; "Then," continued the former, "let no one dare to leave the deck, except ZIFFER, whom I command to follow

"They, in consequence, proceeded to the cabin, the door of which the sage instantly threw open, and discovered ATUE, surrounded by beautiful females, in the act of drawing his cimeter What bold intruder dare?" he exclaimed; "Where are my armed slaves?"—At this instant his eyes met those of the sage-involuntarily he dropped his meter, and, prostrating himself, cried, "My father!-oh, my father!"

"Wretch !" returned DARA, in the most violent emotion, “I am no longer thy father! The good, the virtuous, the benevolent ATCE, was indeed my son! -Him I have lost a considerable time: I seek him here in vain, for, in his place, I behold a cruel voluptuary, a prodigate monster-I therefore disclaim the parental character; I give, at once, my parental feelings to the winds of heaven; let them be scattered abroad. perhaps they may light on the heads of the innocent; while I assume, in this place, the sterner aspect of a minister of justice, and, in that form, search for a criminal, whom I am sorry to find in the person of a youth to whom I once owned myself to be so nearly allied!"

"A criminal?" cried ATUF.

"A criminal of the worst description," returned DARA, as I shall prove in an instant.-Where is the fisherman? Where is ZIFFER?"

"NADAR, the black eunuch that our master is so fond of," said one of the female slaves, "overcome with the heat of the cabin, fainted in his arms, and, as there was no attendant at the door, he assisted him to the deck.”

"Let him be immediately called! Oh, he is here!" continued DARA. "ATUE, do you know this man ?"

I do," said ArUE; he is a fisherman of Delhi."

"Do you know his daughter ?"

To this invocation DARA, in a solemn tone, replied, "You call upon me, in this case, for rigid and impartial justice, friend ZIFFER; for although you are a poor man, as I conceive you to be an injured one, and, consequently, to need my assistance, 1 esteem you my friend

You, I repeat, call upon me for justice, and, stimulated, by your injuries, you shall see with what alacrity I answer your demand-Summon my slaves! -Villain" to his son, " they are no longer yours."-As soon as the ready slaves appeared, he continued, "Here, take this offender into custody!"

The slaves, in consequence, laid their hands upon ATUE, who, while he delivered to one of them his cimeter, said, "Will not my revered and honoured father hear what I have to urge in my defence ?"

Can you," said DARA, sternly. "with truth aver that you did not seduce ZEMIRA from the cottage of this honest man, her father, and reduce a whole family, whose misfortune it was to want her support, at once to indigence and misery ?”

“Indeed, indeed,” replied Atu¤, with great humility, "I cannot! I loved ZEMIRA : but although her charms shone superior to these of any of the virgins of Hindustan, her personal beatty, exquisite as it appeared, was the least of her perfections. Her mental powers, the endowments of her mind, rose far above the elegance of her form, or the expression of her countenance. She was, like the goddess INDRA, a being of the higher order. Humble as was her birth, her accomplishments rendered hev equal to the most elevated of her sex. She was created, at once, to be loved, and to be adored."

"Then," exclaimed DARA, "after this florid, this affecting description, how could you, O ATUE! you who, whatsoever might have been your former faults, was never deemed to be deficient of sensibility; how could you, I say, seduce, violate, and destroy, such a virgin?"

"Violate and destroy ZEMIRA!" cried ATCE," who could have told you, my father, that I have been so inhuman as to do either?"

"The latter is certain," continued DARA; "the proofs are in the hands of her father; and, without suspecting myself to want either parental tenderness or general charity, I may reasonably presume that it was in consequence of the former."

"Oh, my father!" returned ATUE, "I would not, for the domination of the hemisphere which the glorious luminary that we adere at present irradiates, be the abandoned, the profligate wretch you think me! ZEMIRA, I hope yet lives; and whensoever she appears, she will, I have no doubt, accuse ine but of one crime."

"What crime?" asked DARA. "Pride," replied ATUE. "Had I not been beyond measure proud, had I balanced her virtue and accomplishments against my possessions and expectations, she would, perhaps, now have been here."

"This excuse renders our inquiry darker than before," returned DARA. "Knowing the effect of even the ideas of a descent from the ancient sovereigns of Persia, and of being one day in the possession of immense riches, on the mind of a youth so ardent and so volatile, it has been my business, through the whole course of your education, to endeavour to teach you humility: how you have profited by my anxious care, and improved by my frequent lessons upon this subject, you have now, in a lamentable instance, fully explained; and although this neglect of my instructions, which have always tended to the repression of your lineal and pecuniary arrogance, is but a minor offence, when compared to the enormous crimes with which you are charged, yet it seems a link of the same chain, indeed the germ from which they have proceeded: I shall, therefore, order you into close custody,"

Order me into close custody!" exclaimed the indignant ATUE, on the complaint of a inean, a servile fisherman!”

"Again," returned DARA, "in the very moment of humiliation, docs your pride burst into a flame. ZIFFER, whom I have called my friend, is, it is true, professionally mean, but not servile; he owes his own existence, and the support of his family, to his own exertions; therefore he is more independent than yourself: however, let him be in whatsoever situation he may, I have promised him justice, and justice he shall obtain at my hands. The crimes of which you are more than suspected reader him your superior; before the Nazim he shall become your accuser. There I hope that the proceedings of this day, although they are at present so enveloped in darkness, will be fully elucidated."

