local attachments. that speak deeply and touchingly for the moral character of the nation. It is a pleasing sight on a Sunday morning, when the bell is sending its sober melody across the quiet fields, to behold the peasantry in their best finery, with ruddy faces, and modest cheerfulness, thronging tranquilly along the green lanes to church; but it is still more pleasing to see them in the evenings, gathering about their cottage doors, and appearing to exult in the humble comforts and embellishments which their own hands have spread around them. It is this sweet home-feeling, this settled repose of affection in the domestic scene, that is, after all, the parent of the steadiest virtues and purest enjoyments; and I cannot close these desultory remarks better, than by quoting the words of a modern English poet, who has depicted it with remarkable felicity: Through each gradation, from the castled hall, Down to the cottaged vale, and straw-roof'd shed, All that desire would fly for through the earth; 119.-THE PASSAGE OF THE RED SEA. HEBER. [REGINALD HEBER, Bishop of Calcutta, was born in 1783, at Malpas, in Cheshire. In 1800 he was entered at Brazenose College, Oxford. His university career was one series of successes. His prize poem of Palestine,' written in 1803, unlike the majority of academical compositions, has taken its rank among our best English poems. In 1807 he took orders, and entered upon the discharge of his duties of parish priest in the family living of Hodnet. Never were the high duties of his sacred office fulfilled with greater zeal than by this most amiable and gifted scholar. His eminence as a preacher, his reputation for the highest talent, must have led to the first preferments in the Church. The Bishopric of Calcutta was offered to him: he twice refused it; but eventually he saw in that appointment a wide career of usefulness, and he sacrificed every other consideration to the prospects which this apostolical mission opened to his view. He embarked for India on the 15th of June, 1823. On the 3rd of April, 1826, he suddenly died at Trichinopoli, having spent the short period of his sojourn in the East in labour such as few men have undergone. Dying thus at the early age of forty-three, his memory is hallowed in India by European and native; and his example will continue to animate many a man with the conviction that the talents which God has entrusted to us find their best and their happiest employment in an unremitting course of endeavour to leave the world better than we found it. Bishop Heber's 'Journey through India' is one of our most interesting books of travels. There are three volumes of his Sermons; and his Poems, from which we extract the 'Passage of the Red Sea,' form a volume of themselves.] With heat o'erlabour'd, and the length of way, Or blended soft in drowsy cadence fell "Mark, Israel, mark!"-On that strange sight intent, In breathless terror, every eye was bent; And busy faction's fast increasing hum, And female voices, shriek, "They come, they come!" O'er the dark mass the brazen lances glow; The parched and sinewy sons of Amalek While close behind, inured to feast on blood, Deck'd in Behemoth's-spoils, the tall Shangalla strode. 'Mid blazing helms, and bucklers rough with gold, how swift the sythed chariots roll'd? Saw ye Lo, these are they whom, lords of Afric's fates, Old Thebes hath pour'd through all her hundred gates, Where, flush'd with power and vengeance, Pharaoh rode! And still responsive to the trumpet's cry, Why swell these shouts that rend the desert's gloom? On earth's last margin throng the weeping train: Their cloudy guide moves on:-"And must we swim the main?" 'Mid the light spray their snorting camels stood, Nor bathed a fetlock in the nauseous flood. He comes their leader comes!-The man of God And onward treads. The circling waves retreat, - With limbs that falter, and with hearts that swell, The beetling waters storm above their head; Yet not from Israel fled the friendly light, Or dark to them, or cheerless came the night. Still in their van, along that dreadful road, Blazed broad and fierce the brandish'd torch of God. Its meteor glare a tenfold lustre gave On the long mirror of the rosy wave: While its blest beams a sun-like heat supply, To them alone-for Misraim's wizard train Yet on they fare, by reckless vengeance led, Show'd his dread visage lightening through the storm; With withering splendour blasted all their might, And brake their chariot-wheels, and marr'd their courser's flight. "Fly, Misraim, fly !"-From Edom's coral strand Oh! welcome came the morn, when Israel stood Alas, how few!-Then, soft as Elim's well, The virgin timbrel waked its silver sound ; And in fierce joy, no more by doubt supprest, The struggling spirit throbbed in Miriam's breast. She, with bare armis, and fixing on the sky The dark transparence of her lucid eye, Pour'd on the winds of heaven her wild sweet harmony, On's warlike shield, and Zoan's chariot, where? 120.-ENGLAND IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. PERLIN. [DESCRIPTIONS of our own country by foreigners have always something of instruction in them. They generally mortify our vanity, which is good; they sometimes show us in what our real merit consists, which is equally good. They are seldom unprejudiced, they are occasionally ridiculous; and these circumstances ought to show us the difficulty of judging correctly of foreign habits and manners. One of the earliest of these descriptions of England is that of Master Stephen Perlin, a French physician, who was in Great Britain in the last two years of King Edward VI., and saw some of the remarkable events that marked the commencement of the reign of Queen Mary. His 'Description of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland' was published at Paris in 1558. The original tract is of great rarity; but it was reprinted with another Frenchman's account of England, by Gough, the antiquary, in 1775. There are few more odd books in any language; but there can be little doubt of the fidelity of his notices of what he saw. His hatred of the English seems to have been a genuine sentiment of revenge for the hatred which he saw bestowed by our people upon his own countrymen. The French reality, or affectation, of dislike to us at the present day has no such excuse. We translate a few passages:-] THE PERFIDIOUS ENGLISH.-Young France uses no novel terms when she calls us "Les Perfides Anglais." The wars of the Edwards and Henries earned us this. But they might have saved us from the reproach of cowardice. Master Perlin starts with this general summary of our national character:-" It may be said of the English, neither in war are they brave, nor in peace are they faithful; and, as the Spaniard says, England is a good land with bad people." NATIONAL HATREDS.-Master Stephen Perlin interlards his book with English phrases, which are not very easy to interpret. We might hope that his acquaintance with our manners was as limited as his knowledge of our language, if we had not other evidence that our excellent forefathers of the sixteenth century had some tolerably strong antipathies. "The people of this nation mortally hate the French, as their old enemies, and always call us France chenesve, France dogue, and, besides, they call us or son." We should scarcely guess, without an interpretation, that chenesve meant knaves. Again: "The people are proud and seditious, with bad consciences, and are faithless to their word, as experience has taught. These villains hate all sorts of foreigners; and although they have a good land and a good country, they are all constantly wicked and moved by every wind; for now they will love a prince; turn your hand, they will wish him killed and crucified." ENGLISH LOVE OF LETTERS.-"In this kingdom of England there are two universities, viz. Cambruches and Auxonne, called in Latin Auxonia, Cambruche, in Latin Cambrusium. The people of the country do not frequent them at all or very little, and do not give themselves up much to letters, but only to vanity and ambition, and merchandise." ***"The people are reprobates, and all enemies to good manners and letters." THE AXE AND THE GIBBET.-Master Perlin describes, with some curious circum2ND QUARTER. F |