accursed influence has devastated the fairest portions of the globe with rapine and slaughter; whose ferocious career is marked by fire, and bloodshed, and famine; and whose memory is preserved by the sighs, and tears, and execrations, of the childless parent, the widow, and the orphan. Yet, so infatuated is manso dazzled by the meretricious glitter of false gloryas to decorate with the title of great, and consecrate as heroes, those insensate beings whom this passion has led to perpetrate enormities, which ought to have drawn upon their devoted heads the severest punishment, and consigned their names to eternal oblivion, or retained them only to be held up to the detestation of posterity, to serve as beacons to warn others from the dangerous shores on which they were wrecked.

Love, a passion so strongly and universally implanted in the human heart, can only have been placed there for the most benevolent of purposes; and, accordingly, we find that virtuous love is the source of the purest pleasure, the most ecstatic delight, to be experienced in this vale of tears. Than friendship stronger, dearer-love possesses all its advantages in a higher degree, and has mental enjoyments of its own, infinitely superior. More firmly united-more kindly attached the reliance for protection on the one hand, the support afforded on the other-the mutual sympathy, the mutual confidence, the unreserved communication, the disinterested regard-these, united in wellplaced mutual affection, form a picture of felicity the most perfect which can be conceived in this imperfect state.

To the virtuous pair, thus united in the bands of love, every pleasure is doubled, every grief lessened, by participation; the path of youth is strewed with flowers, their reciprocal kindness smooths the rugged descent of declining age, and the sunset of such a life gilds an horizon clear and spotless, which shows them, in the retrospect, an uninterrupted scene of innocence and happiness-in perspective, an endless futurity of bliss.

Yet, while such are the benefits of a proper indulgence of this amiable passion, man, in the wild depra

vity of his heart, seeks for impure gratification in lawless variety, until at length, in ruined health and debased morals, he finds himself the wretched victim of unbridled lust and unprincipled licentiousness; and, in the premature decrepitude of age, views with horror and remorse those follies and vices, which afforded but transient and trivial enjoyment, and have left behind such dreadful and lasting pangs, to embitter the sad remains of existence.

Anger, hatred, and revenge-whose direful influence, when unrepressed, drives reason, pity, and humanity, from their seat, leaving the breast one troubled ocean of malignant passions-like the fabled Upas tree of Java, which spreads death and desolation for miles around the envenomed spot on which it grew spread horror and dismay around the hapless wretch, who, yielding to their impetuous force, becomes a terror to others, a torment to himself.

Of these, it has been contended by some, that we should entirely divest ourselves; but, doubtless, these passions were engrafted on the human mind for wise and good purposes. Though sinful in a vicious excess, they all have their legitimate use, when confined within the necessary limits.

Anger is a strong emotion of the mind, quickly ex. cited on the receipt of an offence; violent in its effects, but, in ingenuous minds at least, of transient duration. It is very properly exerted on all occasions of wanton or unprovoked aggression, and is necessary to enable us to vent against such a just indignation, and to defend ourselves from insult and injury.

Hatred, a deep and lasting passion, distorts and degrades the character of all who submit to its sway. Viewing every thing through a discoloured medium, it blackens even the virtues of its object, and seeks to gratify its malignity at any expense, at any violation of justice or humanity; yet it is naturally, and therefore properly, excited by vice, injustice, and oppression ; and, if it be not lawful to indulge it against the criminal, we may safely bestow our unmixed hatred upon the crime.

Of all the passions which agitate the mind, revenge is most to be dreaded, since it has so frequently led to the most heinous excesses. Urged on by revenge, and blinded by its fury, we seek the destruction of our victim at all hazards, even of life itself; would immolate him on the domestic hearth, in the bosom of his family-would defile the sanctuary of the temple with his blood. Opposed to Christian charity, which teaches to forgive, such a passion is detestable; yet, under the denomination of resentment, which is but a modification of the same passion restrained by reason, the iniquities of the world will furnish us but too many occasions for its just exercise.

