4.

She seats herself now, now she lifts up her head,
On the artist she fixes her eyes;

The colours are ready, the canvass is spread,
He lays on the white, and he lays on the red,
And the features of beauty arise.

5.

He is come to her eyes, eyes so bright and so blue!
There's a look which he cannot express ; .
His colours are dull to their quick-sparkling hue;
More and more on the lady he fixes his view,
On the canvass he looks less and less.

6.

In vain he retouches, her eyes sparkle more,
And that look which fair Marguerite gave!
Many Devils the Artist had painted of yore,
But he never had tried a live Angel before, . .
St. Anthony, help him and save!

7.

He yielded, alas! for the truth must be told,
To the Woman, the Tempter, and Fate.
It was settled the Lady so fair to behold,
Should elope from her Husband so ugly and old,
With the Painter so pious of late.

8.

Now Satan exults in his vengeance complete,
To the Husband he makes the scheme known;
Night comes and the lovers impatiently meet;
Together they fly, they are seized in the street,
And in prison the Painter is thrown.

9.

With Repentance, his only companion, he lies,
And a dismal companion is she!

On a sudden he saw the Old Enemy rise,
"Now, you villanous dauber!" Sir Beelzebub cries,
"You are paid for your insults to me!

10.

"But my tender heart you may easily move

If to what I propose you agree;

That picture,.. be just! the resemblance improve; Make a handsomer portrait, your chains I'll remove, And you shall this instant be free."

11.

Overjoy'd, the conditions so easy he hears,
"I'll make you quite handsome!" he said.
He said, and his chain on the Devil appears;
Released from his prison, released from his fears,
The Painter is snug in his bed.

12.

At morn he arises, composes his look,
And proceeds to his work as before;

The people beheld him, the culprit they took;
They thought that the Painter his prison had broke,
And to prison they led him once more.

13.

They open the dungeon; ..

behold in his place

In the corner old Beelzebub lay;

He smirks and he smiles and he leers with a grace, That the Painter might catch all the charms of his face, Then vanish'd in lightning away.

14.

Quoth the Painter, "I trust you'll suspect me no more, Since you find my assertions were true.

But I'll alter the picture above the Church-door, For he never vouchsafed me a sitting before,

And I must give the Devil his due."

Westbury, 1798.

ST. MICHAEL'S CHAIR.

"Know all men that the most Holy Father Gregory, in the year from the incarnation of our Lord 1070, bearing an affection of extraordinary devoutness to the Church of St. Michael's Mount, has piously granted to all the faithful who shall reach or visit it, with their oblations and alms, a remission of a third part of their penances." - At the beginning of the 15th century, "Because, it was said, this privilege is still unknown to many, therefore we the servants of God, and the ministers of this church in Christ, do require and request of all of you who possess the care of souls, for the sake of mutual accommodation, to publish these words in your respective churches; that your parishioners and subjects may be more carefully animated to a greater exhortation of devoutness, and may more gloriously in pilgrimages frequent this place, for the gracious attainment of the gifts and indulgencies aforesaid." From this publication of the privilege did undoubtedly commence that numerous resort of pilgrims to the church which Carew intimates; and of which Norden, who generally is the mere copier of Carew, yet is here the enlarger of him, says, "the Mount hath been much resorted unto by pilgrims in devotion to St. Michael." Then too was framed assuredly that seat on the tower, which is so ridiculously described by Carew, as "a little without the castle,- a bad seat in a craggy place, somewhat dangerous for access; " when it is a chair composed of stones projecting from the two sides of the tower battlements, and uniting into a kind of basin for a seat just at the south-western angle, but elevated above the battle

ments on each side, having its back just within, and hanging high over the rocky precipice below. It thus 66 appears somewhat dangerous" indeed, but not merely "for access," though the climber to it must actually turn his whole body at that altitude to take his seat in it, but from the altitude itself, and from its projection over the precipice. It also appears an evident addition to the building. And it was assuredly made at this period, not for the ridiculous purpose to which alone it professedly ministers at present,—that of enabling women who sit in it to govern their husbands afterwards; but for such of the pilgrims as had stronger heads, and bolder spirits, to complete their devotions at the Mount, by sitting in this St. Michael's Chair, as denominated, and these showing themselves as pilgrims to the country round. Hence, in an author, who lends us information without knowing it, as he alludes to customs without feeling the force of them, we read this transient information :

Who knows not Mighel's Mount and Chair,
The pilgrim's holy vaunt?

Norden also re-echoes Carew, in saying, "St. Michael's chair is fabled to be in the Mount." We thus find a reason for the construction of the chair, that comports with all the uses of the church on which it is constructed, and that ministered equally with this to the purposes of religion then predominant; a religion, dealing more in exteriors than our own, operating more than our own, through the body, upon the soul; and so leaving, perhaps, a more sensible impression upon the spirits. To sit in the chair, then, was not merely, as Carew represents the act, "somewhat dangerous' in the attempt, "and therefore holy in the adventure;” but also holy in itself, as on the church tower; more holy in its purposes, as the seat of the pilgrims; and most holy as the seat of a few in accomplishment of all their vows; as the chair of a few, in invitation of all the country.-WHITAKER'S Supplement to the First and Second Book of PoLWHELE'S History of Cornwall, pp. 6, 7.