"Indeed! what, I pray you?" said Adelaide, in a tone of alarm; "he is an amiable youth in spite of his affectation. I should be sorry to hear he has committed any evil deed." light in the dark passions of Lucrece Borgia, or Marie Tudor ?" "Delight in them, no!" answered Cornelia "but it is necessary to know something of one of the most celebrated among modern French authors. As I read, I shudder, and my soul revolts often in disgust from the scenes portrayed; but since the Convulsif school has been in vogue, all French works of fiction partake of its natureEven Scribe has often scenes which are tainted by its influence." " "You know," said Louisa, "that he has looked divine with all his might-has sported the most ferocious whiskers-has dangled the smallest cane--has dressed with the most exquisite taste, in order to entrap the heart of some unwary fortune, that he might set up an establishment suited to his idea of his own merits and the demands of a taste for fashionable life--but in vain has be dressed and dangled and simpered and sang----in vain has he obtained the entree to every fashionable house, fate has hitherto frowned on his efforts. Debts and duns however accumulated--tailors looked such imaginations were engendered among dark disobliging--and Mrs. Mgave him sundry hints about needing his apartments for a lodger more punctual in his payments. As he was not entirely callous to such things, and had some better feelings, he was desperate and actually was driven to-to-" "To what?" said Harriet. "To work," answered Louisa-"yes, he has actually entered the counting-house of Higgins, Muggins & Co., and has left the precincts of fashion. He has obtained board in an obscure street and is determined to confine his expenses to his small salary." "It is strange," said Adelaide, that such a school should arise in a nation generally considered the most gay and volatile-where society offers all that is alluring. One would suppose and frowning rocks-the home of the storm-the birth-place of thunder-where the dashing torrents grow dark in the scowl of heaven-not in a mild and genial climate, in the most alluring capital in the world; where pleasure holds its perpetual reign, and vive la bagatelle seems written in every face." Paris," said Harriet, "has other scenes than its lively Boulevards, its gay saloons, its operas, its spectacles, and its gardens of the Tuilleries. It is there the Morgue exists, with all the terrible reflections it gives rise to; where the poor victims of misfortune-unsupported by religion-are dis A more happy termination than usually at-played. There are the crowded lanes, the dark tends such a career," said Harriet. "A blonde curtain," said Louisa, "makes them more tolerable. What an exquisite thing is blonde, so soft, so delicate-it is a materialised poet's fancy. Lady Morgan must surely have had it in her mind's eye, when she describes her heroine attired in woven air.' It seems as if zephyrs and fairies were employed in its manufacture. It ought to be devoted to the use of the young and beautiful only----old, withered, saffron-colored frights should be debarred from wearing it." "Take care, Louisa," said Harriet, "the time may come when the rich bloom of your cheek will be usurped by the livid hue of ill health, and age may plough furrows in its roundness before you have lost your taste for blonde and flowers. Your feelings inay still be as keen for the enjoyment of fashion and dress, and your decrees would return upon yourself." Well, be it so," said Louisa; "if I am an old silly fool, let me bear the punishment-but it seems to me, I am born for something better than to be the gay flattering butterfly of to-day." nooks, where vice engendered by the most biting But Lucrece Borgia," said Cornelia, “ is inaffection shines forth one pure ray in the mass of teresting in spite of her wickedness; her materna! the corruptions of her heart. In the midst of her she longs to be good and pure to obtain the love poisonings, her assassinations, and her foul deeds, of her son. For that son, her pride, which nothing else could touch, gives way-she becomes soft, gentle, humble and womanly.” 