possible to her, and she flattered herself that she should soon forget him whose image was ever present to her thoughts.

Camira was driven to despair. He had had the courage to relinquish his mistress, to deprive himself of the sight of her; but he had not the courage to support her disdain. His soul was overwhelmed by it. No longer able to hear the torments which he suffered, he sought Maldonado.

"Father!" said he to him, "listen, and pardon me. I cannot conquer my love. I have employed against my heart all the strength which virtue and reason could lend me; Angelina triumphs over all! I quit you, my father; I am going.-For heaven's sake, hide from me your tears; shall remain here if you weep, and I shall expire before your face. Let me return to my woods. I shall come back, I hope; I know not when, but I shall come back. If the plan which I have formed can be carried into effect by a human being, I am sure I shall accomplish it; and you will see me again, the happiest and the most innocent of men. Adieu, my father, my friend, my benefactor; dry your tears. It is not your son who leaves you, it is a hapless being, a madman, the prey of a fatal love which rules him as it pleases, which hurries him far away from his parent, which fills, which consumes his heart, but which can never diminish the tenderness, the gratitude which that heart always cherishes for you, though it is no longer my own.'

Saying these words he fled, without listening to Maldonado, who called him back, and vainly entreated him to return to his arms. The good father soon lost sight of him, and, deprived of his son, he thought himself alone in the world.

Angelina was still more to be pitied. Tortured by a passion over which she could not triumph, she had suffered as much as Camira, and had not had the consolation of confiding her sorrows to any one. As soon as she heard of his departure, she accused herself of being the cause of it, and she shed bitter tears at the remembrance of that day on which she had feigned that she no longer loved him. For some time she indulged a hope that he would come back to the Jesuit;

but six months having elapsed, without Camira having re-appeared, the melancholy Angelina requested of her uncle to allow her to take the veil, in one of the convents which had already been founded at Assumption. Pedreras approved of her design, and the same day he conducted her to the abbess of the Claristes, who gave her the novice's dress, and agreed with the governor that the period of the noviciate should be shortened by one half.

The wretched Angelina herself was anxious to hasten the moment of taking the veil. Time had passed so slowly with her since she had ceased to see Camira! It appeared to her as if after she had taken the vows she should be less tormented, and that love would quit a heart of which the Deity had taken possession. At length the desired epoch arrived, and she felt an emotion of gladness.

TO BE RESUMED.

ESSAY ON LITERATURE,

FROM

ITS ORIGIN TO THE PRESENT TIME.

MAN becomes powerful, virtuous, and happy, in proportion as he is illumined by, KNOWLEDGE; and, other circumstances being equal, is weak, wicked, and miserable, in the exact degree of his ignorance. Science arms the finger of the dwarf with gigantic force; compels the libertine to tear with sudden emotion the roses from his brow, and dash the cup of enchantment from his lips; and divests want, captivity, and disease, of their most effective powers.

In the earlier ages of society, when men had only a small stock of knowledge among them, and but very slender means of diffusing it, a petty intellectual superiority often gave to individual priests, poets, and orators, the absolute dominion over social life, and the greatest power over unformed minds; and the difficulty of disseminating their learning, and their artful concealment of it, were among the chief causes which enabled them to form themselves into casts and incorporations; usurping the greatest share of power,

honour, and emolument, which their nations had to bestow. The advancement and propagation of knowledge in Greece, produced schools of philosophers, who, with fairer claims, aspired to contend for the honours and authority of the priesthood; and for a time, exerted a mighty and beneficial influence over the affairs of men. Discussions in the sovereign assemblies of popular governments, and practice in the conducting of their public transactions, raised multitudes of orators and statesmen, who divided with the priests and philosophers the advantages resulting from the cultivation and expansion of the mind. At Rome, the accumulation of laws and decisions, by degrees, gave rise to the class of lawyers, whose powers and pretensions were likewise founded on their learning; and the industry and artifices with which they mystified, improved, magnified, or concealed it. Deceit and dissimulation attain their objects upon ignorance.

