clared that he came at the instance of Letitia, that the The manly frankness and generous warmth of Goodwin unhappy man relaxed from his rigorous and haughty re- seemed at length to appease the resentful feelings of our serve. That name was a charm that laid at once the adventurer, and to subdue his habitual distrust. Having demons of unhallowed passion, and awakened the single premised that he made these disclosures with no hope of kindly affection that harbored in his bosom. To the propo- baffling the vengeance of his enemies, but merely in comsition of an interview with Letitia he was still inflexible; pliance with the earnest solicitations of Goodwin, he gave bat he now softened his refusal by expressing, in emphatic a full unvarnished statement of what had passed between language, his grateful sense of her dutiful conduct, and pro-him and Fenimore, suppressing only from an involuntary mising, that, after his trial was over, he would no longer object to her wishes. He was deaf to all the arguments with which Goodwin labored to combat his resolution. Young man, said he, it is useless to reason on this subjeet. My purpose is fixed. My enemies have brought me to bay, and I have occasion for all my fortitude. I will not suffer it to be weakened or impaired by the society of the only person, whose virtues could redeem human nature from the contempt and hatred with which I view it. Then, sir, said Goodwin, if you will not see your daughter, I hope, at least, that you will suffer me to aid you in the necessary preparations for your defence. You are here ent off from all intercourse with the world. In such circumstances, the aid of an active and intelligent friend might be of infinite importance. If you think me competent to the task, you may freely command my services in the employment of counsel and collection of testimony. sense of shame the sordid pecuniary stipulations of the marriage contract. Goodwin shuddered at the peril from which Letitia had so narrowly escaped, and felt the most ineffable disgust at the conduct of a father, who, from views of avarice and ambition, would have sacrificed the happiness of such a daughter. But these things were now passed. They had terminated in an act which had rescued Letitia from a lot more horrible than death, and the business now was to extricate her father from the consequences of his providential but unwarrantable violence. The case, said Goodwin, is not so bad as I supposed. You acted with undue impetuosity, but certainly on great provocation. It cannot be said that you were legally justifiable, yet your culpability is much mitigated by the circumstances. I will make every effort to find evidence which may illustrate the real character of this transaction, and, in the mean time, bespeak the services of some able counsel to manage your defence. I will now conduct your daughter to the house of the lady with whom you wish her to reside during the pendency of this unpleasant investigation. It is in vain to struggle with my fate, he replied. I cannot avoid the doom which the hatred and injustice of man have prepared for me. You are one of those idle dreamers, who think, that justice, as they call it, is impartially administered, and that they will give me a fair trial. But I know better. I know that justice is the snare of the weak, and the weapon of the powerful. They have me in their clutches, and, after what has happened, I care but little for Mrs. Freeman, the lady to whose house Goodwin cona life to be spent in a community of such reptiles. Yet ducted Letitia, was a kind and sensible woman, and had there are modes of management that might insure my ac- always maintained a friendly intercourse with her young quittal, but your narrow prejudices and fantastic notions relation. The forlorn and unprotected situation of this of right would shrink from such bold and necessary mea- beautiful and amiable girl, stricken so severely by the hand sures. I tell you again, that what is called the administra- of misfortune, engaged the sincere sympathies of this exceltion of justice is nothing but the predominance of the strong lent lady; and she exerted all her ingenuity to soothe the over the weak; and it is the law of all nature, that imbe-mind and tranquillize the agitation of her young guest. Leelity should oppose fraud and stratagem to the oppressive titia was wounded to the heart by her father's refusal to see rolence of power. The benevolent interest manifested by Goodwin in his affairs, penetrated the stony heart of our adventurer, and he took leave of that excellent young man with unusual emotion. Be so good as to state more explicitly what you propose, said Goodwin. Perhaps I may not be averse to your plan of action. her, but her grief was somewhat assuaged by his kind message, and by the hope, held out by Goodwin to allay her apprehensions, that testimony might yet be discovered sufficient for his exculpation. She had the utmost