commanded" to observe towards him all the honors of a vanquished king;" and, pointing with a mock-imperial air towards his doughty captive, "There," cries the vaunting warrior, "there is her bravest subject, and Rome is now, indeed, the Mistress of the World!"-Cæsar having (as he said, "by right of conquest") taken the good man's lands, immediately made a tripartite division of them; bestowing a third share on each of the three soldiers who rallied near him at the end of that memorable day, and whose conduct he approved; but totally cashiering that treacherous caitiff who had been guilty of the base attempt upon the life of the unsuspecting Druid. Cæsar then offered permission to Magnanim to retire with his family to a remote part of the island; promising not to molest him, provided he should never again be found in arms against the Romans.-To purchase the safety, and preserve the inviolate honor of his children, seemed, at such a destitute moment, to be all that human lot required. To the terms proposed, hard and unjust as they were, he stood not to demur, but cheered by tenderest arts and holy consolation his little mournful tribe, as from the trellis-doorway through the dear-winding bowers they, with swoln eye-lids and with lingering feet, depart, to seek that last resort where Freedom still her faithful fugitives on uninfested wolds a few caressed.-At the melancholy scene even the stoic-bosomed tyrant sighed, and asked the afflicted train to have a little nummus, at the same time offering a pouch containing some asses and besses. Magnanim mutely bowed and shook his head disdainful of the boon: and when the Roman urged a parting manus, sternly he said, 66 My hand of friendship is my heart's best pledge-to mock with it were sin-betwixt a friend and a forgiven foe there must be odds-all, Sir, man owes to man, Magnanim givesforgiveness."-With the last word toward some other home he faced, and sped his way: a weeping beauty from whose vernal cheek sorrow had sapped the rose, leant on each arm—followed, a noble-hearted swain, his only son. Still, still, one mournful rite was yet unpaid. Glaslanlich-distant an hour's journey on their way-a spot, by that alone which seems the torpid earth to hallow, sacred made, and secretly adored-a green sod tumulus that held the last of her whose bosom thirty happy years had been his pillow-had, too, that sweet fount been, from which the infant lips, that now were grown to kiss the tear of sorrow from his cheek, had drawn nutritious streams. The heightening palpitations, as nearer to the solemn spot the footsteps draw the awe-bound soul, and paralyzed voice-the thousand-thousand blisses buried there that rise again to flicker round the mind-the pious wish to taste with her so loved the peace within-the writhing heart rent with the struggles of a last farewel-these, need the tender soul in words be told?-To the insensate, apathetic churl, let the fool tell his tale.- Magnanim, although not an immediate prey to the general martyrdom, from the many external wounds inflicted in that severe contest, but more from the wounds which his mind suffered, had no doubt the period of his existence much abridged, as it was not many years that he had to deplore the severities with which he had been so abundantly visited.-Kirlyllen, signifying Little Temple, with a small portion more of the ancient inheritance, was some time afterwards recovered by the bravery partly, and partly by the superior address and dexterity of Clarissim, the only son of Magnanim. The presence of the Roman legions having been required to stifle insurrections in some other parts of the Empire, Clarissim took advantage of their absence to assert his right; and having succeeded, he and his sisters, with some other branches of the family of minor importance, were once more seated in the old paternal abode.-Without attempting to restore the beauty and taste which their Druidical Paradise had formerly exhibited, and which by the barbarous negligence of its Roman guests had degenerated again into its original wildness, Clarissim contented himself with erecting a comfortable biggun, or family hut, for those who returned with him to Kirlyllen; but from some circumstances, it appears that he himself became an anchorite. I find at this time, the family name syncopated to Lylle; which, perhaps, might have been from some conditions regarding the tenure of that part of the domain he had been fortunate enough to recover, as it could not have been for the purpose of disguising it, in consequence of the state of seclusion in which Clarissim lived at