The New-York Weekly Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository Part 39

All around see the traps and gins put up to catch the imprudent, the giddy, and the thoughtless! Artfully are they covered over! but Wisdom's keen eye sees the dangerous snares, and turns back with abhorrence. And see yonder the deceiving waters of pleasure and filthy lakes of impurity; a sink of vice and sin where evil conceptions breed, and h.e.l.l-bred monsters sport in the sordid waves. I am shocked to my very heart at the sight!---Come, heaven-born peace and meek-eyed Religion, oh! come and destroy this horrid den, this rueful spot, where destruction secretly lurks, and where crowds daily unwaringly resort to inevitable and delicious ruin.

_A FRAGMENT ON BENEVOLENCE._

He gives his mite to the relief of poverty. Joy enlivens his countenance, and sparkles in his eye. He can lay his hand upon his heart, and say, "I have done a good thing." But who can do justice to his feelings? None but those whose lips the G.o.d of Israel hath touched with sacred fire! None but those whose pens are guided by the inspiration of the Almighty! And though at this moment my heart expands with the delightful sensation, I am totally unable to express it. Most devoutly do I thank thee, O Lord, that thou hast given me feeling. The sensation, indeed, is sometimes painful; but the intellectual pain far excels the most delightful sensual pleasure.---Ye kings and princes of the earth, possess your envied grandeur! Let the epicure gratify his palate; let the miser h.o.a.rd his gold in peace. Dear sensibility! do thou but spread thy benign influence over my soul, and I am sure I shall be happy.

He held out his hat. "Pity me," said he, but turned away his face, to hide his blushing countenance, and the tear which stole down his cheek.

I saw it; and that little tear, with a force as powerful as the inundations of the Nile, broke through all the bounds of cautious prudence. Had the wealth of the Indies been in my pocket, I could hot but have given it. I gave all I had. He cast his glistening eyes upon me. "You have saved a family: may G.o.d bless you!" with my then sensations I could have been happy through eternity. At that instant I could have wished all the wheels of Nature to have stopped.

CURIOUS SUPERSCRIPTION ON A LETTER.

(Taken from an Irish Paper.)

A letter with the following curious superscription on it was put in the post office of Balbriggen.

"To Mr. John Winters, Newtown Gore---county Leitrim, to be forwarded to Terence Sheanan, or to John Owen, or Mary Sheanan, all brothers, in Corrocopel, or elsewhere, near or about Newtown Gore, or somewhere else in that country." !!!

Interesting History Of THE PRINCESS DE PONTHIEU.

_Translated from the French._

(Continued from page 75.)

"This news was soon blazed through all Almeria, and fated ever to be guilty of constrained infidelities, I was proclaimed and crowned Sultana Queen, with a magnificence that would have dazzled any one but the Princess de Ponthieu. During the whole ceremony, the image of Thibault never quitted me, I spoke to it, begged its pardon, in short, I was so lost in thought, that Sayda has since told me I had more the appearance of a statue than a living person. As for you, my lord, I often reproached your cruelty, that had brought me to the precipice in which I found myself. There has not pa.s.sed one day in the nine years I have been married to the Sultan, on which I have not talked of my dear Thibault to the faithful Sayda, with a torrent of tears. The Sultan has kept his word with me, all his court thinks me a Renegada, he alone knows the truth, and without reproaching me with my melancholy, has done his utmost to disperse it. The same respect and complaisance has always accompanied his actions, and you yourselves have been witnesses of my power, by his granting me without hesitation your lives. I knew you again the first moment I saw your faces, and should have discovered myself yesterday, but had a mind to know whether my memory was yet dear.

These are my unhappy adventures; but this is not all I have to say: You must, my dear Thibault, in order to regain your wife and liberty, expose your life to fresh dangers: speak, do you think me worthy of so great a testimony of your continued love and tenderness?" "You cannot make a doubt of it," answered he, "without being guilty of a greater offence than all your distraction made you act----I swear to you, my dear Princess, by the pleasure I had in obtaining you from your father, by the felicity I enjoyed in being beloved by you, by my misfortune, and by the joy I feel in seeing you again, that I never adored you with more ardour than I now do----Fear not therefore to explain yourself, command me, dispose of me as you please." The fair Sultaness was charmed with this tender a.s.surance, and there being n.o.body present that she suspected, she again embraced her much loved husband, and then told him what she had proposed to the Sultan. "'Tis of the utmost importance,"

added she, "that you should gain his confidence by some signal service, that my designs may the better succeed--he has already lost several battles, through the ill conduct of his generals; but if you fight for him I doubt not of the victory.--He cannot refuse you his esteem, which will enable me to put my project in execution."