reliance on Imagining that Goodwin was not so squeamish as he sup- Goodwin's discretion and intelligence, and learned, with posed, Newman unfolded, without disguise, the contrivan-reviving spirits, that he had undertaken to supervise the res, by which, on his former trial, he had so successfully preparations for her father's defence. She still hoped that baffled the execution of the laws. Goodwin could scarcely her father would withdraw his rigorous interdict, and perforbear the expression of his utter loathing and abhorrence mit her to fulfil the duty of a daughter by ministering to his or such principles and practices, and discovered, that, afflictions; but to all her entreaties on that subject he readly as he thought of him, he had never yet fathomed the mained inexorable. depth of Newman's depravity. The recollection of Letitia cted as a curb on his feelings, and he determined, for her make, not to abandon the cause of this wicked man. In the interval, between Newman's commitment and the trial, Goodwin was indefatigable in his consultations with the counsel of the accused, in sifting the evidence, weighing Sir, said Goodwin, you conjectured rightly, when you every circumstance that might extenuate the offence, and supposed that I would object to any agency in such expe- securing the attendance of such witnesses as seemed to be tients as these. It may be prejudice, but they are wholly important. The facts elicited by these researches demonreconcilable to my ideas of propriety. In any plan con- strated, that the accused could have been actuated by no lucive to a fair investigation of your case, and not repug-preexisting grudge; that, up to the moment when they enant to my sense of right, you could find no one more tered the fatal chamber, Fenimore and Newman had been calous than myself. on terms of familiar intimacy; and that, consequently, the If you refuse to aid me in my own way, I scorn your as-act must have been committed under the impulse of sudden, istance, said Newman, angrily. I implore you, sir, rejoined Goodwin, not to be too hasty. et not an ill-judged and groundless resentment hurry you to a rejection of my proffer. It is made in all sincerity. ell me candidly the circumstances of your rencontre with enimore, and perhaps it may direct me to the discovery of me evidence which may palliate if it does not justify your fence. VOL. VI.-46 unpremeditated passion. To confirm the supposition that Newman must have sought the deceased at the time of the fact with the most pacific intentions, Goodwin procured proof that the accused habitually carried deadly weapons, and that when arrested none were found upon his person. In order to ascertain the probable provocation which might have operated on our adventurer, Goodwin proposed that the written contract of marriage between him and Fenimore suspt Early the next morning, a man of an uncouth and cious appearance urgently desired admission to the prisoner. To obviate the visible reluctance of the jailer to comply with his request, the man plead important business with Mr. Newman, and expressed an entire willingness that the interview should take place in the presence of witnesses. Satisfied by this assurance that no plan of escape was in agitation, the jailer conducted the stranger into the e where our adventurer was immured. While the jailer tarried a few moments to secure the door, his companion advanced hastily to the small bed on which Newman reclined. Thrusting one hand into his bosom, with the other, be raised his hat, which somewhat shaded his countenance. Do you know me, Anthony Newman? said he in a tremulous tone. Newman gazed earnestly in his face for a moment. Yes, he replied, rising suddenly from the bed, and attempting to put himself in a posture of defence. You are that madman Joe Smith. Madman! echoed Smith with a wild and maniac laugh; and who made me a madman? I told you, I would be wit you when you least expected. You have escaped the hang At the same instant, drawing a knife from his bosom, b plunged it to the hilt in the body of our adventurer. Before he could repeat his blow, the jailer seized him from be hind and wrested the deadly weapon from his hand. Take me where you will, exclaimed the maniac. I have obeyed the voice. I am he that has been appointed to execute judgment on the murderer and adulterer; and I have done the deed. should be produced, and proof was found that the deceased had declared to several that he did not intend to comply with that contract. It might be inferred from these facts, that Fenimore, for the first time, announced his intended breach of engagement to our adventurer in their last interview; and a strong appeal might be made to the jury on the effect which such an outrage on a young and beautiful female was calculated to produce on the feelings of a father. This favorable version of her father's conduct and motives, Goodwin did not fail to communicate to Letitia. Though her