and hypocrisy, they never ceased to persecute, under the assumed motives of zeal for the cause of religion.

The FRANCISCANS professed poverty, yet, by the bounty of the Popes, they were amply compensated by papal indulgences.

1539.

HENRY THE EIGHTH, by Statute as express'd, The MONASTRIES in England quite suppress'd.

VICISSITUDE OF HUMAN AFFAIRS.

I have seen the walls of Balclutha, but they were desolate. The fire had resounded in the halls; and the voice of the people is heard no more. The stream of Clutha was removed from its place, by the fall of the walls. The thistle shook there its lonely head; the moss whistled to the wind. The fox looked out from the windows, the rank grass of the wall waved round

his head. Desolate is the dwelling of Moina, silence is in the house of her fathers. Raise the song of mourning, O bards, over the land of strangers. They have but fallen before us for one day we must fall. Why dost thou build the hall, son of the winged days? Thou lookest from thy towers to-day; yet a few years, and the blast of the desert comes; it howls in thy empty court, and whistles round thy half-worn shield. And let the blast of the desert come! we shall be renowned in our day. The mark of my arm shall be in the battle, and my name in the song of bards. Raise the song: send round the shell: and let joy be heard in my hall. When thou,

sun of heaven, shalt fail, if thou shalt fail, thou mighty light! if thy brightness is for a season, like Fingal, our fame shall survive thy beams.

OSSIAN.

"When I consider," said PETRARCH, "the instability of human affairs, and the variations of fortune, I find nothing more uncertain or restless than the life of man. Nature has given to animals an excellent remedy under disasters, which is the ignorance of them. We seem better treated in intelligence, foresight and memory. No doubt these are admirable presents, but they often annoy more than

T

they assist us.

A prey to unuseful or distressing cares, we are tormented by the present, past, and future; and, as if we feared we should not be miserable enough, we join to the evil we suffer the remembrance of a former distress, and the appearance of some future calamity. This is the Cerberus with three heads which we combat without ceasing. Our life might be gay and happy if we would: but we eagerly seek subjects of affliction, to render it irksome and melancholy. We pass the first years of this life in the shades of ignorance, the succeeding ones in pain and labour, the latter part in grief and remorse, and the whole in error; nor do we suffer ourselves