64 Victor Hugo," said Harriet, "has the power of a mighty mind-it is impossible not to be affected by its sway. What can exceed the scene between Marie Tudor and Jane Talbot during the execution of Fabiani. Can any thing equal it in intense interest ?" "It is fine, very fine," said Cornelia. "I prefer," said Louisa, the comedies of Scribe. Raton is inimitable, with "to be entertained by his stupidity, his ambition; and the boy Jean, who cared not what revolutions took place in the "Is it possible, Cornelia," said Harriet, taking nation, so long as the people hurra'd, carriages up a drama of Victor Hugo's from the scagliola were upset and the warehouses closed, to give centre-table, "that one of your soft and gentle na-him a holiday. What an exquisite touch of nature should choose such an author-can you de- ture!" NOTES BY AN AERONAUT. Notes by an Aeronaut. I HAVE realized one of the dreams of my youth, and gratified the strongest aspirations that ever agitated my manhood. I look back with a kind of intoxicating bewilderment upon the perils I have encountered, and the fears I have subdued; for, to me, the memory of excitement is excite ment still. My early days were passed in a village in the country. I first opened my eyes to the light, near the banks of the Hudson; and my juvenile hours were full of the most flighty visions. I always had a very aerial imagination. Any thing in motion always had for me a peculiar charm. I shall never forget the delight I experienced in seeing the doves fly from their shelter in the end of my father's carriage-house. They would alight, and poise themselves for a moment on the eaves, turn their bright necks in the sunlight, pour forth a few ready murmurs, and then launch out upon the bosom of the air. Often, in the fulness of youthful desire, have I felt ready to say Oh, for thy wings! thou dove, * * * * * 277 hearts beating high; and I was the cause. Every eye was upon me. " Let go!" was the word. The cheers redoubled, handkerchiefs waved from many a fair hand, bright faces beamed from every window, and on every side. One dash with my knife, and I rose aloft, a habitant of air. How magnificent was the sight which now burst upon me! How sublime were my sensations! I waved the flag of my country; the cheers of the multitude from a thousand house-tops, reached me on the breeze; and a taste of the rarer atmosphere elevated my spirits into ecstacy. The city, with a brilliant sunshine striking the spires and domes, now unfolded to view-a sight incomparably beautiful. My gondola went easily upward, clearing the depths of heaven, like a vital thing. A diagram placed before you, on the table, could not permit you to trace more definitely than I now could, the streets, the highways, basins, wharves, and squares of the town. The theatres and public buildings, I recognized from their location near parks or open grounds, and from the peculiarity of their being covered with various metals, as well as slate, or tiles. The hum of the city arose to my ear, as from a vast bee-hive:and I seemed the monarch-bee, directing the I heard the rattling of carriages, the hearty yo-heave-o! of sailors from the docks that, begirt with spars, hemmed the city round: I was a spectator of all, yet aloof, and alone. Increasing stillness attended my way; and at last the murmurs of earth came to my ear like the last vibra swarm. Only twenty minutes remained before the hour of my first ascension from the New York. "The time of my departure was at hand." Every thing requisite had been placed in my fairy gondola-my pigeon, the poetry, in hand-tions of a bell. bills, for the occasion; the tissue paper, flags, ballast-all. Every moment seemed an hour. Observing a broken carboy of oil of vitriol lying carelessly by the passage through which the balloon with its netting had been brought, I ordered it instantly removed. The vast amphitheatre was filled with spectators; the houses "bore men;" the streets were crowded with all sorts, and every eminence in the neighborhood was clothed in clusters of human beings. My gay wicker-car was now attached, with the minutest care, to the long cords that depended from the buoyant globe above. I was looking at my watch, observing that the time of twenty had dwindled to eight minutes, when I heard the cry of "Fire!" I sprang towards the ærostat, as if a "Where!" said bullet had perforated my heart. I. "There, in the balloon!" was the answer. Looking upward, I perceived that the netting had become entangled with the valve-which ever and anon flew open, as the wind surged against the balloon-and the gas, mixed with vapor issued from the aparture, resembling smoke. The netting was soon disengaged; and the valve, closed and held by its stout springs, remained firm in its place. A swift My car tilted and trembled, as I rose. wind sometimes gave the balloon a rotary motion, which made me deadly sick for a moment; but strong emotion conquered all my physical ailings. I was My brain ached with the intensity of my rapture. Human sounds had fainted from my ear. in the abyss of heaven, and alone. I could tell my direction, by the sun on my left: and as his rays played on the ærostat, it seemed only a bright bubble, wavering in the sky-and I a suspended mote, hung by chance to its train. Looking below me, the distant Sound and Long Island appeared to the sight: the bay lay to the south, sprinkled with shipping; under me the city, girded with bright rivers and sparry forests; the free wind was on my cheek and in my locks; afar, the ocean rolled its long blue waves, chequered with masses of shadow, and gushes of ruby sunlight: to the north and west the interminable land, variegated like a map, dotted with purple, and green, and silver, faded to the eye. The atmosphere which I now breathed seemed to dilate my heart at every breath. I uttered some audible expression. My voice was weaker than the faintest sound of a reed. There was no object near to make it reverb or echo. Though rising My hour had now come, and I entered the car. with incredible swiftness, I had nothing to conWith a singular taste, the band struck up at this vince my eye that I was not nearly still. The moment the melting air of "Sweet Home." It weak flap-flap-flap of the cords against the balA thousand associations loon, in regular motion, as the trembling ærostat, almost overcame me. of youth, friends-of all that I must leave, rushed moved by its subtle contents, continued to rise, upon my mind. But, I had no leisure för senti- was all that indicated my tendency. My baromement. A buzz ran through the assemblage; un- ter now denoted an immense height; and as I numbered hands were clapping-unnumbered) looked upward and around, the concave above seemed like a mighty waste of purple air, verging | ceedingly," spread on every hand. Vast curtains to blackness. Below, it was lighter; but a long, of cloud pavilioned the immensity, brighter than lurid bar ef cloud stretched along the west, tempo- celestial roses, or "jasper or the ruby stone," glitrarily excluding the sun. The shadows rushed tered around: masses of mist were lifted on high, afar into the void, and a solemn, Sabbath twilight, like steps of living fire, more radiant than the sun reigned around. I was now startled at a flutter-itself, when his glorious noontide culminates from ing in my gondola. It was my compagnon de voy- the equator. A kind of ariel Euroclydon now age, the carrier pigeon. I had forgotten him en-smote my car; and three of the cords parted, tirely. I attached a string to his neck, with a which tilted my gondola to the side, filling me label, announcing my height, then nearly four with terror. I caught the broken cords in my miles, and the state of my barometer. As he sat hand, but could not tie them. They had been on the side of the car, and turned his tender eyes dragged over the broken carboy of oil of vitriol, of upon me in mute supplication, every feather shi- which I have spoken, and had rotted asunder. vering with apprehension, I felt that it was a The storm below was now rapidly passing away, guilty act to push him into the waste beneath. But and beneath its waving outline, to the southeast, it was done; he attempted to rise, but I out-sped I saw the ocean. Ships were speeding on their him; he then fell obliquely, fluttering and moan-course, and their bright sails melting into dising, till I lost him in the haze. tance: a rainbow hung afar, and the rolling an My greatest altitude had not yet been reached. thems of the Atlantic came like celestial hymnI was now five miles from terra-firma. I began ings to my ear. my coat. to breathe with difficulty. The atmosphere was Presently, all was clear below me. The fresh too rare for safe respiration. I pulled my valve-air played around. I had taken a noble circuitcord to descend. It refused to obey my hand. and my last view was better than the first. I was For a moment I was horror-struck. What was far over the bay, afloating sweetly to the west." to be done? If I ascended much higher, the bal-The city, colored by the last blaze of day, brightenloon would explode. I threw over some tissue ed remotely to the view. Below, ships were haspaper to test my progress. It is well known that tening to and fro through the narrows; and the far this will rise very swiftly. It fell, as if blown country lay smiling like an Eden. Bright rivers downward, by a wind from the zenith. I was ran like ribands of gold and silver, till they were going upward like an arrow. I attempted to pray, lost in the vast inland, stretching beyond the view; but my parched lips could not move. I seized the gilded mountains were flinging their purple the cord again, with desperate energy. Blessed shadows over many a vale; bays were blushing to Heaven! it moved. I threw out more tissue. It the farewell day-dreams; and now I was passing rose to me like a wing of joy; I was descending. over a green island. I sailed to the main land; Though far from sunset, it was now dark about saw the tall old trees waving to the evening breeze; me, except a track of blood-red haze, in the direc- heard the rural lowing of herds; heard the weltion of the sun. I encountered a strong current of come sound of human voices-and