Lord in his holy court," being a quotation 2. The vision of Saint Augustine, presented by Cardinal Fecsh. 3. Jesus in the Garden of Gethsamane. 4. Simeon taking up the infant Jesus in his arms and blessing him. 5. The Last Supper. 6. The Tranfiguration. 7. Jesus feeding the Multitude. 8. Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene, af ter his resurrection. Her heart to charity inclined, These would outvie the charms of face. I ask not for a summer friend When I would make my choice for life, Would check each useless truant sigh, J. N. MAFFITT. The following touching sketch is taken from the Knickerbocker. It is selected as a sample of Mr. J. N. Maffitt's eloquent comparisons. It is not given for the purpose of favoring any sect; but that it may vibrate the sensitive chord and elevate its music. The coup d' oeil from the main entrance looking towards the grand altar, is beautiful "Of all places wherein one can catch a glow and impressive; the continuing arches and of sacred transport, commend to me a methodomes, are all seen from the spot, gradually ist meeting house. I am no bigoted religionreceding, until lost in the great dome which ist. I have a feeling of deference and respect covers the centre of the cross, beyond which for every sect that worships God; and about the grand altar, with all its panoply, seems none particularly have I either prejudice. Oflessened by the distance. This splendid ten from pure volition, do I wander away from building was designed by that distinguished those flourishing streets of the metropolis, into architect and civil engineer, B. H. Latrobe, some of those quiet haunts whose retirement and built under his superintendence seems to denote the absence of society and the When finished entirely, with the Ionic portico, according to the accompanying represen- down. The pulpit is occupied by two or tation, it will give to the outside of the build. three speakers. One of them is to preach. ing, that fair and admirable proportion that is He is young and handsome. The disposition so conspicuous within, and make it altogether world. I enter the humble porch and sit me one of the noblest specimens of architecture in America. ORIGINAL. CHOICE OF A WIFE. I ask not for the cheek of rose, I would not seek in fashion's train Ah no! the one whom I could love, of his dress and contour betokens the pre sence of one who is desirous primarily, of impressing his hearers by that appeal which is to the eye,' and secondly to inspire them with the first which are slumbering in his brain and in his bosom. At first his voice is low and indistinct; anon it aspires into a mellifluous cadence, until every heart is moved and every lip is tremulous with a sigh. Such a one I heard not many months ago. He commenced with the text-" I have been young, and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread." In his picture of youth and age, and of the sole consolation, the one thing needful,' which should sustain both, he broke forth into the following sublime emblem : "My friends, as I look down this advantageous eminence, upon the different mortal ages that appear before me-upon cheeks I painted with the rosy bloom of childhood, and are the voyagers, ours is the danger, and God lips redolent with the fragrance of spring; when is the power who guides the Ark of deliverI contrast them with the corrugated linea-ance. These things are not visible to the ments and snow sprinkled temples of age, my naked, mortal eye, but their truth is the same. mind labors with a fearful comparison. I con- The things which are seen are temporal; from trast the full vein and fair moddled features of them depend the momentous things which are childhood with the thin and shrivelled aspect unseen and eternal. How shall I illustrate the of years; and I liken them to all the scenes boundless difference between the glories of we meet on the broad ocean of existence. In the spiritual and temporal world. Some years our better days we leave the pleasant land ago I remember I was in a neighboring State, of our youth in a fairy barque; the sunshine when there chanced an eclipse of the sun. laughs upon the pennon and trembles on the had forgotten the anticipation of the event, sail; the sweet winds refresh our nostrils from and was reading in my room, unmindful of the flowry shore-blue vistas delight our eyes; the pale and sickly twilight that had gradually the waves dance in brightness beneath our stolen over my page. A friend came in and keel the sky smiles above us the sea around said, Brother, are you aware that the eclipse us; and the land behind us, as it recedes; and is now taking place." I answered no; and before, a tract of golden brightness seems to joining him, I walked down the long broad