The Count and Thibault approved of what she said; but the young Prince begged she would contrive it so, that he might accompany his brother to the army, his youthful heart burning with impatience to behold so n.o.ble a sight; but the Queen told him she could not possibly gratify those testimonies of so early a courage, though she admired them, because she had given her promise to the Sultan, that both he and his father should remain at court as hostages for the fidelity of Thibault. After some further discourse, and renewed embraces, she ordered them to retire, it growing towards the hour in which the Sultan was used to visit her. They were scarce out of the room, before that Prince entered; and having asked her if the valiant captain agreed with her intentions: "Yes, my lord," replied she, "he is impatient to express by his services the grateful sense he has of his obligation to us." The Sultan immediately commanded they should all three be brought before him; and observing them more heedful than he had done before, was infinitely charmed with their good mien: the venerable age, and commanding aspect of the Prince of Ponthieu, excited his respect; the beauty and vivacity of the young Prince, his admiration; but in the n.o.ble air, and manly graces of the accomplished Thibault, he fancied he discovered an a.s.surance he would be able to answer the character the Sultaness had given of him--The more he considered him, the more he found to increase his love and esteem for him.---"The Sultaness," said he, "who has saved your life, will needs, out of love for me, and respect for you, have you expose it in my service.---I see nothing about you but what serves to convince me I do not err, when I place entire confidence in you: therefore you must prepare to set out to-morrow, I have in my council declared you general.

My subjects are fatigued, and heartless with continual losses, and though you are a christian, my soldiers will with joy obey you, if your valour does but answer their expectations, and the character they have of you." After Thibault had in the most handsome and submissive manner a.s.sured him of his zeal and fidelity, that prince proceeded to give him those instructions which were necessary; and retiring, left him, to receive those of the Sultaness.

He was no sooner gone, than turning towards Thibault, "You are going to fight against infidels," said she, "tho' you fight for one; but, my dear husband! consult my repose as well as your own courage, and fight to conquer, not to die;---remember I expose you, that I may the better save you." He thanked her for her obliging fears, and promised to combat only to preserve his honour, and gain the opportunity to deliver her.---It being time to retire, they quitted the Queen's apartment, and returning to their own, a slave brought up Thibault, a stately vest and sabre, adorned with precious stones, a present to him from the Sultan; he put them on, and attended that prince at dinner, who saw him with pleasure.

They discoursed on the different methods of making war, and the Sultan found his new general so consummate in the art, that he a.s.sured himself of victory: he then presented him to the chief men of his court. The rest of the day was employed in reviewing the troops that were in Almeria. As he was to go the next, he begged of the Sultaness by Sayda, that he might be permitted to bid her adieu without any witnesses; the fair Queen, who desired it with equal ardour, appointed night for the interview:---so when all was quiet in the palace, he was introduced by that faithful slave into the apartment of his dear Princess. Then it was, that this long separated husband and wife, now more in love, if possible, than ever, renewed their protestations of everlasting affection, and, forgetting the rest of the world, gave a loose to the raptures of being once more blessed, and the soft hope of re-uniting themselves, no more to be divided. Thus the best part of the night pa.s.sed, and day would have surprised them, had not Sayda given them notice it was time to part. The Sultaness wept, and Thibault was extremely moved, but reason rea.s.suming its empire, they embraced and bade each other adieu, and begged heaven they might soon meet again. He went not to bed, employing the remaining hours in taking leave of the Count de Ponthieu, and the young Prince his son.---He recommended his dear Princess to the former, intreating him to neglect no opportunities of being with her. He then repaired to the Sultan, to receive his last commands, and set out with a cheerfulness that seemed to presage success.

