only boundary. The day was gloomy, and hoarse sea-birds flew round screaming and flapping their wings. The hours passed slowly on, and this day passed like the preceding one, except that I discovered a spring of water which in my present situation was a treasure. At night I retired to my cave, where a little sea-weed spread upon sand was my only couch. The next day I determined thoroughly to examine the place on which my unhappy fortune had cast me, and I accordingly set forth, dropping sea-weed and pebbles at short intervals to enable me to find my way back to the cave. I wandered as near as I could guess about two hours without perceiving any difference in the scenes around me. I was about to return, when a sound struck my ear. I listened I turned my head and beheld at no great distance a human figure, I rushed towards it-It was my enemy! He saw me approach, and seemed astonished, but he did not move, nor attempt to avoid me. "At last," I said, "I have met thee on equal terms, now thou canst not escape me." "What seek you?" replied he, "but I need not ask. It is my life you wish to deprive me of -take it-in so doing you will rob me of that which I wish not to preservea burden that I would gladly lose.You hesitate-why do you delay now vengeance is in your power, do yourself justice, think of the wrongs that you have suffered from me-the miseries you have endured, and then can you remain longer inactive ?" I knew not what it was, but something restrained me from any deed of violence against him, whom I had followed so long in hopes of vengeance; whom I had hated with unnatural hatred. While I looked at him he suddenly grew paler, he staggered and fell down. I found he had fainted-I chafed his temples-I ran for some water, with which I sprinkled his face, and after some time opened his eyes, but closed them again with a faint shudder. In a few minutes he recovered, but was unable to walk, the hardships he had undergone having weakened his frame, unsupported by the charm which gave strength and endurance to mine-I supported him towards the cave, but the slowness with which we proceeded was such, that it was near evening before we arrived at it. When we came to it, I placed him on my rude couch and departed in search

of food for him and myself. I had much difficulty in doing this, for even the wretched fare on which, since being cast on the island I had subsisted, was scanty. When I returned he was asleep, and I sat down to watch by him.

I have not an idea what it was that induced me at the time to concern myself about the welfare of one, whom I had such reason to detest as this man. It is one of those contradictions which so strongly marked all my actions, and which will ever characterize the proceedings of one of acute feelings, and ungoverned passions.

For several days I continued to watch over him, with the attention of a brother; but he was sinking rapidly, and I saw that a very short period would put an end to his existence. During the whole time, he had never spoken; but on the day of his death he broke his silence. He asked why I had attended to his wants, and why I had not rather hastened to wreak my vengeance on him. I would not suffer him to talk long, for he was too feeble to bear the least exertion without injury. But the expression of his countenance spoke for him.-His eyes rolled with a wild and frenzied gaze; his features were, by fits, twisted and convulsed with agony, and smothered and lengthened groans burst from him. The evening drew on, and the scene was still more dreadful by the uncertain and fading light that prevailed. Suddenly he started: he gazed at me, and asked, in a voice which pierced me to the soul," if I God is my witness how sincerely at that could forgive him?" I did forgive him : moment I forgave every injury, every offence which he had committed against

me.

afterwards, he caught my hand-he He spoke not again. Two hours pressed it fervently, and his dying look was such as I can never forget. -Although I shall live till the last convulsion of the universe shall bury me in the ashes of the world, that look can never be effaced from my memory.

It was night-I could not remove the body till morning, and the deep silence rendered my situation doubly horrible. The next morning I buried the remains of him, who, while living, had been my direst foe. But every thought of that nature had now departed: my injuries and my thoughts of revenge were alike forgotten.

island. I was taken up by a ship passing I shortly after left the

near to it, and conveyed again to inhabited countries.

Such was the termination of my labours, my sufferings, my hopes, and my fears. When I reflect on the time which was consumed in this fruitless pursuit of revenge, it seems like one of those frightful dreams from which we start in terror, but even when awake feel horror at the thought. The inconsistences, of which I was guilty, more forcibly urge this idea :-while I spent years of loathsome and anxious labours in seeking for that gift, which, when obtained, is a curse to the possessor, I never thought of the probability that the object of my hatred might die long before I had discovered the secret of which I was in quest. Such is the contradictory conduct of one, over whose actions reason no longer retains any controul.

