Page images
PDF
EPUB

proud, are notwithstanding the reasons why he is so. Were he not a sinful creature, he would not be subject to a passion which rises from the depravity of his nature; were he not an ignorant creature, he would see that he has nothing to be proud of; and were not the whole species miserable, he would not have those wretched objects of compassion before his eyes, which are the occasions of this passion, and which make one man value himself more than another.

A wise man will be contented that his glory be deferred until such time as he shall be truly glorified; when his understanding shall be cleared, his will rectified, and his happiness assured; or, in other words, when he shall be neither sinful, nor ignorant, nor miserable.

If there be any thing which makes human nature appear ridiculous to beings of superior faculties, it must be pride. They know so well the vanity of these imaginary perfections that swell the heart of man, and of those little supernumerary advantages, whether in birth, fortune, or title, which one man enjoys above another, that it must certainly very much astonish, if it does not very much divert them, when they see a mortal puffed up, and valuing himself above his neighbours on any of these accounts, at the same time that he is obnoxious to all the common calamities of the species.

To set this thought in its true light, we will fancy, if you please, that yonder mole-hill is inhabited by reasonable creatures, and that every pismire (his shape and way of life only excepted) is endowed with human passions. How should

we smile to hear one give us an account of the pedigrees, distinctions, and titles that reign among them! Observe how the whole swarm divide and make way for the pismire that passes through them! You must understand that he is an emmet of quality, and has better blood in his veins than any pismire in the mole-hill. Do not you see how sensible he is of it, how slow he marches forward, how the whole rabble of ants keep their distance? Here you may observe one placed upon a little eminence, and looking down on a long row of labourers. He is the richest insect on this side the hillock; he has a walk of half a yard in length, and a quarter of an inch in breadth; he keeps a hundred menial servants, and has at least fifteen barley-corns in his granary. He is now chiding and beslaving the emmet that stands before him; and who, for alt that we can discover, is as good an emmet as himself.

But here comes an insect of figure! Do not you take notice of a little white straw that he carries in his mouth? That straw, you must understand, he would not part with for the longest tract about the mole-hill: did you but know what he has undergone to purchase it! See how the ants of all qualities and conditions swarm about him! Should this straw drop out of his mouth, you would see all this numerous circle of attendants follow the next that took it up, and leave the discarded insect, or run over his back to come at his successor.

If now you have a mind to see all the ladies of the mole-hill, observe first the pismire that listens

to the emmet on her left hand, at the same time that she seems to turn away her head from him. He tells this poor insect that she is a goddess, that her eyes are brighter than the sun, that life and death are at her disposal. She believes him, and gives herself a thousand little airs upon it. Mark the vanity of the pismire on your left hand : she can scarce crawl with age; but you must know she values herself upon her birth; and, if you mind, spurns at every one that comes within her reach. The little nimble coquet that is running along by the side of her is a wit: she has broke many a pismire's heart. Do but observe what a drove of lovers are running after her.

We will here finish this imaginary scene; but first of all, to draw the parallel closer, will suppose, if you please, that death comes down upon the mole-hill, in the shape of a cock-sparrow, who picks up, without distinction, the pismire of quality and his flatterers, the pismire of substance and his day-labourers, the white-straw officer and his sycophants, with all the goddesses, wits, and beauties of the mole-hill.

May we not imagine that beings of superior natures and perfections regard all the instances of pride and vanity, among our species, in the same kind of view, when they take a survey of those who inhabit the earth; or, in the language of an ingenious French poet, of those pismires that people this heap of dirt, which human vanity has divided in climates and regions.

ADDISON.

[ocr errors]

THE SAILOR'S WIDOW.

THE coast of Cornwall is in many parts most rugged, inhospitable, and treacherous. The barren rocks, that rise to an immense height above the ocean, have often, as it were, their little, but more dangerous dependencies, that stand apparently isolated in the sea, but whose connecting links may be clearly discerned at low water. They are frequently so distant as to lure the pilot to attempt to pass between those points of danger and the main land; but sad is then the fate of his good vessel and its crew, for the wreck is certain; a misfortune of more frequent occurrence is that in which the darkness and the tempest appear to league with the rocks, and to be the ready slaves of destruction and death.

The fate of the noble vessel, the Mary of London, will be long remembered in Penzance. She had made her voyage to New York, and was returning with a full cargo to recompense her owner and her crew. Their dangers were nearly at an end, and, strolling upon the deck, the homebound seamen were conversing on those topics so dear to the long absent-their wives, their parents, their children, their friends. Suddenly the weather changed; the storm rose; the clouds grew darker and darker; all hands were at work; and all were ready to combat, for they had often conquered, the tempest in its wrath.

It was now midnight, and so dark that the crew could not discern an object at the distance of a yard; not a single star shone in the heavens ;

and the white surf, which the bounding wave now and then flung toward the sky, was the only thing that could be distinguished from the deep blackness which was above and around. The lightning and the thunder had both ceased, but . the wind beat furiously against the vessel, and drove her wildly forward between the billows that spent their rage upon her hulk. The sails had long been furled; the guns had been thrown overboard, save the solitary one that every minute told the tale of distress to nought but the unheeding and pitiless element. The pilot had lashed the helm, for he was ignorant of his course; and the vessel proceeded on, amid the splash of the waves and the roaring of the tempest, whose mercy was its only hope.

The seamen were scattered about the deck; many of them were tried and weatherbeaten veterans, who gazed upon the elemental war as on a scene of which habit had made them fearless; others conversed in whispers, at every pause which the tempest made; some had given themselves up to despair, and had lain quietly down to await the result; few, and but a few, had determined to die like cowards, or like brutes, and had drowned their reason, to prepare for the body's death: one man was on his knees lifting up his soul to that God, to whom he knew the tempest was but as the gentle south wind.

Suddenly the pilot, who stood with his arms folded beside the useless rudder, exclaimed"Captain, I see a light!" The words passed round the vessel like electric fluid, and the sea

« PreviousContinue »