or sorrows of kindred bound up in their fate-and upon the countenance of Lucifer, and the same deno doom to undergo, in the eternity of existence riding smile gleamed upon his features as he gazed; after death, for the crimes they had committed at and, as he turned away, he gathered from the anthe instigation of his evil passions or of their own. swering glances of his fellows, that with the rapid Another wave of Moloch's hand, and the fear- intelligence of immortals, even though of fallen ful vision passed instantly from sight; the broad estate, they recognized and enjoyed the practical and vaporous curtain was again a blank; and turn- sarcasm thus levelled at their monarch, whose pride ing with a grim and haughty smile, as of assured "Had cast him out from Heaven, with all his host success, from the horrid pageant he had called up, Of rebel angels, by whose aid aspiring the war-demon stalked proudly to his throne, while To set him in glory far above his peers, He trusted to have equalled the Most High." a fierce murmur of approval and enjoyment, mixed with scorn, ran through the myriads of spectators. Next to the trial came the mocking Rimmon. Of slender form, and features delicate but sharp and well-defined; with small keen sparkling eyes and low broad forehead, wrinkled cheeks and long sharp nose and chin, and ever on his lip a lurking sneer. Ascending the platform, he turned and gazed keenly for a moment on his chief, while the sneer deepened to a malignant and contemptuous smile; then clap-have been comely but for the sensual expression ped his hands aloud, and with an inclination of the head more scornful than respectful, pointed to the scene that already had begun to picture itself upon the cloudy veil. It was widely different from that which had preceded it. Again the cloudy veil hung blank, as Rimmon glided to his throne, and Chemos rose to show his scorn of human kind, in competition for the prize "Peor his other name, when he enticed His was a goodly form, of fair proportions although somewhat gross, and his features would stamped upon them, and the licentious leer of his half-closed twinkling eyes. With the indifferent air of undoubting confidence in his success, he advanced only a few steps toward the platform, and slightly waving his hand, turned and resumed his seat, without pausing to note the vision his mute gesture had called up. A regal hall of audience was seen, arrayed in all the splendor of eastern magnificence. The floor was covered with cloth of gold-the lofty ceiling The scene presented was a chamber luxuriously was supported by columns of polished marble-furnished; and in it, upon a couch heaped high statues of costly material and exquisite workman- with downy pillows, and in a most voluptuous attiship were placed in alcoves at either side-and at tude, reclined a woman, young and beautiful—her the extremity was a throne of carved ivory, in-neck and bosom half concealed and half exposed, by wrought with gold and blazing with jewels, and the artful disposition of her thin and all but transovershadowed by a canopy of the richest silk and parent drapery-her long and flowing hair unbound velvet. Upon the throne sat a mighty monarch- and streaming in exquisite disorder around her white mighty as it seemed from the prostrate humility of and polished shoulders, and her lovely limbs cast his thronging courtiers, those nearest to the throne with studied negligence in attitudes of perfect and lying at full length upon the floor and those farther most enchanting gracefulness. At her feet, and removed kneeling reverentially before their lord, with gazing up into her eyes with looks of enamored eyes cast down and looks betokening the very ex- devotion, lay a man of noble form and countetreme of servile reverence and dread. And he, the nance-one whose every feature seemed to speak centre of all this homage, was a bloated old man, the hero in battle and the sage in council. Upon with dull watery eyes, and features swollen by gross the floor, at some distance from the couch, there indulgence-his frame distended and unwieldly, his lay a golden crown and near it a broken sword, as hands shaking with paralytic debility, and one mis- if thrown carelessly away; and, in the half-opened shapen limb enwrapped in flannels and supported door-way, was seen the figure of an aged man, who by cushions of the softest down, while a hollow with a look of mingled sorrow and reproach, vainly cough seemed every moment to threaten him with beckoned the infatuated lover from the presence of suffocation. Feeble, worn out, racked with pain, the syren in whose blandishments he seemed to tottering upon the verge of the grave, and with in-disregard alike the calls of duty and of fame. tellect almost destroyed by habitual excess, he sat upon his gorgeous throne the absolute and despotic ruler over millions more worthy than himself, and firmly persuaded that the lives and possessions of his people were by Heaven's decree consigned to his caprice; that they were born to be his slaves, and that, as creatures of an inferior race, it was condescension even to let them look upon his regal The vision rested but for a moment on its vapory tablet; and as it faded away, a peal of scornful laughter rang through the mighty hall, and told with what contempt the powers of Hell regarded man when become the slave of his most imperious passion. Him followed next a chief of mean and squalid aspect; low in stature, with ill-shaped limbs and anxious care-worn features; his eyes cast downward, and his movements slow and creepingAgain the small keen orbs of Rimmon were fixed powerful in Hell and still more powerful on Earth, countenance. VOL. VI.