What wrath will furious Mr. Toms display!
And, Oh! ye gods! what will Miss Dickson say?

That last appalling thought re-nerved my mind-
Avaunt! I cried, and thrice my breast I sign'd;
And thrice I named Aurelia in my prayer,
And thrice I kiss'd the bracelet of her hair;

That powerful charm prevail'd: their cheat made plain,
Demoniac shrieks exprest the tempters' pain;
Sulphureous flashes from the goose-pye broke,
The seeming nymphs were wrapt in flame and smoke,
To brimstone hue was changed their white attire,
And all their petticoats were flounc'd with fire.
Swift up the chimney past the infernal flight,
And all the vision vanish'd from my sight.

SECTION V

CONTINUATION OF JOURNAL

T Lyons I met the two Madame de C[-]. The young one is a woman of marked features, not handsome, but has a considerable deal of character in her countenance. They proposed to take me out in their carriage, which I accepted, and accordingly we went to view the general appearance of the town. I had not leisure to enter into any of the public buildings, but we drove along the quays, and saw the confluence of the Rhone and Saone, and beheld the beautiful banks which rise by the side of the latter river. The flat plains which skirt the Rhone are not so picturesque. The Cathedral of St. John is a fine building, and has suffered little from time and the storms of the Revolution.

I dined with Madame C[——]. Her husband is the most unpleasant-looking and unpleasant-mannered man I ever met-little in his person, his head flat and square, and his hair sticking out like an unfledged sparrow. He seemed to consider he was conferring an honour when he addressed me, and hummed a tune between his teeth all the evening. Poor T[-] C[-] was evidently much worse than when I last saw him, and though I affected to talk of meeting him again at Nice, I have no hope of doing so. It is difficult to know how seriously or how lightly a person in his situation wishes one to consider his malady.

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We went to the play: the "Magnifique," by Gretry, and the "Nouveau Seigneur du Village," were performed. The actors were very indifferent, and they acted as if they had been going to sleep: but no wonder, for although the theatre is attended every evening, it is entirely as a place of resort, and no one ever pretends to listen to the performance, much less to applaud. This indifference in the audience must of course produce the same feeling in the actors. I ventured, however, to applaud once, and, as if the people had suddenly been touched by some magical wand, they all began to applaud one after another. It is comical to observe this awakening from lethargy, and the effect it produced on the poor actors. Madame de C[] remarked this, and it was not my own fancy suggested the idea, how easy it is to give an impulse to public feeling! There is something gratifying, and something humiliating, at the same moment, in the reflection, that the sympathies of our fellow-creatures are so easily aroused to a unison with our own, and yet as readily turned towards those of the next person whose interest it may be to excite them to a feeling probably the very

reverse.

We revisited the cathedral next morning. I expressed the sense of religious awe with which such buildings, particularly those of Gothic architecture, always inspire me, and, in the enthusiasm of the moment, I said something in favour of the Roman Catholic religion, whose imposing forms captivate my fancy. Madame de C[-] replied, shaking her head, that it was the worst of all modes of worship; "would to heaven that the Revolu tion, qui nous avoit emporté tant de choses, eût emporté celle-la." "And why?" I said. "Because it leads to all sorts of mischief." "Certainly," said her mother-inlaw, looking round at some poor persons kneeling in different parts of the church ;-" certainly they are more religious than we are." Religious!" rejoined the

66

other;

they pray here for a few minutes, and return to all sorts of vices and crimes."

I think this remark was intolerant; for, if indeed illdisposed persons avail themselves of this veil to conscience, the good, as in all other religions, remain good, and do not pervert the meaning of the promise held out alike to all Christians, of pardon in return for penitence. An indolence of tongue, and dislike to all dispute, made me silent; but in the evening again, at the Opera, the mention of Madame de Stael's last work, "Germany," led the conversation to serious subjects. Madame de C[-], who appears to me to be a clever and deep-thinking person, admired the whole of it without reserve, and said, she thought nothing could be more luminous than the manner in which Madame de Stael spoke of the different systems of metaphysical philosophy; and the only thing she regretted, was, that some extracts of Kant's writings had not been inserted.

I have myself read his works, and I think nothing can be more lucid than his style, or more easy to be understood. Madame C-] went on to say, that she conceived Madame de S['s] ideas upon religion, the most profound and the most true she had ever heard; in fact, she said, nothing is more probable than that one universal religion should at length be brought about, as the scripture promises, by the influence of some of those intermediate sects which are not allowed to belong to the Established Churches.

In the gospel we are there decidedly promised one universal peace and one universal gospel; and by what means are we most likely to obtain this? By some of those modifications of our religious worship which we condemn. The Roman Catholic is too bigoted, too cruel in its doctrines, to admit of any tolerance. The Episcopal is too proud, the Presbyterian too stern: some other then must interfere.

Madame de C[-] then continued to discuss some remark I made upon the fault found by the curious, not with the book, but with the author; as they alleged, that the sentiments which pervaded Madame de Stael's Allemagne, were not her own, but differed entirely from all she had ever thought or written previously, and were only assumed opinions to suit the fashion of the hour. I had said, that in repeating this insidious remark, I desired not to be implicated in having framed it, for that I knew Madame de Stael to be incapable of suiting her sentiments or feelings, even to expediency, and that I perfectly believed in her sincerity, and did not think an opinion less deserving of acceptance, because it was one adopted from conviction, even allowing it had not always been that which she professed. "I do not consider at all," observed Madame de C[——], "the author of a book, but only the work itself abstractedly, and I think the work we are now speaking of is one of the most perfect and most extraordinary, to be a woman's writing, I ever read."

Madame de C[-] praised Miss Porter's "Scottish Chiefs," and said, it quite montéd her imagination about Scotch persons and Scotland. Had she known the excellent and high-minded authoress, she would have added an additional note of praise on the rare character of the writer.

Madame de C[-] gave me an instance of sincerity in religious profession, in a person who, after having enjoyed all the luxuries and pomps of the world, and the pleasures which they bestow, and incurred great blame from her conduct, had, whilst still young and extremely rich, forsaken the world entirely, and dedicated all her wealth and time to the poor. It was Madame de Kruitzner, [Krudener] personally known to Madame de C[—].

The next day I left Lyons, and embarked on the Rhone. I lodged at a miserable cabaret, called Le Mulet Blanc, at Vienne. The women who attended us