revel in my deceptive paradise, and again would its delusions vanish, and the same sinking of the spirit be upon me! The worthy clergyman at the head of the school detected the condition of my mind; he felt compassion, (would it had been mingled with severity!) and mildly remonstrated with me on the folly, the culpability, of indulging such dangerous emotions: "In time," said he, "they will master every better feel ing, and arouse passions, whose dominion will be tyrannic and overwhelming." How fatally prophetic have his words proved! but his monitory accents fell on a sterile and ungrateful soilmy ears drank in the sound, and the spirit for a moment dwelt upon my heart, and was--forgotten! Endowed with an apt and facile comprehension, in my studies, I hastily skimmed the surface, but rarely plunged beyond it; my acquirements, therefore, were more shining than substantial; a wavering, and perhaps, at times, a brilliant light, but its beams were sickly, unsteady, and soon spent. My vacations were passed at my guardian's (Mr.) Unshackled by the slightest constraint, I went whither I liked ; thought, spoke, and acted at the suggestion of my boyish fancy, and having no society within doors, in long and solitary rambles I gave way more and more to my favourite visions, or, in the company of the servants, indulged that arrogant and contemptible pride, that aping of what I was not, which burnt so fiercely in me. I never was viciously inclined from mere hollowness of heart; on the contrary, I have ever had a vivid perception and ardent love for that which is beautiful in precept and admirable in example; but, unhappily, the baneful encroachments of my ill-regulated feelings spread, little by little, till at length, every brighter and better thought became obscured; the voice of passion overcame the pleadings of reason, and all save evil slept! My guardian (Mr. H—,) was engaged in a very extensive commercial concern, and he had formed the generous resolution of admitting me as a partner therein, when I was of age sufficient to take upon me so important a charge. Accordingly, on my leaving Winchester, I was placed in his counting-house, that I might acquire the necessary practical knowledge. Nothing could be more distasteful to me than this measure; shy, proud, and melancholy, my conspicuous, and, as I then fancied, humiliating situation filled me with silent and bitter discontent; to be doomed to the slavery, the monotony of such an existence, seemed terrible. I sank into apathetic indifference-I became careless of my person, and uncourteous in my manners; my haughty and abrupt demeanour disgusted and offended the young men employed by Mr. H-, and, consequently, they avoided me as a morose and unsociable being. I performed, indeed, the duties allotted me, but I felt no interest in that I did; I had arrived at that state of morbid feeling in which the corporeal functions are discharged with mere instinctive regularity; but in which the mind, the heart, take, as it were, no part. It was terrible-but, abandoned to the diseased phantasies of my imagination, I was fast sinking into juvenile misanthropy! Mr. H-beheld what he justly deemed my sullen ingratitude; and a feeling of indifference, quickly ripened into dislike, took root in his mind. My uncle, too, never disposed even to regard the mere foibles of boyhood with an eye of consideration, openly and sternly reproached me, and bitterly observed that he already foresaw the doom I was so eagerly preparing for myself. Daily I descended in the esteem of every one; this I felt, but my pride withheld me from attempting, by a change in my manners, to dissipate these unfavourable impressions. Many months passed, during which I must have been a constant eye-sore, and a disagreeable incumbrance to my worthy guardian, who, finding me wholly incorrigible, with the consent of my uncle, dissolved my engagement, and I removed to the house of the latter. My uncle had a daughter, like myself, an only child; and he doated on her with a fondness amounting almost to weakness. It was scarcely possible to dwell beneath the same roof, in the familiarity of domestic intercourse; to be the daily witness of the kindness and goodness of her heart, and to dwell upon her thousand fascinations of mind and person, unmoved. I did not-I could not. I loved my cousin Jane, and-in a word, she did not behold me with indifference. Our attachment could not long remain unobserved by so fond a parent as her father. He saw it; and though he would have esteemed half his fortune as naught, in comparison with his daughter's happiness, forbade her to think, even as a thing possible, that Hugh Delmore could ever become her husband. His deportment to me had, hitherto, been invariably marked with cold civility, and even a semblance of cordiality; but it now became sullen, abrupt, and contemptuous. He rarely condescended to notice me, when we met at table, or otherwise; and never, as before, included me in his visits and excursions of pleasure;-it was evident that he wished his house well rid of his nephew. But it was this change in Jane that gave me the greatest pain. She avoided meeting me alone, and her manner and language were cold and formally polite, in place of the affectionate familiarity which had before marked her intercourse with me. Poor girl! she was acting a part that preyed upon her spirits acutely. She became pale and thoughtful, and her eyes lost their sparkling look of happiness and ease. In company, she was either sullenly mute, or wild and riotous in her conversation; and in the society of her companions, she now took no interest, but spent the greatest portion of her time in the solitude of her own chamber. Such a state of things was intolerable; yet what was to be done ?