-8 The viands had been removed, but the table was covered with flagons, cups and glasses, and the guests were stimulating their mirth with frequent draughts of sparkling wine. They were all of goodly appearance-elegantly habited, and their gaiety though animated was decorous and even graceful. One among them seemed to be the master of the revel; for although youngest of them all, the eyes and the discourse of all the rest were chiefly directed to him;-he it was who seemed to do the honors, and it was from him that the attendants, who entered from time to time, bringing new supplies of wine, received their orders. but even among his infernal compeers utterly des- | furnished, having in the centre a round table, about pised. With stealthy steps he mounted to the which were seated a party of young men enjoying altar, and with a reluctant hand placed on it a small themselves in wassail and festivity. piece of gold, which he drew from a pouch concealed within his vesture. Instantly there appeared upon the cloud a scene of varied import, the surface dividing itself as it were into compartments, every one of which exhibited a different group or figure. In one was seen an old man of wretched appearance-meagre and ill-clad-kneeling in a miserable apartment before an iron chest, into which he gazed with looks of intense delight but mingled with apprehension. In another was depicted a large room, destitute of furniture save one large table in the centre, around which stood or sat a group of men, all differing in age and garb, but all eagerly and intently watching the proceedings Even while the legions of Satan's kingdom were of one, who alternately threw upon the table and gazing upon the scene, it changed; and the same gathered up again a number of small pictured tab- young man was now beheld alone, in a smaller lets, while another, in seeming connection with the apartment, plainly but comfortably furnished. He movements of the first, was incessantly employed sat, or rather reclined upon a couch, in a listless in changing the arrangement of certain piles of coin, attitude, supporting his head upon one hand, and and separate pieces, deposited from time to time by seemingly buried in painful reflection. A closer the lookers-on. A third compartment presented observation of his form and features, showed that the form of a man toiling in a deep and gloomy pit, a few years had been added to his age, but also that and at intervals gathering up fragments of stone some more potent mischief had wrought upon him or earth in which shining particles were imbedded. than time alone could bring. The grace and eleHere was a figure seen stealing behind one who gance that once adorned his person had undergone carried in his hand a bag of coin, and plunging aa change, perceptible, yet scarcely to be described dagger into his heart; there, a youthful and lovely woman standing before an altar and clasping the hand of an aged and decrepit man, upon whose withered features she cast looks of blandishment through which gleamed an irrepressible emotion of disgust. It would require pages to describe the multifarious images called up by the potent spell of that "least erected spirit;" and as they melted into vacancy, Mammon crept back to his throne, while a sneer of scorn mantled upon the harsh features of his sovereign, and the assembled legions of Hell looked on with contemptuous wonder-so absorbing, that not the faintest voice or movement broke the awful stillness that brooded over them. At length Belial rose-the fairest seeming, but withal the subtlest of the fallen potentates. Graceful in form and movement, and of most persuasive aspect-eloquent in speech, in words; his apparel was less point-de-vice; his eyes were heavy, and his countenance, though unmarked by the lines of age, yet had neither the freshness of youth nor the calm dignity of perfect manhood. He sat motionless for a time, and it was easy to perceive that his reflections were more bitter than profound; as if not loss of wealth alone had caused them, but also loss of self-respect. At length he started to his feet, and with a something of desperation in his movement, hastily crossed the room to a sideboard which stood there, and pouring out a goblet of some liquid darker than wine, swallowed it eagerly, as though it were a poison that he loathed yet could not renounce, dashed the empty goblet upon the floor and hurried from the room. Again the scene was changed. Night was upon the streets of a great city, and silence dwelt among them. The stars looked down upon houses unil"To make the worse appear luminated, and upon pathways and pavements that The better reason, and perplex and dash echoed to no