before it. And I know that whenever it shall fare so ill with me in the world that comfort and consolation can no longer be found in it, I have a paraclete beside the shelving beach who will give the consolation man withholds. The strong, thick wind which comes from it will be full of life; the petty tumult of care will be shamed by the gigantic struggle of the ele ments, and subside to peace. What can be more noble or more affecting than the picture of the old priest, who, wronged by the Grecian king-his calm age fired with passion-retires along the shore of the sounding sea, and soothes his breast ere he invokes the god? "Thoughts like those are medicined best by nature."

6. I have never stood by the banks of the ocean thus su perbly fringed with curling waves, and listened to that strange, questionable, echoed roar, without an emotion altogether supernatural. That moan-that wail of the waterswhich comes to the ear, borne on the wind in the stillness of evening, sounds like the far-off complaint of another world, or the groan of our own world's innermost spirit. Like some of the unearthly music of Germany, when heard for the first time, it startles a feeling in the secret mind which has never before been wakened in this world, giving us assurance of another life, and the strongest proof that our soul is essentially immortal.

WALLACE.

8. BURNING OF MOSCOW.

[In Alison's History of Europe during the French Revolution, we find the following graphic description of the burning of Moscow-which took place in Napoleon's Russian expedition in 1812-one of the most striking historical episodes on record; whether we regard it in the magnitude of its preparation, the immense number of its forces, the horrors of the retreat, or the terrible sufferings of the soldiers.]

THE sight of the grotesque towers and venerable walls of

the Kremlin first revived the Emperor's imagination, and rekindled those dreams of Oriental conquest which from his

earliest years had floated in his mind. His followers, dis persed over the vast extent of the city, gazed with astonish ment on the sumptuous palaces of the nobles and the gilded domes of the churches.

2. The mixture of architectural decoration and shady foliage, of Gothic magnificence and Eastern luxury, excited the admi ration of the French soldiers, more susceptible than any other people of impressions of that description. Evening came on: with increasing wonder the French troops traversed the central parts of the metropolis, recently so crowded with passen. gers; but not a living creature was to be seen to explain the universal desolation. It seemed like a city of the dead.

3. Night approached: an unclouded moon illuminated those beautiful palaces-those vast hotels, those deserted streets; all was still-the silence of the tomb. The officers broke open the doors of some of the principal mansions in search of sleeping quarters. They found every thing in perfect order: the bedrooms were fully furnished, as if guests were expected; the drawing-rooms bore the marks of having been recently inhabited; even the work of the ladies was on the tables, the keys in the wardrobes; but not an inmate was to be seen. By degrees a few of the lowest class of slaves emerged, pale and trembling, from the cellars, showed the way to the sleeping apartments, and laid open every thing which these sumptuous mansions contained; but the only account they could give was, that the inhabitants had fled, and that they alone. were left in the deserted city.

4. But the terrible catastrophe soon commenced. On the night of the 13th September, 1812, a fire broke out in the Exchange, behind the Bazaar, which soon consumed that noble edifice, and spread through a considerable part of the crowded streets in the vicinity. This, however, was but the prelude to more extended calamities.

5. At midnight on the 15th, a bright light was seen to illuminate the northern and western parts of the city; and the sentinels on duty at the Kremlin soon saw that the splendid

buildings in those quarters were in flames. The wind changed repeatedly in the night; but to whatever quarter it veered the conflagration extended itself; fresh fires were every in stant seen breaking out in all directions; and Moscow soon exhibited the appearance of a sea of flame agitated by the wind. The French soldiers, drowned in sleep, or overcome by intoxication, were incapable of arresting its progress; and burning fragments, floating through the hot air, began to fall on the roofs and courts of the Kremlin. The fury of an autumnal tempest added to the horrors of the scene; it seemed as if the wrath of Heaven had combined with the vengeance of man to destroy the invaders in the city they had conquered.