herald our way. Time wears on, and the street, it was full of people and the houses of shore fades to our view. The barque and its the town on all sides, were covered with the inmates are alone upon the ocean. The sky population. I took a small fragment of smokbecomes clouded; the invisible winds sweep ed glass and surveyed the sun. It was nearly with hollow murmur along the deep; the sun obscured by the other sphere, and the clouds sinks like a mass of blood over the waters which, clad in gloomy light, were sailing fitwhich rise and tumble in mad confusion fully by. After a little while I retired to my through a wide radius of storm; the clouds apartment, but for nearly an hour was totally like gloomy curtains are lifting from afar. blind. Now, my beloved friends, that mighty The sails are rent in splinters; the seaman is orb, even when, as at this present moment, washed from the wheel. Cries of terror and it sails in unclouded majesty above us, throwof anguish mingle with the remorseless dash ing its flood of light upon the far off mounof billows, and the howling of thunder and tains, the arid desert, the fertile valley of the storm. The foundered boat sinks as she heaving main, that glorious orb is but a faint launches-the deck is breaking! God of mer- spark at the foot of the Omnipotent a dimly cy! Who shall appear for the rescue? Where lighted lamp on the outer verge of that transfold the arms that are mighty to save? Men cendent world, whose glories are unseen and and brethren aid is near at hand. Through eternal.' the rifts of the tempest, beaming over the tu- To appreciate bursts of eloquence like these multuous waves, moves a pavilion of golden you must hear them. You must have partaken light. The midnight is waning; flashes of of the excitement which warms the speaker, radiance sprinkle the foam; a towering form and spreads like a sweet contagion, if I may smiles on the eyes of the despairing voyag- so speak, among his auditory. You must see ers, encircled with a halo of glory. It is the the faces of young and old lighted up, with Saviour of man; it is the Ark of the covenant! It moves onward! the waves rush back on either hand, and over a track of calm expanse, the Ark is borne. Who steps from its sides and walks over the deep as upon land? solemn interest; and when he goes on to depict the goodness of the Saviour, you should mark the fearful features, beaming in loveliness from the galleries; hear the sobs of irrepressible rapture which attest the animation It is the Great Captain of our salvation-the of the believing; your own heart is so meltMighty to save! He rescues the drowning ed with enthusiasm, that when the rich tremfrom death, the hopeless from gloom. He bling tones of the congregation are blended stills the fury of the tempest; and for the in the hymn, you seem carried aloft on the spirit of mourning he gives the song of rejoic- wings of ecstacy, by the infectious transport ing and the garment of praise. Ark of the of the scene. I have listened to the ad capCovenant roll this way! We are sinking in tandum eloquence of many a popular divine, the deep waters, and there is none to deliver! without emotion, and heard, indifferently the Let the prayer be offered and it will save us incontrovertible propositions of many a stately 'son of fact and demonstration;' but when I all." Such is the faint sketch of the exhortation desire to be subdued and melted in simple feelI have mentioned. In illustrating this point ing I go to a methodist meeting. Something the preacher said: Let not this sketch be humble and holy is there; the distinctions of deemed the dream of a fanciful mind. We life are lost in the contemplation of that which is to come, the music rings in tender supplication at the door of my heart; and I come away, a purer and better man. For the Visiter. THE OLD BACHELOR. CHAPTER I. reader to fix upon. As we before remarked George was a pet; accustomed from his infancy to have his own way in every thing, and his least wish complied with, it is not to be supposed that he should make a very tractable boy, nor did he. His own will was the only rule by which he was guided, and his word was a fiat not to be disobeyed. We would not infer that George was what is termed a bad boy, but being extremely handsome, Well, well, thirty years ago, who would have given credence to it; that I, George Cleveland, should have survived to be an old bachelor. The gay, the light, the admired, and reared and pampered as he had been by the courted George Cleveland. I who among his fond parents in the lap of luxury, and posthe light hearted, was always the merriest, sessing naturally a good and willing disposiand among the jovial, the noisiest. I too, who tion, they found it hard, nay, impossible, to