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Poor maiden, she, with hope elate,
With fond affection swelling,

To learn a lover's brother's fate,
Forsook her peaceful dwelling;
With them to share her simple store,
On all their griefs a balm to pour,
The field of death she dared explore;
Each selfish thought repelling.

The battle lost, the vanquished fled,'
The victors swift pursuing,

And trampling o'er the mighty dead,
With blood their steps bedewing;
They come to where with fervent zeal,
These friends their Bessy would conceal;
Mark! how they point the gleaming
steel,

Their destined victim viewing.

Oh spare that life !' her brother eries, With indignation glowing, Tears trembles in the lover's eyes, His arms around her throwing; Bút lovers's, brother's sighs are vain, Even in their sight the maid is slain, And now on Erin's ruined plain, Their mingled blood is flowing.

HUMAN LIFE.

EVERY year impairs life's treasure, Robs us of a charm and grace, Takes away a joy and pleasure,

Steals some roses from the face.

Let us hearken, then, to reason,

Let's be happy while 'tis noon; Let us catch the summer season, Winter else will come too soon.

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TO CATHERINA.

From an anonymous Portuguese Poet.

OH for that dear delicious hour I pass'd with thee, my love, last night, When on thy panting breast reclin'd Thy arms around me fondly twin'd, We kiss'd, and kiss'd with warm desire!

PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY

SAMUEL B. WHITE,

No. 317 Water-street, New-York: in half-yearly volumes, containing twenty six numbers each, (issued weekly) at One Dollar the volume, payable quar terly, and no Subscribers taken for less than half a year. Distant patrons pay in advance. Postage to be paid on all letters directed to the Editor.

to

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OR,

WEEKLY

THE

VISITOR.

FOR THE USE AND AMUSEMENT OF BOTH SEXES.

VOL. XII.]

Saturday, November 24,.... 1810.

THE CONTEMPLANT.

An Eastern Tale.

MAAN Benzaid, Soldan of Egypt, commonly stiled Abubeker, the Faithful Witness, as resembling him, had spent many tranquil and happy days in the bosom of pleasure and contentment. Every morning did he annoint his head with

the oil of gladness, when his

only son Kitchtab, in favour of whom he had amassed great treasures, and extended his conquests, was Wounded, amidst the ardours of the chase by an arrow shot from an unknown hand, and instantly expired.

Maan Benzaid delivered himself up to all the gloomy horrors of the deepest heartfelt grief; he refused to enter again his palace, and retired in-. to a grot, the darkest and most

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and would not taste of the cup of consolation from the hands of patience. He did not permit his domestics to approach him, and heard nothing but the lugubrious cries of nocturnal birds fluttering about his dark cavern. 'Can God be called a Beneficient Being, said Maan Benzaid to himself without ceasing, he who takes pleasure in wounding the soul by unexpected blows; he, who destroys his creatures by remediless misfortunes? Ye impost or Imans, speak to us no more of the goodness and justice of a Providence that directs all events, and loves mankind. He, whom ye pretend to reign in the heavens, is so far from protecting the wretched children of men, that he rather seeks amusement in blasting the sweetest and gayest flowers in the garden of Hope; and, as a pitiless giant,

dismal he could find in a neigh-in levelling with the dust the

bouring mountain. There he rolled about on the dust, rent his garments, tore away the hairs of his venerable beard,

strongest towers of happiness, with the iron club of his wrath. If that Being had the goodness his priests sing the eulogies of

he would undoubtedly be pre-
vailed on to banish those evils
which make this world a prison
of anguish, and a valley of van-
ity and misfortune.—I cannot,
will not longer remain in it.
He then stretched out, with
rage, his hand, which despair
had armed with a poignard,
and was ready to pierce his
heart, when suddenly his cave
flashed with lightnings-A be-
ing of a beauty and stature
more than human, clothed
with a robe of celestial nature,
crowned with amaranths, and
waving a palm tree branch he
held in his right hand, stopped
short the trembling and as-
tonished Soldan's arm, and ad-
dressed him saying with a ma-
jestic smile, Follow me to the
top of this mountain.'

