mediately kindled, and finding she understood the French language, he de was educated at a monastery in the same village, and distinguished himself by a solicitude for the sick and in-lineated with an eloquent fervour the digent of his parish, and by a zealous character of the Christian doctrine, desire of being employed in the distri- The fair Mahometan seemed power. bution of the bread and meat which fully affected with what she heard, and, were given by the Prior to the poor. returning to her husband, reproached him for relinquishing a religion which appeared so amiable, and which seem : of every virtue: "If you have forgot," she said, "all its holy injunctions, its benevolent precepts, its consolatory promises, go to your slave who is now at work, and will bring them all back to your memory." Having completed his studies and taken priest's orders, he was invited by a gentleman at Marseilles to accom-ed so happily adapted to the incitement pany him in a coasting voyage. Vincent embarked with his friend on the 22d of July in this month, at Beaucaire, a town in the Lower Languedoc, is held a celebrated fair: the tents are erected along the side of the Rhone, and form a most picturesque view. The Gulf of Lions, during the season of the fair, is commonly infested with Turkish pirates: our voyagers were unfornately taken and carried to Tunis, where Vincent was sold to a fisherman; but his ill health inducing his master to part with him, he was bought by an elderly man in affluent circumstances, who led a retired life in the country,and devoted himself to chemistry: this was a situation more suitable to Vincent, who having some knowledge of that science, became the favourite of the learned Mahometan. A short time clasped, when Vincent had the misfortune to lose his This reproof from so unexpected a quarter appalled the Mahometan convert: the religion he had abandoned, his country that he had deserted, his friends and kindred whom he had forsaken, rushed upon his mind after having held several private conferences with Vincent, he formed a design of returning to Nice; and having bribed the master of a small vessel, he and Vincent happily escaped. His wife the year after attended some merchants to the fair annually held at Beaucaire, where her husband had agreed to meet her. Vincent at his return to France was introduced to the illustrious family of Gondi in the neighbourhood of Chatillon: the Countess of Gondi, with a corresponding zeal, promoted every charitable scheme, and assisted Vincent with ample donations in his benevolent pursuits: by the means of generosity he instituted several female societies for indulgent master, who died in his journey to Constantinople, and, as Vincent informs us, partly of grief, in being obliged to relinquish his beautiful rural retreat and scientific pursuits, to amuse with his experiments the indolent hours of Achmet the First. Vincent now became the property of his late master's nephew, who immediately sold him to a Piedmontese who turned Mahometan, and who farmed a tract of land belonging to the Grand Signior. These farms are called temats: Vincent says, the temat occupied by his new proprietor was a barren mountain, the cultivation of which was consigned to the labour of slaves. The wife of this apostate happening to approach the spot where Vincent was at work, and who was soothing his solitary labour with singing, she asked him what was the subject of his song; he replyed, it was a hymn to Christ, a noel, or what we call a Christmas carol: she observ- In the year 1629 he lost a valuable ed that her husband was once a believer and powerful friend, the Cardinal of in Christ, but that the holy Prophet had Berulle, who died while he was celebreathed into his mind a more sublimebrating mass; on which circumstance belief. The zeal of Vincent was im- the following lines were written : the purpose of gratuitously attending the sick. In a few years were established on the estates belonging to the Count de Gondi thirty sodalities associated under the same benevolent direction. The fame of these institutes excited in several towns in Lorraine and Savoy an emulative desire of sim. ilar eetablishments and it may be asserted with truth, that in many parts of Europe, at this day, the aged, the infirm, the sick, the dying, are visited, attended, relieved, consoled, in consequence of the active and ardent zeal which glowed in the breast of Vincent. : "Capta sub extremis nequeo dum sacra | vices sitting at a table near the door, sacerdos who immediately rose up: the Prioress addressed herself in particular to one of them, held some conference with her, and spoke to her in the most affectionate manner; she appeared to be about 18 years of age; her countenance (without being beautiful) expressed something peculiarly pleasing, and seemed irradi ated with the gaiety of innocence.— When we returned, the Prioress said to us, "Did you not observe the novice with whom I entered into conversation? Poor girl! although she is informed of the severe trial she is to undergo this evening, it appears not to have subdued : Perficere, at saltem victima perficiam.” Vincent found it proper to introduce some new regulations respecting his charitable endowments. Married women formed a great part in every house that was dedicated to the attendance upon the sick domestic concerns frequently required their presence at home; and, after the first fervour had subsided, inattention and neglect ensued. The pious founder therefore or dained, that for the future unmarried women only should be employed. This ordinance gave new vigour to his institution: a great number of young woher accustomed cheerfulness in an menfree from matrimonial engagements hour I am to attend her to the chapel, presented themselves, and (after a where I am to deliver a short exhortayear's noviceship) ascertained their sertion previous to her entering upon of vices by a temporary vow. Vincent fice: I then am to give her my blessing, divided this holy sisterhood into little and to consign her to the solitary duty societies under the directien of an ex- she is bound to perform." We asked perienced person; these subdivisions her in what that duty consisted? She were distributed over the province, to