father had been betrayed into blood-guiltiness by the impulse of sudden passion, and must expiate that offence by submitting to its appropriate punishment, yet it was a great relief to her feelings that he was uninfluenced in the fatal transaction, by that ferocious and diabolical malevolence which constitutes the legal as well as moral guilt of murder. The eventful day at length arrived which was to seal the fate of our adventurer. No prosecution, in that district of country, had ever excited such eager and general curiosity. The conspicuous position in society occupied for so many years by the accused-the remarkable transactions of his life-the political and private enmities he had provoked-hiз bold, fearless, and uncompromising character, and the uni-man, but you have not escaped this. versal odium into which he had fallen-all conspired to produce a deep and unusual interest in the issue of this trial. The ablest advocates had been retained on both sides; for Fenimore's relations had spared no expense to insure the conviction of Newman. Never did a man arraigned at the bar of criminal justice, appear under circumstances so well calculated to shake his fortitude. He knew that all eyes were turned upon him in enmity or abhorrence; that not a heart in that immense crowd throbbed with sympathy or A fierce expression of savage exultation lighted the commiseration. He stood alone, unfriended, unpitied, un- countenance of the assassin, as he glared upon his vicum, supported by the retrospect of a single good action. The who now lay weltering in his blood, and without further revultures of remorse were gnawing in his bosom, but he sistance, he permitted himself to be bound and removed to gave no token of his internal agony. He came forward another apartment. Consigning Smith to the charge of one with a countenance, calm, sedate, unwavering, respectful of his assistants, and directing a surgeon to be summ to the court, dignified to the spectators. Neither the scowl with the utmost speed, the jailer hastened back to the of hatred, or the hiss of reproach, with which he was as-wounded man. He found our adventurer faint from the sailed, could move his stubborn resolution. Even those by effusion of blood, but still sensible. From the depth and whom he was most detested, confessed that the energies of direction of the wound, it was evident that the fatal inthis man's nature, had they not been perverted by a false strument had reached his vitals, and that, though he ma and pernicious system of morals, might have led to some- linger a few hours, there was no hope of his recovery. T thing great and noble. The trial commenced. The cir- jailer, with a humanity not usual in his calling, endeavore cumstances of the case were so generally known, and the to stanch the blood, and by the application of such hasty accused so universally disliked, that there was great diffi-remedies as he could command, to relume the fleeting sp culty in getting an impartial jury. At length twelve men of life now flickering on the verge of dissolution. Pas were sworn, who were, or pretended to be, strangers to the tially revived by these efforts, Newman recovered parties and to the transaction. Many witnesses were ex-strength sufficiently to request that Goodwin and his dau amined, and the case argued, on both sides, with ability ter should be immediately sent for. When the surgeon and eloquence. It is unnecessary to detail the particulars came, a slight examination satisfied him that the case was of the testimony. It was admitted, that the act must have beyond his skill, and he contented himself with using s been perpetrated on a sudden quarrel; and the question means as would assuage the pain, and prolong for a bre was whether death had ensued contrary to the intention of period the life of his patient. Satisfied that he had bea the accused, and in the infliction of a chastisement propor-short time to live, Newman did not wish to be tormentes tioned to the provocation, or had been produced by a blow with vain efforts to save him. His only desire was that i from a deadly instrument calculated to do serious mischief, might survive until the arrival of Goodwin and his dan and the use of which necessarily inferred that malignity ter; and that last wish was granted him. In less than an and wickedness which constitute the essence of murder. hour after the infliction of the mortal wound, Letitia, a The weight of the argument was certainly against the accompanied by Goodwin, rushed into the room. She tare cused, yet, contrary to all expectation, the jury were so far herself in unspeakable anguish on the pale and ghast favorable as to find him guilty of the least heinous offence. form of her father. The horror of this piteous spectacThough our adventurer was so fortunate as to escape capi- almost bereft her of her senses. tal punishment, yet the consequence of this verdict was a long and irksome imprisonment, aggravated