"Before I go," said ATUE,, " call NADAR to me: he once hinted something which seemed to disclose a knowledge of ZEMIRA."

66

NADAR," said the captain of the vessel, was obliged to be conveyed to shore with the greatest care: he is apparently extremely ill."

Then," continued ArUE, "I must appear before the Nazim unsupported, Yet, relying on my innocence, I ana prepared to meet my fate."

The vessel of DARA cast aucher opposite his palace, which was one of the most beautiful, in point of situation and architectural elegance, of any of those superb edifices that adorned the picturesque banks of the river GEMENE.

The sage with his son, and their at tendants, landed at the black marble gate. He then ordered the fisherman to return to his cottage, and there wait his further directions. He also commanded ATUE to be confined to his magnificent apartments, which occupied the left wing of the palace: this com mand was immediately obeyed.

"He shall not stir from thence," said DARA, steraly, "until the mysterious circumstances of this morning are fully investigated; therefore let the female companions of his pleasurable excursion attend nie in the Zenana. Where is the cunuch that had the care of them? Is he recovered?"

"He is, I presume, O venerable DARA!" said the captain of the vessel;

for, with regret, I learn, that he left the palace very soon after the slaves Janded him from the boat: therefore I fear he has escaped."

Escaped! Why should he escape?"

station, and, as well as by his eminence in the other branches of learning, may, with strict propriety, be denominated the champion of English literature.

But this great man, notwithstanding his stupendous talents and attainments, was not exempted from the common failings of humanity: his powers, that were not to be shaken by all the engines of reasoning, were sometimes weakened by the intrusions of passion; and amid his eager pursuit after Truth, she was often intercepted from his view by the mists of prejudice. But to decry all his productions because we may now and then discern a spirit of captiousness, which probably proceeded from the tem porary predominance of disease, would he not only ungenerous, but absurd. For my own part, I profess the greatest veneration for so exalted a genius; and make on a favourite author, my senti

if, in the few observations I am about to

ments shall differ from his, I trust I

shall not incur the imputation of presumptuously obtruding myself on the lists with so renowned a character.

In a paper of the Adventurer I have read, with no small uneasiness, a critique on the Pastorals of Virgil; in which, were other evidences wanting, we might discover the pen of Dr. Johnson, no less by the strength and beauty of the style, than the asperity of the remarks. The severity of his censure cannot be very acceptable to the admirers of that divine poet, especially as it has fallen upon that part of his works which is eminently distinguished by its elegance and beauty, and on which the language of panegyric has been exhausted by successive generations.

From the first and last the doctor cannot withhold his tribute of admiration, and pronounces them sufficient of themselves to place their author beyond the reach of rivalry. As my intention is, as much as possible, to avoid tediousness, I forbear to introduce any passages from pieces so generally perused, aud whose beauties must be obvious to the most indifferent reader.

With respect to the second, I willingly pass by the subject, which admits of no defence; although the doctor's remarks on the other parts of the poein appear to contain too much severity, and his objections are not to be allowed in their fullest extent.

The third commences with the accidental rencontre of two neighbouring shepherds, who, after some sucering

reproaches, commence a regular musical contest. The subject of their respective songs are perfectly suitable to their condition, and their sentiments agree, in every respect, with their rustic occupation.

Triste lupus stabulis, maturis frugibus imbres, Arboribus venti: nobis Amarillidis iræ.

Dulce satis humor, depulsis arbutus hædis, Lenta salix fato pecori: miki solus Amyntas.

The invectives which the shepherds make use of on this occasion appear to have given offence to the doctor, who pronounces them too much deinnocence; and intimates, that the degraded from the dignity of pastoral feat of the competitors would have given him less grief than their reconciliation. But surely he might have complained with greater justice, had the shepherds attacked each other with elegant raillery and polished wit; and Virgil cannot be censured for having obeyed the simplest rule of composi tion, which requires that a consistency of character should be preserved, and that the sentiments should on no ac-. count be unbecoming the person who utters them.* Dryden, indeed, appears to have been less solicitous to preserve the purity of pastoral innocence; and whoever will take the trouble to com

pare his language and phraseology with the original, will perceive by whom its dignity has been offended.

Quid domini facient, audent cum talia fures? Non ego te vidi Damonis, pessime, caprum

Excipere insidiis, multum latrante lyciscá?
Et cum clamarem: Quò nunc se proripit ille?
Tityre, coge pecus: tu post carecta latebas.

VIRGIL.

What nonsense would the fool thy master prate,

When thou, his knavs, canst talk at such a rate.

Did I not see you, rascal, did I not,
When you lay snug to snap young Damon's
goat?

His mongrel bark'd: I ran to his relief,
And cried, "There, there he goes! Stop,
stop the thief!" &c.
DRYDEN.

* A writer, who has never yet been re

proached with want of taste, in the papers

on pastoral poetry, published in the Guar dian, blames Virgd for not infusing a larger portion of rusticity not only into his language, but his sentiments, &c. and, in the course of his remarks, introduces passages from Spencer, Phillips, and others, as patterns of excellence, which, in point of coarsenos, might rival the meretricious em bellishments of Dryden.