was so devoted to the fairer sex, that exist- refuse any thing which "he" thought would ence seemed for me to have no other charm be pleasing to him. Therefore his wilfulness but them. Yet it is so, I am fifty to-day, and and still a bachelor. Where now are the buoyant hopes with which I started out in life, where are the vivid pictures, the bright dreams, and the brilliant future that my young imagination had conceived? Gone! all gone, and left me, a seared, and withered remnant, to speculate on the futility of human anticipations; heigh, ho!" Thus soliliquized George Cleveland, as he stood before a mirror suspended from the ceiling of a splendidly furnished apartment, and reaching to the floor. Nor do we wonder, of disposition was originally more attributable to the want of firmness in his natural guardians than to any inherent propensity of his own. At nineteen George was a man in all but age; handsome, gay, and admired. Formed of the most susceptible material, of a buoyant temperament, and well adapted to the life of gaiety and pleasure, into which he launched. For three years he flitted like an insect round the sweets of fashion, society, and love, occasionally sipping their nectarine allurements, but never immersing himself to satiety. Love, that thus viewing the ravages which time had that passion to which all, particularly youth, impressed upon his once handsome counte- when first entering society, are obnoxious, he nance, he should yield to the impulse of moralizing, and recur to the past. But to analyze his present feelings, or dive into the recesses of his thoughts, is not now our purpose. From the first opening of his career, when from the haven of youth, he had indeed felt, but its effects had been light and transient. It was at a small private party (consisting of about forty persons) given by the Duchess of E-, that George first experienced the influence of that subtle and all powerful pas journeyed to the port of manhood, and glid- sion-Love. He had of course been formed along the stream of fashion, we had been ally introduced to all the company, but had companions; and I have taken upon me hitherto taken no further notice of them, than the office of biographer; not to narrate any merely to bestow on them a casual and curevents of great magnitude, such as "moving sory glance. He had carelessly lounged to a accidents by flood or field," or of accomplish- window, and there was engaged in conteming such deeds as would in any manner en- plating the gorgeous canopy above, studded title him to a place in the roll inurned in that and interspersed with innumerable stars, and airy temple, Fame! but simply to give a brief unobscured, even by a floating cloud. "Twas relation of the devious wanderings, through an evening such as imagination can better conwhich a fickle disposition carried him. And ceive than words portray: the infinity of the gentle reader, to come at once to the com- starry firmament, immaculate as that being mencement of our narrative, and not to weary Himself whom it serves to shield from mortal out thy patience, (which we are assured is of gaze, was well calculated to elevate the mind, great endurance) with a long preamble, we and purify the thoughts of the beholder. Lost will make the essay forthwith. in thought, George did not observe the ap George Cleveland, the only son of wealthy proach of a couple who seated themselves on and noble parents, (his mother the daughter an ottoman contiguous to him, nor was he of an earl, and his father the younger son of aware of their presence, until he was startled an affluent baronet) and of course a pet- by a voice so sweet, that its modulations was born-no matter where, nor in what par- sounded like distant music gently wafted on ticular year, (we are troubled with a bad me- the breath of the evening zephyr, with its inmory) suffice it that he was born, and at a fluence stealing on the senses, and captivating time which we leave to the imagination of the the imagination. He appeared to be for a VOL. 6.-No. 2-3. moment, entranced; then turned slowly round We would not have our reader to infer that to behold the being from whom those sounds George was in love; no! "he thought" that proceeded; but he had scarcely turned his he was too much of a man of the world for gaze in that direction, e'er it was withdrawn, that. What! for three years to be exposed for it was met by the reciprocal glance of his to the various and multiform attacks of Cupid fair disturber. He turned round in confusion, and pass the fiery ordeal unscathed! and now, and again appeared to have his thoughts cen- in an evening, nay, in one moment, that the tered in the heavens; but they had left their breast which had hitherto been invulnerable to