perceptions in their progress generalised the result of their experience, and proceeded from the observation of the elementary parts to the great arrangement of the universal system; and in the spirit, as in the forms of nature, the moral or material world— the awed, the ardent, raptured soul, still traced the power of a superior mind, and saw, in all, adaption, harmony, beneficence, and love.

"It was thus that the religion of Ida, blended with every sense and sentiment of her existence, formed its evidence in every object of the creation that surrounded her. It was no abstract idea which sophistry might dispute-it was a sensible feeling arising from the testimony of her senses, and the inference of her mind. It was not a system established upon the faith which supports what it does not comprehend-which the theologist may vary-the philosopher oppose and the sceptic deny; it was the pure inevitable result of all she saw, of all she felt.

"She beheld, and she adored, she enjoyed, and she was grateful! yet while her preceptor detailed to her,. in simple terms, the various religions of the earth, and the various sects of each religion, he pointed out the necessity of supporting that decent respect for the popular religion of her country, which the wisdom of a Socrates and a Plato thought not beneath them to adopt for theirs, as a concession to those errors which the natural weakness of man brings with it; while beneath the various forms, ceremonies, and errors, which the ignorance and superstition of man, or his estrangement from truth and nature, had invented as the medium of faith, and proof of adoration, he convinced her that the religion of the heart was every where the same.

"The morality of Ida was also like her religion, the result of her perception, and the inferences of her feeling. Happiness was the object of man, and, according to the harmony of the moral as of the physical laws, by which the universe is governed, virtue could be the only medium. But with Ida, virtue was no abstract term ideally conceived, or vaguely understood: as, for every natural blessing she enjoyed, she referred to heaven; so, every action she performed, she referred to society; and the necessity of moral rectitude was evinced, as the inseparable connexion between self and social love ascertained itself by the inevitable conviction, that whoever injures another lays a precedent for an injury towards himself! while a delicate sense of moral justice, even independent of a consequent retribution from any direct violation of moral law, was borrowed from that obvious benevolence, which the Creator in all his works has displayed towards the created. The amiable preceptor of Ida had laid the basis of her education, in an observance of the laws, operations, and forms of nature, and in the beneficence, wisdom, and power, of Providence. What depended solely on man to teach, he communicated with caution; considering, that from a too great cultivation of memory resulted a native barrenness of intellect that the mind which has resorted most to the thoughts of others, can have fewest of its own-that

the supremacy of genius is the inspiration of nature, and the mediocrity of talent the imitation of art. The books he presented to her study were few and select; the history which the philosopher had dictated, or the patriot recounted; the poetry which draws its sentiments from the heart, and its imagery from nature; and the biography which awakens a passionate admiration for. great characters, an ardent enthusiasm for great deeds, or a noble ambition for high renown.

With that flexibility of organs, and aptitude to learn languages, so peculiar to the region of which she was a native, Ida, under a master who was himself from the circumstances of his life a perfect linguist, acquired with facility several languages; and though all were spoken with the accent of an Athenian, her English and Italian were pure and correct; while the insatiate passion of her country for music and dancing was supremely hers, and simply acquired from inclination and example, without rule, without method; but always with sensibility and grace-the natural endowments of a woman and a Greek.

"As the preceptor of Ida considered simplicity as the order of nature herself, equally necessary in a subject, an image, or a terin, as a perfection relative to the weakness of the human mind, and necessary towards the gradual acquisition of its intelligence, his instructions were conveyed in terms, simple, clear, and expressive of the qualities they were meant to define; while he sought to occupy without fatiguing attention; and as frequently proposed the pursuit of a pleasure as the acquirement of information. Convinced that the gratitude of Ida still pointed to Heaven, as did her conduct to society; he gave her up without reserve to the influence of those pleasurable enjoyments, which nature so eloquently dictates, and which invariably characterise her sex, her years, and her country. The odour of a perfumed atmosphere, the emanations of delicious flowers, were inhaled-the luxury of a refreshing bath, the repose of a downy couch, was enjoyed; and while the sufferings of others, whose destiny was less fortunate, was beheld with tender sympathy and generous relief, the cheap and guileless pleasures of nature were enjoyed with that moderation which nature herself is sure to dictate. Thus the days of Ida and her preceptor flowed on in peace, characterised by a patriarchal simplicity and a polished intelligence: their duties were to succour their compatriots, to relieve the unfortunate, to enlighten the ignorant, to dispel error, to vanquish prejudice, and to promulgate truth; their pleasures were the discovery of a ruined fragment, the revival of an ancient festival, the introduction of a French or English custom, the suc cessful vegetation of their trees and flowers, the arrival of new books from Italy, or an occasional tour through Livadia, where every spot possessed a classic interest.'