(_To be concluded in our next._)

LOCAL CURIOSITIES.

The indifference with which even the crime of murder is regarded among the lower cla.s.ses of the Italians, is remarkably ill.u.s.trated by the following anecdote: A gentleman of Naples, in pa.s.sing occasionally before the king's palace, had frequently noticed a man of singular appearance at work. He was chained to some others, and a.s.sisted in removing rubbish, and bringing stones for a new building, the foundation of which had been just laid. The man, by having often seen him pa.s.s, recollected his person, and always took off his hat as he found an opportunity. The gentleman not knowing how to account for his attention, was induced one day, to inquire the cause of his civility and of his chains. To the first part of the query he answered, in the Neapolitan style, that it was "il suo dovere, his duty;" and to the second he said, that he was in that predicament for "una minchioneriae, a trifle. Ho ammazanta solamente una donna," said he "I have only killed a woman."

Necessity is the prompter and guide of mankind in their inventions.

There is however, such inequality in some parts of their progress and some nations get so far the start of others in circ.u.mstances nearly similar, that we must ascribe this to some events in their history, or to some peculiarities in their situation, with which we are unacquainted. The people in the Island of Otaheite, in the southern Pacific Ocean, far excel most of the Americans in the knowledge and practice of the arts of ingenuity; and yet, when they were first discovered by captain Wallis, it appeared, that they had not invented any method of boiling water; and having no vessel that would bear the fire, they had no more idea that water could be made hot, than that it could be made solid.

[[Source:

Original: _A Comparative Sketch of England and Italy, with Disquisitions on National Advantages_ (London, 1793), ii, 37-39.

This pa.s.sage is also quoted in _The a.n.a.lytical Review_, September 1793.]]

REMARK.

Friendship is to love, what an engraving is to a painting.

TACITURNITY.----AN APOLOGUE.

_Translated from the French of Abbe Blanchet._

At Amadan was a celebrated academy, the first statute of which ran thus:

_The Academicians are to think much, write little, and, if possible, speak less._

This was called the Silent Academy, nor was there a sage in Persia who was not ambitious of being admitted a member. Zeb, a famous sage, and author of an excellent little book, int.i.tled _The Gag_, heard, in the distant province where he lived, there was a vacancy in the silent academy. Immediately he departed for Amadan, and, arriving, presented himself at the door of the hall where the academicians were a.s.sembled, and sent in the following billet to the president:

Zeb, a lover of silence, humbly asks the vacant place.

The billet arrived too late; the vacancy was already supplied. The academicians were almost in despair; they had received, somewhat against their inclination, a courtier, who had some wit, and whose light and trifling eloquence had become the admiration of all his court-acquaintance; and this learned body was now reduced to the necessity of refusing the sage Zeb, the scourge of bablers, the perfection of wisdom.

The president, whose duty it was to announce this disagreeable news to the sage, scarcely could resolve, nor knew in what manner best, to perform his office. After a moment's reflection he ordered a flagon to be filled with water, and so full that another drop would have made the water run over. He then desired them to introduce the candidate.

The sage appeared with that simple and modest air which generally accompanies true merit. The president rose, and, without speaking a word, pointed, with affliction in his looks, to the emblematical flagon so exactly full.

The sage understood from thence, the vacancy was supplied, but, without relinquishing hope, he endeavoured to make them comprehend that a supernumary member might, perhaps, be no detriment to their society. He saw on the floor a rose leaf, picked it up, and with care and delicacy placed it on the surface of the water, so as not to make it overflow.

All the academicians immediately clapped their hands, betokening applause, when they beheld this ingenious reply. They did more, they broke through their rules in favour of the sage Zeb. The register of the academy was presented him, and they inscribed his name.---Nothing remained but for him to p.r.o.nounce, according to custom, a single phrase of thanks. But this new, and truly silent academician, returned thanks without speaking a word.

In the margin of the register he wrote the number one hundred (that of his brethren) then put a cypher before the figures, under which he wrote thus:

0100 _Their value is neither more nor less._

The president, with equal politeness and presence of mind, answered the modest sage, by placing the figure 1 before the number 100, and by writing under them, thus: