، dying extremely penitent,' or transfixed with horror at the impending blow. Of another who suffers for shedding man's blood, a crime against God, dying hardened, unrepentant: what constitutes this difference? The one feels, because he possesses sensibility, and therefore cannot help it; the other feels not, because he cannot: he evinces apathy and indifference, because from temperament he is perfectly incapable of experiencing their contraries: for which misfortune he is branded as a depraved, abandoned wretch; callous to his approach to eternity; affording an awful warning to the survivors, of the debasing effects of sin and wickedness. "I shall conclude this part of our discourse by observing, that for one incident of existence we should be thankful every hour, even if there were not a multitude of other causes which should produce that effect; which is, that the hour of our departure is mercifully withheld from our knowledge. The utmost extent of our enquiry on that head, can only furnish the wholesome proverb, 'the old must die, the young may:' this single fact should be a fund of speechless gratitude: the SubGenera have no idea of death, and we only know it to be the fate of all animal matter, by observation: let this be food for reflection and humble joy. By the way we may observe, that death and hair-breadth danger its ally, level all ordinary feeling in all men. Take a Saint; pin him under a beetling cliff, below , High-water mark,' and see whether he would not wish to have his shoes cleaned with any liquid save the advancing tide: propose 'Day and Martin' and a three-legged stool, instead of brine and shingles, and see if he would not embrace the proposal with all his heart and soul. See if he would not look up the rock for assistance, as wistfully as a sinner at a cart's-tail looks over his shoulder at every cut of the hangman's lash: probably he would jump as high at a hint of being speedily hauled out of reach of the waves, to the crown, the summit of the barrier at his back, as he would at the promise of some other crowns. "The love of life is inherent, unconquerable; none affect to despise it, but knaves, fools, or madmen: but it is easy to talk in a snug parlour, before a rousing fire. In a situation so dreadful as moorings to windward of a rocky shore, all men would pray for deliverance, lose the balance of mental power: but would the order of Nature be diverted? would the ocean cease to swell in compassion to the wretches exposed to its fury? I should guess it would do so about as much as it would lose its saltness, at the wish of Mortality, instead of the fiat which said, 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no farther; and here shall thy proud waves be staid."" LETTER XXIX. A SHORT time after our last conversation, L- and myself passed a person who had the appearance of recent recovery from severe illness; he was still pale and thin, but his eyes were lighted up in thankfulness; he leaned on a stick, but there was hope even in his weakness. "There," said my friend, "behold an example of the effect of energy well excited; of human capacity directed to a specific end. That man was assailed by disease; the healing art has baffled the attack, and is fast restoring him to health and wonted activity. Is not that art a full proof of the correctness of my position,-THAT WE ARE LEFT TO THE EXERCISE OF FACULTY, AS THE NOBLEST ATTRIBUTE OF OUR BEING?' Was that art specifically revealed? Was man especially instructed to shun the rattle-snake and the shark, or did experience teach him their deadliness and rapacity? A friend of mine has said to me, 'he was of opinion we knew too much or too little;' but I suspect we know, or which is the same thing, may know, just enough. Was the telescope revealed to Galileo? the instrument by whose assistance we have succeeded in ranging through a space before unpierced by mortal eye; in exploring and proving wonders till then hidden in gloom impenetrable; whose discovery was as a second morn of Creation: or will Fanaticism, at the last kick, take refuge in brutality, and doggedly pronounce 'all discovery to be Revelation;' because, if so, Count Romford's stove was as much a part thereof, as poor Galileo's invention. Were Haydn and Mozart divinely inspired, or did their excellence result from power inherent, assisted by judicious culture? Revelation and useful knowledge are not always in parallel; and, indeed, it has been a question among the followers of false philosophy, whether the former has at all contributed to the extension of the latter. Certain it is, Galileo was compelled to a recantation and denial of the principles of his discovery, (which to be sure was a trifle, a silly tool,) and the question can hardly be decided at this day, because it is acknowledged Revelation has been made: and it is equally certain, that works of morality, the love and practice of virtue for its own sake, and from a profound sense of its essential necessity as conducive to true happiness, are become as cleanliness to |