Ŝnid-le-hoo; that is to say, his cavern abode.The reason of his absenting himself from all society may, perhaps, be best explained from the following interesting adventure. During one of his evening rambles, his attention was arrested by the appearance of a youthful female, sitting at some distance from the common pathway, and evidently labouring under paroxysms of mental tribulation. Clarissim ventured, though not without much caution, towards the seat of the fair sufferer, burning throughout to soothe, but fearful for some time to speak, lest he might chance to use any accent but the most tender. At length, amidst some faltering and broken inquiries, he articulated, pretty plainly, the words comfort-assistance-kindness-commiseration-words which, to the forlorn and miserable being he addressed, seemed to import nothing that belonged to earthborn good. Hence the illusions of fancy led her to imagine, that the prayer she had just breathed was being answered from that better world to which it had been so fervently made her eye was, therefore, the more cautiously concealed, lest it might behold some more than earthly apparition.The explanations, however, with which Clarissim's words were accompanied, were more eloquent than verbal; and her reason which had suffered temporary dereliction, was now, for the first time, satisfied that there was really such a good as human kindness.-The earnest and heartfelt solicitude which was evinced on the one side, required certainly on the other, no suspicious reserve. Her heart obeyed but nature's laws; and now her eye, like the meek

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morning star immersed in dew, at length itself unveiled, and shone devout (as when upon its beam orisons hastened to the throne of grace) on him as on a god: then mid the wan depression of her face was such divine benignity suffused, that the distended ear grew ravenous to devour her tale. Here can this only be disclosed in brief.-Her father, who had large possessions, was one of those unfortunate Britons, who, actuated by intemperate courage, waged, for a little time, in defence of his legitimate birthright, an unorganized, and therefore useless, struggle against Roman usurpation; but falling amongst the numerous brave victims, his whole property was confiscated, and his little daughter, then only seven years old, abandoned to the world without any sort of human protection. Those who were able and disposed to abscond to distant solitudes, had each enough to do to effect self-rescue, and thus was our little orphan exposed, without a companion in any shape, even a dog, in the midst of a perilous and pitiless banditti of foreign troopers. Alms no where-rapine every where. By Latian discipline, inhuman cruelty was virtue termed-the kind and social bias of the heart was rude-and harmless life, uncivilised, barbarian, vile. Thus upside-down the natural world was turned, until all shuddered at the Roman name.-The howl of forest wolves less terror brought than echoes waked by tongues in school of Latian eloquence refined!—Thus sought the outcast child, alone, a covert safe from Roman eye. From day to day, in thickets drear, culling for sustenance the bacca wild, midst ruthless briers she lonely roved; at eve on belli couch her limbs reposed, whilst molle serpyllum her cheek received. Her guardian genius innocence, of other harms than those mankind might bring, no dream was conscious.---Thus, from the cradle independence marks the genuine offspring of the British isle.---Born with the heart, a spark celestial, there its native glow preserves; grows with our growth," until it issue in etherial fumes, that like Sabæan altars, breathing pure odours to Arabian gods, to all the generous virtues incense breathes---to Freedom most!---Catering one day for her daily repast amongst the brambles, she was suddenly alarmed by the presence of an old woman, whom she had unawares closely approached, and who had strolled into the copse from a village, consisting of a few miserable huts, hard by, where a set of objects, as insignificant as herself, continued to live; being esteemed by the freebooters even, unworthy of molestation. At this sudden appearance of a being apparently half human, an incubus-like trepidation seized the legs of the poor child, so that she had not the power to attempt escape; and when the old forager accosted her, in terms not particularly mild and inviting, she felt as though she wanted to reply; but from surprise and sympathy, her heart having grown too big for her little bosom, she could not speak. It