Hector having stript Patroclus of his arms, drags the slain along, vowing to lop the head from the trunk, to give the mangled corse a prey to the dogs of Troy. And the 17th book of the Iliad is wholly employed in describing the contest about the body, between the Greeks and the Trojans.

Besides the brutality of preventing the last duties from being performed to a dead friend, it is a low scene, unworthy of heroes. It was equally brutal in Achilles, to drag the corse of Hector to the ships, tied to his car. In a scene between Hector and Andromache, the treatment of vanquished enemies is pathetically described; sovereigns massacred and their bodies left a prey to dogs and vultures; sucking infants dashed against the pavement; ladies of the first rank forced to perform the lowest acts of slavery. Hector doth not dissemble, when he foretold, that if Troy was conquered, his poor wife would be condemned to draw water like the vilest slave.

As a

Hecuba, in Euripides, laments that she was chained like a dog at Agamemnon's gate; and the same savage manners are described in many other Greek tragedies. Prometheus makes free with the heavenly fire, in order to give life to man. punishment for bringing rational creatures into existence, the gods decree, that he be chained to a rock and abandoned to birds of prey. Vulcan is introduced by Eschylus rattling the chain, nailing one end to a rock, and the other to the breast-bone of the criminal. Who but an American savage,

can now behold such a spectacle, without being shocked at it! A scene representing a woman murdered by her children would be hissed by every modern audience, and yet that horrid scene was represented with applause in the Electra of Sophocles. Menander says, that even the gods cannot inspire a soldier with civility; no wonder that the Greek soldiers were brutes and barbarians, when war was waged, not only against the state, but against every individual.

The Greeks are the less excusable for their cruelty, as they appear to have been sensible, that humanity is a cardinal virtue. Barbarians are always painted by Homer as cruel; polished nations as tender and compassionate.

Ye Gods! (he cried) upon what barren coast,
In what new region is Ulysses tost;

Possess'd by wild barbarians fierce in arms,
Or men whose bosom tender pity warms?

ODYSSEY, BOOK xiii. 241.

That cruelty was predominant among the Romans, is evident from every one of their historians. During the second triumvirate, horrid cruelties were every day perpetrated without pity or remorse. Anthony having ordered Cicero to be beheaded, and the head being brought to him, viewed it with savage pleasure. His wife Fulvia, laid hold of it and struck it on the face, uttered many bitter imprecations, and having placed it between her knees, drew out the tongue and pierced it with a bcdkin.

The following instance of barbarity excels any already mentioned.

Madam Lapouchin, the great ornament of the court of Petersburg, during the reign of the Empress Elizabeth, having contracted an intimacy with a foreign ambassador, was brought under suspicion of plotting with him against the government, and was accordingly condemned to undergo the punishment of the knout. At the place of execution she appeared in a genteel undress, which heightened ber beauty. Of whatever indiscretion she might have been guilty, the sweetness of her countenance, and her composure, left not in the spectators the slightest suspicion of guilt. Her youth also, her beauty, her life and spirit pleaded for her. But all in vain: she was deserted by all, and abandoned to surly executioners, whom` she beheld with astonishment, seeming to doubt whether such preparations were intended for her. The cloak that covered her bosom being pulled off, modesty took the alarm, and made her start back: she turned pale, and burst into tears. One of the executioners stripped her naked to the waist, seized her by both hands, and threw her on his back, raising her some inches from the ground. The other executioner laying hold of her delicate limbs with his rough fists, put her in a posture for receiving the punishment. Then laying hold of the knout, a sort of whip made of a leather strap, he retreated a few steps, and with a single stroke tore off a slip of skin from the neck downward, repeating his strokes till all the

skin of her back was cut off in small slips. The executioner finished his task by cutting out her tongue; after which she was banished to Siberia.

THE ABSENT MAN.

Mr Thoughtful, having devoted his early day to study, became literally so wrapt up with his ideas as to be frequently insensible of what was said or doing. His answers have been often incoherent and strange; his actions equally wonderful and unaccountable. His father soon repented of having left him so long at college; or suffered him, when young, to apply his mind incessantly to learning for, that

'A little knowledge is a dangerous thing', is the assertion of a much admired poet. who consequently exhorts all votaries of learning to

'Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring.' But here is a sad proof that a man may drink too deep, or indeed so deep, as to intoxicate his brain, and become as stupid and disagreeable as one who is totally ignorant.

The father was now determined to provide a wife for his son- in hopes that a woman might rouze him from lethargy-might awaken him from this profound stupor; and by amusing his perplexing thoughts, give him some life and animation.

The father, according to his design, having fixed his eye upon a young lady in the neighborhood, watched an opportunity of hinting the matter to his son.

Young Thoughtful, who had been now sent by