fight, though weakened by loss of blood, like a lion at bay, against his enemies. In this situation he was pressed so hard by a Moor of uncommon size and strength, that he was compelled to turn and close with him in single combat. The strife was long and desperate, till Don Alonzo, whose corselet had become unlaced in the previous struggle, having received a severe wound in the breast, followed by another on the head, grappled closely with his adversary, and they came rolling on the ground together. The Moor remained uppermost; but the spirit of the Spanish cavalier had not sunk with his strength, and he proudly exclaimed, as if to intimidate his enemy, "I am Don Alonzo de Aguilar, ;" to which the other rejoined, "And I am the Feri de Ben Estepar," a well-known name of terror to the Christians. The sound of his detested name roused all the vengeance of the dying hero; and, grasping his foe in mortal agony, he rallied his strength for a final blow; but it was too late-his hand failed, and he was soon despatched by the dagger of his more vigorous rival.

66

Thus fell Alonzo Hernandez de Cordova, or Alonzo de Aguilar, as he is commonly called, from the land where his family estates lay.

-PRESCOTT.

TIME.

Too late I've stayed :-forgive the crime-
Unheeded flew the hours :

How noiseless falls the foot of Time,

That only treads on flowers!

What eye with clear account remarks
The ebbings of the glass,

When all its sands are diamond sparks,
That dazzle as they pass?

Ah, who to sober measurement
Time's happy fleetness brings,

When Birds of Paradise have lent

Their plumage for his wings?

MARK that swift arrow, how it cuts the air,
How it outruns thy following eye!

Use all persuasion now and try

-SPENCER,

If thou canst call it back or stay it there.

That way it went, but thou shalt find
No track it left behind.

Fool! 'tis thy life, and the fond archer thou:
Of all the time thou'st shot away,
I'll bid thee fetch but yesterday,
And it shall be too hard a task to do.
Beside repentance, what canst find
That it hath left behind?

COWLEY.

THE INFIDEL AND THE ANGEL.

THERE are two kinds of minds of whose opinions we have been informed touching the relative importance of this world to other worlds, all being provinces in the same moral empire-the one is the mind of the infidel, the other is the mind of the angel. As a matter of course, they represent the extremes of sentiment, and are as widely apart from each other as might be the descriptions of the same landscape given by two men, the cne of whom had dimly seen it for a moment, as he woke up from a slumber in a fast train; the other of whom, from some heathery slope or upland, had drunk in its beauty with ample leisure and with a broad sweep of vision. When the infidel thinks of this world, even if he is so much of a believer as to admit its fall, he looks at it with narrow sympathies; wrapt in his own selfishness, he cannot conceive of the nobility which would yearn with pity over some revolted province, and which would visit a scene of insurrection, not to destroy the rebels, but to pardon them; nay, he cannot even conceive of a vigilant tenderness, so comprehensive that it can govern a universe of worlds with as perfect a recognition of the minute as of the magnificent in each, and so unfailing that it is moved by no rebellion from its benevolent design. Hence the great facts of man's sin and ransom; of God's providence, caring for this world, the sickly, and the erring; and of God's grace stooping to replace it in its orbit; finding, as they do, no precedent in his own emotions, and evoking no response from the depths of his own consciousness, are treated by the sceptic as a delusion of fanaticism rather than as a reality of faith. He cannot believe that man, as insignificant in comparison with the

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THE INFIDEL AND THE ANGEL.

planet whose surface he scarcely specks as the one crystal to the avalanche, or the one bubble, with its mimic rainbow, to the torrent waters of Niagara, can be even looked at in the administration of the great. economy, much less that all his concerns and all his interests are noted as carefully as if there were no other on the earth beside him. He cannot believe that of all worlds which sun themselves in their Creator's smile, this reckling world which has strayed should be the object of especial graciousness, and that for its deliverance there should have been struck out of the heart of goodness a scheme of compassion unparalleled in the universe before. This is a knowledge altogether too wonderful, and a belief altogether too high, to have a home in an infidel's bosom. And yet these very facts are to the angels matters both of interest and of joy. These glorious beings, "full of eyes" to gather and observe all knowledge, and with large hearts of charity, vibrate, although of alien nature, to each chord of human struggle and conquest; to them it is but matter of higher praise that throughout the universe, and even into its very ravines and cells of being, there penetrate the glances of that eye whose brightness they must veil themselves to see; to them the grace which leaves the loyal worlds to condescend to the succor of the shrouded one, is the rarest grace of all; and to angelic eyes, in the wondrous scheme of earth's redemption by the offering of the Divine Substitute, there is a perpetual mystery, into which they still desire to look, and where to their enraptured study the whole Deity is known.

