourge, and scourged those who had striven against his authority, branding them on the brow as rebels, as enemies of God and man.

And he made him a yoke of iron, and laid it upon their necks; and forged strong and heavy chains, and riveted them upon their arms and legs: and the people bowed themselves in silence, for hope had forsaken their bosoms, and resistance seemed vain.

He vanished: the throne had another occupier. The puny voice of an infant gave its command to millions: so great fear had fallen upon men, that

they obeyed implicitly the caprices of one whose sceptre was a pap-spoon, and whose sword a plaything of lath.

The arrow of death again was launched; and upon the throne sate a man of craft and guile: and he said within himself, men's chains indeed are strong, but time and repeated struggles will wear and weaken them, and they cannot always be renewed. I must blind their eyes, and my reign shall be for ever. So he called unto him the Sage; the Priest came also to his assistance: and at his word they bound the eyes of the Nations, and his power was established; and when he died the people mourned for him as for a father. And after him I beheld upon the throne one in whose face there was no expression save the wild fire of insanity, that flashed from his vacant eyes, as the lightning glareth in the hollow midnight: his mouth gaped open; and his spittle ran down upon his beard.

And so blind and infatuated were the sons of men, that they bent the knee and worshipped him, and obeyed his decrees, extolling his idiot ravings as the words of a God.

Away! Shadow after shadow passed rapidly before me: the tyrant, the fool, and the madman, sate alternately upon the throne, and received the homage of men. Of men?

But as the day advanced, the rays of the sun shed their warmth upon the hearts of the people, engendering feelings within them which before they knew not.

And they saw and felt that they were slaves: and they struggled violently to rid themselves of their fetters.

But the eyes of the Throned were dazzled by that holy light: and they perceived not that the People had freed their right hand, and torn the bandage from their eyes.

PERSONAL TALK.

"Yet life," you say, "is life; we have seen and see,

And with a living pleasure we describe;

And fits of sprightly malice do but bribe

The languid mind into activity.

Sound sense, and love itself, and mirth and glee
Are fostered by the comment and the gibe."
Even be it so yet still among your tribe,
Our daily world's true Worldlings, rank not me!
Children are blest, and powerful; their world lies
More justly balanced; partly at their feet,
And part far from them:-sweetest melodies
Are those that are by distance made more sweet;
Whose mind is but the mind of his own eyes,
He is a Slave; the meanest we can meet !

Wordsworth.

The Beautiful.-There is no more potent antidote to low sensuality, than the adoration of the beautiful. All the higher arts of design are essentially chaste, without respect of the object. They purify the thoughts, as tragedy purifies the passions. Their accidental effects are not worth considerationthere are souls to whom even a vestal is not holy.—Schlegel.

Abuse of Words.-A traveller, stopped in his way by a torrent, asks a villager on the opposite bank to show him the ford:-"Go to the right," shouts the countryman :—He takes the right, and is drowned. The other runs up, crying-" Oh, how unfortunate! I did not tell him to go to his right, but to mine."-Voltaire.

June 15, 1839.

メ

MAHMOUD.

THERE came a man, making his hasty moan
Before the Sultan Mahmoud on his throne,
And crying out-"My sorrow is my right,
And I will see the Sultan, and to-night."
"Sorrow," said Mahmoud, "is a reverend thing:
I recognize its right, as king with king;
Speak on." "A fiend has got into my house,"
Exclaim'd the staring man," and tortures us:
One of thine officers;-he comes, the abhorr'd,
And takes possession of my house, my board,
My bed:-1 have two daughters and a wife,

And the wild villain comes and makes me mad with life."
"Is he there now?" said Mahmond :-" No ;-he left
The house when I did, of my wits bereft;

And laugh'd me down the street, because I vow'd

I'd bring the prince himself to lay him in his shroud.
I'm mad with want-I'm mad with misery,

And, oh thou Sultan Mahmoud, God cries out for thee!"

The Sultan comforted the man, and said,

"Go home, and I will send thee wine and bread,"
(For he was poor) "and other comforts. Go;

And, should the wretch return, let Sultan Mahmoud know."

In three days' time, with haggard eyes and beard,
And shaken voice, the suitor re-appear'd,

And said "He's come."-Mahmoud said not a word,
But rose and took four slaves, each with a sword,

And went with the vex'd man. They reach the place,
And hear a voice, and see a female face,
That to the window flutter'd in affright:

"Go in," said Mahmoud, "and put out the light;
But tell the females first to leave the room;
And when the drunkard follows them, we come."

The man went in. There was a cry, and hark!
A table falls, the window is struck dark:
Forth rush the breathless women; and behind
With curses comes the fiend in desperate mind.
In vain the sabres soon cut short the strife,

And chop the shrieking wretch, and drink his bloody life.

"Now light the light," the Sultan cried aloud.
"Twas done; he took it in his hand, and bow'd
Over the corpse, and look'd upon the face;
Then turn'd and knelt beside it in the place,
And said a prayer, and from his lips there crept
Some gentle words of pleasure, and he wept.

In reverend silence the spectators wait,
Then bring him at his call both wine and meat;
And when he had refresh'd his noble heart,
He bade his host be blest, and rose up to depart.

The man amazed, all mildness now, and tears,
Fell at the Sultan's feet, with many prayers,