these regions of desolation; what marks are here of the destruction that sin has introduced into this fair creation !—what testimony of the influence of moral over natural things! It was for man, in his purity, that the earth brought forth fruit and seed after its kind; it is for man, the transgressor, that the ground is cursed, and that it brings forth thorns and thistles. It is to rebuke his pride, and check his disobedience, that his own aspiring works are ruined. The Pastum and Pompeii of the world still stand in ruin to warn us, as distinctly as they were warned, whose language was confounded on the plain of Shinar, that "man walketh in a vain show, and disquieteth himself in vain.”

The traveller who pauses to meditate among these ruins, cannot but remember, with fearful anticipation, that Rome also is now but the shadow of itself; and when he considers the inroads of the same noxious miasma, in conjunction with the processions, the vestments, the

tinklings, and illuminations of a delusive superstition, he will scarcely fail to recollect, that it was said by one inspired of old, "And the voice of harpers and musicians, and of pipers and trumpeters, shall be heard no more at all in thee: and no craftsman, of whatsoever craft he be, shall be found any more in thee: and the sound of a mill-stone shall be heard no more at all in thee. And the light of a candle shall shine no more at all in thee: and the voice of the bridegroom and of the bride shall be heard no more at all in thee; for thy merchants were the great men of the earth; for by thy sorceries were all nations deceived. And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth."-Rev. xviii. 22, 23, 24.

NAPLES.

THE populace of Naples are proverbially ignorant and degraded. The profuse bountifulness of nature grants the necessaries of life, with little demand for exertion, to the crowds of human beings, who bask themselves in the sunshine upon the shores of this beautiful bay, and exhibit an odious example of the prevalence of filthy and stupid habits. The climate is so temperate, that some observers pretend that one half of the inhabitants of this great city live out of doors; only retiring during the night to some shelter. At any rate, we see here very long streets, through which you can scarcely make your way, they being crowded with coblers' stalls and labouring artizans, who salute your ears with all the din of toil. But these, while they take the

same advantage of the mildness of the sky, are in striking contrast with the indolent, who linger on the shore and around the quarter where the fishermen dwell, apparently without an anxious thought how they are to satisfy the hunger with which the evening will assail them. It is not to be supposed, that people who have so little foresight in matters so near at hand, and so little anxiety to guard against evils which are most appalling, even to our animal nature, should be solicitous about political privileges which they cannot understand, and sacrifice present ease to obtain rights for a distant posterity.

We have seen the people of England roused by such a motive, as the disgrace of leaving their children stripped of ancient privileges. They might perhaps have endured for themselves grievances, which they could not endure to transmit to their offspring.

The revolution in the government of the United States of America was mainly caused by this

magnanimous incentive. The evils complained of were almost exclusively viewed as seeds of heavier calamity than they at the time experienced. The war was the result of the prospective wisdom of less than three millions of energetic yeomen, who claimed the privileges of Englishmen; who never alleged that they could not pay the stamp-duty, or the tea-tax, but only that it was demanded in an unconstitutional manner. This revolution is the single example on record, if we read the oldest letter on the scroll of history, where a whole nation has risen in support of its abstract rights, and reasoned itself into the conviction, that it was better to resist a wrong in the outset, than to purchase an immunity, from even a seven years' war, by a light payment to ancient rulers. This prospective wisdom could not have been displayed if the principle had not been incessantly recognized, that representation in Parliament and taxation must go together.