footstep. But from the distant gloom Maturest counsels: for his thoughts were low, emerges into the foreground, where a single lamp To vice industrious, but to noble deeds in the window of some late student cast a feeble Tim'rous and slothful-yet he pleased the ear." gleam, the figure of a man; and as he approaches A smile of triumph dwelt upon his attractive nearer, it seems that he is afflicted with some features, as he ascended the platform, and poured strange disease. His steps are devious and irreguupon the altar a few drops of liquid from a golden lar-now he pauses as if utterly wearied and ready flask suspended at his girdle; and the glance he to sink, and now dashes onward with frantic haste; cast around, seemed to invite the suffrages of his plunging first to the right hand, then as wildly to peers in favor of the exhibition created by his skill. the left, and that with movements so unsteady as The scene that gradually formed itself upon the to bring him more than once in danger of falling cloud, was the interior of a banqueting-room richly headlong to the ground. In his mad career, he With Atlantean shoulders fit to bear Or Summer's noontide air." passes before a mansion from the windows of which issues a blaze of light-the token of revelry within-and it is seen that his garments are coarse, ill-fitting, threadbare and discolored-but it is also seen that he is the same who presided at the His step, as he approached the platform, was feast, and who was afterward beheld yielding to a grave and stately, and his expression serious yet temptation which he loathed and hated. The same, resolved-as though he felt the hazard of some but oh, how fallen! Years of vice and wretched- great enterprize, yet blenched not from its encounness have passed over him-mind and body have ter. All eyes were intently fixed upon him, as he been debased, desecrated, sacrificed at the shrine of a hideous indulgence-the gay debauchee has become a miserable wreck. He pauses before the dwelling whence proceeds the light that reveals his ruined state; and even amid the stupefaction of his intellect, remembers that it was once his own. He howls forth an execration, and rushes madly onward. Again a change appears. A wretched hovel is presented, standing alone upon a waste and desolate moor. Within it, cowering over a hearth on which a few small fragments of wood are burning, sits a female-young but of sickly aspect, and more sorrowful than sickly. Her look and attitude betoken misery and despair; and beside her, stretched upon a little heap of rags, lies the attenuated form of a dead child-dead, its fleshless limbs and haggard features tell, of cold and hunger. Without, the moor lies bleak and covered with snow-the keen wind sweeps over it unchecked by tree or house-the brilliant stars of winter are glittering above and but a few yards from the door, already half buried in the snow-drift, lies the stiffening body of the drunkard. He had reeled and staggered almost to the presence of the wife whom he had reduced from affluence to destitution, and there falling in his intoxication, passed from sleep to death, alone, unaided and unseen. Again the surface of the cloud was blank; and as Belial descended from the platform, one universal roar of triumph and of applause burst from the myriads of evil spirits, and the judgment of his peers that he had most perfectly exhibited the folly of mankind, was pealed forth in such a voice of thunder that its echoes reached even Hell's remotest borders. Yet Lucifer sat silent on his throne; nor by word or look avowed his concurrence in the popular decision. He rolled his glowing eyes around from face to face, with a look of expectation, as if he derived a fiendish pleasure from the efforts of his chiefs, and would have the prize still contended for by other aspirants. Silence meanwhile was restored, and the glance of Satan fell at length upon his greatest follower, the potent and daring Beelzebub, "Than whom Satan except, none higher sat. With grave stood beside the altar, and, pausing there for a brief space, gazed earnestly upon his monarch. For a moment there was a shade of indecision in his look-it might be of anxiety or alarm-but with a visible effort it passed away, and stretching forth his hand toward the cloud, Beelzebub resolutely fastened his gaze upon the scene which began already to appear upon its surface. That scene was the arena of an amphitheatre, such as were employed for gladiatorial exhibitions in the palmy days of Rome. At one side was the statue of a heathen divinity-the Jove Omnipotens of classic paganism-and at the other a lofty upright cross; and midway between them stood a group of figures, the principal of 'which was an aged man meanly habited and with chains upon his limbs. Those around him seemed from their garb to be priests and warriors-most of them wearing helmets and martial trappings, and the others fillets upon their heads, with flowing vestments descending to the ground. At the foot of the statue knelt one bearing in his hands vessels of gold, jewelled collars and various other treasures, which he seemed proffering to the aged prisoner; and near the cross stood a grim and savage