and deported himself in every respect as if conscious that he carried the hope of nations on his back. So the flight to the Boristhenes continued. Two things were at length discovered by the fugitives. First that the king grew faint and feeble. Then that their route had been discovered and that pursuit was made. But, pressing on, the Swedes sustained their disabled monarch with cheering words, which he scarcely heard, and sought by an indirect course to avoid the pursuing enemy. "The light riders may overtake us,” said Mazeppa, as he pricked on, "but we can deal with them." He spoke to Merlin, who again rode at his side. After many hours some high wooded hills became visible before them. These however were far away beyond a grassy plain. They were the hills that throw their shadows upon the uniting waters of the Vorska and Boristhenes. They were too distant to be gained with the failing horses and tottering king. A forest covering a flat lay nearer, and a little south of their line of flight. The Hetman, scanning the horizon behind them, found that no enemies were in view, and proposed that this forest should be entered as a place of refuge. Night was drawing on. The proposition of Mazeppa was adopted, and the fugitives were soon in the shade of the majestic trees, whose drooping boughs, mingling with a thick undergrowth, rendered the work of concealment less difficult. Penetrating deeply into the wood, for the greater security, the foremost riders came soon to some pools of water, surrounded by thickets dense and entangled. Here Mazeppa called a halt, and Charles was lifted to the ground. His face was flushed with fever, but its heat did not overcome the languor which so many trials had produced, and his hardy attendants held him in their arms as if he had been a sick child. Cloaks were spread for him, and laid upon these he sank at once into a dull sleep. Under the melancholy boughs of the oak tree which made his canopy, a great poet has imagined that he questioned and drew from Mazeppa the story of his wild ride into the Ukraine. But it was not so. The poet has however proved as true as history upon one point. Whilst the Swedes were casting themselves in hunger and weariness upon the ground, and making pillows of the gnarled roots of the great oaks and chesuuts, Mazeppa gave a comrade's attention to his faithful steed. "But first, outspent with this long course, And the Norwegian bestowed, with the aid of THE MONK'S VISION. There is an old legend of a monk, who, while one day praying in his cell, beheld a vision of the Saviour. The demands of the poor at the convent-gate drew him forth to minister to their necessities; on his return he found the vision awaiting him, and heard these words—“ Hadst thou lingered here, I had departed." The light of day was fading from the sky, And the bright sunset gleams Shed forth a flood of glory from on high With their departing beams. It poured its brightness over rastled hill, Yet spurned it not the deep and shady dell, It shone within the walls where wearily And a voice whispered that for him should be It shed its radiance o'er the place of graves, Making strange beauty there, And the dear symbol of the Faith that saves Shone more divinely fair. Lingering, lest aught of brightness to withhold, On sacred dome and spire, O'er where men prayed, as in the days of old Hung tongues of living fire. It beamed where dim in many a pictured nook The mighty limner's art new glory took It paused where knelt an aged form in prayer, Long years of penitence that soul had known, And night by night, in secret vigil lone Oh, not by man may sacrifice be made For One hath suffered, and its weight was laid -"O Jesus! thou who takest guilt away, Now let my soul be shriven, And let some sign,” (thus did the old man pray) "lu mercy now be given !" A glory, than the sunset far more bright Dwelt on the holy shrine, For there, enveloped in celestial light, And, as of old the wondrous works he wrought, Bade sin and sorrow cease, So on the heart that his forgiveness sought, Again was shed sweet peace. Fain would the monk, in trembling joy adore, And yet he might not wait, For, seeking alms for Christ's dear sake, the poor With benedictions did that old man holy The suffering ones greet, And kneeling down, in posture meek and lowly Then eagerly he sought again the cell, Late blest with presence bright, And still, within its narrow walls did dwell And spake a voice, whose tones of power untold, Mighty, yet gentle, as when it of old The world's first stillness broke. STEELE. BY H. T. TUCKERMAN. One day, early in the last century, if an Asmodeus had peeped into a certain respectablelooking house in London, he would have seen a lady in whose beautiful countenance pride and tenderness were rarely mingled, seated alone in profound reverie, with an open letter in her hand, and writing materials on the table beside her. Her attitude and expression might have furnished captivating hints for a graceful artist. Now she nibbles the feathered end of her pen, and looks up to the ceiling, as if expecting a resolution to descend; now she disposes herself as if to write; and, anon, rises with an impatient air, and walks to and fro, while perusing, for the twentieth time, the unanswered epistle; one moment she breathes a gentle sigh, and the next her fair lip is wreathed with a complacent smile. At last she reseats herself and begins to scribble after the manner of a wayward girl in a sentimental quandary. Although not given to rhyming, she "Hadst thou but lingered here, my presence would half-unconsciously traces a couplet;For aye, have gone from thee; Before the convent-door, I waiting stood Ah! Dick Steele, that I were sure, Your love, like mine, would still endure ! A good psychologist might thence infer her lover's whole character. The exclamatory note suggests desire, attraction—a mesmeric influence, in fact that he was what she, at