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morality that reigns in the gospel; and the history of Jesus is clothed with such characters of truth, such lines of credibility, that have something in them so grand, so striking, so absolutely inimitable, that the inventor of such things would be still a greater object of astonishment, than the person of whom they are reported.

Is it possible that the person, whose history it (the gospel) unfolds, can be considered by any as a mere man? Hear him speak! behold his actions! Is that the language of enthusiasm! Is that the lordly tone of an ambitious ringleader? On the contrary, what gentleness and purity in his manners! what mildness and affecting grace in his instructions! what deep wisdom in his discourses! what presence of mind, what delicacy, what precision in his answers to the demands of the ignorant, or the objections of the perverse! What an amazing empire over his passions did his whole conduct and conversation discover! Where is the man, where is the sage, who has so far attained the perfection of wisdom and virtue, as to live, act, suffer, and die, without weakness on the one hand, or ostentation on the other? That sage was Christ. When Plato drew the ideal portrait of his good man, covered with the reproach which is due to iniquity when he deserved the immortal prize of virtue, he drew exactly the character of Jesus. The resemblance was so far striking that it was perceived by all the Christian fathers; and, indeed, it is not possible to mistake it. Who, but such as the tyranny of prejudices and wilful blindness hinder from perceiving things in their true light, would dare to compare the son of Sophroniscus with the son of Mary! What an immense distance is there between these two characters! Socrates, expiring without pain or disgrace, acted his part, and sustained it to the end without much effort; and if that easy death had not reflected a lustre upon his life, it would be a question whether Socrates, with all his wit and sagacity, was any thing more than a sophist. He was, say some, the inventor of morality; but what do such mean? Morality was practised long be

fore Socrates; and he had only the merit of saying what others had done, and of displaying, in his instructions, what they exhibited in their examples. Aristides had been just, before Socrates had defined what justice was. Leonidas had laid down his life for his country, before Socrates had recommended the love of our country as a moral duty. Sparta was frugal, before Socrates had praised frugality; and Greece abounded with virtuous men, before he had explained the nature of virtue. But was it from the morals and example of his countrymen that Jesus derived the lines of that pure and sublime morality that was inculcated in his instructions, and shone forth in his example, and which he alone taught and practised with an equal degree of perfection? In the midst of a people where the most furious fanaticism reigned, the most exalted wisdom raised its voice, and the grand simplicity of the most heroic virtues cast a lustre upon the vilest and most worthless of all the nations. The death of Socrates, who breathed his last in a philosophical conversation with his friends, was the mildest death that nature could desire; while the death of Jesus, expiring in torment, injured, inhumanly treated, mocked, cursed by an assembled people, is the most horrible one that a mortal could apprehend. Socrates, while he takes the poisoned cup, gives his blessing to the person who presents it to him with the tenderest marks of sorrow. Jesus, in the midst of his dreadful agonies, prays for whom for his executioners, who were foaming with rage against his person."

Sentiments so just, so true, and proper, clothed, too, in such elegant and eloquent language, cannot but challenge our warmest approbation; and not the less so, when we consider the quarter from which they come. We have here many sentences requiring the tone-the passion of wonder. The greater number of the sentences marked with the note of admiration assume the falling inflection. Is that the language of enthusiasm, is marked with the note of admiration, and yet to the following member, ending with ringleader, the note of interrogation is affixed. But the fact is, the former is as much entitled to interrogation as the latter. **

First Impressions.

PARDON me, my dear Miss Stanley, for the freedom with which I oppose your sentiments: I should not adopt that freedom, but I know that you are not in want of candour.