happened, however, as it does sometimes, that the old beldam had tongue enough for both, and to spare. Her calmest way of speaking was like one of your moderate scolds in her bitter moments: and her scolding was like---let me see---O no---not like any dumb animals---was like the maddest rant of Bedlam. Violent raving was a sort of habit with her, and people called it her way. However, for the sake of, as she calculated, an everlasting bondmaid; and moreover, for the plausible opportunity of puffing, amidst her queer gossipping bevies, the matchless deed of charity, she did take the little, dear, tattered object beneath her roof. Thus, though not exposed to the inclement blast of a near winter---to the precarious refectory of the animal world---nor ravages of darkly-coming blights that sweetest buds deflower; yet with the rancour of a twitting tongue, was she for ever galled and worried to distraction: and, for the contrast's sake, betwixt that age and this, in her official walk, let it be said, this lady was a school-mistress---a senseless, testy, vain, tyrannic thing, without one gentle quality of nature. Though the old crafty---(but stay, good folks, I'll not put words in places such as this into your mouths,---call her, bitch-fox, or any thing you like) had no such real design; yet, that each sore from her corroding venom deeper still might rankle, the threat of "turning out" was often shammed, and sometimes half played off. On one of these occasions, with the dread of having, bereft as she was, to encounter a world of such fiend-like beings as the Old Fury, it was that the virtuous and manly eye of Clarissim had lighted upon her. But she was not alone; for he was there, the friendless orphan's Friend!---the soother of the sorrow-stricken heart!---whose hand invisible can, ere a meteor's transient star is shot athwart the sky, turn anguish into joy--produce, from present evil, future good---and life's last gasping sigh can reinspire, and charge with transport sweeter than Hope's sweetest dream!---Who, then, with woe---with heaviest grief borne down, will blindly pray perpetual night to hide---forget that there's a mercy waiting nigh---a power incomprehensible! but best in his ubiquity discerned---a GOD! whose pity never fails.--Turn now, once more to view the anxious pair---the plenitude of bliss conferred and re-conferred. Her symmetry divine---her angel look---her thousand nameless charms just mellowing into ripeness---all heightened by humility's disguise, and guileless tinge of coccum on her cheek---the virgin blush that o'er her bosom steals, whilst young desire with meek pudicity first strove the maid to share. These, and the story of her orphan woes, what soul could have withstood?-Shall it then be said, how felt the enamoured heart in which refinement quickened sensibility ?---how, when the name of Zoophroon was divulged, the flurried veins impetuous ebbed and flowed ?---in arms extatic, pressed to a lover's heart beating with eager throbs, whilst the first tact of love's impassioned melting seal was made on lip before unkissed, how felt the unconscious maid?---Shall these be said?---Other emotions than surprise no doubt she

mood of maiden heart, when in a sleeping sanctuary closed, where chastity herself concealed may sigh---unseen, unheard, indulge in all the zeal of love's wild prayer---after that mysterious day, Ephia thus alone!---be this imagined too. Slept she, suppose ye, calm and sound---or wakeful pondered she the all-propitious circumstances o'er and o'er, till in the morn her brain a clustered swarm of live conceits appeared, that tickling crawled, and crawled confused about? She who had never loved a woman even, now to love a man! to dearly love what she had ever dreaded, loathed, shunned!-Could she who scarce had known mankind, conceive what meant` these irresistible and strangely-pleasing transports?-Could she, a novice in the page of nature, read nature's influence working through her frame?-After such a day--at such an hour-in ́ such a state of heart, 'tis hard to guess exactly how she felt!---Suffice it now to say, that Ephia Zoophroon was the daughter of the late Magnanim's dearest friend: no delay, therefore, in nuptial consummations could Clarissim brook, or fair Ephia wish. Thus, she who yesterday had nothing, had to-day a world, to her more glorious than all other worlds in the wide universe contained besides! He, too, conceived all evil destinies subdued; and that the Fates propitious swayed alone. -On the authority of those called Latin Historians, who extol the most flagitious crimes of their own countrymen as virtues, and deprecate the virtues of other nations as baseness -with whom, treachery is wisdom-obduracy, fortitude-murder, valor!