We shall conclude our extracts with the following observations on infidelity in wedded life, and on death, which exhibit a various compound of truth and falsehood, piety and irreligion, with rationality and fanaticism. Such

verbiage about nature, of which the author speaks so much and knows so little, betrays a design to raise the passions and appetites on the ruins of right reason. Still it would be gratifying if these yolumes contained nothing more reprehensible than the following,

"Love is an involuntary affection; it resists the law of volition, and deprives the mind of that free agency, which distinguishes it under the influence of other passions. Every one loves as long as he can; but the sentiment is not to be commanded into existence, nor is the period of its duration to be defined. It argues a profound ignorance of human nature to expect eternal fidelity in a lover; and the woman who lives only to lament an inconstant, mistakes weakness, and want of pride and of reflexion, for sensibility and virtue. But inconstancy, so frequent, and perhaps venal in unwatched lovers, becomes at once fatal and criminal in those who stand accountable to society and each other for the observance of a tie formed by natural affection, and consecrated by the laws and religion of their country; their sentiment is nourished by duty; their interests are blended with their affections; their constancy in' love becomes a positive virtue, from the harmony and social con, cord it preserves: and the lover still enamoured with the wifethe mistress still devoted to the husband-present to the happy offspring of a passionate and holy union an example of love and virtue, that seems symbolic of that pure beatitude which faith and fancy image to the soul as the reward of every human trial and mortal excellence.

"The fear of death was spoken of by Osmyn as an emotion incompatible with true greatness of soul. But greatness of soul,' returned the diako, is sometimes affected by those who are led away by a false glory; and sometimes by those who only labour for their own elevation in life. True greatness of soul is, so to serve society as to deserve its applause, without making that applause the sole object of our exertion. The fear of death, however, is incompatible with a life of virtue with reason and experience. We all know that generations press after generations towards eternity, and that, in the last hour of existence, when the factitious passions appear divested of all their gaudy covering-appear in all their original folly and meanness it is then that the affections and sentiments of nature cling to its last struggle, and the dear consciousness of an useful and benevolent life comes, like an angel of comfort, to sooth and solace us for the loss of ties death only severs. It was through that Pericles, a victorious warrior, and a successful legislator, dying in the arms of his devoted friends, smiled, and owned, that not all the trophies his valour had won, and patriotism had erected to the honour of his country and the defeat of his enemies not even the glorious reign of forty prosperous years-brought to his life's last hour a joy so pure, as the conviction, that no act of his had ever thrown a mourning robe upon the shoulders of a fellow-citizen.

Oh, yes, virtue is but an abstract term for positive affection

towards our fellow-creatures. Let us not injure the interests of society, by a selfish indulgence of transient propensities: let us love, and act as if we loved, the species to which we belong: let us consider, that life is so fleeting, it is not worth risking the hope of an immortality for the indulgence of a moment's impulse. We shall then lead the life of the virtuous, and die the death of the blessed.'

"It was thus he continued to promulgate sentiments so true to nature and to reason. He hourly felt within himself that increasing progress of decay which boded a speedy dissolution. Ida, deceived by her hopes, and equally deceived by her ignorance of a disorder so illusory in its last and fatal symptoms, was unremitting in those attentions which sooth and sweeten, if they do not prolong, the last stages of existence. The spirits of her beloved and tender friend seemed daily to rise to a finer tone without losing any thing of their original gentleness. An eye brightening into the purest lustre, a cheek glowing with the deep tints of an hectic influence-all imposed on the fond wishes of the inexperienced Ida; and she readily mistook the last stage of a consumptive disorder for the precious symptoms of returning health.