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Presuming on the justness of your position, you contended, that it is ungenerous to form an opinion on a single interview: I once thought so. You seemed to consider it as absurd to decide upon a character, as to fall in love, at first sight. How absurd soever the latter may be, as a fact it is unquestionable. The most romantic attachments have been created by a single glance; and, where a mutuality of passion could not exist, the most dreadful conse quences have ensued. For the support of this assertion, I have learned authorities, the quotation of which, to a lady, would bear the semblance of pedantry. Surely, Ellinor, you are philosopher enough to know that, in nature, there is a repulsive, as well as a sympathetic power. Do not these powers act in a moral sense? Have you not, on entering a room, been irresistibly drawn, as by some secret charm, to some person whom you never saw before? Have you not sighed for something like an intimacy, or confi dence, with that person? And, if this intimacy has been effected, has it ever been followed by repen tance?—I think I may answer for you-No. For my own part, I never formed a connection in this manner, which has not been strengthened by time, and justified by experience. On the other hand, have you never been affected by a repulsive power? Have you never involuntarily recoiled from a countenance, the possessor of which was totally unknown? If chance, or necessity, have afterwards connected you with such a person, have you never found the first impression just? or, rather, has it not been always so?

Among much pernicious matter contained in the writings of a certain female philosophist, we occasionally meet with some valuable observations. In

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her fragment of The Cave of Fancy,' the sage, Sagestus, gives the following advice to his pupil:→→→ Try to remember the effect the first appearance of a stranger has on your mind; and, in proportion to your sensibility, you may decide on the character." Something like this may be met with in Lord Chesterfield. It is a sentiment, an attention to which may be of the greatest use through life, and is perfectly accordant with the feelings of experience.-I cannot declaim scientifically on physiognomy; but, had I always been directed by a first impression, I should never have materially suffered. At a first glance, I have turned from a villain's countenance with contempt, distrust, and terror. I afterwards reflected on this; severely censured myself, and termed it prejudice. This prejudice I conquered. Circumstances induced, and even rendered unavoidable, an intimacy with this man; which intimacy ripened into friendship. I gloried in the expulsion of my prejudices: I blamed nature for deceiving me with a mask which obscured a heart, pure, generous, and benevolent; and I resolved, in future, never to be influenced by a first impression.-Time, at length, opened my eyes, and nature punished me for a dereliction of her rules; she had not deceived me-deception was the produce of art; my pretended friend was the very villain I at first supposed him, and I the victim of his duplicity.

You know me too well, Ellinor, to attribute these sentiments to disappointment or selfish cynicism; nor will you suspect me of writing them for the purpose of steeling your heart against the best virtues of humanity. They may serve as a partial defence against the insidious attacks of hypocrisy, and can never injure the cause of honesty.-If Lavater's notions be just, that vicious courses generate personal deformity, and that intellectual virtue is capable of producing external beauty, what a potent stimulus do they form for the exertion of moral rectitude!

A strange love letter, this! perhaps, you will exclaim.-Do not mistake me, Ellinor; it is not intended as such. On that subject, I trust, we per

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fectly understand each other. I shall conclude with an extract from a work of the lady whom I before quoted: you, if you please, may apply it; and you may also apply its parody to the above-mentioned repulsive power.- Kindred minds are drawn to each other by expressions which elude description; and, like the gentle breeze that plays on a smooth lake, they are rather felt than seen.' Adieu !..

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What inflection at position, interview, character, may be, glance, exist, assertion, Ellinor, repulsive. Are there any questioning members, the first words of which you would make emphatic? Do you think the sense should incline us to give the emphatic stress to Do not, Have you not, Have you not sighed, And if? What tone of voice is necessary for this extract? Would you consider the tone of anger unnatural here ?

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WITH a quick-beating heart, and steps rapid as my thoughts, I strode away, took the path to the village of Karnac, skirted it, and passing over loose sand, and, among a few scattered date trees, I found myself in the grand alley of the sphinxes, and directly opposite that noble gateway which has been called triumphal; certainly triumph never passed under one more lofty, or, to my eye, of a more imposing magnificence. On the bold curve of its beautifully projecting cornice, a globe coloured, as of fire, stretches forth long overshadowing wings of the very brightest azure. This wondrous and giant portal stands well; alone, detached a little way from the mass of the great ruins, with no columns, walls, or propylæa immediately near. I walked slowly up to it, through the long lines of sphinxes which lay couchant on either side of the broad road (once paved), as they were marshalled by him who planned these princely structures, we know not when. They are of a stone less durable than granite: their general forms are fully preserved, but the detail of execution

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