-every thing in the Roman refined and noble-every thing in the stranger barbarous and turpefied! On the authority of such perfidious writings let none presume to say, that our generous forefathers were abandoned to polygamy; or to promiscuous concubinage, as some have ventured to assert. Was not Clarissim's love such as "in the dawn of time informed the heart of innocence and undissembling truth." Not, like your modern jew-contractor, dealing for a dower; or much dunned rake itching to finger o'er the bridal dos, and riot on, was he O, how I wish the soul of one right honorable hyper-libertine could, with the racy flask of virtuous love, slake its licentious thirst. Pure rills are vapid to the pampered sense, therefore I mock not with a water cruse, but tempt with such delicious racy juice as in the feverish moment, largely quaffed, can drown to extacy-can morning draughts of "hock and soda-water" far outvie.---O, how I wish that same right honorable heart could know the sweet repose by holy hope inspired,---a glorious saint would he, reclaimed, appear amidst the tribe already in my Calendar! The dignified hierarchy would eager be to canonize alive-the chaster fair throughout the land, throughout the world, forsaking the old saints, would rich oblations pore at ***** tide, and mirth would gladden Heaven more than if ninety-nine good people had been saved! But Clarissim and Ephia―were they not left to indulge in all the luxury of holy wedlock? Let it not be supposed that the first flood of matrimonial joy could their warm bosoms quench---that the keen gust of mutual endearment could ever sated to indifference be! Such love as their's lasts always in its prime, nor palls it ever with continual feasting. Although to temper, it belongs to wedlock to expand those fires which young desire first innocently fanned---which spread from day to day, surpassing measure, and more than realizing the warm anticipations of young love. Philosophers affirm, that "that which has beginning must have end." "Tis otherwise I think in love---in love that rises from a pure beginning: for if it be allowed that souls immortal are (and true philosophy declares them so) then love, therein implanted, is immortal too, and, therefore, without end. Conceive the happy pair when the first pledge of hymeneal joys promised to crown with new delight their nuptial transports, how did they fondly greet, endear, and bless---and fairly outloving love in all they did!- -But best secured felicities on earth long last not.-The ministering spheres, do they for ever perish when eclipsed? Bright stars of joy a little while obscure the orb of woe---the transit ended, with greater vehemence the beam malignant strikes!--so found the hapless swain of Suid-le-hoo! Twin boys were born-but, alas!-the mother From that sad hour, secluded from the world, 'tis thought Clarissim lived, imploring to be there, whither his whole felicity had flown, until his holy invocations heard, obtain his passport there.Under our Cal-coit-brynn, or moss-yclad mount, we have still a sort of hermitage in great perfection. It is seated in a latent dell, at a declivity of one of the most delightful downs ever beheld; upon which, had the late Edmund Burke but had an opportunity of casting his eye whilst selecting materials for his eminent Dissertation upon "the Sublime and Beautiful," it would certainly have been cited amongst the most superlative specimens of the latter. The whole, indeed, is exquisitely contrived-the approach to it through an agreeable thicket (as those who consult the radix of the penultima in the appellation will readily perceive) being singularly bewitching, and the immediate entrance certainly most intrancing and divine!- -Our family name was never disguised by modern orthography, until the great-grandfather of that celebrated adept in the learned, popular, and occult sciences, Gulielmus Lilly, in conformity to the prevailing fashion of the time, corrupted it to its present form. The agnomen, though it has suffered some slight mutations in the course of a very circuitous current from a very remote source, is, however, still retained in considerable purity; so much so, indeed, that it can never be called equivocal; and from the authority which it furnishes, it will be at once obvious to etymologists, that your very faithful is a regular descendant of the oriental Brachmans. Now these

* See a certain popular poem, Canto ii. Stanza 180.

