day of reckoning is approaching; that this life is only a passage to another when all hearts will be disentangled, all inequalities rectified, and the exactest measure dealt to all; that the supreme Governor has an eternity before him in which he can redress every disorder. As the present evils of society bespeak the necessity for such a retribution, our confidence in the divine rectitude assures us of its certainty. Reject this supposition, and that rectitude must inevitably

"Be questioned and blasphemed without defence:"

Reject this supposition, and religion becomes a grand impertinence; honour an empty name; virtue, knight-errantry; self-denial the sheerest folly; the Epicurean the only true philosopher; and the only maxim worthy of the name that of the jovial voluptuary, "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die."

We have deferred our examination of this argument to the last, because we do not find it among the actual arguments advanced by any one of our authors; but for power of conviction, we think it entitled to the precedence of all. In reviewing the other observations we find only in two of the arguments considered, satisfactory grounds of conviction. We utterly discard the lofty a priori pretensions of the first class of proofs, and we discover more of an appeal to our vanity than to our reason in the last; of the intermediate two, we find a sufficient confutation of the main plea for scepticism in the one, a strong, presumption of the affirmative in the other. On the whole, the province of reason, in this important discussion, appears to be to defend rather than to demonstrate; its strength lies in the feebleness of the assailants of the doctrine; its weakness in its self-distrust.

̓Αλλὰ τόδ ̓, ὦ ἄνδρες, δίκαιον διανοηθῆναι, ὅτι ἔιπερ ἡ ψυχὴ ἀθάνατός ἐστιν, ἐπιμελείας δὴ δεῖται οὐχ ὑπὲρ τοῦ χρόνου τούτου μόνον, ἐν ᾧ καλούμεν τὸ ζῇν, ἀλλ' ὑπὲρ τοῦ παντός· καὶ ὁ κίνδυνος νῦν δή καὶ δόξειεν ἂν μάλιστα δεινὸς εἶναι, ἔι τις αυτῆς ἀμελήσειεν. Ει μὲν γὰρ ἦν ὁ θάνατος τοῦ παντὸς ἀπαλλαγὴ, ἔρμαιον ἂν ἦν τοῖς κακοῖς ἀποθανοῦσι, τοῦ τε σώματος ἅμα ἀπηλλάχθαι, καὶ τῆς ἀυτῶν κακίας, μετὰ τῆς ψυχῆς· νῦν δὲ ἐπειδὴ ἀθάνατος φαίνεται οὖσα, οὐδεμία ἂν ἔτη ἀυτῇ ἄλλη ἀποφυγὴ κακῶν, οὐδὲ σωτηρία, πλὴν τοῦ ὡς βελτίστην καὶ φρονιμωτάτην γενέσθαι.

Phædo. §. v.

J. T. G.

6.

POLLIO, FROM VIRGIL. ECL. IV.

AWAKE, Sicilian muse, a loftier strain !
Not all can linger with the flowering plain
And solemn woods,-but, if the woods prolong
Your lays, breathe high, a Consul is your song.
The last dark record of the Sibyl's strain
Is past, the mighty years revolve again;
Justice restored, Saturnian kingdoms rise,
And nobler beings leave their kindred skies.
Smile, chaste Lucina, on the golden birth!
Sorrow and crime forsake the wearied Earth ;
A brighter era crowns the blooming plains
With Peace and Love-thy own Apollo reigns!
Pollio, with thee the Earth renews its prime,
And mightier years commence their course sublime :
Our guardian thou, expiring guilt will cease,
And nations slumber in eternal peace.

*

He, in the glory of yon bright abodes,

Will join the band of heroes and of gods;
And, graced with all his father's virtues, move
A peaceful monarch in a world of love.
Yes, child, on thee exulting Earth will fling
The smiling treasures of the blushing Spring.
The flocks will seek unshepherded their home,
The pasturing herds with Afric's lions roam.
E'en from thy cradle clustering blossoms glow
In sacred garlands on this infant brow.
The asp and baneful aconite will die,
And incense breathe in every zephyr's sigh ;
But when expanding thought can glowing trace
The glorious actions of a loftier race,
And proud ancestral deeds diffuse the light
Of conscious virtue on thy willing sight;
The smiling glebe will yield the golden corn,
And purpling clusters stain the rugged thorn;
And towering oaks distil the dewy stream
Of nectared sweets beneath the summer beam.

* It is thought by some that Pollio's infant son is referred to. Marcellus the son of Octavia is more probably meant. See Heyne's Notes.

Still shall some lingering trace of ancient guile,-
When Ocean bore to every sea-girt isle

The freighted bark, when crested turrets rose
In proud defiance to their 'leag'ring foes,
When fields were riven by the shining share,-
Remain on Earth to claim thy later care.
Another Argo o'er the wave will bear
To other shores the chosen warrior's spear,
And other wars will rise, and Troy demand
Again some great Achilles' conquering hand.
But when advancing years confirm thy power,
The furrowing keel shall vex the wave no more,
The merchant shall renounce his sordid gain,
And Earth uncultured yield the swelling grain ;
The glebe shall bear no plough, no knife the vine,
And the strong peasant loose the lab'ring kine.
No borrowed hues shall stain the fleecy fold;
But blushing crimson and their native gold
Shall grace the wandering flocks; and bluer skies
Invest the pasturing lambs with richer dyes.
"Run on, bright Hours," the Fates in concord sung,
As o'er the distaff and the woof they hung.