finally, sweepwind; mist was about me! it lay like dew uponing over forest tops and embowered villages, at At last, a thick bar of vapor being past, last descended with the sun, among a kind-heartwhat a scene was disclosed! A storm was sweep-ed, surprised, and hospitable community, in as ing through the sky, nearly a mile beneath, and I pretty a town as one could desire to see—“safe looked down upon an ocean of rainbows, rolling in and well.' indescribable grandeur, to the music of the thunder-pea!, as it moaned afar, and near, on the coming and dying wind. A frightened eagle had ascended through the tempest, and sailed for mi- THE Celtic legends, like the Celtic language, nutes by my side, looking at me with panting wea- though deficient in terms of art and refinement, riness, and quivering mandibles, but with a dilated are peculiarly rich in the expression of the paseye, whose keen iris flashed unsubdued. As he sions. Joy, grief, fear, love, hatred, and revenge, fanned me with his heavy wings, and looked with glow through many an impassioned strain which a human intelligence at the car, my pulse bounded still lingers by its original wild locality. On the with exulting rapture. He had risen above every shores of Mull a crag is pointed out, overhanging storm, unfettered and free! But my transports the sea, concerning which there is the following were soon at an end. He attempted to light on tradition, which we have often thought would form the balloon, and my heart sunk; I feared his huge no bad subject for the painter, or even the poet :claws would tear the silk. I pulled my cord; he Some centuries since, the chief of the district, rose as I sank, and the blast swept him from my Maclean of Lochbuy, had a grand hunting excurview in a moment. A flock of wild fowl, beat by sion. To grace the festivity, his lady attended, the storm, were coursing below on bewildered with her only child, an infant then in the nurse's pinions, and as I was nearing them, I knew I was arms. The deer, driven by the hounds, and hemdescending. A singular effect was now produced med in by surrounding rocks, flew to a narrow by position. It was a double horizon; one formed pass, the only outlet they could find. Here the by the outer edge of the upper cloud, and the other chief had placed one of his men to guard the deer by the angle of the eye to the extreme strata of the from passing; but the animals rushed with such storm over the earth. A breaking rift now admit-impetuosity, that the poor forester could not withted the sun. The rainbows tossed and gleamed; stand them. In the rage of the moment, Maclean chains of fleecy rock, shining in prismatic rays of threatened the man with instant death, but this gold, and purple," and emerald," "beautiful ex-punishment was commuted to a whipping or Wild Revenge. this way alone, since, though generally too shallow to admit of boats, they have many deep places through which it is necessary to swim. There the Chimbador, who takes the office of the Chilian Vaqueano, makes the traveller mount behind him, while he manages the horse. It is said that those men of color, and who ride into the water in a state of nakedness, always carry with thein a long knife for the purpose of stabbing the passenger, should the latter fall off, and, grasping his guide in the agony of despair, threaten to involve both in a common destruction. scourging in the face of his clan, which in these the coast of Peru, between Lambayeque and feudal times was considered a degrading punish-Truxillo, are many broad mouths of rivers, or ment fit only for the lowest of menials and the rather arms of the sea, which can be crossed in worst of crimes. The clansman burned with anger and fierce revenge. He rushed forward, plucked the tender infant, the heir of Lochbuy, from the hands of the nurse, and bounding to the rocks, in a moment stood on an almost inaccessible cliff projecting over the water. The screams of the agonized mother and chief at the awful jeo-men (the Chimbadors), who are almost always pardy in which their only child was placed, may be easily conceived. Maclean implored the man to give him back his son, and expressed his deep contrition for the degradation he had in a moment of excitement inflicted on his clansman. The other replied, that the only conditions on which he would consent to the restitution were, that Maclean himself should bare his back to the cord, and be publicly scourged as he had been! In despair the chief consented, saying he would submit to any thing if his child were but restored. To the grief and astonishment of the clan, Maclean bore this insult, and when it was completed begged that the clansman might return from his perilous situation with the young chief. The man regarded him with a smile of demoniac revenge, and lifting high