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holy functionaries were unquestionably the parents of the Scythian Druids, who, by unskilful historians have been frequently confounded with the Celts; but who were quite a distinct race, having a nature and an intellect far more pure and elevated than their Celtic contemporaries could ever justly pretend to, as the learned Pinkerton in his luminous "Dissertation on the Origin and Progress of the Scythians and Goths," has most decisively proved. That there was the strictest conformity between the rites and customs of British Druids, and the primitive Brachmans of the East, all competent antiquaries are agreed; and thus is their consanguinity certain. In order, therefore, to come to a direct and inexpugnable conclusion, let it be understood that my prænomen, WILLON, signifies a spring or issue-my nomen, LLUYLLE, a, junior or germ-my agnomen, BRACHM, as before hinted, a wise man of the East; plainly, as all must allow, importing a germ (or dispensing with the metaphor) a son issued from the Brachmans! Now it has been already proved from family documents, hereditary succession, and other collateral and corroborative evidences, that your very respectful Sir W. L. B. is connected, on the side of his father, with the earliest colony of this island, commonly called Aboriginal Britons, whose fame has been perpetuated and eulogised in the maiden Poem of an A. B. of Oriel, Oxon, which, if allowance be made for immoderate fiction---for defective testimony---and for the total inexperience of the author, is a very tolerable sort of thing. Again, it has from etymology, and other evidences, deemed valid in historical investigation, been deduced, that your author is related by the same channel upwards to the primitive Brachians, who were unquestionably a priesthood of the posterity of Shem: so that (the trifling blemish in the family manuscripts already acknowledged, does not materially affect the conclusion, the arguments which it would have furnished, having, it is humbly presumed, been amply supplied from other sources) his pedigree from Noah is direct and uninterrupted: and as the lineage of Noah is so satisfactorily vouched, the inference obtained, then, is, that your Vaticinian Oracle is, by one direct and unbroken line on his paternal side, descended from Adam!---a train of family connections to which but very few persons now living can, on good authority, support pretensions. The seer, devoting himself to the service of his own nation in particular, and to the world generally, ranks, perhaps, as high in the Table of Moral Dignitaries, as any Excellencies whatsoever in the minds of some people: thus every tittle concerning his extraction, must needs be interesting. Your author is therefore determined not to be guilty of disrespectful reserve towards that great and honourable Body-Politic, in whose service he has volunteered, by omitting any important fact concerning his family and himself. Having, as it is trusted, satisfactorily ended the short account of his paternal descent, it next becomes the duty of your faithful friend to lay before you a brief narrative of the Kithriss family, of which he is a regular descendant through his maternal relatives. It is seen more commonly in females than men, that they are exceedingly careful of any old family relics which happen to fall into their posses sion: thus was it with the great grandmother, in particular, of your author; into whose custody had fallen two large iron chests, of the safety of which she was particularly tenacious. This vigilance is not much to be wondered at, for the chests had been preserved from generation to generation, and had descended with the strictest integrity to her. When your most respectful Sir W. L. B. was very young, the worthy old lady, his great grandmother, would use all the inducements she could think of to awaken his curiosity concerning these extraordinary treasures. She used often to remark that "they would some time or other be his"-never failing to accompany this remark with an emphatical declaration "that no other family in the whole world could boast such intrinsic curiosities." I abominably hate being tantalized; and, from a proper moral sympathy, I will not detain any lady or gentleman, who may chance to become my readers, in suspense. These chests, then, each contained writings of a very extraordinary character, and each of the archives very different indeed in nature. In one was deposited a certain series termed "Generation Rolls," which not only genealogically recorded the succession of families during a period of uncommon length; but included also a brief memorandum of such remarkable events as happened in the world during each particular generation. In the other chest, which was by far the larger of the two, were contained multitudes of detached scraps, some inscribed apparently on the inner rind of large trees of some particular sort; some, on a fine kind of silken substance, but yet not like any production of art or nature now known; and some upon animal membrane, probably, for it resembled nothing so much as the most delicate pellicle. The contents of this depository were entitled "MUNDANE SCRIPTS." Of these memorable documents it will not be convenient to enter into the particulars at present; but it may be here proper to say, that in due course of succession, they did come into the custody of your author: and that he has been indefatigable in endeavouring to rescue their inestimable contents from the oblivion in which they have hitherto remained. All of them are inscribed in very curious characters; and those particularly which were deposited previous to the introduction of alphabetical symbols into Greece by Cadmus, exhibit something of the hieroglyphic style, probably similar to the Books of Agathodemon, the Egyptian, translated from certain Hermetic hieroglyphics inscribed on the Pillars of Thoth, in the Land of Seriod, and delivered down to posterity by