I am now a lone and solitary being, isolated from the rest of my species, for the social tie which binds man to the world, and connects him with his fellow-creatures, cannot long subsist without equality,-I mean not the mere equality of birth or fortune. I have, as

it were, acquired a nature different from the rest of mankind.-The spring of my affections is dried up. Should I strive to acquire friends, to what purpose were it? I should see them drop silently and gradually into the grave, conscious that I was doomed to linger out an eternity. I care not for fame: wealth has no charms for me, for it is in my power to an unlimited extent. I must wander about, alike destitute of hope and of fear,-of pleasure or of pain. I look on the past with disgust and inquietude; I regard the future with apathy and listlessness. It may seem egotism in me thus to obtrude my personal feelings, but it is thus only that I can convey an idea of the misery, which attends the acquisition of powers, which nature has for wise purposes hidden from the grasp of mortals. Thus only can I hope to deter other rash and daring spirits from a like course, by showing the utter and abandoned solitariness, the exhaustion of mental and bodily faculties, and the dead and torpid desolation of spirit, which is the unceasing companion of an earthly immortal.

THE METAMORPHOSES OF LIFE. (CONCLUDED.)
LETTER III.

MR. ROBERT MORGAN TO HIS BROTHER JOHN.

Is there aught in the world like a man put upon
By his wife and his daughter, my dear brother John ?
If from Hackney to Greenwich you aught can descry
That's truly unhappy,-dear John, it is I.

All my habits are changed; and my letter reveals
I don't know if I stand on my head or my heels.

My fat is all gone, and I'm worn to a bone

I darn't for my life say my soul is my own:

They have made me give up my old friends and my shop,
And have whizzled and whirled me about like a top:
Upon me they play, like a fiddle or organ;
You'd scarcely believe me the same Robert Morgan.
You know, John, I made so much cash in the stocks,
I thought it no joke to sell flannels and socks;
So I said to my wife, since a fortune I've made,
We'll give up the counter-1 mean give up trade:
So I wished to dispose of my shop to some crony,
Retire, and live at my ease; with a pony,

My wife, and my daughter; and do as I please:

In short, brother John, to live quite at my ease.

But now I've grown rich-zounds, it raises my passion,

To think how they talk about grandeur and fashion;

I can't write with patience-it raises my bile

They pester me all the day long about style:

When between you and me, though they make such a row,
They know nothing of fashion, no more than a cow;

A.

How should they, dear John, when both Betty and Sally
Have lived all their lives at the end of Ram Alley.
Well-my money secured, I resolved to retreat
To Clapton, dear John, to a nice country seat:
Had agreed for a box, most conveniently thrust
At least twenty feet from the noise and the dust;
With a little viranda to keep off the sun,

Under which I could smoke when my gard'ning was done:
And look at each stage as it drove past the door,

(In less than three hours I counted a score);
This made it so lively, I said to my wife,
This is rural felicity, true country life:

Oh, how happy about my own garden to reel,

With my stockings undone, and my shoes down at heel,
And my dressing gown loose, and an easy old hat;

If there's comfort on earth, my dear John, it is that:
Here I hoped at my ease to pass many a day,
In planting my garden, or driving my shai;
And on sunday, dear John, if the weather prove fine,
To see my old neighbours and friends come to dine;
With a nice glass of punch, and a pipe, John, or so,
In short, to live happy as other folks do:

But zounds, there was Missis, and Sall too as well,
Kept teasing about a large house in Pall Mall;
La! love you, said I, to my wife and my daughter,
We shall be in Pall Mall like three fish out of water;
But all I could say, John, or all I could do,

I was forced to give way to this obstinate two.
Well-no sooner I fixed in Pall Mall like a post,
When they said, like the rest, I must go to the coast:
They whirl'd me from town in a carriage so quick,
In all my whole days I was never so sick;

And with stomach quite ruined, and all my joints stiff,
They lodged me at last near the sea, on the cliff;

Then, forsooth, I must bathe-but to cut matters shorter,
My skin for these forty years had'nt touched water;
And the sight of the sea set me all of a shiver;

I never dared bathe in the Thames or New River;
And as I am well, and have lost my loose fat,

So I told them downright I would never stand that :
And they now gad about and pursue their own plan,
And leave me to shift for myself as I can :

So walking about, betwixt pleasure and spleen,

I met every day a queer chap on the Stein;