by the disgrace of being made the associate of the vilest malefactors. The session of the court would continue for several days, and it was customary to postpone the judgment of condemnation till the close of the term. Our adventurer was, therefore, remanded to jail until final sentence could be pronounced. Oh my dear father, she exclaimed in tones of the most piercing grief, am I permitted to see you at last only b witness your expiring agonies? Am I to lose you after so long a separation in this dreadful manner? Oh that ha died before this horrible catastrophe! Oh that I could dar now to relieve your sufferings ! This burst of tenderness and sorrow from the only bein that he loved, touched the heart of Newman with unwor ed softness. Tears, to which he had been long a stranger, | faction illumined his pallid countenance now covered with bedewed his eyelids. Strong emotion choked his utterance, the damps of death, the only pleasure of which I am capaand silently extending his arms, he folded this beloved daughter feebly to his bosom. In a few moments, he regained his composure. ble in this trying hour. The tide of life is fast ebbing in my veins. As the shades of death gather around me, grim phantoms rise up from the past and flit before my darkening eye-sight. They seem to mock and gibber at me. Oh you know not, young man, what a fearful thing it is, at a moment like this, to look back upon a life stained by a black catalogue of vices and crimes. I am not timid-I have braved death in many forms with the courage of a man-but when he comes with all my evil deeds in his train, he is then, indeed, the king of terrors. Let me beseech you, my dear daughter, said he, to calm this agitation. Do not lament my death. My life would Eave been a disgrace to you, a burthen to myself. The assassin's dagger has anticipated my own resolution. This can, this Smith, has only done to me what I have done to another, and for the same cause. My own act condemns me, and proves that I deserved the blow. Why should I desire to live? I am an outcast in the world, branded with Would not the conversation of a clergyman tend to cominfamy, despised, hated by all-I have lost property, cha-pose your mind? asked Goodwin, shuddering at this hideracter, friends, every thing. My only regret, in surren-ous picture of remorse and despair. If you will consent, canng the miserable boon of existence, is in parting with one can be summoned immediately. you, in leaving you alone and unprotected in the world, exposed to the buffets of fortune and to the malice of our worst enemy, your brother. I could have wished to shield you from his machinations. You have always been kind, dutiful, affectionate. You are my only remaining friend, and my berterest thought in this trying moment is, that I have not deserved your love. Among all the crimes and enormities that now haunt my recollection and embitter my last hours, that which awakens the most painful reflections, is the consciousness, that, for my own selfish ends, I would have sacnficed your happiness. No, replied the dying man, it is too late. As I have made my bed, so must I lie. Oh that I could live my life over again! But why make so vain a wish? I should but act the same part, repeat the same career of crime and wickedness. His quick and laborious respiration now preluded the near approach of the last moment. He spoke faintly and at intervals, while his mind, with a dreamy and delirious unconsciousness, seemed to wander back over the scenes of his past life. Come, dear Alice, he exclaimed, don't do it? and you shall not marry Thompson. What makes you so wet and Oh my father, said the weeping Letitia, how can you say cold? your touch freezes me. I know you come for me so! You have been always too kind and indulgent. from your bed in the deep water, where you have laid so long. Presently he spoke in a fiercer tone-I say you did cheat, and I can prove it. What if I did kill him? He struck You do not know me, said Newman, in that hollow sepulchral tone which betokens the near approach of death. I Lived only for myself. I cared not for the welfare or hap-me first. You say he is my father; but how could I know ¡iness of any other human being, and I am now reaping the batter fruits, in the hatred of mankind, in a death-bed tortired by vain remorse and unsoothed by the retrospect of a single good action. Even you, whom I loved, I destined to be the victim of my schemes of avarice and ambition. You will forgive me, my daughter, but I cannot forgive myself. Oh why should you reproach yourself so unjustly my father? said Letitia. I have nothing to forgive. that? He kept his secret, and never treated me as a father. Is that Morton? I thought you were dead. Well, sir, I'm ready; give us the pistols. Why didn't you promise not to fire? If you had, I wouldn't have shot you. What do you come for from the grave? I'll go with you, when I'm ready. He paused for a few moments, and