once, declared him to be to her friends" as agreeable a man as any in the kingdom;" and what she felt him to be in her own heart, "a master of the art of love." The familiarity of the appellation indicates that he was an accessible, open-hearted, sociable fellow; while the doubt of his constancy reveals an impulsive nature. Such were, in truth, the characteristics of Steele. His numerous dedications present a versatility and tact in compliment that show how aptly he could touch every note of elegant flattery; a vivid sense of the beautiful, especially in manners and character, displayed in his writings, evidence one of those thoroughly appreciative minds upon which no trait of female attractiveness is lost; and his own confession that, while a youth, he wrote and published the "Christian Hero," in order to cominit himself before the world, to virtue and religion, and thus be shamed into consistency of demeanor, is an impressive proof of his consciousness of moral weakness. The father of Steele was private secretary to James, first Duke of Ormoud, lord lieutenant of Ireland; and his son was born in Dublin, came to England when a child, was educated at the Charter-House School; and his first recognized | niture, for an old debt of a thousand pounds, literary effort was a poem called the Procession, which failed however of its intent-to awaken for the funeral of Queen Mary in 1695. A natu- him from a lethargy which must end in his inevirally chivalric temper inclined him to military table ruin." His social advantages were of the life; and having entered the army, he rode pri- highest order. Not only was he the favorite vately in the Guards; while ensign, he, however, guest of the most desirable of the nobility, and made two important discoveries;-one was that the most gifted of the fair; but the political leadhis pen was likely to be a far more useful wea-ers, the wits and the artists of the day, were his pon than his sword, the other that the career of boon companions; he was equally at home in a soldier would confirm ruinous habits of dissipa- the palace and behind the scenes; in Garth's tion already contracted. It was under these im-study and Congreve's sick-chamber; he had alpressions that he put forth the treatise to which most daily meetings with Addison at their coffeewe have alluded,—an act that subjected him to house; Swift called at his office for his letters; frequent ridicule. In 1702-a play intended to and, at his request for "an ode as of a cheerful satirize the affectation of mourning-then preva- dying spirit," to help off a musical festival he lent, which he had offered to the manager of projected, Pope sent "warm from his brain”— Drury, attracted the King's notice, who gave its the "Vital spark of heavenly flame." author the post of Gazetteer. Then followed Steele once reproved an acquaintance for lookthe "Tender Husband," and other successful dra- ing gravely upon the unsuccessful jocularities of matic pieces; the appointments of Stamp Com-an ambitious wag-saying "do laugh, 'tis humissioner, Surveyor of the Royal Stables, Gov-manity to laugh;" and this kindly sympathy was ernor of the Royal Company of Comedians, &c. never chilled by pleasure, misfortune or age; for, Steele became an active pamphleteer; and in at Hereford, where he died, we are told that be March, 1713, was expelled the House of Com- | would be carried out upon the green, on summer mons, where he represented Stockbridge, for ob- evenings, to see the peasants divert themselves; jectionable partizan writings. Soon after the ac- and delighted to give an order on his agent, for cession of George I., he was knighted, elected a a new gown to the best dancer. member of Parliament from Yorkshire, and, after Now that the political squabbles of Sir Richsuppressing a rebellion at the North, was named ard are forgotten, his convivial graces vanished one of the commissioners of forfeited estates in like the wine bubbles of an ended feast, his plays Scotland. He obtained a patent for his project superseded by a new dramatic taste, and the for bringing fish to market alive; and the great weary clamor of his duns husbed in eternal sipopularity of the "Conscious Lovers" gained lence, he rises to the imagination in the friendly him a royal douceur of five hundred pounds. He guise of a " fine old English gentleman," whose retired to Wales, after becoming paralytic; and finances were indeed often visionary, and whose died there on the first of September, 17:29. Statistics like these, however, only serve to point out the landmarks of Steele's career. His political life has been severely criticised, although his intimates urge that he lived when párty spirit The art of combining utility and pleasure has ran high and integrity was little valued; and advanced in the ratio of civilization; it is the they claim that no illiberal or ungentlemanly in- great aim of modern science, the fond dream of vectives and no weak abuse deform his contro- philanthropy, the new triumph of genius. To versial papers; and that there, as in his other rela- read the glowing experiences of imaginative hotions, is visible "an enthusiasm of honor." The moepaths and hydropaths, it would seem that the anecdotes of his improvidence are curious and "ills that flesh is heir to," can be made, through familiar; the two related by Savage, of his hi- agreeable remedial processes, the occasion of ding in a tavern to get up a pamphlet to pay for vivid enjoyment. Ideal socialists point out a his dinner, and inducing the bailiffs, who were way in which domestic infelicity may be renderquartered at his house, to enact the part of ser-ed productive of sentimental delight. Musically vants before his guests, are characteristic alike organized enthusiasts indicate how the most of his ready wit and painful exigencies. His do- grateful emotions are suggested by apt and exmestic affections were strong, as shown in his quisite