"What! not a word? be thankful I am cool "But, sir, beware, nor longer play the fool: "Come! brother, come! what is it that you seek By this rebellion ?-Speak, you villain, speak! "Weeping! I warrant-sorrow makes you dumb : "I'll ope your mouth, impostor! if I come:

66

"Let me approach-I'll shake you from the bed, "You stubborn dog- -Oh God! my Brother's dead!-"

Timid was Isaac, and in all the past
He felt a purpose to be kind at last;
Nor did he mean his brother to depart,
Till he had shown this kindness of his heart:
But day by day he put the cause aside,
Induced by av'rice, peevishness, or pride.

But now awaken'd, from this fatal time His conscience Isaac felt, and found his crime : He raised to George a monumental stone, And there retired to sigh and think alone; An ague seized him, he grew pale, and shook"So," said his son, "would my poor Uncle look." "And so, my child, shall I like him expire.” "No! you have physic and a cheerful fire." "Unhappy sinner! yes, I'm well supplied "With every comfort my cold heart denied."

He view'd his Brother now, but not as one Who vex'd his wife, by fondness for her son; Not as with wooden limb, and seaman's tale, The odious pipe, vile grog, or humbler ale:

He now the worth and grief alone can view Of one so mild, so generous, and so true; "The frank, kind Brother, with such open "And I to break it. -'twas a dæmon's part!"

So Isaac now, as led by conscience, feels, Nor his unkindness palliates or conceals; "This is your folly," said his heartless wife: "Alas! my folly cost my Brother's life; "It suffer'd him to languish and decay,

My gentle brother, whom I could not pay,

heart,

"And therefore left to pine, and fret his life away!"

He takes his Son, and bids the boy unfold
All the good Uncle of his feelings told,
All he lamented—and the ready tear

Falls as he listens, soothed, and grieved to hear.

"Did he not curse me, child?".

cursed,

"He never

"But could not breathe, and said his heart would

burst:"

"And so will mine:"

pray;

"Then, father, you must

My uncle said it took his pains away.”

Repeating thus his sorrows, Isaac shows That he, repenting, feels the debt he owes, And from this source alone his every comfort flows. He takes no joy in office, honours, gain;

They make him humble, nay, they give him pain;

"These from my heart," he cries, "all feeling drove ;
"They made me cold to nature, dead to love :
He takes no joy in home, but sighing, sees
A son in sorrow, and a wife at ease;
He takes no joy in office see him now,
And Burgess Steel has but a passing bow;
Of one sad train of gloomy thoughts possess'd,
He takes no joy in friends, in food, in rest-
Dark are the evil days, and void of peace the best
And thus he lives, if living be to sigh,

And from all comforts of the world to fly,

Without a hope in life — without a wish to die.(1)

(1) [The characters in this tale, though humble, are admirably drawn, and the baser of them, we fear, the most strikingly natural. An openhearted generous sailor had a poor, sneaking, cunning, selfish brother, to whom he remitted all his prize-money, and gave all the arrears of his pay -receiving, in return, vehement professions of gratitude, and false protest ations of regard. At last, the sailor is disabled in action, and discharged. just as his heartless brother has secured a small office by sycophancy, and made a prudent marriage with a congenial temper. He seeks the shelter of his brother's house as freely as he would have given it; and does not at first perceive the coldness of his reception. But mortifications grow upon him day by day. His grog is expensive, and his pipe makes the wife sick; then his voice is so loud, and his manners so rough, that her friends cannot visit her if he appears at table; so he is banished by degrees to a garret, where he falls sick, and has no consolation but in the kindness of one of his nephews, a little boy, who administers to his comfort, and listens to his stories with a delighted attention. This too, however, is interdicted by his hard-hearted parents; and the boy is obliged to steal privately to his disconsolate uncle. One day his father catches him at his door; and, after beating him back, proceeds to deliver a severe rebuke to his brother for encouraging the child in disobedience, when he finds the unconscious culprit released by death from his despicable insults and reproaches. The great art of the story consists in the plausible excuses with which the ungrateful brother always contrives to cover his wickedness. After the eatastrophe, he endures deserved remorse and anguish. — JEFFREY.]

TALE XXI.

THE LEARNED BOY.

Like one well studied in a sad ostent.

To please his grandam. — Merchant of Venice.

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping, like snail, Unwillingly to school. As You Like It.

He is a better scholar than I thought he was He has a good sprag memory. - Merry Wives of Windsor.

One that feeds

On objects, arts, and imitations,

Which out of use, and staled by other men,

Begin his fashion. -Julius Cæsar.

Oh! torture me no more- I will confess.-2 Henry VI.

And in whatever state a man be thrown,

'Tis that precisely they would wish their own; Left the departed infants then their joy

Is to sustain each lovely girl and boy :
Whatever calling his, whatever trade,
To that their chief attention has been paid;
His happy taste in all things they approve,
His friends they honour, and his food they love;
His wish for order, prudence in affairs,

And equal temper, (thank their stars !) are theirs;
In fact, it seem'd to be a thing decreed,

And fix'd as fate, that marriage must succeed;
Yet some, like Jones, with stubborn hearts and hard,
Can hear such claims, and show them no regard.

Soon as our Farmer, like a general, found By what strong foes he was encompass'd round,— Engage he dared not, and he could not fly, But saw his hope in gentle parley lie ; With looks of kindness then, and trembling heart, He met the foe, and art opposed to art.

Now spoke that foe insidious-gentle tones, And gentle looks, assumed for Farmer Jones: "Three girls," the Widow cried, " a lively three "To govern well-indeed it cannot be."

"Yes," he replied, "it calls for pains and care; "But I must bear it :"-" Sir, you cannot bear ; "Your son is weak, and asks a mother's eye:" "That, my kind friend, a father's may supply:" "Such growing griefs your very soul will tease "To grieve another would not give me ease