6. But it was during the night of the 18th and 19th that the conflagration attained its greatest violence. Then the whole city was wrapped in flames; and volumes of fire of various colors ascended to the heavens in many places, diffusing a prodigious light on all sides, and an intolerable heat. These masses of flame threw out a frightful hissing noise, and loud explosions, the effect of the vast stores of oil, tar, resin, spirits, and other combustible materials, with which the greater part of the warehouses were filled.

7. Large pieces of canvas, unrolled from the outside of the buildings by the violence of the heat, floated on fire through the air, and sent down a flaming shower, which spread the conflagra tion in quarters the most remote from those where it originally commenced. The wind, previously high, was raised by the sudden rarefaction of the air, produced by the heat, to a perfect hurricane. The howling of the tempest drowned even the roar of the conflagration; the whole heavens were filled with the whirl of the masses of smoke and flame, which rose on all sides and made midnight as bright as day; while even the bravest hearts, subdued by the sublimity of the scene, and the feeling of human impotence in the midst of such elemental strife, sank and trembled in silence.

8. The return of day did not diminish the terrors of the con.

flagration. An immense crowd of people, who had taken refuge in the cellars or vaults of buildings, came forth as the flames reached the dwellings; the streets were filled with multitudes flying in every direction with the most precious articles of furniture; while the French army, whose discipline this fearful event had entirely dissolved, assembled in drunken crowds, and loaded themselves with the spoils of the city. Never in modern times had such a scene been witnessed.! The men were loaded with valuable furniture and rich goods, which often took fire as they were carried along, and which they were obliged to throw down to save themselves.

9. Women had sometimes two or three children on their backs, and as many led by the hand, while, with trembling steps and piteous cries, they sought their devious way through the labyrinth of flame. Many old men, unable to walk, were drawn on hurdles, or wheelbarrows, by their children and grandchildren, while their burned beards and smoking garments showed with what difficulty they had been rescued from death.

10. French soldiers, tormented by hunger and thirst, and released from all discipline by the horrors that surrounded them, not content with the booty in the streets, rushed head long into the burning houses to ransack their cellars for wine and spirits, and beneath the ruins great numbers perished miserably, the victims of intemperance and the flames. Meanwhile the fire, fanned by the tremendous gale, advanced with frightful rapidity, devouring alike, in its course, the palaces of the great, the temples of religion, and the cottages of the poor.

11. For thirty-six hours the conflagration continued at its height, and in that time about nine-tenths of the city was destroyed. The remainder, abandoned to pillage and deserted by the inhabitants, offered no resources for the army. Mos cow had been conquered, but the victors had gained only a heap of ruins.

12. Imagination cannot conceive the horrors into which the people who could not abandon their houses were plunged by this unparalleled sacrifice. Bereft of every thing, they wandered among the ruins, eagerly searching for missing rela tives; the wrecks of former magnificence were ransacked equally by the licentious soldiery and the suffering natives, while numbers rushed in from the neighboring country to share in the general license.

13. The most precious furniture, splendid jewelry, East Indian and Turkish stuffs, stores of wine and brandy, gold and silver plate, rich furs, gorgeous hangings of silk and satin, were spread about in promiscuous confusion, and became the prey of the least intoxicated among the multitude. A frightful tumult succeeded to the stillness which had reigned in the city when the French troops first entered it. The cries of the pillaged inhabitants, the coarse imprecations of the soldiers, were mingled with the lamentations of those who had lost parents, children, their all, in the conflagration. Pillage became universal; the ruins were covered with motley groups of soldiers, peasants, and marauders of all countries and aspects, seeking for the valuable articles they once contained.

ALISON.

9. THE PARTING OF MARMION AND DOUGLAS.

[The following is a spirited account of the parting between the fearless and noble Scottish Earl Douglas and the base English Lord Marmion, whom Douglas, in obedience to his sovereign's orders, had received into his castle. But, while Douglas had granted him the hospitality of his roof and table, yet the scorn he felt for him he did not seek to disguise, in the cold welcome he gave Marmion and his suite.]

HE train without the castle drew,

THE

And Marmion stopped to bid adieu.

"Though something I might plain," he said,

"Of cold respect to stranger guest,

Sent hither by your king's behest,