an enjoyment, however, of the highest rank awaits him who studiously elevates his mind to a perception of the noblest energies of imagination, and to a keen sense of the finer beauties of composition.

From such the Fleece of Dyer, having once obtained attention, will receive its long-delayed reward, nor, though mingled, like every human work, with occasional error, has it much to apprehend from the most acute yet candid critic.

NUMBER XIV.

-The time

When Superstition cherish'd every crime; When "barb'rous" Priests pronounc'd with falt'ring tongue,

Nor knew to read the jargon which they sung;

When Nobles, train'd like blood-hounds to destroy,
In ruthless rapine plac'd their savage joy;

And Monarchs wanted ev'n the skill to frame
The letters that compos'd their mighty name.

Hayley.

During the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries, while on the banks of the Thames, the Tiber and the Seine, a profound and almost impenetrable darkness hovered, those of the Tigris. were lighted up by the splendor of science and of literature. To contrast and to describe the leading features of these periods, the superstitious ignorance of Christian Europe with

the literary energy and magnificence of the eastern world, will perhaps afford no unentertaining sketch, nor one unproductive of salutary reflection.

Upon the demolition of the western empire in the sixth century of the Christian era, its rude and untutored conquerors, hurrying over the most fertile parts of Europe, ignorant of letters, and altogether addicted to the love and exercise of arms, soon utterly neglected whatever remained of the taste, of the literature and elegance of the Roman; and to cut off all resource, all speedy probability of dispelling so dreadful a gloom, the Arabians, in the course of a few years after this event, headed by the daring and enthusiastic Mahomet, rushed from their savage deserts to enforce the precepts of his religion, and, under his immediate successors, rashly dared to consume the invaluable library of Alexandria, the rich deposit of whatever the best and wisest of the ancient world had been amassing for ages.

Thus, within the space of a hundred years, every vestige of human learning was nearly destroyed, and a barbaric ignorance, which

attained its height during the eighth, ninth and tenth centuries, degraded Europe. In these latter periods, with one exception or two, every species of tyranny which could deform humanity, and every superstition which could debase the light of human reason, universally prevailed, and from Christianity mingled with barbarism, the rights of the priesthood with those of the empire, the prerogative of the sovereign with that of the nobility, such anarchy and confusion arose, as altogether impeded the diffusion of letters. Among the clergy also, where literature more especially ought to have been cherished, an ignorance the most excessive was to be found; and it is not uncommon to discover in the deeds of a synod, a sentence like the following: "As my lord the bishop cannot write himself, at his request I have subscribed." Even Charlemagne, that farfam'd monarch, the theme of minstrels, and the hero of romance, was unable to write his own name, and forty-five years of his life elapsed ere he attempted any progress in literature.

What materially contributed to quench the last glimmerings of philosophy and science, was