harmony; while professors of magnetic conjugal sentiment, and fidelity to his illegitimate science and recipients of Swedenborg's intuidaughter. He built a residence in which he tions, become intimate with truth and cognizant could not afford to live; and received, with the of spiritual life, without intellectual labor or the utmost courtesy and good nature, his friend Ad- emancipation of death. Such, in its extreme dison's practical reproof, administered in the manifestation, is the tendency to attain good shape of an execution upon the house and fur-through pleasure; and to realize the requisite practice was not always reliable, but whose excellent sense and genial sentiment gave birth to one of the most pleasing and useful of literary inventions. and the desirable by virtue of inheritance; and, | His generous impulses prevented cynicism; his however fanatical in some of its pretensions, or spontaneous feeling warmed the actual reprover visionary in its declared results, there is essential into the apparent friend; and even his convivial truth in the idea that lies at the basis of the ex- habits, injurious as they were to his own interperiment and absolute wisdom in the spirit of its ests, kept the social instinct fresh, while his imdisciples. There must be relish or there is no providence was a sure though melancholy check perfect assimilation either in physical or moral upon "the indolence of office." Akin to the life. No idea enters into the soul except through most polished race by birth and social position, the sympathies; thoughts, things, events and per- one of the fraternity of genius by virtue of his sons are objective to the individual except when own gifts, intimate with official experience by life in relation to him, and, only through his affec- in the camp and the court, and brought through tions, modify his nature; so that, although the the vicissitudes incident to an irregular career, ungenial may excite and invigorate, its opposite into familiarity with the trials of the least fortucan only enrich and inspire. nate of mankind-he was prepared to underIn no form has the problem we have hinted, stand and to feel in a comprehensive and intellistruggled more toward solution than in that of gent way. A social cosmopolite, a wit and a education, in the broadest acceptation of the good-fellow in the general tone of his nature, he term;-how inadequately thus far in regard to was, at the same time, a devoted partizan, a chiyouth, may be inferred from the almost universal valric friend, a man of letters and an ardent fact that men and women of character, when re-lover-touching the circle of humanity at each leased from the prescribed routine of their first salient point. years, seek and pursue quite a different culture, according to their own wants and impulses;-and this is the only education that moulds or reproduces their latent and individual nature. It is therefore with more faith that we turn from the hackneyed and obsolete systems to which the young are usually doomed, to those varied resources and excitements designed to afford mental stimulus and direction to a later and more thoughtful era of life. The most prominent and active in our times is literature; and its most delicate and difficult office is censorship. To criticise without malignity, raise the tone of manners without assumption, gently correct, winsomely improve, unostentatiously reform, and scatter the germs of truth without intruding into the field or obstructing the pathway of another-is a task which demands a blending of judgment, nobleness, tact and urbanity,-the knowledge and quickness of a practised man of the world and siness. Its aim was not to convey recondite the warm, sympathetic heart of unsophisticated youth. Tried by such a standard we are at no loss to account for the failure of most preachers and editors in their efforts to improve society. Few unite the ability to perceive what is wanted with the tenderness and generosity indispensable to its efficient supply. We can readily appreciate the objection of a German critic to the species of literature rendered popular by Steele,—that it tends to substitute display for erudition. This, however is a very partial view of its merit. The world had enough profound scholars; intellectual activity, like all other social forces, at this new impulse, emerged from a monastic seclusion to enlarge and quicken the mass. It obeyed the democratic and the Christian tendency of a more liberal and enlightened era; and to this revolution, so limited and casual in its origin, we may justly ascribe the spread of intelligence and taste which distinguishes this from past centuries. Previously, except to the few, mental improvement was a vague and often a hopeless privilege. By the advent of periodical literature it became an element of ordinary life, a refreshment obtainable by the way-side of toil and during the intervals of bu knowledge, but to excite men and women to observe and learn them to think; to induce a love of reading, to elevate gossip into conversation, and to refine and amplify the resources of the individual and of society. As a means of social progress it is difficult to overestimate its value. The brilliancy and powIf there was ever a man formed to discharge er of later writers of the same school, now rensuccessfully this peculiar vocation it was Steele. der the Spectator and its immediate offspring, His very defects were available in this regard. comparatively tame; but if the world has outHad he been more of a scholar, pedantry would grown some of its teachings and advanced to the have formalized the colloquial style that gave relish of a more vigorous style, the method and him access to the multitude; with more sustained spirit to which it gave birth retain all their intermoral elevation, he could scarcely have felt that est and efficiency. Character is but an aggreindulgence for the weaknesses