CHAUBERT THE MISANTHROPE. AMONGST the variety of human events which come under the observation of every man of common experience in life, many instances must occur to his memory of the false opinions he had formed of good and evil fortune. Things which we lament as the most unhappy occurrences and the severest dispensations of Providence frequently turn out to have been vouchsafements of a contrary sort; whilst our prosperity and success, which for a time delight and dazzle us with the gleams of pleasure and visions of ambition, turn against us in the end of life, and sow the bed of death with thorns, that goad us in those awful moments when the vanities of this world lose their value, and the mind of man being on its last departure, takes a melancholy review of time mispent and blessings misapplied.

Though it is part of every good man's religion to resign himself to God's will, yet a few reflections upon the worldly wisdom of that duty will be of use to every one who falls under the immediate pressure of what is termed misfortune in life. By calling to mind the false estimates we have frequently made of worldly good and evil, we shall get hope on our side, which, though all friends else should fail us, will be a cheerful companion by the way. By a patient acquiescence under painful events for the present, we shall be sure to contract a tranquillity of temper that will stand us in future stead; and, by keeping a fair face to the world, we shall, by degrees, make an easy heart, and find innumerable re

sources of consolation which a fretful spirit never can discover.

"I wonder why I was so uneasy under my late loss of fortune," said a very worthy gentleman to me one day, "seeing it was not occasioned by my own misconduct; for the health and content I now enjoy, in the humble station I have retired to, are the greatest blessings of my life, and I am devoutly thankful for the event which I deplored." How often do we hear young unmarried people exclaim-What an escape have I had from such a man, or such a woman. And yet, perhaps, they had not wisdom enough to suppose this might turn out to be the case at the time it happened, but complained, lamented, and reviled, as if they were suffering persecution from a cruel and tyrannic Being, who takes pleasure in tormenting his unoffending creatures.

An extraordinary example occurs to me of this criminal excess of sensibility in the person of a Frenchman named Chaubert, who happily lived long enough to repent of the extravagance of his misanthropy. Chaubert was born at Bordeaux, and died there not many years ago in the Franciscan convent; I was in that city soon after this event, and my curiosity led me to collect several particulars relative to this extraordinary humorist. He inherits a good fortune from his parents, and in his youth was of a benevolent disposition, subject however to sudden caprices and extremes of love and hatred. Various causes are assigned for his misanthropy; but the principle disgust, which turned him furious against mankind, seems to have arisen from the treachery of a friend, who

ran away with his mistress, just when Chaubert was on the point of marrying her; the ingratitude of this man was certainly of a very black nature, and the provocation heinous, for Chaubert, whose passions were always in extremes, had given a thousand instances of romantic generosity to this unworthy friend, and reposed an entire confidence in him in the matter of his mistress he had even saved him from drowning one day at the imminent risk of his life, by leaping out of his own boat into the Garonne, and swimming to the assistance of his, when it was sinking in the middle of the stream. His passion for his mistress was no less vehement; so that his disappointment had every aggravation possible, and operating upon a nature more than commonly susceptible, reversed every principle of humanity in the heart of Chaubert, and made him for the greatest part of his life the declared enemy of human nature.

After many years passed in foreign parts, he was accidentally brought to his better senses by discovering that through these events, which he had so deeply resented, he had providentially escaped from miseries of the most fatal nature: thereupon he returned to his own country, and entering into the order of Franciscans, employed the remainder of his life in atoning for his past errors after the most exemplary manner. On all occasions of distress Father Chaubert's zeal presented itself to the relief and comfort of the unfortunate, and sometimes he would enforce his admonitions of resignation by the lively picture he would draw of his own extravagancies; in

extraordinary cases he has been known to give his communicants a transcript or diary, in his own hand writing, of certain passages of his life, in which he had minuted his thoughts at the time they occurred, and which he kept by him for such extraordinary purposes. This paper was put into my hands by a gentleman who had received much benefit from this good father's conversation and instruction; I had his leave for transcribing it, or publishing, if I thought fit; this I shall now avail myself of, as I think it is a very curious journal.

"My son, whoever thou art, profit by the word of experience, and let the example of Chaubert, who was a beast without reason, and is become a man by repentance, teach thee wisdom in adversity, and inspire thy heart with sentiments of resignation to the will of the Almighty!

"When the treachery of people, which I ought to have despised, had turned my heart to marble and my blood to gall, I was determined upon leaving France, and seeking out some of those countries from whose famished inhabitants nature withholds her bounty, and where men groan in slavery and sorrow. As I passed through the villages towards the frontiers of Spain, and saw the peasants dancing in a ring to the pipe, or carousing at their vintages, indignation smote my heart, and I wished that heaven would dash their cups with poison, or blast the sunshine of their joys with hail and tempest.

"I traversed the delightful province of Biscay, without rest to the soles of my feet or sleep to the

temples of my head. Nature was before my eyes dressed in her gayest attire:- Thou mother of fools,' I exclaimed, why dost thou trick thyself out so daintily for knaves and harlots to make a property of thee? The children of thy womb are vipers in thy bosom, and will sting thee mortally when thou hast given them their fill at thy improvident breasts.' The birds chanted in the groves, the fruit trees glistened on the mountain sides, the waterfalls made music for the echoes, and man went singing to his labour:— 'Give me,' said I,' the clank of fetters, and the yell of galley slaves, under the lashes of the whip.' And in the bitterness of my heart I cursed the earth as I trod over its prolific surface.

"I entered the ancient kingdom of Castile, and the prospect was a recreation to my sorrowvexed soul: I saw the lands lie waste and fallow; the vines trailed on the ground and buried their fruitage in the furrows; the hand of man was idle, and nature slept as in the cradle of creation; the villages were thinly scattered, and ruin sat upon the unroofed sheds, where lazy pride lay stretched upon its straw in beggary and vermin. Ah! this is something, I cried out, this scene is fit for man, and I'll enjoy it.-I saw a yellow half starved form, cloaked to the heels in rags, his broad brimmed beaver on his head, through which his staring locks crept out in squalid shreds, that fell like snakes upon the shoulders of a fiend.— 'Such ever be the fate of human nature! I'll aggravate his misery by the insult of charity. Hark ye, Castilian,' I exclaimed, take this pisette; it is coin, it is silver from the mint of