the child in the air, plunged with him into the abyss below. The sea closed over them, and neither, it is said, ever emerged from the tempestuous whirlpool and basaltic caverns that yawned around them, and still threaten the inexperienced navigator on the shores of Mull. Crossing a River. THE mode of crossing a river in South America, which is far from inconsiderable, is of a very peculiar kind, whenever the height of the flood renders the ordinary method of fording impracticable. On both banks of the river are men, whose occupation it is to conduct travellers through the bounding torrent, which in some places breaks violently over concealed rocks. These men are called Vaqneanos; they are peasants, take pride and pleasure in their dangerous occupation, and are in general remarkable for their great bodily strength, and for their large and well-trained horses. The preparations are soon made: as soon as the party plunge into the stream, the guides press themselves close to the travellers on both sides, and fasten him between them in such a way that, even if he were to loose his balance, he cannot easily fall from the saddle. These men govern the horses with such unerring skill, that they remain constantly pressed together. Whereever the depth is so great that the horses must swim, the guides seize the reins of the middle horse, and bid the traveller shut his eyes, lest his head grow dizzy. The water rushes by with astounding rapidity and deafening noise, and, in our case, was cold enough to make all three complain of the bath, since even the horse that swims best plunges so deep into the stream as to wet the rider to the hips. It is not until after being freed from the grasp of the two guides, that one perceives that they hold the lasso always ready, in order to save the traveller, if, in spite of their precautions, he should be snatched away by the waves. Onl First View of Jerusalem. AT eight hours from Ramleh, ascending from a valley among the mountains, we caught the first sight of Jerusalem, half a league distant. The first exclamation which bursts forth, is that which prophecy has said shall be in the mouth of" all that pass," "Is this the city that men call the perfection of beauty, the joy of the whole earth?" It is impossible that any delineation can be more just, or any image more vivid, than is contained in these few words, "How doth the city sit solitary!" The sight carried across a tract of grey, desolate, and barren rock, rests upon a bare dead wall, above which little is seen except the tops of a few Turkish mosques. At this time not a living creature was moving without the city, and, with the exception of the leaden green produced by a few ragged olives, scarcely a sign of vegetation could be traced; a death-like silence settled upon the rocky waste; and the city, placed upon an emi nence, as if an object for observation, presented one of the most gloomy and melancholy spectacles that the fancy could paint.-Monroe's Rambles. Lillies of the Valley. 'Tis said the rose of all the flowers But more I love the lilly pale, Save by us simple village maids, When we could think our hearts had wings I found the flower in a green nook And king-cups spangled all the ground, I lov'd it for its pearly bell, Oh! more than garden blossom nursed To find it there. The Married Man's Story. I HAD the pleasure, a few days ago, to meet, unexpectedly, a friend, from whom I had been many years separated. We had been mostly educated together, having passed our boyhood at the same school, our youth at the same university; but our fortunes were different. He, born to wealth, left college to mix with the world at home and abroad; while I turned to the profession I had long since made choice of, and began to lay my weary way towards independance. in a dress she could not have worn on occasions of ceremony. Yet our expenses do not, by any means, come up to our limited income. It is true, our wants are few; but we increase our luxuries as we go on. We do not live in the world, but we live very much in society; society that we like, and that likes us, and assimilates with us. All this, and more, in the warmth of my heart, I told my friend over a bottle of my best wine, when my wife rose and left us; and we were still upon the same theme when we joined her again at the teatable. He began to rally us upon our way of life, We were both a good deal changed. My friend and he tried to persuade her that, in former days, I had lost much of the gay buoyancy of manner; had played the inconstant among our circle of much of the merry, happy, careless flow of spirits beauties, being fond to admire, and fickle to for which he had once been remarkable. I was change. I saw that in his then mood it were vain less grave than I had been reckoned during our for- for