his eye rested with an expression of fondness upon his daughter. Is that Letitia? he said faintly. I can't see you. Come nearer, my dear, that my eyes may rest on you as their last object. Let me take leave of you. I am going where we shall never meet again. In an agony of tears, Letitia pressed the pale lips of the dying man, and his last breath was received by this beloved daughter. His jaw fell, the muscles of the face quivered with a convulsive movement, a film passed over the eyes; and all that remained of Newman was a lifeless corse. The spirit had gone to its last account. Letitia had been supported through this harrowing scene only by her strong sense of filial duty, and when she became aware that life had finally departed, sunk into a state of insensibility. In this condition, she was removed from the prison, while arrangements were made for depositing the body in its last resting place. It was privately interred in the presence of Goodwin and a few others. Would that I could think so, said the dying man. There was once a time, indeed, when I had thought to make you happy in the love of a man that deserved you; but the evil propensities that have been the bane of my life, overruled that design. I would now resume that purpose, and while I have breath make amends for the misery I have caused. Draw near Mr. Goodwin. You and Letitia love each other with a pure, disinterested attachment. I have long seen You are mutually deserving of that love. Take her and be happy. I would fain atone for the injuries I have lone your family. Nothing I have ever done occasions me nei keen remorse at this moment, as the remembrance of se injuries. I see your curiosity is excited; but this is at a time, nor have I breath to enter into the detail of hose painful reminiscences. The when, the where, the low, you will find explained in a manuscript among my paJers. The only expiation I can offer, is to give you this miable girl. She is in herself an invaluable treasure; nor * she be a dowerless bride. Among my papers, you will ind memoranda of testimony establishing clearly her identy as the daughter of my wife. That proof will substan- It was some months before Letitia recovered from the sate her title to a moiety of the property which has here- shock of these horrible occurrences. The poignancy of her ofore been in my possession. This I know will not weigh grief, which seemed, at first, to threaten the overthrow of i feather with you; but none better merit the possession of her reason, yielded imperceptibly to the lenient influences wealth than you and Letitia; for no one would make a bet-of time, the soothing attentions of Mrs. Freeman, and the er use of it. And now, young man, will you accept this generous attachment of Goodwin. It was long before the ast legacy of a ruined, disgraced, and dying man? wounds of her sensibility could be completely healed; but Willingly, said Goodwin, deeply affected; nor will I ever the anguish of her first stormy emotions subsided gradually Pease to cherish the sacred deposit. into a tender melancholy. Brighter prospects dawned upon You have given me, said Newman, while a gleam of satis- her, and she looked forward to an union with Goodwin Such was the melancholy end of a man, whose fine talents and uncommon vigor of character might have made him a blessing and an ornament to society; but who, by the misapplication of these eminent gifts, became a curse to the world, an object of universal disgust and execration. with cheering hope, as an abundant recompense for past it did not consist with his notions of duty to squander on sufferings. That young man, had he consulted the dictates such fleeting personal gratifications the resources that might of his calmer reason, might, perhaps, have avoided, in the be more profitably expended in the relief of the wretched, commencement, a connexion with a family whose history or in the advancement of works of public utility and imwas fraught with such disgraceful and mortifying recollec-provement. Having removed, therefore, to his new purtions. No man placed a higher value on reputation; and chase, he was content to build up an establishment plain he felt an honorable pride, not more in the unimpeachable and unostentatious, where supplied with every comfort and rectitude of his own conduct, than in the unsullied fame of convenience, he could exercise the rites of a liberal hospihis progenitors. To a person of such sentiments, the idea tality, and indulge, without restraint, his innate generosity that the ancestry of his wife were the subject of such foul and benevolence. In that tranquil retreat, he and Letitia imputations, must be a source of the most galling reflection. have spent their lives, admired and loved by a wide circle But his affections were now irretrievably committed. He of acquaintances, and happy in the exercise of all the dohad plighted his faith to this amiable girl under the most mestic and amiable