was silent, and appeared ruffled, and be in readiness to act whenever requir- after a short pause, she replied, "Forgive my inattention; but this ceremony of initiation always distresses me the function that novice is to perform this evening is to wash a corpse, and prepare it for burial, and to watch and pray by it through the remainder of the night." ed. This was the commencement of that increasing association of the virgin daughters of charity (les filles de la chariteé,) which at length, like a healthful stream, flowed through the whole Chatholic continent. The When I was in France, (says Mr. Jerningham) the year before the revolution, happening to be at Pontoise, near Paris, I expressed a curiosity to see the celebrated hospital of that town. persons at whose house I had the honor of being a guest, offered to introduce me to the Prioress, who superintended that hospital: she received us with great affability, and observed to me that she well knew that London could boast of many stately establishmehts where the sick were gratuitously attended. She said that her nunnery was founded by St. Lewis in 1259: that since the days of St. Vincent it had been observed the regulations he had established. She conducted us through all the apartments the hospital consisted of two galleries, one of which was destined for soldiers, the other for women. I recollect a circumstance that forcibly struck me at the time: while we were walking through a passage which led to the refectory, we heard some young women talking, and laughing loud enough to engage our attention: when we entered the room we found four no : The unabating numbers of these virgin daughters of charity who co-opera ted in a scheme to which duties of the most repulsive nature were annexed, is a circumstance that transcends all praise, and sets female excellence in a sublime point of view. The founder of this extensive order of charity died 1660 he was buried in the church of St. Lazare in the neighbourhood of Paris; the following inscription is engraved on his tomb: "Hic jacet venerabilis vir Vincentius a Paulo, fundator, seu institutor, et primus superior generalis congrega. tionis missionis, necnon puellarum charitatis. Obiit die 27 Septembris, ætatis vero suæ 85." MAXIM. Children ought not to be impressed so much with the desire of pleasing, as with the fear of displeasing. We are frequently displeased without cause, only because we have been pleased without a reason. best in the play, but is probably the best which Rowe ever wrote, and will bear competition with almost any similar dialogue in English poetry. The dialogue in the 3d act between Horatio and Calista, is also conspicuously beautiful, Mrs. Siddons is much celebrated for her delineation of the mingled passions of pride, fear, anger and conscious guilt in this scene. On Mr. Caulfield's Horatio, had he not been so intolerably imperfect in the part we should probably have been able to bestow much praise He gave some passages with true effect; but was in others deficient of propriety, of emphasis-in the quarrel with Lothario, there was most glaring incorrectness. The quarrel began we knew not why, and ended we knew not wherefore. The truth is, the passages beginning as fol Hilarisque tamen cum pondere virtus. We shall be brief on the performanee The Fair Penitent is distinguished of this play; we should have been hapabove all the productions of Rowe for Py to have been authorized by its exharmony of diction and beauty of lan-cellence to be more copious. guage. But while the manner of its expression is approved, the sentiments are neither remarkable for their force, nor commendable for their virtue. Neither can the piece claim much merit ; from fulness of incident, propriety of passion, or morality of fable. The character of Calista is by no means correspondent with the title of the play: she exhibits no signs of penitence, but to the conclusion is rather enraged at the discovery, than sorrowful at the com-lows, were intirely omitted. mission of her crime. Lothario, the gay, the false Lothario is so much beloved for his courage and admired for his elegance; that he is not sufficiently detested for his seduction or despised for his boasting. Horatio is just, but not amiable; and while he makes a correct estimate of human nature in general, does not make such allowances for Altamont, as would become so clear a reasoner. "The brave, tis true, do never shun Thou fled'st! and guilt was on thee, We could quote more, as Mr. C. must very well know, but besides, he introduced some passages in the wrong. places, so that had not the language itThe conclusion drawn from the whole self been very spirited, the whole infable must be confessed to be moral; terest would have been intirely overbut it is a question whether in the conthrown. These errors are the more duct of the characters, the auditors are inexcusable as Mr. Caulfield seems well not on the whole more pleased than an-adapted to the character and since we gry with the exhibition of the vices of hear the representation of the play has Lothario and Calista, and more angry been once deferred on his account. than pleased with the rigidity of Sciol- Whether Mr. Fox is fairly to be charto's virtue and the determined integri-ged with the same degree of inacuraty of the stoical Horatio. cy in Lothario, as Mr. Caulfield in Ho The last act as Doct. Johnson re-ratio, we cannot decide; the absolute marks, is not equal to either of the for- | deficiency of one would make an apmer; The whole story being told in the four first acts, the fifth is merely a recapitulation and confusion of what has preceded it. There are some astonishingly fine passages as well as scenes in the course of this piece, which when enforced by correct performance cannot fail of producing much rational enjoyment. The scene of Lothario and Horatio in the 2d scene of the 2d act, is not only the parent deficiency in another. He was however imperfect in the garden scene with Calista in several passages. But the supreme defect of Mr. Fox, was the misconception of his part. He read the letter from Calista as badly as Possible; it is a passage which requires nice discrimination. There is a spirit of irony and gaiety throughout this scene, which was