of others which gate of qualities and these are of gradual attaingave to his admonitions a sympathetic charm; ment; hence the foibles, errors and social inconmore retired and fastidious in association, his ad-gruities which Steele and his associates strove to dress would have been less frank and brotherly. reform, however apparently insignificant, were allied to the essential principles of human wel- where, amidst great heaps of rubbish, you meet fare. Before his day, England was allowed to with noble fragments of sculpture, broken pillars indulge all the crudities of self-esteem with com- and obelisks and a magnificence in confusion." placency. Neither law or theology meddled with Thus if he explored human life with a critical those details of conduct their professors deemed eye and sometimes busied himself with its veriof minor importance. Hence the need of a set est details, the survey was inspired by reverence of lay-preachers, tasteful, witty and insinuating, and sympathy; and amid the quaint allegories, to lop the excrescences, guide the blind impulses old-fashioned modes of speech and diffuse comand meliorate the life of society. If we glance monplaces that sometimes weary a reader of toat the pages of the old essayists, we shall find day, the essays of Steele not infrequently glide that they made constant war upon all kinds of from the vivacious to the sublime, from convenaffectation, mercilessly exposed bullies, coxcombs, tionalities to philosophy, and from a question of pedants, oglers, dandies, wags, croakers, co- manners to an evidence of immortality. His quettes, and all the gay, noisy and venomous prefaces contain the most deliberate statement of insects that infest the social atmosphere. The the purposes he cherished and the motives by strong-holds of cant and ostentation were inva- which he was actuated; and some of these have ded; the baseness of slander unveiled, and the a cordial and noble tone that can scarcely fail to beauties of literature, the claims of genius and charm a generous and discriminating mind. the dignity of truth vindicated with tact and elo-| Thus, in one instance, he observes—“ When quence. From the abolition of such customs as learning irradiates common life, it is then in its the levelling of opera glasses before recognition, highest use and perfection. Knowledge of books the indiscreet mention of a set of acquaintances is like that sort of lantern which hides him who outlived, and the dangling of canes from a but carries it, and serves only to pass through secret ton-hole, to the high acts of distinguishing be- and gloomy paths of his own; but in the possestween realities and appearances, and disengaging sion of a man of business, it is as a torch in the one's-self from the opinions of others, the Specta- hand of one who is willing and able to show tor was the bland champion of improvement. those who are bewildered, the way which leads He mingles with the habitués of the coffee-house, to their prosperity and welfare." A prominent the audience and the actors at the theatre, the object he elsewhere declares to be "to expose clubs of politicians, the festive scenes of hospi- the false arts of life, to pull off the disguises of tality, the grave coteries of scholars and the af- cunning, vanity and affectation, and to recom fectionate gatherings around the domestic hearth- mend a general simplicity in our dress, our disstone, and thence retires to indite grateful praise course and our behavior." Accordingly he penor judicious censure adapted to each scene and etrated the nooks of experience, and constantly occasion. Perhaps there is as much wisdom in enforced minor philosophy, so needful yet so rare such a humanitarian application of one's knowl- which induces the "honest and laudable fortitude edge and sympathy, as can be discovered in that dares to be ugly;" the adoption in dress of the more ostentatious efforts of modern philan- "the medium between a fop and a sloven," the thropy. It was, at least, one of the primary de- content which dwells on "such instances of our velopements of that benevolent enterprise that, good fortune as we are apt to overlook." in our day, exhibits itself in the writings of Crabbe His "practical scheme for the good of society," and Dickens, and the teachings of Spurzheim has, therefore, continued to influence both the and Combe; and in all the varied labors of men form and spirit of subsequent literature; and of letters and science to make the different class-popular reading now bears its traces in the carees of society known to one another and promote ful exposition of events, as in the Annual Regishuman well-being by disseminating a knowledge of natural laws. ter, and the minute analysis of the spirit of the age by such writers as Hazlitt. Modern reviews Those who are disinclined to recognise so wide and novels, as well as many contributions to the and benign an aim in the writings of Steele, do daily press, are also imbued with the observant. not justly estimate the genuine nobility of his critical and suggestive habitudes of the original character. Perhaps to many he is most frequently essayists. In fact men of wit became ashamed, remembered as a good-hearted man about town, after so noble an example, to employ their gift with considerable wit and reckless habits. This otherwise than in the service of truth; and the view, though in a measure correct, is altogether Spectator's creed was more generally adopted inadequate. We find ample evidence of the even in literature,-that the greatest merit is m generous and elevated designs he cherished. He having social virtues, with benevolence to manreverenced the nature to which he would fain kind." At the outset, indeed, while female culminister. “I consider," he says, "the soul of tivation was rare, to be speculative was fashionman as the ruin of a glorious pile of buildings; able; so that Goldoni ridicules, in one of his |