etherial haven, and his eyes alone were thither the shafts of the "little god," should yield at turned; or rather, were fixed upon vacancy. once, without an effort to repel his insidious He then thought that he had never seen a power! The thought was too much; George's creature so perfectly lovely, so absolutely philosophy could not bear it. beautiful in his life. Whether it was that he He, however, entered into conversation was predisposed to judge favorably of her with his hostess, and, after asking many indifcountenance by hearing her voice, or that she ferent questions, desired to know who the lady really was as handsome as his prolific brain and gentleman, whom he had been observing, conceived her to be, the reader shall decide. were; and learned, to his great satisfaction, She was a young girl, apparently about nine- that they were the only children of the Duke teen; just budding into womanhood; deli- of F, just returned with their father (an cately and exquisitely formed, and appeared invalid) from Italy. as she sat down, rather below the middle sta- He was delighted with this information, not tue. Her complexion would be called trans- only as it satisfied him as to her being unmarparently fair; so pale indeed that it might have ried, but chiefly, because her brother and been mistaken for the ashy hue of the inva- himself had been old school mates; and for lid, had it not been relieved by cheeks, whose many reasons, he determined not to lose this rosy tint, that flower itself might envy. Her opportunity of renewing their acquaintance. eyes were of an intense blue; not that insipid Accordingly, he again crossed the room, and color which is so common; but of the bright walking directly up to the ottoman on which cerulean; speaking the various emotions his new-found friend was seated, thus accosted which occupy the mind; with long silken up- him. turned lashes, which seemed to woo the ach"If my memory is not at fault, I have the ing brows above. Her hair was of a glossy pleasure of addressing an early friend and gold, and the curls which streamed in sweet school-fellow in Lord Staunton. Ah! I see profusion down the cheeks seemed to vie in you do not fully recognize me-George beauty even with her complexion: and when Cleveland-though form and features be alshe spoke, she displayed a set of pearl-like tered, you still, I presume, retain some recolteeth, and as regular as lines drawn with ma- lection of the name." thematical precision. The warm grasp with which his friend Such was the being who now for the first clasped his hand, was a sufficient proof that time enslaved, or at least, enamoured my friend. he had not forgotten him. George did not long remain gazing at the window, he was not wont to be easily discon- those dear and early friends, in whose society certed; so turning round he bowed gracefully I passed the happy hours of youth. Though to the lady, and wandered to another part of your features have grown out of my mind, or, the room; not however, so far as to be unable rather, have altered, the early recollections to fix a constant gaze upon her, much to her with which your name is intimately associated, confusion. Though George had received a still remain vividly impressed upon my megeneral introduction to the company, he had mory. I own that at first I was somewhat at paid so little attention at the time, that he was a loss to recognize you, though there was unable even to remember her name. He re- something in your countenance which appearmained at a distance viewing the scene he ed familiar to me. But excuse me, the pleahad just left, and wondering in his mind who sure of meeting you has almost made me forget she could be. Surely, thought he, she is not what is due to politeness; permit me to intromarried! so young, so beautiful! and then he duce you to my sister, Lady Ellen Falkland; thought of the gentleman who shared her seat, and, spite of himself, a pang shot across his heart. We will not say what that betokened; but a studier of the human countenance would have decided, by the contortion of the face which accompanied it, that it was jealousy. Ellen, this is an old college friend of mine, and the son of Sir William Cleveland, whom we met at Florence." "If there is a circumstance," said George, "that can heighten the pleasure of thus again meeting my friend Charles, it is to have the honor of being acquainted with Lady Ellen as time elapsed, however, his ardor relaxed, and she but shared those attentions which Falkland." Compliments, of course, were mutually were solely her own; 'tis true, he still loved reciprocated, and in a few moments George her, but it was not with that pristine fervor found himself as intimate with the lady as with which he had won her; and