affections. solemn and affecting circumstances, and he found his justification in the virtues of the object. This was a case where that scrupulous, perhaps superfluous nicety, which shrinks from the remotest contact with infamy, was uncalled for, because the merit of the daughter redeemed the vices of her parentage. The purest and most unstained lineage, might be proud to acknowledge a being so faultless as its representative; and Goodwin felt assured, that in the society of such a companion, no vain and untimely regrets would ever allay the happiness of his future career. No bar was now interposed to the mutual attachment of these excellent young people, and it was settled that their espousals should take place as soon as they were authorized by the legal sanction of Letitia's guardian. The gentleman in whose office Goodwin had prosecuted his professional studies, was selected by her for that office, and entered into the usual obligations. With his concurrence, Letitia was privately married to Goodwin about twelve months after the tragical death of her father. It was soon ascertained, that if Hambden Newman should be disposed to contest her rights, the memoranda found among her father's papers would establish beyond question Letitia's claim to a moiety of her mother's estate. That rapacious and unprincipled young man would, doubtless, have resisted it with all his powers; but his dissolute career was destined to be prematurely cut short by a catastrophe, such as might well have been anticipated from his loose habits and imperious temper. He had gone on a gaming excursion to the State of Mississippi, and, shortly after Goodwin's marriage, was slain at a gaming table in a drunken brawl, provoked by his own insolence; a fate that excited neither surprise nor regret among his acquaintances. Letitia was now the unquestionable heiress of the whole estate, and no person being interested to dispute her title, Goodwin was enabled, with but little difficulty, to reduce the property into his possession. The general knowledge in Georgia of the criminal misconduct of Letitia's parents, together with the painful scenes which he himself had witnessed in that state, had determined Goodwin, as soon as he could make the necessary arrangements, to fix his residence in some other region. Unlike the emigrants, who are now dispeopling the old A MESSAGE BY THE WINDS. Tell her, that I am sad and lone, As when we parted last in tears, For hearts are like a pendulum- Our souls, as one of old hath shown, And though thou now art far away, And once again I see thee here, THE RETURN. BY CH. LANMAN. D. P. G During one of my visits in the country last sum states to amass riches at the expense of health and happi-mer I met with the following incident, and I now ness in the wilderness of the west, he had not, by his re- relate it, believing that the thoughtful mind may moval, abjured his attachment to his native land. Virginia, gather instruction from its perusal. the place of his birth, and the residence of his nearest friends and connexions, was still dearer to him than any other country, and there he resolved to establish his permanent abode. With the perfect concurrence of Letitia, he converted the bulk of their immense property into money, and having purchased, with a portion of it, a valuable and extensive farm on James river, together with the necessary supply of stock and laborers, vested the residue in State securities. His accession of fortune had not corrupted the republican simplicity of his habits. He had no taste for parade and pageantry; and though, with his wealth, he could well have afforded to launch out into that style of luxurious elegance so common in this democratic country, It was a lovely afternoon, and I had wandered forth to enjoy the scenery and glories of the western sky. On reaching the summit of a hill, a short distance from the village, I beheld the bent form of an aged man leaning upon his staff. His garb was suited to ha age, but was dusty and worn; and, as he stood there silent as a statue, unconscious of surrounding things. it seemed to me that his eye was fixed on some object beyond the boundaries of this world-something undiscernible to the gaze of common men. I approached and offered him my hand, which he received with a warm pressure, while a strange fore heeded me not. It made me sad-very sad. smile lighted his withered countenance. I saw I heard the clear laugh of a maiden beyond a garthat something heavy was at the old man's heart, and I asked him, as a friend, to tell me of his grief. He assented, and seating ourselves upon a rude seat near by, he thus proceeded : den wall, and fancy pictured to my mind the deep blue eye, the heaving bosom and sweet smile of Mary Lee. Then I was happy. I saw a party of children returning from the strawberry fields, “My young friend, I have been thinking upon with baskets 'brimming full;' and, as they danced the pleasures and the sorrows of other days. At along with joyous hearts and blooming faces, I bethe mention of these two last words, how varied came a child once more. But when they came are the scenes which rise before me, causing my near, and gathered round to gaze at my thin white heart to flutter with joy or tremble at remembered locks and furrowed cheeks, and one exclaimed grief! I do not sympathize with those who tellsee how the poor man trembles,' I felt that I was me to forget the past, to trust no future, and live indeed old, and ripe for the sickle of death. As only for the present hour. Ah, no!