that business with all the ardor and perseverance of the direst necessity--so shall we see our country as far excelling others in health, contentment and virtue, as it now surpasses them in liberty and tranquility.

Number V.

et extremis si quis super halitus erat

Ore legam.

Virg. En. Lib. IV. v. 684.

While I in death,

Lay close my lips to her's, and catch the flying breath..

It is natural to suppose that an old fellow, like myself, who have lived so long single that I have survived the hope of matrimony, would take very little interest in the character of his country women; or that if I think of them at all, it would be only to return the indifference and aversion which I have experienced at their hands. Yet nothing would be more erroneous than such a supposition. It is true, that, with all the vanity natural to man, I have sometimes wondered why I have been so often and so uniformly rejected; for although I can boast no beauty of person or elegance of manners, yet I think I have known uglier men, and awkwarder men than myself, who have succeeded in getting wives; though to be candid, I cannot say that I have ever known a man who combined in himself, both those properties in the same degree, that had succeeded. Yet I flatter myself that I am not worse in these particulars than sop, who, we are told, was absolutely deformed: and yet we learn from Herodotus, that sop had the good fortune to engage the affections of the beautiful and celebrated Rhodope. It is true, however, that Herodotus tells us sop made this conquest by force of his wit; so, there again, I am thrown out.

But to be serious: my uniform miscarriages in courtship, have awakened no resentment, have produced neither aversion nor indifference in my breast. Through the frost of sixty winters, I still look upon that enchanting sex with mingled tenderness and veneration; and regret only that I have always been unable to inspire any return of these sentiments. As to my own particular country

women, I contemplate their character with a pride which is inexpressibly encreased, whenever I compare them with those of any other nation. The other day, for example, I took down Tacitus' Annals for half an hour's amusement; and opened him by accident at the XIth book, in which he gives us a picture of the court of Claudius, and more particularly of Messalina, the Emperor's wife.The bold and shameless profligacy of that abandoned woman, and, indeed, the general licentiousness of female manners at Rome, present the sex in a most degrading light; and would fill the breast of the reader with unmingled horror, were it not for the rare examples of virtue which here and there break upon us, from the beautiful pages of that author. Of this description is the affecting portrait which he has drawn of Agrippina returning to Rome with the ashes of her dead lord, the elegant and all-accomplished, the gentle, yet heroic Germanicus.— The account of her rival at Brundusium, is drawn with the hand of a master; the whole scene is touched with a skill and felicity so exquisite, and the various objects which he introduces, placed before our eyes in so strong and fine a light, that I cannot deny myself the pleasure of extracting the passage for the sake of those readers in the country who may not have the book.

"Agrippina pursued her voyage without intermission. Neither the rigor of the winter, nor the rough navigation in that season of the year, could alter her resolution.She arrived at the island of Corcyra, opposite to the coast of Calabria. At that place she remained a few days to appease the agitations of a mind pierced to the quick, and not yet taught in the school of affliction, to submit with patience. The news of her arrival spreading far and wide, the intimate friends of the family and most of the officers who had served under Germanicus, with a number of strangers from the municipal towns, some to pay their court, others carried along with the current, pressed forward in crowds to the city of Brundusium, the nearest and most convenient port.-As soon as the fleet came in sight of the harbor, the sea-coast, the walls of the city, the tops of houses and every place that gave even a distant view, were crowded with spectators. Compassion throbbed in every breast. In the hurry of their first emotions, men knew not what part to act; should they receive her with acclamations? Or would silence best suit the occasion? Nothing was settled. The fleet entered

the harbor, not with the alacrity usual to mariners, but with a slow and solemn sound of the oar, impressing deeper melancholy on every heart.

Agrippina came forth, leading two of her children. with the urn of Germanicus in her hand, and her eyes steadfastly fixed upon that precious object. A general groan was heard. Men and women, relations and strangers, all joined in one promiscuous scene of sorrow, varied only by the contrast between the attendants of Agrippina and those who now received the first impression. The former appeared with a languid air, while the latter yielding to the sensation of the moment, broke out with all the vehemence of recent grief."

I know not how this description may have affected others; but for my own part, I confess that I was unable to read it without a gush of tears. I beg you, my reader, to pause with me a moment, and examine the structure of the passage. With what address are we prepared for the appearance of Agrippina! How natural every circumstance, how skilfully selected, how impressively combined! First, the news of her arrival, spreading with such eagerness far and wide, brings before us that ardent and universal love of the people for the noble and virtuous Germanicus, which drew upon him the hatred and jealousy of the court of Tiberius; that hatred and jealousy which were suspected to have hastened his death:-then the friends of the family-the officers who had served under Germanicus, whose sympathies we so readily conceive and so easily adopt-and a vast concourse of strangers from the municipal towns, anxious to shew their respect, rush together to Brundusium in a torrent, so full & strong, as to bear all before it-then, at the interesting moment, when the fleet comes in sight, the spectators flying in crowds to the walls-to the tops of the houses-and every place that gave even a distant view-the breathless silence in which they watched the approach of the fleet to the shore-their anxiety to convince Agrippina of their respect and sympathy, and their uncertainty whether they should best do this by a burst of acclamations or by respectful silence:-Then, instead of the usual alacrity with which mariners return from a distant voyage to their friends, even those rough and hardy sons of the storm are hushed by the awfulness of the scene-the fleet enters the harbor with a slow and solemn sound of the oar!--and at this moment of throbbing expectation-Agrippina comes forth-and how ?-She comes forth-leading two of her children with the urn containing the ashes of Germanicus in her hand!—and her eyes steadfastly fixed on that precious object !. O! what a scene for a painter of genius! A general groan is heard-a promiscuous scene of sorrow follows-and then comes one of the most deli

cate strokes of the writer's pencil-that, by which he distinguishes the retinue of Agrippina, from the surrounding crowd-to the first, the subject was not new-their tears and their strength were exhausted: they appear, therefore, as was most natural, with a languid air, and the deepest impression of sorrow, settled upon their faces -while the crowd, yielding to the sensation of the mo ment, break out with all the vehemence of recent grief.

Tacitus then proceeds to describe the military procession which, by the order of the infamous hypocrite, Tiberius, escorted the ashes of Germanicus to Rome. Tiberius, indeed, furnished the cohorts and prescribed the form of the procession: but it was nature that gave it its highest grace. When they advanced near Rome" The consuls, Marcus Valerius Messala, and Marcus Aurelius Cotta, who, a little before, had entered on their magistracy, with the whole senate and a numerous body of citizens, went out to meet the melancholy train. The road was crowded; no order kept; no regular procession ;they walked and went as inclination prompted. Flattery had no share in the business: where the court rejoiced in secret, men could not weep themselves into favor. Tiberius, indeed, dissembled, but he could not deceive. Through the thin disguise, the malignant heart was

seen.

In this perfect style-without one touch of the pencil, too many or one too few-does this master of the art finish up this fine piece of historical painting.—I am sensible, that, in turning the attention of the reader from Agrippina to Tacitus, I have diverged a little from the immediate subject of this number. I am still, however within the general range of these papers; for one of my objects, is to endeavor to call off the attention of my readers, at least for an hour or two every week, from the painful bickering of political party, to the pure and peaceful charms of literature; and perhaps this will be better effected by incidental remarks, than by any series of set and formal dissertations.—Let us now return to Agrippina.

This noble lady, who has been held up to us in the soft and melting light of widowed love and fidelity, makes a very different figure, (and if not a more winning, at least a more glorious one,) in another part of the history.

The Roman army, under the command of Germanicus, was encamped in Gaul, (now France) which was then, by right of conquest, a province of the empire. Leaving in this camp his wife and children with the main body of the army, the Roman general crossed the Rhine with a

strong detachment, and invaded Germany; then defen ded by the genius and heroism of Arminius, a savage chieftain, whose character has been drawn and immortalized by the genius of Tacitus. I am not about to follow Germanicus in this march--but if the reader wishes to see how the pencil of original truth can eclipse the brightest colors of fiction, in painting to the heart, let me recommend it to him, (may I not add, to her?) to peruse the historian's account of this interesting expedition., Let it suffice for me to say, that Germanicus, victorious and successful in his grand object, divided his detachment into two parts; and sailing with one of them on a new enterprize, he left the other, under the care of Cæcina, an able and experienced officer, to return to the camp on the banks of the Rhine. The Germans, dispersed but not vanquished, rallied on the disappearance of Germanicus, and hovering over the division under the command of Cæcina, harrassed it on its march, and menaced it with daily extinction.

At this crisis, a report reached the camp on the Rhine, that the Roman army was cut to pieces, and that the Germans flashed witli conquest, were pouring down to the invasion of Gaul. The consternation was such that it was proposed to demolish the bridge over the Rhine. It was then that Agrippina, awakened from dreams of love, and of her husband's glory, displayed that counterpart of his soul, which inflamed her bosom. The particulars of the recent expedition were unknown to her: Germanicus himself might then be flying to the camp with the remnant of his vanquished legions, and the demolition of the bridge would cut of his retreat, and throw him, at once, into the hands of his savage enemies. And even if he had fallen, did it become a Roman army, and one, too, over which the genius of Germanicus had presided, to betray this dastardly and infamous terror before a horde of undisciplined barbarians? The imbecility of her sex vanished: all the hero arose in her breast; and springing to the field, at the head of the astonished legions, she not only prevented the demolition of the bridge, but marched across it to the German bank, and scoured the country to relieve any flying remnant of the Roman army, and repel the invaders, or dissipate the fears of the camp by proving the fallacy of the report. The report was fallacious -but the glory of Agrippina was the same. "Pliny,' says Tacitus, "has left in his history of the wars of Germany, a description of Agrippina at the head of the bridge, reviewing the soldiers as they returned, and with thanks and congratulations applauding their valor. This conduct