me to dispute his assertions; so to divert the mer acquaintance; yet I am a man of business, time, and may be, to prevent my wife from thinkand married We had much to say of the differ- ing of any other, I pleaded guilty to one serious ent chances that had occurred to us, and I found, attachment, and offered to tell my story: that though altered in manner, in habits, and in character, we met the same to each other as we had parted. It was getting late in the day, and I asked my friend if he would go home to the small house I occupied, and dine quietly with my wife and me. He agreed instantly, shook hands with me in his own lively way, as he thanked me for asking him, and we turned into the street in which I lived. I must own I felt some little uneasiness at agreed to proceed northwards in a body; but as I the thoughts of introducing my friend to my wife. I had often spoken of him to her, and I dreaded, lest she should not find the portrait faithful. In fact, I mistrusted my own judgment till it should be confirmed by hers, not that in words she would tell me that we differed, but I knew her too well in look and manner to be deceived. I did not feel quite easy at the idea of presenting my wife to my friend. His admiration would in no degree alter my sentiments towards her; but I felt I should be ill satisfied unless he thought her, in the course of one short evening, all I had found her during the three happy years of our union. My heart beat as I ran up the steps. I colored as I pulled the bell. The door was opened by our only man-servant, and I myself ushered my friend up stairs. "Some years ago," said I, "when it first become the fashion to take shooting-quarters in the Highlands, I formed one of a large party who had engaged an extensive tract of moorland for the season. The game-keeper and the dogs were sent off early in July, and it was settled we were all to dine together at the farm-house we rented with the ground, upon the 10th of August. My friends dislike exceedingly travelling in that sort of company I declined forming one of it, and set out by myself, some weeks before, on a tour through a range of my native country I had never yet seen." At this part of my story my wife laid down her work; and looked up anxiously in my face. I smiled and proceeded. 66 After an interesting and somewhat fatiguing journey, I arrived early on the morning of the 10th of August, at one of the principal towns of the north Highlands. It was market-day, and the streets were filled with crowds of well-dressed people, thronging in every direction. Severa! handsome equipages were driving along among the crowd, while gentlemen on horseback and footpassengers picked their way carefully through the groups of country people and their wares, who My wife was dressed with extreme neatness, stopped every regular passage. I alighted at a though she expected we were to dine alone; and very comfortable Inn, and having ordered some she was sitting, as usual, at her work-table, when refreshment, I sat down very contentedly to look the sound of my step upon the stairs made her over a newspaper, which lay upon the table of the raise her head. She came forward to meet me; parlor I had been shown into, when chancing to and when I named my friend, she turned to wel- raise my head, my eyes fell upon a mirror, which come him, with a grace and gaiety that made him hung on the opposite wall, between the portraits sure of his reception. She placed him beside her of General Washington and Mr. Pitt. I was on the sofa, and I was soon at ease as to first im- struck with horror at my own appearance. Hastipressions. We had not far to go to dinner. The ly ringing for the waiter, I inquired whether there lower part of the house being occupied by my were any hair-dresser in the town on whose skill chambers of business, our public rooms are confin- I might rely. I was told I was within a few doors ed to a small drawing-room on the first floor, and of the first artist in the country. A man don't like a still smaller library opening out of it. In this to trust bis head to a bungler; but the first step I small library we dined. The dinner was ordered took in Mr. Blank's shop convinced me the waiter with neatness and taste, and served without dis-had not been wrong in his assertion. When the play in an apartment simply furnished. My wife operation was over, I surveyed myself with much is not one of those who, to make a parade upon satisfaction in a small hand-glass, obligingly held occasion, lessen the comforts of every-day life. to me for that purpose; but not feeling myself at She has never, since we were married, set before me a dinner I might not have brought a friend to partake of; nor has she ever appeared before me liberty to indulge my contemplation so publiely, I |