—The father, I knew, would be inexorably obdurate; and to expect that I could shake the daughter's bigotted ideas of the implicit deference due to a parent's commands, was almost equally hopeless. I determined to speak to her, and attempt, at least, to remove what appeared to me an extravagant and unnatural prejudice. Why should both herself and me be made wretched to gratify his capricious and unfeeling whims? Chance, very shortly, afforded me the opportunity I sought. Business had called the father out; and entering the usual sitting room, I found my cousin alone, reading. I took a seat near her. The action a little discomposed her; she turned pale and red alternately; and at length laid down the book, and affected to converse on the ordinary topics of the day. Some time elapsed before I could summon confidence to open my business. "Jane, Jane," said I, at last, "I cannot longer endure this freezing change, tell me ;" and I would have taken her hand, but alarmed at the violence of my, manner, she withdrew it hastily; "have I done ought to cause it ?" Poor Jane knew not what to say; she sat fidgetting and playing with the leaves of her book, and after several abortive attempts, she stammered out, "Hugh, we have given way to feelings which are improper, which—which—” "Which your father disapproves," I exclaimed, impetuously breaking in upon her hesitation; "and which his daughter now sees the impropriety of." Jane regarded me with a look of genthe reproach; but I continued with passionate eagerness. "I had hoped that I had made some progress in your esteem ;-let me be plain, that you loved me; exercise, then, the dicates of your heart, and say, will you suffer me to become the victim of his unjust hatred ?" Jane replied, "I cannot listen to such language spoken of my father; his decision was doubtless caused by prudence and anxiety for us both." "Rather the overflowings of his antipathy to me," said I, bitterly. "Hold, Hugh," exclaimed Jane, "this intemperance can avail us nothing. I will never thwart the will of my parent in such a matter; and if my regard be of any value, never hope to excite any feeling in my bosom but contempt and dislike, by uttering such language respecting him." "But when the authority of a parent degenerates into tyranny, submission no longer becomes a duty." "I will Jane smiled mournfully. deal honestly and plainly with you," said she; "my father disapproves of our attachment-our attachment, I say, for it is useless in me to deny a partiality of which I have no cause to be ashamed,-that his opposition is founded on reason, I am satisfied; time may, perhaps, remove those obstacles,-at any rate, I cannot, or will not, think of being aught to you, but a cousin and a friend, unsanctioned by him." But it is useless to repeat the various pleas I urged-she was determined and peremptory in her resolution. I informed her that I was about to proceed to London to study the law-would she receive and answer my letters ?She should be happy (she said) to hear of my welfare; but, in our present situation, delicacy forbade such a correspondence, and her father would disapprove of it. To London I came. You are aware of the temptations to which a young man, master of his own actions, and with money at his command, is exposed to in this great metropolis. My situation, too, was peculiarly unfortunate. My uncle, almost the only connexion I had in the world, had, in a manner, driven me from his roof, and my early and deep seated affections were bestowed where they could not be requited. Thus, as it were alone in the world, thwarted in every point, my mind be came more and more diseased, and in dissipation I sought relief from its moody and vain aspirations. The poisonous voice of detraction was not idle; my errors were magnified twenty fold; and my uncle, disposed to credit every report, however monstrous, to my disadvantage, believed all, and again forbade my cousin to bestow a thought on one so unworthy, repeating to her all the exaggerated stories told of me. I was of age, and my guardians summoned me into the country to adjust my affairs. When they were settled, my uncle coldly hoped I was satisfied, bade me adieu, and informed me, that neither himself or family could hold any further connection with a gambler and a profligate! I returned to London, and then, in very truth, became the wild and irreclaimable wretch they had pictured me. Blacklegs and gamesters, demireps and profligates, like myself, were my alternate and constant companions. The gaming-table or the theatre, the tavern or the bagnio, the alternate scenes of my depravity and excess. shameful neglect of me, and his cruel conduct in the affair of his daughter. Poor Jane, pale and scarcely able to stand with terror and shame, alternately appealed to, and entreated both of us to forbear. A considerable number of people collected about us, till at last a ` friend of mine passing at the time, dragged me by main force from the disgraceful scene to a hackney-coach. One morning returning to my residence at Kensington, from