Speaking from high – "In this thou overcom'st!" †
Then came the mad retreat the whirlwind snows-
Sweeping around them merciless as man :

The stiffening hand, the pulseless heart and eye,
The frozen standard, and the palsied arm:
The unfrequent watch-fires rising like red sparks
Amidst the illimitable snows; the crowds
Of spectral myriads shuddering around them-
Frozen to statues; scathed by the red flames,
Or speared by howling savages, until
Winter, less merciless than they, threw o'er them
Her winding sheet of snows, deep burying
Armies whose presence vanished like a dream!
There fell the man who against Nature warred;
Amid his councils Treachery took her seat,

Or openly raised her visor in the field:
Fortune had left him never to return.

Time's truths were taught, and fate's decree revealed.
His race was run-he vanished from the world,
Forgot like a departed thunderstorm.

The infinite Spirit that had filled the earth
Evaporated in a barren isle,

* "Moscow was one vast ocean of flame which emitted a roaring sound like the breakers in a tempest it was a visible Hell. Napoleon persisted in remaining in the Kremlin until it was enveloped, when to ride through the flames was a matter of danger and difficulty."— Count Dumas' Memoirs.

The Cross supposed to have been seen in the sky by Constantine previous to the decisive victory which gained him the Western empire - εν τούτω νεικα. The circumstance is recorded by contemporary historians.

The disastrous battle of Leipsic, hazarded with immense inferiority of numbers by Napoleon against the allied powers, and more immediately lost by the open desertion of thirty-five thousand Saxons. Talleyrand, and others, were in early communication with his enemies. "I felt," said Napoleon, "the reins slipping from my hands."

Mingling with the Infinity around him.

The world heard when he died, and smiled, or sighed,
And then-forgot. Fame defied in life,

Giving his deeds and words to Time to live
Enduring through a future without end.
O let no more the idle moralist

Weigh in his petty scale the dust of heroes! *
But pause until his mind becomes so vast,
That he can weigh the immeasurable spirit
Fled from that dust for ever! then when reached
The eagle's height the world beneath him laid,
Subjected to his swoop- the eagle's gaze
Daring the sun in its meridian power!

The fierce ascent the giddy height when proved
The sleepless aspirations of a spirit

Conscious of fixing an immortal stamp +

Upon its every thought the feverish hope

Of infinite effort and the stormy joy,
The whirlwind pulse of triumph, yet calm eye
Preserved, and coldest dignity of mien,
Conscious of millions watching from below

Heights they could never gain; when these are proved,
Faint moralist! of calm and temperate pulse,
Then sit in judgment; then, in language vast

As thy magnificent conceptions, tell

Of thoughts and deeds eternal as thy words
Shall be recording them: but oh! till then,
Sink not the mighty to thy narrow span;
Prate not of passions thou hast never proved: ‡
Walk humbly in thy charitable path;
Nor deem that Star inferior, which sublime
In infinite distance little seems to thee.

II.

NAPOLEON, IN HIS FALL, TO CAIUS MARIUS.

• Expende Annibalem! &c. - Juvenal. "What is this immortality? remembrance left in the memory of man. That idea elevates to great deeds. Better never to have lived, than to leave no trace of one's existence." Bourienne's Life.

A passage in a French author, illustrating also these reflections, cannot be too often quoted: it is as just as it is forcibly expressed: -" Mais, en le condamnant, ne le méprisez pas, petites organisations qui n'êtes capables ni de bien ni de mal: ne mesurez qu'avec effroi le colosse de volonté qui lutte ainsi sur une mer fougeuse pour le seul plaisir d'exercer sa vigeur et de la jeter en dehors de lui. Son égoïsme le pousse au milieu des fatigues et des dangers, comme le votre vous enchaine à de patientes et laborieuses professions. Que son fatal example serve seulement à vous consoler de votre inoffensive nullité ! "

Yea thrown up from the ashes of despair.

Even thus he stood, sedate, and calm, yet firm,
Like him, the noble Roman, who was found
Kingly reclining, midst the solitudes
Of Carthage' ruins - silent, motionless,
Looking himself the ruin he bestrode !-
Who chose the seat to suit his desolation;
To show how mind can triumph over ruin,
Subjecting fate and fortune to its sway.

So the slave found him: the pale, cringing slave,
Who was sent forth to count his agonies,

To pry into the secrets of the soul,

The inner man, when he pours forth to Nature
The passion which then bursts the bonds of pride
And finds a struggling language.

"Go, tell him thou hast seen the exiled Marius,

Sitting amidst the ruins of Carthage." Plutarch's Life of Marius.

† Plutarch relates that, during the battle of Marathon, the Athenian army thought they saw the apparition of Theseus completely armed, and bearing down before them upon the Barbarians,

SOME RECOLLECTIONS OF CHILDHOOD.

No. VII.

All

No event occurred to interrupt the happiness of Greenford, which the birth of the two children had greatly increased; they grew and improved rapidly, and were the objects of general interest and attention. Nothing was to be apprehended from the want of care, the only risk was from its excess. were devoted; but the affectionate solicitude of aunt Bertha shone conspicuous, like the moon amongst the stars. Bertha was the sister of Leofric, whom she greatly resembled; but was far less handsome than her brother. She was in truth and absolutely very good-looking, but comparatively plain, for she was much less comely than her neighbours; she considered herself, however, quite equal in attractions to any of them. This opinion was not manifested in an unpleasant manner, by making a vain display of her charms, or by slighting and undervaluing the beauty of others; but it was an intimate, deep-rooted, and unalterable conviction. Being perfectly at her ease, therefore, and having no doubt on this head, she did not take the trouble to assert her claims; and the only effect this conviction produced upon her conduct was, that it induced her to spend more time in dressing and adorning herself — with good taste, it is true, and perfect simplicity-than was necessary or usual. She had refused several advantageous offers,—as many as three or four, it was said: they were such as it would not have been imprudent or discreditable to have accepted, nor was it considered very unwise to refuse them. In every case she had asked for a few days to think of it; in every case it seemed that she had endeavoured to bring herself to consent, but in every case she had kindly, but frankly and firmly, declined, and for the same reason,- she could not bear to leave her brother. They had been brought up together, having lost both parents at an early age: their mother died of a short illness, and the father within a fortnight afterwards, as it was generally believed, of grief; and Bertha, being ten years older than Leofric, had been, as it were, his mother or his aunt, rather than his sister. She looked upon her brother as the wisest, the best, and the handsomest of mankind; and she loved him with an entire affection, which he returned, although not with equal warmth, because her heart was undivided, and there were several other claims upon his. She firmly believed that every thing connected with her brother and with his family was absolutely perfect, and that every thing in the village and the immediate neighbourhood was most admirable. As this feeling did not induce her to despise others, but was consistent with great liberality, and seemed to proceed merely from contentment and an inward joy, it was a source of much happiness; and if it exists in its utmost force, as it did in her, it is, without doubt, the best gift that the indulgent gods can bestow on suffering mortals.

It is hardly necessary to say that her health was excellent; that she was very cheerful, and even merry; and that she was a general favourite with all ages and all ranks. She was not illiterate, but her literary attainments were moderate, somewhat below those of her equals; but she was well skilled in all domestic and feminine labours and accomplishments, - fond of all household occupations, and indefatigable in the exercise of her talents in that line. Nothing being toilsome or troublesome, and finding all she desired at home, she was unwilling to leave it, and anxious to return.