He who through life has duly controlled his passions, and, arriving at healthy old age, can dismiss the arrogance and petulance which so generally accompany it, is truly a pleasing object, a delightful companion, happy in himself, diffusing happiness and the benefits of his experience on all around; but the turbulence of ill-directed passions too frequently leaves but the wreck of manhood, incapable of such enjoyment. The ebullition and impetuosity of youth, its fondness for dress and licentious gaiety, are succeeded by the sensualities of the epicure and the drunkard; and the latest stage of existence may become a prey to the sordid passion of avarice. Heaping up riches, and knowing not who may enjoy them; anxious only to add to the useless store, which, in accumulating, still increases his care; depriving himself not merely of the only rational object of wealth-to dispense his bounty among his unfortunate fellow-creatures-but denying himself the common necessaries of life; his evil passion carries with it a perpetual sting-the more strongly indulged it becomes the bitterer curse--and the degraded being unpitied dies; a wretched proof, that, even the prudent care which all ought to exercise in conformity to their station, becomes, when carried to excess, one of the most desperate vices.

To trace out all the passions would extend to far too great a length. Enough has been said to show that VOL. I. June, 1830.

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they have not been bestowed in vain; since each, under proper restraint, is calculated to promote the happiness of mankind. In proportion, therefore, as the Almighty has furnished man with a number and variety of passions, he has provided him with means to increase and enlarge his enjoyments. Had man, indeed, been left under the sole dominion of the passions, he would have been the most miserable of created beings; but, in giving him the powers of reason to control and guide them, the Deity has displayed, at once, his wisdom and his benevolence.

With such means in his possession, man has but to exert the first gift of God-reason, aided by that revelation which has in mercy been bestowed upon him, to secure happiness both here and hereafter.

TO THE EARLY BEE.

LITTLE busy murmuring bee,
Welcome aye art thou to me;
But when first thou dost appear,
Doubly grateful 'tis to hear
Thy busy constant murmuring;
For thou dost a promise bring
That the ever-beauteous Spring,
On a couch with roses crown'd,
Her lovely hair with violets bound,
Borne aloft upon the gales
Which the balmy south exhales,
Soon shall come to spread for thee,
A wider range for industry,
A table crown'd with luxury.
Fancy dreams to hear thee say,
'Haste thee, Winter, haste away;
Fly where Ural* spreads his chain,
Frowning o'er the snow-clad plain,
From the Wolga to the Main.
There, upon the mountain brow,
That is ever capp'd with snow,

*The north-eastern boundary of Russia in Europe.

Which never yields to summer's days,
Nor the sun in Cancer's blaze,

Reign amid the desert wild,
Nature's tyrant, not her child.
Or where round the southern pole,
Isles of ice tempestuous roll,
Call thy blasts to quit with thee,
The howling hill, the ravag'd tree;
Thither tyrant Winter reign,
Till the year roll round again.'
Thus Fancy dreams to hear thee sing,
Welcome harbinger of Spring.
Whist about the gooseberry,
Humming, thou delightest me;
Thou recallest days gone by,
Ever dear to memory;
When upon the daisied green,
Ere the earliest dawn was seen,
When the dew was on the flower
Stretch'd beneath the hawthorn bower,
I heard thee woo the blossoms gay
Of the heart-enliv'ning May.
Happy hours of early youth,
Dear to innocence and truth,
When no crime my breast accus'd,
No slighted love, no faith abus'd,
When novelty's enchanting power
Could charm the sorrows of an hour,
And drive aloof those cank'ring cares
That poison our maturer years.
Ah! 'tis the fate of mortals, never
To know their bliss, till gone for ever.
Oh! that I could roam with thee,
Ever active, happy bee!

Whether thou would'st choose the way
To the parterre blooming gay,
And there sip the dew that flows,
From, queen of flowers, the mossy rose.
Or whether thou had'st rather rove
To the woodland, hill, or grove,