Menetho. It will readily be inferred that great difficulty must attend the interpretation of these emblematic symbols, and of correctly obtaining the mystical import of such a remote class of inscriptions. It would be, indeed, deceiving the Public not to acknowledge, that many of them still baffle the skill of the present proprietor, notwithstanding his whole life, nearly, has been employed in sifting the arcana of antiquity in order to qualify himself to understand and to reveal their mysterious application. Reserving, therefore, the particular merits of these "Mundane Scripts" for future discussion, to complete the introduction to his own Memoir, the Reader will have to peruse a few particulars relative to the Kithriss family. Its origin was Grecian; but they were a very roving people; and in the earliest times particularly, they never remained together in large bodies in any one settled habitation: hence perhaps all traces of their origin would have been lost had it not been for the persevering research into the "Generation Rolls" which has recently been making by your faithful friend. A chief reason why the KITHRISSES led such migratory lives in the earliest times, seems to have been their utter aversion to the practice of war. They had, moreover, an intuitive capacity for music; and they sought after nothing so much as the indulgence of this their darling propensity. In consequence of this prevailing endowment suppressing the desire of almost every other kind of pursuit, it effectually operated so as to prevent their becoming the parents of entire nations, like other particular families of that early date, whose notions were more enterprising.--When any incursion of strangers into any of their little settlements took place, instead of disputing their right, and arming against the aggressors as other colonists did, they assembled their whole fraternity; and if it were too large for migrating in one body, they divided into squads-took a friendly leave of each other-decamped according to their several predetermined routes, playing the merriest allegroes. Hence, by the more predatory bands, they were contumaciously denominated" the strolling lyrists." Conquest, whether just or unjust, seems to have alone founded the legitimacy of possession.- In consequence, therefore, of the constant mutation in early titles of countries, it is difficult to trace a harmless people like the Kithrisses from one abode to another, as may be done with respect to the warlike clans. Still, however, there are a few slight vestiges of them in different parts which may be discerned by those who are curious in these pursuits. Cerigo and Thermia are names which have but lately, as we may say, supplanted the titles Cythera and Cythnus, conferred upon the two islands by Kithriss tribes of remote antiquity. Again the province of Elis in Peleponnessus had a river called Cytherus: and in the South of France was a promontory denominated Cytherista: all which remain as evident mementos of the family. But that particular detachment which most connects itself with the present narrative, quitted the primitive seat of the original stock in Boeotia at a very early period, and having taken a northernly course, were interrupted in their peregrinations by the spacious flood of the Danube. At a considerable distance from the mouth westward, a very beautiful island presented itself, which appearing to possess internally every requisite for comfort, and even, to them, of luxury, the Boeotian colony did not hesitate to take possession, giving it the name of Kithrister; from which, that magnificent river derived its original name, but which, by a barbarous apheresis, was contracted by the Greeks afterwards to "Ister." In this delightful and secluded island the colony continued undisturbed, until their numbers increased beyond the conveniences of the place; and it being, by general consent, agreed, that a detachment should proceed to explore the regions through which their noble stream descended, all things being arranged, the expedition was soon in motion. Skipping lightly over the many perils-shifts-escapes-and wonderful incidents with which a journey of such a description was necessarily replete, at a time, too, when there was no such thing as a public road a bridge-an inn-nor any chance of accommodation to favour the progress of the party--now beset by immense forests of furze-now by treacherous bogs that threatened to swallow them at every step-here interrupted by unfordable currents-here by inaccessible acclivitiesnow surrounded by immeasurable wilds, with no knowledge of the end of their journey,—thus, as it were, exploring a new world; the sun, moon, and stars, their only beacons-consoled in every difficulty and animated to surmount all, by the fascinating power of music---after a period of about two years from their emigration, let the reader conceive them in the district afterwards called Rhætia, bewildered amidst the many rivers with which the original stream became confounded. Considering their having performed a journey of nearly two thousand English miles all on foot, and under such very disadvantageous circumstances, it is pleasing to relate that no fatal mishaps occurred to them during the whole time, their cohort having increased rather than diminished, by some of the females having disencumbered themselves of their nuptial loads, and all did very well-however, 66 as well as could be expected!"-The wild and romantic scenery of the country into which they had transplanted themselves-its beautiful dells interspersed with fine crooked rivers-its mountains decorated with pines ;- dark groves-green savannas-spacious downs-rugged cliffs-awful cataracts-all intermingled, was congenial to their minds; and as they had so long wandered without much intermediate repose, they here determined to sojourn, at least for awhile, and to regale themselves with harmony. I cannot omit the mention of an

St. Austin, De Civit. Dei, 1. xii. c. 10.