While these several orders arose, one after another, and by the advantages of superior science, became the lords, the guides, the benefactors, or the tyrants of civil life, the knowledge of the common body of men was at the same time increased; and happier means were invented among them for its communication. Rude scratches upon wood or stone, gave place to engravings upon plates of metal, and tablets of wax; and these again to the use of parchment, reeds or quills, and colouring liquids. Paintings, and their abbreviations, hieroglyphics, had been long before invented; and being improved and abridged into one alphabet, formed a much more convenient system of written signs of speech. Libraries were collected; and copies of books were industriously multiplied. In the mean time, the lecture, the debate, and the oratorical harangue, were even more diffusive means than books for the dissemination of the learning and science already collected. By the joint efficacy of all these causes, not only particular classes in society but mankind in general, were, in the process of time, con siderably enlightened and improved; in Greece and through the Grecian dominions; at Rome and through the Roman dominions. But, unfortunately, that taste

U

and science which were so prevalent at Athens and Rome, were at length lost, like a drop of water in the burning desart, by being scattered over the vast compass of the Roman empire.

These were the learned orders which arose in the ages of ancient history, to guide and govern the rest of mankind. By the natural competition with one another, and by the use of various methods of mutual communication, these orders involuntarily, unavoidably, yet by slow degrees, disseminated their knowledge through the general mass of society, to the great diminution of their own relative importance.

Ages of barbarism and ignorance ensued. Knowledge was again for a while confined exclusively to the priesthood, and they acquired the influence of divi nities over the people. But the smothered spark kindied at length-the spring of mind seemed to recover its elastic energy, and burst forth upon the world with astonishing strength. A new flood of light was poured over Europe; invention arose upon invention; discovery succeeded discovery :-the focus of scientific illumination was continually enlarged, and the spread of knowledge was rapid and extensive. To give these late years a superiority over those which preceded them, hardly inferior to that which men enjoy over the non-articulating brutes in the use of articulate language, for the communication of ideas, the ART OF PRINTING was by happy chance, or wonderful ingenuity, added to those means of mutual communication which mankind before possessed. An art which at that time unfettered the mind from the iron grasp of priestcraft; which unlocked the golden stores of intellect, and delivered them with a liberal hand to the poor, the ignorant, and to those who for the sake of it thirsted after intellectual excellence; and still continues to illumine the world by ushering into it the productions of genius.

After this art was so happily invented, a few printers, within a very few years, multiplied the copies of those books which they were induced to make the first specimens of their art, more than could have been produced by all the writers in all the scriptoria, of all

the monasteries then in Europe. Popular legends and books of devotion were first poured from the infant press, in astonishing abundance. But the va luable relics of enlightened antiquity were soon preferred to the crude effusions of monkish ignorance and fatuity. Those writings which had been the admiration of the most illustrious ages of Greece and Rome; those sacred books which priestcraft had studiously hidden from vulgar eyes, in order to check intellectual improvement, and a discovery of their own imposture; were now multiplied by the art of printing, and diffused by traffic, till they became the objects of an ardent enthusiasm, which claimed them with an impatience that would endure no denial, and seized them as the only lights of the world. Whatever those in power attempt to extirpate, becomes an object of curiosity among the people.

Commentaries were at length produced to illustrate, and imitations to rival them. Contemporary history was preserved and made public, in letters and in memoirs. For the amusement and instruction of the vulgar, ballads, legendary fictions, manuals of morglity and devotion, were industriously circulated. Poetry, romance, and the scenes of the drama, for a time became the fashionable entertainment of the great, the polished, and the gay. The learned too, at length ventured to attempt a particular application of the ancient philosophy to the system of modern government and manners. From illustration, imitation, application, and improvement, they proceeded to invention; and dared to explore those paths, which remained untrod by the ancients before them. All these effects were produced in rapid succession, by the exercise, soon after its invention, of the art of printing, and by the dissemination of knowledge which it necessarily occasioned.

In this stage of the diffusion of information by printed books, periodical publications began to be employed, in order to preserve and commemorate the contemporary history of the age as it passed. In Germany, England, France, and Italy, occasional -gazettes, or annual, monthly, or weekly histories of the times, were published by the respective govern