she, too, though they had known each other for years; was aware of it, and oft in private did she and ere they parted that evening, Lord Staun- weep to think on it. Too mild and gentle to ton had insisted on his dining with him the reproach him, she studied to restrain those next day, which invitation did not need to be feelings before him, which would at times strongly enforced, ere it was accepted. almost o'er master her; she hoped that time Though George absolutely insisted with would reclaim him, and he return the same himself that he was not in love, yet he could fond and affectionate being as when first she scarce close his eyes that night for thinking knew him. In this she was mistaken; though of Lady Ellen; and if, for a time, he sank to he still loved her, (and it would have been repose, her form was still before him, uniting impossible to do otherwise,) yet he could not, and incorporating itself with the coinages of or, rather, would not, confine his attention his imagination; and it was observed, the to her and her alone. Nor was it Ellen only following morning, that he rose considerably who had noticed the strange change in the earlier than was customary with him, and that conduct of George; her brother, with pain, he, that day, spent more time than usual at his remarked it, but at her request he had hitherto toilet. been silent upon the subject. The time had scarce arrived when, with It was now within a few weeks of the time propriety, he might fulfil his engagement, but when their nuptials were to have taken place, he was announced at Lord Staunton's; nor and George was still the same; that, comdid he leave until a late hour that evening, bined with the reiterated remonstrances of during which he was unceasing in his atten- her father and brother, inflamed the pride of tions to Lady Ellen, and he thought that they were not repugnant to her. From thence Lady Ellen, and determined her to reject an forward his visits were frequent, and he was alliance with one to whom such an union the constant attendant of Lady Ellen; walking appeared, in anticipation, to be irksome. or riding, he was at her side; and, indeed, so Accordingly, her brother was commissioned devoted were his attentions that they admitted in her name, to decline fulfilling an engageof but one interpretation. It is not our inten- ment, the consummation of which, judging tion, however, to enter into a description of from previous circumstances, could confer the various amatorial conversations which happiness on neither of the parties. Lord passed between them, or to trace the subtle Staunton, therefore, when Mr. Cleveland passion through its devious ramifications; for called that evening, met him alone, and told such things, though no doubt very important him that he was authorized by his sister to to those concerned, become dull and insipid state to him, that in consequence of his late when merely related. Let it, then, suffice and repeated indifference, which too plainly that, after the requisite preliminaries, George told the state of his feelings, she declined proposed for, and was accepted as the future fulfilling an engagement that might ultimately husband of the lovely Lady Ellen Falkland. be repulsive to either of the parties concerned. George attempted to rebut the charge of indifference; he said that his feelings had CHAPTER II. Until now, George's disposition had never undergone no change, that he still loved her been tested, but it was shortly to be tried. as fervently as ever, and entreated her to Though of a most affectionate temperament pause and consider, ere she resolved to reject for a time, yet his affection was not such as him, and thus blast all his fondly cherished might endure-such, whose fervor becomes hopes; he acknowledged that he had been more and more intense as time and space in- more neglectful than he should have been, tervene; but his, like some strong combustible, but attributed it to a natural infirmity of purwhich assumes at once so powerful a light as pose, and not to any diminution of regard, to dazzle the sight, but which, when not con- which nothing could possibly diminish. Lord tinually replenished, sinks into obscurity and Staunton, however, was firm; he refused to leaves the gentle flame to triumph in its placid receive any apology; he told him that one regularity. In a word, George was fickle. who was under the influence of such an infirWhen he first wooed, none could more sin-mity, should never think of entering the cerely have loved; the flame was then pure matrimonial state-a state which should be and genuine; to her alone he appeared de- one of uninterrupted bliss, but which such a voted, and he seemed to live but in her smile; disposition would render one of never-ending |