—such thoughts this happy group left me, a shade of thoughtfulness are inappropriate to an immortal soul on the bor- seemed to have settled on their young minds; and ders of futurity! when one of the little girls lagged behind, and poured into my lap the contents of her basket, a tear of holy love dimmed my eyes, and I thanked God that he permitted angels to dwell upon the earth. Beautiful child!-may I meet thy pure spirit in the realms of bliss! "Yonder smiling village, almost hidden from view by those lofty elms, is the place of my birth. In the clear waters of that broad river I have often bathed this frame, when the blood of health and youth sparkled through its veins. "Fifty years ago, I left my happy home to seek "I passed down the avenue which once led to my fortune in the wide, wide world. Can I for- the little brown cottage where I was born-but get the tears, the blessings, and the breaking hearts there every thing was changed. No familiar voice of that sad parting? Dear parents, who have long greeted my ear. The marble mansion, the fashionsince gone to your home of peace, forgive your able garden and regular walks, added to my sorerring child for his ingratitude and hardness of row. Even the old apple-tree, under whose shadow heart! He has reaped an abundant reward for his my mother sung her lullaby for me, was gone. wayward and ambitious spirit. For many years, I Those who saw me, thought me an old mendicant, have been a friendless and solitary wanderer in a and offered me bread-but I refused it and turned crowded world. As in the May-day of life, I am away to hide my burning tears. For a moment, even now poor, ignorant, sinful and unknown. they wondered why the old man wept-but then There was a time when the nobles of a distant they passed on and he was forgotten. I sat down and enjoyed the luxuries of my table, but poverty upon a stone, near the old schoolhouse, and O, stript me of my possessions-and friendship became how mingled were the recollections it brought to a name. The smile of flattery was changed to the mind! Where, thought I, are the noble young frown of contempt and scorn-and all, because I spirits who were once so happy there? Many of was poor. I have studied the human heart and them, perhaps, were lured into the world by fame, the mysteries of the universe, but each succeeding pleasure and wealth; while a few have passed year tends but to impress me more deeply with my through this life knowing it to be but the pathway ignorance. When I have reflected on the ravages to an eternal one. They are gone-all, all gone. of time, and the utter folly of living only for the The schoolhouse still stands there, but it is a ruin present, I have striven to become a sinless crea- mournfully reminding the beholder of other days. ture, but my endeavors have proved vain. It is A part of the roof has fallen in, and the door is not age alone, but sin and its evil consequences, hingeless. Its inhabitants are the cricket and bat, that have furrowed my brow so deeply. There and its broken windows are hung with curiously was a time too, when my name was on the lips of wrought tapestry from the spider's loom. A short a nation—when I was called great, honorable, and distance from this ruin, stands a splendid edifice good-but that nation has forgotten me; those with towering spires, known by the name of 'days are departed. College.' I wondered, when I saw that, whether "A few hours since, and, after the absence of the learned of the present time were happier and half a century, I returned to my native village- better men than those who were instructed by the hoping to find there one person at least who would travelling pedagogue, fifty years ago. remember me, and bend over my couch when I should die. But no-'I seemed a stranger, or as one forgot.' I saw a youth with dark melancholy eyes and lofty forehead, walking thoughtfully in the shadow of the trees. I forgot myself, and called out the familiar name of an early friend, but the stranger thought the old man crazy-and there "I entered the church, but this too had undergone a change. The moss-covered church, where the poor, the humble and good ever went to congre. gate and worship God in sincerity and truth, is now changed to a naked white temple-the Sabbath resort of fashionable worshippers. "I went into the garden of graves-but that too |