changed, by this performer into formal gravity, and heed less inactivity. The deportment of Mr. | The great success which it always has Fox in this wild character, in which Love and war, take turns like day & night Equal to both and arm'd for either field, was by no means so elegant or so sprightly as the part evidently de manded. met with on the French stage, induced Fielding, to translate and alter it for an English audience. How well he has adhered to the spirit of the original, the success of the piece in England will in some degree testify. Fielding was by no means fortunate in his own Sciolto, was unquestionabty very re-dramatic works; but in his translation spectably sustained, in deportment, in of L'Avare, his endeavours were crownutterance, and in force, by Mr. Usher.ed with abundant success. It took posMr. Poe was erroneous in the very first speech in his part; which was the opening of the play. And besides, his Altamont was so completely love-lorn,' he was not sufficiently heard, or generally understood. session of the stage at first, and has ever since preserved a respectable sta tion. The story is natural; is regular. ly perplexed and regularly unravelled; the business of the scene is constant and lively; the mind is never fatigued with interruption of vacant sentiment; but is irresistibly impelled from the opening to the close. There are some scenes of intrigue which would be lescharacters represented. The conflic sons to greater porsonages, than the While we acknowledge the great satisfaction we experienced in witnessing Mrs. Stanley's general personation of Calista, there were some of the passages expressive of grief, which were not agreeably enforced, though her taunts to Horatio, and her under-ting emotions of avarice and dotage in tones produced much excellent effect. Comedy however is decidedly her forte. The part of Lavinia which Mrs. Ushcr performed, would not excite much interest by the most thorough personation; therefore much was not excited. We confess however we discovered some traits of discernment and strong apprehension in her utterance of some passages. Mrs. Dykes improves. the character of Lovegold and the wiles and artful stories of Lappet, to work upon his feelings, evince a thorough knowledge of mankind and par ticularly all branches of the passion of avarice. The moral is just, and the consistency of Lovegold's characteris maintained throughout. He is punished for all his doting fondness of Mariana, by the loss of his money; and although it afterwards reverts to his children, it is equally a punishment to his avarice, as if a stranger had obtained it. The play passed off tolerably well, notwithstanding the drawbacks we have made; this we believe arose from the disposition of the audience to be pleasThere are few performances which ed, rather than from any peculiar ex-have obtained more approbation from cellence in the representation. The Miser, (taken from Plautus and Moliere by H. Fielding,) & the Sultan. Wednesday, Jan. 7. To-night our author treats you with Moliere; critic observers than that on this evening. There was none of that tumult of applause, which is the ebullition of high-wrought sensibility; but it was the praise of the accurate, discriminating few, the nice touches of masterly conception. The Lovegold by Mr. Bernard, was a performance which equally evinced his judgment and his skill. There were many points of the part, which were embellishments of the original; but The present dramatical taste is rath- they gave it surprising effect. er for the sentimental and marvellous, bye-play was every thing we could than for nature and truth. Hence the have wished and more than we expectMiser cannot claim much respect from ed. The soliloquy after the robbery the prevalence of opinion, or much was very forcibly delivered, and gensupport from the breath of popularity.erally it was a very great personation. Excepting his Tartuffle, the play under consideration contains more beauties than any other production of Moliere. We are surprised that Mrs. Shaw could ever turn her attention to any other style of playing than that of Lap THE EMERALD. pet. The interest was most completely preserved by her; and the spirit and zest of the part were never wanting. We hope it may again be represented; if not in the course of the season, at least at the benefits. As a Mrs. Poe in Mariana, was eminent in the first and second scenes. Mr. Poe, flashed some light upon his part now and then; at other times, he preserved his original obscurity. whole, it was respectable. Mr. Fox, as Ramilie, was sometimes accurate and forcible; but his jests wanted spirit and pungency. The other parts were variously performed. We were much surprised as well as disappointed at the small auditory which attended the representation of so fine a comedy; but nothing will suit us it seems but boisterous wit, affected sensibility or magnificent phraseology. Poor human nature must always be in buskins. For the Emerald, DESULTORY SELECTIONS. AND ORIGINAL REMARKS. As CHARLES GRANT's prize poem, on the Restoration of Learning in the East, was some time since the subject of desultory selection. few copies have yet reached this country, unwilling that this gem should be born to blush unseen by the American votaries of taste and the muses, we cannot deny ourselves the pleasure of distributive justice in turning towards the eye of the public a few more of the points of attraction, that sparkle on its brilliant surface. The poem opens with all the grandeur of the genius of the Gan ges: "With grief, who saw the future ages Dark with their sad and fearful destinies; Terror with daring hand has placed the following passage among the permanent sublime of English The fifth couplet has a poetry. bold figure well supported. 'Tis done. Lo, Persecution lifts from far [than war, Her streaming fires, and terrors worse Where mystic hymnings awed the midnight air, Strange sounds, that breathe or that inflict despair, Are heard. The despot, thron'd in blood, presides O'erhavock's work,and all the ruin guides. As from the realms, that own stern *Yama's sway, woe, Some fierce Asura rushes to the day; Ardent with temper and with judgment Firm, though not stern, and though cor- rect, not cold; |