one of those accursed haunts of ruin emphatically denominated hells, my blood boiling with the double stimulus of wine and that dreadful species of excitement produced by the damnable occupation I had been engaged in; my eyes fairly burn ing in their sockets, and my dress in disorder; in passing through the Green Park, I met my cousin Jane and her father. They would have passed on without appearing to notice me, but, half mad with my losses, and the wine I had drank, I advanced fiercely to meet them. Bowing with an air of defiance to the father, I held out my hand to Jane, and in a voice discordant with drunkenness, asked her how she did? Doubtless, terrified at my wild appearance, the poor girl shrank back and trembled excessively. Transported past all command of myself, I brutally exclaimed-" Curse you! and you, too, are like the rest of the world." The father, in great rage, exclaimed, "You scoundrel! what do you mean by insulting my child?" High words ensued,-he upbraided me as a dissolute and worthless libertine; and I retorted on him for his In the solitude of my own chamber, what a crowd of maddening thoughts arose, like avenging fiends, to torment me. One moment I upbraided my uncle and Jane; the next, I cursed my own depraved and passionate heart: one instant, I thought on self-murder; the very next, to amend my life, and become a benefit to the community I now disgraced. I was guilty of a thousand extravagancies. Iran about the room, stamped and shouted, then would I break into loud and frantic bursts of laughter, till, fairly wearied out, I sat down and wept. Presently one brought me a letter. It was the hand-writing of Jane. I tore it open in transport, but its contents were daggers: "SIR-If hitherto, notwithstanding what hath been said, I still cherished a favourable opinion of you, the occurences of this morning must banish every lingering doubt from my mind, I therefore trust that you will never again imagine that I entertain other feelings towards you but contempt and compassion. A person in the crowd told my father that he had seen you issue from a notorious gaming house, not a quarter of an hour before we had the misfortune to meet you; oh, let me entreat you to refiect on the inevitable ruin that must result from attending such places. JANE ASHTON." "HUGH DELMORE, ESQ." A lingering hope-an idea that something might occur to soften the severity of her father, or death remove him, had clang to me till now;-this, too, was severed, and in the bitterness of my disappointment, I swore that I would forget her. Thus I went on. With my associates, I was the gay, the jolly Delmore, the trump, the prince of good fellows- but mine was the hollow jollity of a heart struggling in noise and gaiety of hopelessness :-the reckless riot, to drown the terrible consciousness of its own infamy! H.D. THE OLIO. AN AQUATIC PASTORAL; TALE OF THE THAMES. THE tide was fair and flowing, The waves beneath were clear, And the sun was overhead; "Twould have done you good to hear All the drolleries we said. We pulled away with glee, Our wit was on the flow; Thus o'er our little bark No tempest seemed to wait; And thus we found, like Pucks, But when, with wearied wing, At length we wished to land, Methought that I could spring From the skiff upon the strand. So waves and wisdom spurning, I looked upon the flood, But the boat began to reel; So I slipped-and in the mud Lay embedded like an eel. Some poles were near, defining 1 he boundaries of the stream: And I struck-the sun was shiningMy head against a beam. But a crowd soon drew about, Attracted by the din; So divers drew me out, And then bore me to an inn. To a girl who brought me brandy, They're often brought in here ?" But you're early in the season!" "This girl," thought I, "has stumbled For I never should have tumbled in Kent, contained many farmers; and others, whose business had brought them to that day's market. Market-day is the farmer's weekly holiday, and few neglect to enjoy themselves before they return to their homes. It is, with few exceptions, the only occurrence that relieves their somewhat monotonous life; no marvel then that the farmer is in bed an hour or two In the later upon these occasions. time of our fathers, the houses resorted to by the farmers of those days, were not unfrequently honoured by a visit from a foot-pad or a highwayman, who dropping in, pretended to be travellers; scrutinized the company well, took good care to observe whose pockets seemed bulky or heavy, and laid their plans accordingly to waylay their victim. But these knights of the post have now become almost extinct. Richard Birnie stated, a short time since, that he had not heard of a mounted highwayman for these thirty years past. Whether this be owing to the decay of our national spirit or the "march" of honesty, I shall leave wiser heads to determine; but, certain it is, that highway robberies have become of rare occurrence. Even Hounslow Heath, the name of which was once dreadful to travellers, has lost its terrors, and wealthy nabobs and retired citizens may pass over that celebrated spot at all hours without danger. But There to return to the Red Lion. Sir were about a dozen persons in the little parlour, all of them apparently well satisfied with the sales they had made that day, especially one, who pulling out a large canvass bag, displayed a large sum in gold and bank notes, the produce