Nor did her friend seek to undeceive her: he wished not to throw an unnecessary shade upon that life, which, though now bright and smiling, was human, and therefore liable to many future clouds, and storms inevitable. He wished not to give the false colouring of a disordered imagination to an event so infinitely less awful in itself, than in the gloomy drapery with which the errors and the prejudice of man have dressed it. Death was to him no unexpected circumstance replete with terrors. It was the repose long promised, from the care, and pain, and sorrow, and all the ills which flesh is heir to.' His life had been his death's preparative: no selfish indulgence- no peevish plaint-no idle ceremony no debasing forms, shadowed the last bright hours of a life which softly declined on the horizon of existence, like the mild repose of the sun as it fades amidst the balmy beauty of an autumnal evening. Aware that it was not by the few and feeble moments that remained, his eternal destiny could now be influenced; but by the tenor of that life gone by, he sought not mercy through the prayers of others, or his own; he strove to deserve it, by devoting his last exertions to the happiness and virtue of those he left behind him. He exclaimed not to his young and tender friends, in all the ostentation of a self-supposed perfection, Come, and see how a Christian should die!' — but by the example of his innocent and useful life, by the last documents of his fading breath, he taught them how a Christian should live-how merit the reward which death brought with it to the good and virtuous! He spoke not in axioms or in dogmas: to the last he was mild, enlightening, and persuasive; he knew the weakness of human nature, and he shaped his admonitions to its pride. Surrounded by the young and lovely -- by those of whom we are told heaven's kingdom is itself composed a few affecting sentiments, relative to the conduct of life, were delivered with simplicity and tenderness, and always relevant and interwoven with the general tone of conversation.

"Though weak and debilitated, he still aimed at cheerfulness and exertion: he received not his young guests amidst the gloom of a darkened chamber, a sepulchral silence, a pent-up atmosphere, and all the deep and solemn sadness which gothic gloom hangs on the last moments of existence, and which, from association, form so great a part of the horror we experience in the hour of death; but amidst scenes of high sublimity-of fragrance and of beautysometimes in his garden, sometimes in the kiosk, sometimes in the portico, but always where the view of Nature's works, so sweet and so refreshing to the sickly frame and weakened mind, was to be enjoyed and tasted; and his couch, like the urn of Philopamen, was covered with flowers and wreaths, less grateful for their odours, than dear to him from the hands that gathered and wove them for his enjoyment.

"Sometimes he would say with a smile to Ida, 'I think, with Anacreon, the rose is pleasant to the sick, and grateful to the dead.' Another time he would add, I do not agree with the English Euripides, that

The herbs that have on them the cold dews o' the night,

Are strewings fit'st for graves.

I should prefer the amaranth that blushed on the tomb of Achilles, which is the flower of tender recollection. If the friends I leave behind plant a cypress at my grave, -let roses mingle with it.' It was thus he sought to blend images, so agreeable to the gay emotions of youth, with feelings of regret the heart so naturally indulges in for the loss of an object dear to its affections. He knew that a sentiment of morality, round which a correspondent pleasure entwines itself, will ever be more impressed on the mind, than the document which can never be referred to without the accompaniment of a sad and melancholy recollection. It was thus in consideration of all human weakness he sought to make the senses in some respects the conductors to the reason, and to secure the memory of his precepts in the heart of those who, if they turned to them with tender sadness, would still find a pure and pleasurable remembrance associated with their regret,"

The author appears to have been perfectly aware, that those who think proper to set all morality and decency at defiance seldom fail to attract the attention of the vulgar, and be considered by them as possessing great genius. Fortunately, however, all permanent fame depends on the decision of the judicious, who well know that the greatest minds are the purest, and that the most original creative fancy is always the most chaste,