rifice of the kind: he was no favourite of Col. Fawcette. No motive could induce his independent mind to court the favour of a man whose habits were uncongenial with his own. He despised that factitious consequence which comes reflected from an intercourse with the powerful, and which is so much the ambition of those puerile beings whose wishes announce their meanness.

It was hinted to Rodolpho that his Colonel had asserted his political principles to be inimical to the interests of the war. It came first to him through the medium of resentment; he doubted its verity, and did not notice it, till, roused by a personal slight to investigate the fact, he felt the puerility of the charge, and that his actions contradicted the assertion But, like all well-regulated minds, he knew what was due to his character.

"The consciousness of innate integrity," said Rodolpho to his friend,"exceeds the world's applause, as doth the blush of conscious guilt the world's reproach. But a soldier must not be satisfied with this alone; he must, like Cæsar's wife, not even be suspected. Give obloquy a corner stone only, and it will rear a superstructure that shall reach the skies. I must come to an explanation with the Colonel Men of true courage and wisdom, whose resolves are the result of calm and judicious reflection, never spend themselves in words, but wait the moment of action, when they can prove themselves to be what they profess."

He mentioned his intention to

his friend Therston alone, who approved the resolve, and offered to attend him to the Colonel the next morning.

At this period the regiment, with some others, were encamped on the banks of the Delaware. It happened that Rodolpho was the officer of the picquet guard for the night: When all were retired to rest, he paced the streets of the camp, gazed, with admiration, on the light of the moon, which, near the full, was rising in all her splendour; and as he contemplated her, his imagination ranged through the wondrous system of the spheres. Every planet whose refulgence penetrated the clear ether, elevated his soul, sublimated the grosser feelings of sense, lulled every discordant passion to rest, and infused a harmony into his spirits congenial with itself.

As he turned an angle of a street of the camp, which gave him a sight of the Colonel's marque, he observed a great smoke to proceed from it. With the velocity of lightning he ran to it, cut down the walls of the tents with his sword, and discovered the Colonel in a state of torpidity, the furniture of his bed on fire, the flames of which in a few moments would inevitably have reached him. Rodolpho instantly took the Colonel in his arms, and carried him into the air.

The guard had come on the first alarm; and after seeing the Colonel taken care of, who remained a short time insensible, and levelling the marque to the ground, Rodolpho returned to his post with an exhilaration of

heart that succeeds the performance of a duty, and renewed his contemplation on those objects of nature which give so sacred a pleasure to the human soul.

How evanescent in a noble mind are the shades of resentment! how rapid their dispersion, when the object who excited them by the concourse of events calls on our sensibility for aid! Then it is man displays himself to be the connecting link with angels, and his soul an emanating spark from divinity.

When Col. Fawcette recovered, and was informed that Rodolpho delivered him from the flames, his sensations were not the most pleasant. The man to whose exertions he was now indebted for existence, he had that very day attempted to injure. Perhaps among all the stores of mental sensation there is not one more painful than that the Colonel felt at the intelligence: The consciousness that he did not merit it, made him dissatisfied with himself, and the novelty of this feeling employed for some hours his reflection to account for. The voice of truth reaches the men of wealth and power less frequently than that of adulation, and they cannot so well judge of themselves as those whose less fortunate situation charms not the syren flattery.

Whatever might be the Colonel's convictions, he walked the next day to Rodolpho's tent before the usual hour of meeting. Therston was sitting with our soldier when he entered. After the first salutation was ended, "I am come,” said the Colonel, "to thank for you

life; my

it is an obligation beyond my power of return, but believe I shall endeavour to prove I am grateful."

There was such cold formality in this address, that the feeling congratulations Rodolpho's heart was ready to offer, were checked ere they reached his lips; and he replied, with the same collected coolness, "The accidental service I rendered you, Colonel, you owe to the natural impulse in the heart of man when he sees a fellow creature in danger, from which he can relieve him. At such a moment, who is it that pauses to consider whether it be a friend or an enemy, a lord or a peasant? Nature knows no distinctions; her first promptitude is to assist, and the man that stops to deliberate when his exertions can be useful, disgraces the species to which he belongs. My conduct is regulated by a plain rule, to do that to another I would wish to be done unto, which brings all the reward I ask....the approbation of my own heart. I rejoice in your safety, and request you to forget you were ever in danger."

"You are generous," said the Colonel," and I will be grateful."

Rodolpho deferred his intention of calling on Col. F. for an explanation of the ambiguous hints that he had thrown out on his principles.

"At this moment," said he to his friend Therston, "the Colonel's mind is softened by the idea of an obligation; he may yield to the influence of gratitude, and not to a conviction of the injustice he has done me,

have plucked the standard from the foe? At this table we are equals a shade by your declarations is cast over my character. I demand a proof of your late assertion, or an acknowledgment of your errour.

(To be continued.)

Mr. Editor,

I thank you for the kind notice you took of my communication, and present you with a few more thoughts on the same subject, which you will find written by the same hand. BENEVOLUS.

ON FRIENDSHIP.

TO be eminently distinguished as a friend, a man must, first of all be sincere. He must intend, what he professes, to love his friend like himself. In friendship, indeed, as in every thing else, there are different degrees of ardour. Probably the height, at which this virtue arrives in one, who cultivates it, is proportional to the strength of his mind. You are not to upbraid your friend with want of sincerity, because he does not love you with the same warmth of affection, which was reciprocal between Jonathan and David, and between Damon and Pythias. His soul perhaps is incapable of feeling what they felt. This however he may and must do, or he forfeits his title: he must manifest an affection for you so fervent, as to certify you, that, in promoting your happiness he

ness. He must cordially wish you all the knowledge and goodness you can possibly attain, and all the influence and fame you can honestly procure.

Your friend must be beneficent as well as sincere. His intentions in your favour must ripen into vigorous exertions. From principles of affection and an enlarged self-love, from interest and gratitude, he is bound to seek your welfare. By inclination and by oath he is engaged to delight you by his agreeable conversation, and to improve your understanding and heart by his useful advice. He will examine the nature of your difficulties, and propose the means of their remedy. Are you afflicted? He will administer consolation. He will represent the folly and impiety of immoderate grief. With the tongue of compassion he will soothe your sorrows, and with the hand of sensibility wipe away your tears. However sudden and shocking may be your fall from the hill of prosperity into the vale of misfortune, he will be sure to seek and to find you. He will visit you in the chamber of disease, or the cell of disgrace, and with his purse, if necessary, as