figure, exhibiting instruments of torture. The priests were gathered round the captive, and by their looks and gestures might be deemed persuading him to approach and worship the idol-statue; but he, with head averted and looks directed upward, stretched forth his hands as to embrace the cross, and seemed to spurn the bribe thus offered for his apostacy. The eyes of Satan and all his host, were rivetted upon this scene of what the bold Beelzebub dared to offer as an exhibition of human folly-but suddenly the surface of the cloud was agitated, broken and convulsed; the arena with its figures disappeared; the myriads of lights that blazed in the hall were in a moment extinguished, and pitchy darkness fell like a monstrous pall upon the multitudes convened within it. Then, from the bosom of the cloud, blazed forth the Cross, now glowing as if wrought of celestial fire-peal on peal of thunder bellowed through the vast expanse, and multitudinous lightnings flashed terror to the hearts of the assembled legions. Headlong they fled and howling, their mightiest among the first, nor paused until the lowest deeps of Hell were sought as refuge from the wrath they had provoked, and which too late they found could reach them even in the very citadel of their accursed Empire, THE POOL OF BETHESDA. BY SEBA SMITH. Unto the holy city came To seek Bethesda's healing waters--- With kindly power from day to day, And he that first its virtues prov'd, Was heal'd and forthwith went his way, Amidst the throng that waited there, A patient Hebrew many a year Had watch'd the troubled waters. He feebly toward the fountain bore him; For one had always stepp'd before him. A stranger came and look'd awhile On him who there in anguish lay; Then kindly said with holy smile, 'Hebrew, arise and go thy way.' As forth into the world that hour, With footsteps light, the Hebrew trod, WINTER. [From Howitt's "Book of the Seasons."] through the window her wintry glances and wintry light; I heard the horned bird, the night-owl, shrieking horribly from her cavern. I heard the wild geese, with screaming cries, fly over the city through the silent night. I was soon lulled to sleep till the cock, clapping his wings, crowed thrice and the day peeped. I waked and saw the moon disappear, and heard the jackdaws cackle on the roof of the house. The cranes, prognosticating a tempest, in a firm phalanx, pierced the air with voices sounding like a trumpet. The kite, perched on an old tree, fast by my chamber, cried lamentably-a sign of the dawning day. I rose, and half opening my window, perceived the morning, livid, wan, and hoary; the air overwhelmed with vapor and cloud; the ground stiff, grey, and rough; the branches rattling; the sides of the hill looking black and hard with the driving blasts; the dewdrops congealed on the stubble and rind of trees; the sharp hailstones, deadly cold, hopping on the roof and neighboring causeway." We are now placed in the midst of such wintry scenes as this. Nature is stripped of all her summer drapery. Her verdure, her foliage, her flowers, have all vanished. The sky is filled with clouds and gloom, or sparkles only with a frosty radiance. The earth is spongy with wet, rigid with frost, or buried in snow. The winds that in summer breathed gently over nodding blooms and undulating grass, swaying the leafy boughs with a pleasant murmur, and wafting perfumes all over the world, now hiss like serpents, or howl like wild beasts of the desert-cold, piercing, and cruel. Every thing has drawn as near as possible to the centre of warmth and comfort. The farmer has driven his flocks and cattle into sheltered home-inclosures, where they may receive from his provident care Garvain Douglas, the celebrated Bishop of Dunkeld, has given the following most excellent sketch of winter, which Warton has rendered from antiquated Scotch verse into good modern English that food which the earth now denies them; or in prose: the farm-yard itself, where some honest Giles piles their cribs plentifully with fodder. It amazes us as we walk abroad, to conceive where can have concealed themselves the infinite variety of creatures that sported through the air, earth, and waters of summer. "The fern withered on the miry fallows-the brown moors assumed a barren mossy hue; banks, sides of hills and hollows, grey, white, and bare; the cattle looked hoary from the dank weather; the wind made the red reed waver on the dyke. From the crags, and the foreheads of the yellow rocks, Birds, insects, reptiles, whither have they all hung great icicles in length like a spear. The soil gone?