Offspring of Heaven! the mighty Thunderer's son!
The time is near-thy proud career begun;
See how the trembling universe around,
Earth, Ocean, and the Heaven's vast profound,
Conspire to welcome the approaching day!
Nature in homage greets the new-born ray !
Oh! would benignant Heaven prolong my breath
To weave for thee the Poet's deathless wreath,
No loftier lay should Thracian Orpheus raise,
Or high-born Linus, to a hero's praise;
No, though celestial aid their numbers fire,-
The muse's harp, the sun-god's breathing lyre,
And Pan himself, should Pan the notes prolong,
Would shrink unequal from a sweeter song.
Begin, fair child, to know thy mother's smile
And all the sorrows of thy birth beguile :
Begin, fair child, a mother's smile bestows
A home in Heaven and on Earth repose.
VOL. I.-NO. 2.

S

E. A. (u. c.)

ART. IX.-FOREIGN BOOKS.

FRANCE.- "Curiosités et Anecdotes Italiennes, par M. VALERY," author of "Voyages Historiques, Literaires, et Artistiques en Italie,”

en Corse; l'Isle d'Elbe, et en Sardaigne," and of “l'Italie Comfortable," "Bibliothécaire du roi, aux Palais de Versailles et de Trianon, de l'Academie Royale de Turin," &c. &c. Paris, and London: TILT & BOGUE, 86, Fleet Street, 1842.

THE name of M. Valery is a popular one in Italy; because in all his travels he is conscientious and exact, and has a fine taste as an observer. His mode of writing is always elegant, urbane, and learned; quite opposed to that of certain travellers who, stretched in their post-carriages with a cigar in their mouths, dash over the principal roads as millions of their predecessors have done before them, are witty at threepence per line, producing "Memoires," "Voyages," "Impressions," &c., which are exact copies of the errors and infinite absurdities previously gravely, or gaily said; such are the works of M. Jules Janin and Company, who have seen little, and heard less, but gossip

much and ill.

M. Valery in his "Travels," and in his "Italy Comfortable," has written an indispensable "vade mecum" for the use of those truly wise travellers, who would amuse and instruct themselves at the same time, in journeying through classic Italy.

The new work by M. Valery,

"Curiosités et Anecdotes Italiennes,” is a sort of appendix to those already published; it is the result of many observations and recollections, and excites curiosity by a number of anecdotes which have escaped other travellers in Italy. It shows much erudition on many subjects, on literary men, poets, and artists, ancient and modern. The theologian, Passananti; Luigi Cornaro; Leo IV.; Lucrezia Borgia; Domenichino; Tasso; and other celebrated names, have very interesting chapters devoted to them. "Il Palio" (a horse-race) at Siena, and the festivals, popular games, and the luxury of Italy in the middle ages, are finely and attractively described. Some piquant and true observations on the political state of Italy deserve attention. The following is an example

"Les legations de l'Etat Romain, peuvent être comparées pour le genre et l'etendue de l'autorité de ceux qui les gouvernent, à des espèces de pachaliks; le pouvoir ecclésiastique, s'il ne tue pas, y rem

place d'une façon non moins arbitraire, non moins absolue, le pouvoir militaire. L'arbitraire des légats est même franî et ingénu. C'est ainsi que dans les édits sur les spectacles et pour le carnival ou les courses des chevaux, apres avoir menacé les déslinquants de l'amende, de la prison, des galères, on ajoute la formule ed altre pene ad arbitrio,' &c.

"Quant a la civilization je ne serais point surpris qu'avec le mouvement imprimé de nos jours en Orient, quelques-uns des vrais pachas, malgré le génie barbare de l'islamisme ne fussent moins arrierés que certains légats," page 312.

"Paolo Sgobba," poet of Chiaia, and also a philosopher, born blind, is a chapter which deserves to be quoted entire; we limit ourselves to the following passage. After some interesting details on the hospital at Naples, for the blind, where Paolo Sgobba was educated, there follow some extracts from his writings: after describing the simple instruction he had received from his mother, he proceeds

"Cependant le simple idée de Dieu et de sa toute puissance, qui fut le principal point de mon education, devint aussi le centre de mes reflections et suffit a reveiller en moi un grand nombre d'idées sur les principaux devoirs qui nous obligent envers Dieu, envers nous-mêmes et envers le société, et surtout ce qui nous peut conduire à l'accomplissement de notre fin. Il existe, me disais-je en moi-même, un Dieu createur et conservateur de toutes choses; donc les objets que je touche, et ceux que je pourrai observer encore si je possedais la vue, sont autant de précieux ouvrages sortés de la main insaisissable du Createur. En se presentant à mes sens il m'amenent facilement à admirer l'infinie sagesse et la bonté de celui qui les a produits. Comme toutes ces choses ont été crées uniquement pour nous, car Dieu n'a besoin de rien pour être heureux, elles nous inspirent des sentiments d'amour, de respect et d'obeissance à l'egard de lui." &c. &c.

In regard to painting, in writing on the artist, called il Zingaro, who became a painter from love, and founded the Neapolitan school, there is an interesting anecdote.

The Zingaro, or gypsy, was, like many of his tribe, a mender of iron utensils; and, for this purpose, was introduced as a good workman, to Colantonio del Fiore, to mend some locks; and while so employed, through the dirt and sweat that covered him at his work, he saw the fair daughter of the painter; in an instant he fell in love with her, and fearlessly asked her in marriage. Colantonio replied, jestingly, that he should have his daughter, when he could paint as well as he whose son-in-law he wished to be.