of a quantity of wheat which he had sold to a person in the town. The sight of the money attracted but little of the farmers' attention, but one man who sat in a corner of the room huddled up in a large grey coat, and wearing his hat over his eyes, observed it with evident satisfaction. To an observation from one of his friends, that it was imprudent to display so much But in a backward Spring!" M. Mag. money at such a time, the farmer re THE KENTISH FARMER: AN ANECDOTE. For the Olio. "Stand and deliver !" ALTHOUGH the hour was late, the parlour of the Red Lion in the town of plied, "Oh, don't busy yourselves about it, no one man shall take this from me, and it shall cause two some trouble."The grey coated stranger smiled at this. vaunt, but he was not observed by the company; and shortly after, the farmer having discharged his reckoning, bade his friends good night, and mounting. his horse, trotted off down the road towards his home. Our farmer was indeed, to use a country idiom, an "ugly customer" for a highwayman or a foot-pad. He was tall and powerful; in his youth he had been a very daring and successful smuggler, and was upon many occasions engaged in conflicts with the coast blockade men. He had, how ever, quitted that dangerous profession for some years, and retired to a small farm at about five miles distant from the town he was now leaving. His road lay through a lonely lane, and over a barren heath, the latter of which he soon reached without interruption. It was a dull and gloomy night, the pale light of the new moon, which just appeared above the horizon, served to heighten the scene, and the wind swept howling along, and whisked the dry leaves across his path. He had scarcely got half over the heath, when he distinctly heard the approach of a horseman. Thinking it might be one of his friends, and not exactly liking the road he was travelling, our farmer drew bit, and waited the arrival of this person, who, in a few moments, came up and entered into conversation with him. "You have a dull road to travel," said the stranger, "but such a man as you has little to fear. Your mare is a good one, and you would prove more than a match for many men." "You are right," replied the farmer, "twould prove a tough job, as you say, to rob me." At this moment the stranger presented a pistol at his head, accompanying the action with these words "Oh, you repeat your boast do you? now out with the ready, or d-- me if I don't send a bullet through your head! You have only one man to deal with, but be quick, or I shall give you a lift to the other world in a crack of time." The sight of a large horse-pistol within a foot of your head, is enough to appal the stoutest heart; but our farmer did not lose his presence of mind, though, to speak truth, he felt somewhat uneasy. He always rode with a heavy iron handled hunting whip, a thing as well adapted for splitting heads as for opening gates, and those who have lived in the country know full well the value of the latter property. This whip was now grasped tightly by the farmer at the extreme end; but, affecting the most perfect unconcern, he turned towards the highwayman with a smile. "If you come," said he, "to show your courage by attacking me singlehanded, why the devil bring a companion with you? What does that fellow do by your side?" The highwayman turned his head in search of a third person, and, as he did so, the farmer brought his whip round with a tremendous swinging blow, which took a full effect upon the head of the ruffian, who fell from his horse as if he had been shot, and discharged the pistol in his fall. Fearing that some of the companions of the fallen highwayman were upon the road, the farmer did not dismount to see if his blow had proved fatal, but, spurring his mare, rode at full gallop back to the inn, and related his adventure to his friends, some of whom still sat over their cups. Several of them recollected the grey-coated stranger, and had observed that he called for his bill and departed immediately after our farmer had quitted the inn. They all proceeded immediately to the scene of the rencontre, but the thief had disappeared, and nothing was to be seen but the mark of his fall, and a pool of blood, which plainly indicated that the blow he had received was a terrible one. This story has had many versions, but the reader may be assured of the truth of the one here given. The hero of the tale is still living as a tradesman in London, and there are many who can testify to the truth of it. E. M. A. DRAMATIC SCRAPS. For the Olio. - A DUTCH PLAY. I had a description, says an old writer, of a Dutch play, given me by an English spectator. It was the story But Abraham was armed with a gun of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac. instead of a sacrificing knife. The angel, to prevent the gun from firing, sprinkled some water on it. The ram in the brake, (which was represented with laurel boughs) was a plump fat Dutchman, with fair brow spread antlers on his head, fixed very artificially, and all the decorations were of a piece. INDIAN PHILOSOPHERS AND ACTORS. Acosta, the Spaniard, that wrote the history of the West Indies before Cortez, says, the Amantas, or Indian philosophers, were also poets, and invented comedies and tragedies, which were acted on their festivals before the king, the royal family, and the court; the actors being the noblemen and great |