vine or human. Indifferent alike to the claims of justice, and to the calls of humanity, he knew no principle but that which was most conducive to the accomplishment of his purposes; and many a land, which had been as the garden of Eden before him, behind him was a desolate wilderness.' Drafted into his legions, the gallant descendants of TELL were gradually losing the recollection of the hills that gave them birth. Their national characteristics, which had so long presented an impregnable barrier to despotism, were soon to be looked upon as marks of a disgraceful rusticity; and the generous mountaineer, glad to pass by an origin which once would have been his greatest pride, and anxious to obliterate every trace of his earlier habits and prejudices, was fast degenerating amidst the contaminating circles of the soldiery of France.* Remote from the scene of conflict, and scarcely regarded as worthy of notice by the contending potentates, Switzerland furnished * See note a. without resistance her contributions to the devouring elements; and was allowed, on this humiliating condition, to enjoy, unmolested, the melancholy remembrance of her drooping, though still-untarnished, laurels. Yet, it was but a seeming calm. For her, as for others, the victor felt no relentings of compassion. To use well an authority obtained by crime, was as far beyond his reach, as it was irreconcilable with his policy and the god-like power of doing good, the best and noblest prerogative of empire, was acquired only to be perverted to the attainment of the basest ends. But, if the sound of the trumpet, and the alarm of war,' had died away among her mountains, still a voice,' as the prophet would beautifully express it, was heard in' Ervalda, lamentation and bitter weeping:' Helvetia, weeping for her children, refused to be comforted, because they were not.' From day to day, from month to month, from year to year, resounded the agonizing cries of parents, bewailing the absence of a son violently snatched from their arms-a son, perhaps an only son, whom they had reared with fond assiduity, and tenderly cherished as the support and solace of their declining age: the shrieks of a wife, clasping in distraction a beloved husband, now about to be torn from her embraces :* the sorrows of a sister, mourning over the endeared, but lost, companion of her infancy; and the screams of little ones, clinging round an indulgent father, whose face they were soon to see no more!† Thus were myriads, fast-bound in the fetters of an iron-usurpation, to be led like sheep to the slaughter! Thus were to be gratified the insatiable desires of a monster, who valued not the lives of his tens of thousands, provided their blood ratified his unjust aggressions, consolidated his dominions, or extended the limits of his sway!‡ Regnandi 'Sacra fames, quid non mortalia pectora cogis?' (a) * See note b. + See note c. See note d. (a) O love of empire! For what deeds unblest * See note e. What fearful disorders has not sin introduced into the world! Amidst contemplations so harassing to every humane sentiment, it is grateful to turn aside for a moment. Conducted by the deep persuasion of the shortness of time, and the fluctuations incident to our abode on earth, from transitory things to the awful and irreversible awards of eternity, it is soothing to meet with a scene on which the eye can rest with satisfaction. Gloomy as may be our apprehensions of the tempest gathering, or already burst, around us, it is still sweet to anticipate the splendour, and hail the calm of serener, though distant, skies. Yet, even here shall we have to shed a tear over the blindness of the heart,' uninstructed in true wisdom, and to deplore the ignorance of the carnal mind.' But, again a little while, and the solitary place will gladden, and the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose." Among hills which lost themselves in the clouds that enveloped them, and which seemed almost to menace the throne of Him who laid their massive foundations, resided a family, which regarded not the works of the Lord, neither considered the operation of his hands.' Yes: strange as it may appear to those unacquainted with the fatal. consequences of the taste of that forbidden fruit,' and who know not how far it drove us, not only from the retreats, but from the purity, of Eden-though surrounded by the magnificence of Nature, and frequently pursued by danger from the dissolving snow, or the detached rock,* whose fall from time to time threatened to overwhelm all that lay within reach of the sound: even here there lived those, and those, too, endowed with every faculty that constitutes a rational and accountable being, insensible enough to survey the overhanging crag, only to avoid the line of its descent, or to listen to the roar of the Avalanche, merely to thank their good fortune,' that it did not come nigh their dwelling.t Well might the watchman cry in Judah ; The heart is deceitful above all things, and |