Who looked at me hard, and then touching his brim,
Spoke fairly to me—I spoke fairly to him,—
And telling the matter to Sall and my spouse,

Hang me but they asked him just home to the house;
And the booby, whatever I do or can say,

Is kicking his heels in my parlour all day:

And they pester me morning to night all they can,
Pretending the fellow's some great nobleman;
And if I declare he's a puppyish dog,
They swear he's a duke or a marquis incog:
I've searched all the Peerage-I'm not such a flat
As to think there's a lord with a title like that:
And in spite of his scent, and his paint, never fear,
He'll soon find he's got the wrong pig by the ear:
And the matter I'll bring to an issue, that's plain;
Good-bye, my dear John, I may not write again:
But in spite of these changes from one thing to t'other,
I'm always at heart your affectionate brother.

D. E. W.

THE VISION OF A PHILOSOPHER.

PART II.

"Into the heaven of heavens I have presumed."-Milton.

NEVER shall I forget the joyous yet mixed emotions with which I entered the car of the balloon. The weather was fine, and the cords being cut, I floated over the heads of thousands of spectators, whose joyous shouts rose upon the air, and made my bosom beat with a tumultuous ecstasy. I felt like a bird, flying through boundless expanse. This, said I to myself, is really to be free. The sea of countless heads was soon lost in the distance; the city gradually became like a speck to my vision, and the earth itself at length appeared like a dusky surface, uniform, and without any object of distinction. Now, when it was too late, did I begin to discover my extreme danger.-My pilot was without courage or skill, and gain alone had prompted him to his dangerous enterprise. The balloon became unmanageable, and we were ascending with wondrous rapidity. We passed several extensive plains of clouds, lying in equal surfaces, like vast oceans of mists. At length, we were caught in a sort of whirlpool of the elements, and amidst lightning more vivid, and thunder more tremendous than ever mortal heard, we were whirled in a perpendicular ascent, more rapid than imagination can conceive. Our breath was failing us, and consciousness was nearly gone, when a terrific burst of thunder shot the balloon to an enormous height, and launched us from this war of elements into an atmosphere so bland, so clear and beautiful, that we were restored to animation, and to indescribably delightful sensations. The balloon was still moving most rapidly; we had passed the atmosphere of the earth, and the heavens were revealed to us in all their glory. Aldebaran, Aquila, Arietes, Orion, Arcturus, and the other principal stars, appeared of the size of full moons, and were shining with a far more than solar lustre. Nothing could equal the beauty of the Pleiades: they appeared like seven resplendent moons. The moon itself was a thousand times the size it appears to us from the earth. At length our balloon approached that spot where the reciprocal attraction of the earth and moon are equal. We had

become stationary, and were contemplating the heavens with awe, when a mild current of air wafted us within the powers of the moon's attraction, and immediately our balloon began to descend towards that planet with a prodigious velocity. We soon entered the lunar atmosphere, and the soft balmy air and mild lustre that surrounded us were most soothing to our senses. We landed in a spacious field, and having secured our vessel, were walking towards a city at a distance, when we were accosted by a stranger of costume and lineaments, exactly resembling those of our earth. He calmly told us, that he knew from what planet we had arrived, and the accident that had brought us to him. He offered to shew us all the lunar wonders, and on our venturing to shake hands with him, in requital of his kindness, he shuddered; and, receding several steps, thus addressed us, in a mild but hollow voice,

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"Know," said he, "that I am but a spirit, preserving an aerial form, similar to that material form which distinguished me on earth." Heavens," exclaimed the Frenchman, "am I talking to a ghost!" and his knees began to tremble with terror. "Resume your courage," said the stranger, "and listen to the information I have to give.Know, then, that the souls of men, on departing from the body, are wafted to the planets of the solar system, according to the merits of their conduct upon earth. Their occupation is to repeat continually their mortal conduct, and to feel all their mortal propensities and passions, until, after a residence of many thousand years, they are wafted to a planet of some other system, where they again act the same scenes, but with a decreased energy. Thus their spirits float from planet to planet, and from system to system, until their mortal impurities and recollections are gradually obliterated, and, being purified in the course of myriads of ages, and myriads of migrations, they enter the great heaven of heavens, and float through the immensity of space in eternal happiness."

Hardly had our guide finished his