-the birds that filled the air with their was dusty and grey, bereft of flowers, herbs, and music, and all the showy, varied tribes of butterflies, grass. In every hold and forest the woods were moths, dragon-flies, beetles, wasps, and warriorstripped of their array. Boreas blew his bugle- hornets, bees, and cock-chafers, whither have they horn so loud, that the solitary deer withdrew to the fled? Some, no doubt, have lived out their little dales; the small birds flocked to the thick briers. term of being, and their little bodies, lately so shunning the tempestuous blast, and changing their splendid, active, and alive to a thousand instincts, loud notes to chirping; the cataracts roared, and feelings, and propensities, are become part and every linden tree whistled and brayed to the sound-parcel of the dull and wintry soil; but the greater ing of the wind. The poor laborers, wet and portion have shrunk into the hollows of trees and weary, draggled in the fen. The sheep and the shepherds lurked under the hanging banks, or wild broom. Warm from the chimney-side, and refreshed with generous cheer, I stole to my bed and laid down to sleep, when I saw the moon shed rocks, and into the bosom of their mother earth itself; where, with millions of seeds, and roots, and buds, they live in the great treasury of Natureready, at the call of a more auspicious season, to people the world once more with beauty and delight. TO A LADY, ON LOSING A GAME OF BACK-GAMMON. Thou hast won the bet, fair Lady, and the forfeit shall be And ever may thy game of life as skilfully be played; Mammon But dearly thou dost love a hit, and better still a gammon. Though Fortune is a fickle dame, with thee she still doth linger, And gives thee doublets every throw---when thou the dice dost finger, E'en Slander's self on thee the charge of cheating never And yet thou hast a wondrous skill at throwing double sixes, "And I," said another, "saw him this very morning, fitting himself to a pair of French morocco pumps, which must be for some particular occasion." "He had better attend to his head instead of his heels," remarked an ill-natured old man. "Indeed, Dr. Tubman, you are too severe-quite cynical I declare," said Mr. Dashwood, (a gay blade of five and twenty, with a handsome income and showy equipage, which half, if not the whole of the anxious widows and connubially disposed young ladies of K― were eager to be part owners of,) "I expect to see you at Mrs. Shooter's, playing off Diogenes in a tub.' "What of that," said Mr. Ketchum, who occasionally committed puns, "you know, he is a Tubman"-ha! ha! ha! "Let us all help to laugh," said the subject of this witticism. "I am afraid Mr. Ketchum will So say the vanquished: but we know that this is but a disorder his biliary duct,' and not be able to go slander Of those who rail at Fortune's gifts, when they cannot com- Twere strange indeed if she were not obedient unto thee- to Mrs. Shooter's party." 'I have no invitation, as yet," replied Ketchum. "The fact is, I begin to think there will be no party at all. There has been so much whispering about it, that I should not wonder if it all ended in smoke." "I care very little about it," said Piper, "unless Yet, though her gifts are thine, I gaze with sadness on thine the Miss Metcalfs attend." eyes, For I know that youth is like a morn of blue and cloudless skies; Sweet flowers are blooming in its light, and birds are singing there, "What Miss Metcalfs-sisters to those big-headed youths, that folks call the two bull-calves?" "This is the first time I ever heard them so nicknamed," said Piper, with an offended air, "but stalked, in high indignation. And music like a tone from Heaven is floating on the air-every one knows you, Dr. Tubman,”—and away he And yet how dark those summer skies, how sad those flowers may be, "No offence," bawled Tubman after him—“I Before that morning sun shall seek its rest beyond the sea! had not the remotest idea of wounding your feel MRS. SHOOTER'S PARTY. ** 66 ings," he continued, as Piper returned; "on the contrary, I thought you would secretly rejoice to hear anything in disparagement of the Metcalfs, after the shameful trick Miss Juliana served you." "What shameful trick, sir?" 66 'Why jilting you, to be sure." "Miss Juliana jilt me! whoever says so tells a malicious falsehood." Nothing was spoken of in R———— and its vicinity, but Mrs. Shooter's party. "When is it to take place?" inquired one. "Do you expect an invi- "Come, do not quarrel about trifles," said tation!" said another. "Where will be the scene Ketchum, "let us forget Miss Juliana and all the of action at their town or country-house?"-bullocks and heifers of the family, and talk of Mrs. "Will the Miss Metcalfs be there, do you think?" Shooter's party. I have not told you why I think "What will be the amusements of the night? it will end in smoke. I asked Peter the other day, 'cards'-'dancing?'-'dramatic exhibitions'-'ta- when his mother's grand affair was to take place. bleaux vivans ?'-'charade acting?"-burst from a He said" mob gathered before the door of a fashionable drygood store in R-—. "What did he say?" burst with united energy from the throng, which pressed so vigorously upon "I rather think it will be a masked ball," re- Ketchum as to render suffocation probable. marked a daddy-long-legged young man. "Your authority-your authority, Mr. Piper ?" "Why," answered the skeleton, "I saw with my own eyes, Mrs. Shooter's son Peter standing at one of the upper windows of his house, dressed a la Turc." "For heaven's sake, gentlemen, stand back, or you will crush me to death-pray do not be so pressing and I will tell you all.” At this declaration the impatient crowd only pressed closer, anxious to catch the first word, vociferating all the while-"Tell us—tell us.” |