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against the tygers, which were ready to devour him. He held in his hands a casket of jewels, which he threw on the sand as useless to him, and with great difficulty crawled along towards an eminence to which he every evening repaired, to espy and give signals to the first ship chance might direct to the island. 'Ye masters of the heavens, said Maan Benzaid, do not permit that distressed and forlorn wretch to be devoured by wild beasts!' 'Keep thy tongue silent,' said the angel, and observe.'-He looked about him, and saw a ship putting in at this desert island. The joy of the merchant, almost ready to expire for want of food, was not to be expressed, when the captain offered to carry him to his country, if he would give him some reward. The merchant offered him the half of his jewels, and the captain having excepted it, held council with his

When they arrived, 'I am Gabriel, the angel of peace', said this respectable conductor to him; 'turn thy eyes towards the valley.' saw a desert barren isle, over-people to seize upon the rest,

Maan Benzaid

and abandon him to his deplorable fate; they did so, accordingly, and the unfortunate merchant in vain strove to move them to pity, by his sup

spread with burning sands: In the midst of it he perceived a meagre, pale, and ghastly figure. It was a merchant, who was perishing of hunger, and was making dismal lamen-plications and by his tears. tations by not finding herb, grain, or spring of water in 'O Heavens! Wilt thou that desert; he was also implor- permit so atrocious an injustice ing the protection of heaven" cried Maan Benzaid! Take

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notice,' said the angel; hold that ship, into which thou didst wish that wretch had been received, dashed in pieces by a rock on which it has just now struck; do not you hear the lamentable cries of the seamen ! Leave the world to be governed by the Grest and Wise Dispenser that has created it! Soon will He relieve that famished man by the provisions that will float ashore to him: He impresses

awe on the wild beast before

him, and He will deliver him out of that horrid desert by means known only to himself. His heart having been influenced and engrossed by avarice, he was not only the most con

temptible, but the most unhappy of men. He imagined that there was in riches some transcendent charm, by the help of which he should gratify all his desires, and should never have any thing to fear. This day he has not only began to despise, but even to have rich

es in horror, by scattering his jewels on the sand, he has been sensible of their inutility, and the behaviour of the seamen has shewn him how pernicious they may be; he is now conscious to himself that they are good or bad, useful or hurtful, according to the temper of the

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At the same instant the Soldan saw a magnificent palace, adorned with the jasper statues of his ancestors:its ivory doors turning on hinges of Golconda gold, presented to view a throne. of diamonds, environed by the rajas of fifty nations, and by ambassadors clad in robes of all sorts of colours. On this throne sat Kitchtab, the son Maan Benzaid, whose death he so bitterly bewailed; and by his side was a princess,

more beautiful than a Houri, one of the delectable nymphs of Paradise.

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neath the clouds of woe.--For as the ivy entwines around the oak, and rejoices in its protector-or as the vine is supported by its tendrils-so was my affection,thy joy, O Colval. Thou wilt exclaim, leave me not, my Artho-thou soul of my life, forsake not thy Colval. Not Carnmoor's hills with all their deer, not all its woods with every bird of song, nor mossy streams with all their murmuring charms, can give a gleam of joy to Colval, when thou art gone.

• My soul sinks beneath its apprehensions for thee, O Colval-tho' for himself thy Artho knows not fear. The strife of steel-the rattling din of arms, cannot daunt the stedfast purpose of his soul-his life is devoted to check the invaders who threaten to despoil the beauties of Carnmoor.

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Colval, I fall gloriously among contending warriors, and thou too wilt not feel the oppressive burden of yearsnor shall the days, when the sun will be dim on the mountains, bend thy delicate frame; for thou, my Colval, wilt sink, I fear, under the wasting blast of affliction. But thou wilt arrive where thy long-loved Artho shall have reposed before thee; and with thee Elysium will yield all its joys."

MISCELLANEOUS.

BEAU.

of

A being, who would puzzle Linnæus to ascertain the class to which he belonged. Beaus have generally been arranged among the monkey tribe. This was extremely hard upon the monkies; for they are tolerable agreeable and sprightly animals, but a beau is as stupid in conversation, as he is frivolous in dress. He is like Miss Fanny Williams's preserver beauty, ‘a curious compound.' He is, literally, made up of marechal powder, cravat and bootees. The tailor and the shoemaker, the perfumer, and the laundress, must all sit in council, before a beau can take any public steps. He has as many, and as outre names, as an Indian sachem or a Spanish grandee. Among the ladies, he is sometimes a sweet, and sometimes a pretty fellow.He is called the 'dandy,' by

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