Not merely on the God-ward side do these facts excite their adoration, but on the man-ward side their sympathy. They have watched, you remember, over this our world from the beginning; they sang together at its birth; they revelled in the beauty of the young Eden, and strayed at dewy eve by the paths where its blest inhabitants wandered; they shuddered beneath sin's cold shadow, and grieved over the blight and the departure of the innocence they had loved so well. Hence they have known our world in all its fortunes; and just as an elder brother, of a benevolent heart, might heap caresses upon the infant born when he was old enough "to move about the house with joy, and with the certain step of man," finding endearment in its very helplessness; so those holy angels, bright in the radiance of their first estate, have quick sensibilities for all

human welfare still; and whenever the sinner is arrested in his course, or the penitent cry is heard, or the prodigal, in his far country, turns a homeward glance of soul; there comes a hush upon their harping, only to be succeeded by a burst of more rapturous music, for "there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth."-PUNSHON.

THE PRAYER OF FESTUS.

THE bells of time are ringing changes fast,
Grant, Lord! that each fresh peal may usher in
An era of advancement, that each change
Prove an effectual, lasting, happy gain.
And we beseech Thee, overrule, O God!
All civil contests to the good of all;
All party and religious difference
To honorable ends, whether secured
Or lost; and let all strife, political

Or social, spring from conscientious aims,
And have a generous, self-ennobling end,

Man's good and Thine own glory in view always !
The best may then fail and the worst succeed
Alike with honor. We beseech Thee, Lord!
For bodily strength, but more especially

For the soul's health and safety. We entreat thee
In Thy great mercy to decrease our wants,
And add autumnal increase to the comforts
Which tend to keep men innocent, and load

Their hearts with thanks to thee as trees in bearing:-
The blessings of friends, families, and homes,
And kindnesses of kindred. And we pray
That men may rule themselves in faith in God,
In charity to each other, and in hope

Of their own souls' salvation :-that the mass,
The millions in all nations may be trained,
From their youth upwards in a nobler mode,
To loftier and more liberal ends. We pray
Above all things, Lord! that all men be free
From bondage, whether of the mind or body ;-
Free as they ought to be in mind and soul
As well as by state-birthright;—and that Mind,
Time's giant pupil. may right soon attain
Majority, and speak and act for himself.
Incline Thou to our prayers, and grant, O Lord!
That all may have enough, and some safe mean
Of worldly goods and honors, by degrees,
Take place, if practicable, in the fitness

And fulness of Thy time. And we beseech Thee,
That truth no more be gagged, nor conscience dungeoned,
Nor science be impeached of godlessness,

Nor faith be circumscribed, which as to Thee,
And the soul's self affairs is infinite;
But that all men may have due liberty
To speak an honest mind, in every land,
Encouragement to study, leave to act
As conscience orders.

-BAILEY.

THE GIRONDISTS.

THE Girondists were the philosophers of the Revolution. Their ideas were often grand and generous, drawn from the heroes of Greece and Rome, or the more enlarged philanthropy of modern times; their language ever indulgent and seducing to the people; their principles those which gave its early popularity and its immense celebrity to the Revolution. But they judged of mankind by a false standard: their ruinous error consisted in supposing that the multitude could be regulated by the motives which influenced the austere patriots, whom they numbered among their own body. An abstract sense of justice, a passion for general equality, a repugnance for violent governments, distinguished their speeches but yet from their innovations has sprung the most oppressive tyranny of modern times, and they were at last found joining in many measures of the most flagrant iniquity. The dreadful war which ravaged Europe for twenty years was provoked by their declamations; the death of the King, the overthrow of the throne, the Reign of Terror, flowed from the principles which they promulgated. It is no apology for such conduct to allege that they were sincere in their desire for a Republic and the happiness of France: the common proverb, that "Hell is paved with good intentions," shows how generally perilous conduct, even when flowing from pure motives, is found to lead to the most disastrous consequences. They were too often, in their political career, reckless and inconsiderate; and thence their eloquence and genius only rendered them the more dangerous from the multitudes who were influenced by such alluring expressions. Powerful in raising the tempest. they were feeble and irresolute in allaving it; invincible in suffering, heroic in death, they were destitute of the energy and practical expe