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him; but he thought I was joking him, and said, that he had not only never seen him, but had never believed in him; that the Silesians had never given credit to the stories about him, all of which had been believed and circulated by the Bohemians alone. I suppose a Bohemian guide would have assured me, that it was merely a Silesian superstition, which his countrymen had always derided.

The chapel at the summit is a small, round building, partly of laths, partly of stone, and not more than twelve or fifteen feet in diameter; it was built by a Count Schafgotsch, whose descendant still owns the whole range of these mountains, and is the richest subject in Silesia; the number of his vassals is said to be upwards of thirty-five thousand. The chapel is dedi cated to St. Lawrence, and the Cistertian monks, at Warmbrünn*, are obliged to perform mass in it on the saint's day, and upon four other feast days, annually.

After passing about an hour and a half upon this spot, we thought it time to descend once more to the habitable regions of the earth.

Sentiments of devotion I have always found the first to take possession of the mind, on ascending lofty mountains. At the summit of the Giant's Head, my first thought was turned to the Supreme Creator, who

* A place at the distance of three miles from Hirschberg, noted, as its name purports, for its hot wells, which numbers of bathers and water-drinkers are used to frequent in summer.

gave existence to all that immensity of objects expanded before my view. The transition from this idea to that of my own relation, as an immortal soul, with the Author of Nature, was natural and immediate; from this to the recollection of my native country, my parents, and friends, there was but a single and sudden step. On returning to the hut where we had lodged, I wrote the following lines in the book:

From lands beyond the vast Atlantic tide, Celestial Freedom's most belov'd abode, Panting I climb'd the mountain's craggy side, And view'd the wondrous works of Nature's God.

Where yonder summit, peering to the skies,
Beholds the earth beneath it with disdain;
O'er all the regions round I cast my eyes,
And anxious sought my native home-in vain.

As to that native home, which still infolds
Those youthful friendships to my soul so dear;
Still you, my parents, in its bosom holds,
My fancy flew, I felt the starting tear.

Then, in the rustling of the morning wind,
Methought I heard a spirit whisper fair,
“Pilgrim, forbear, still upwards raise thy mind,
Look to the skies, thy native home is there."

You have now an account of our excursions

upon the

Giant Mountains, which, although in point of elevation

they cannot stand a comparison with those of Switzerland, and much less with those of South America, still yield an ample compensation of pleasure for the toil and trouble of ascending them. There are travellers, who think to give themselves an air of courage and importance, by representing parts of this tour as dangerous; but, in truth, with the use of common prudence and precaution, there is no more danger than in walking in the streets of any city.

THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER GEDDES, LL.D.

"An Israelite indeed, in whom was no guile."

DR. GEDDES was a man of no common character; he was endowed with superior talents and high attainments, as well as with amiable and manly virtues. Ignorant and systematic bigots may vow eternal enmity to his fame, for his intrepidity as a Scripture critic, and his friends may lament his bold aberrations; but his labours were usefully directed, and, had he lived to finish his great work, it would have formed a most valuable classical commentary on the Bible.

Truth

To great penetration and perseverance in literary pursuits, Dr. Geddes united an honest mind. was the end and aim of his studies; and conscious that he endeavoured to attain her by no sinister means, and loved her for her own sake, he unbosomed his sentiments without reserve; and, appealing to the wise and liberal of all persuasions, employed no measure of prudence to secure the good-will of the enlighted and the prejudiced. He was irritable by nature, and precipitate

by habit; but his errors are pardonable, as springing immediately from his virtues.

Alexander Geddes was born* of parents who derived their livelihood from a small farm, in the parish of Ruthven, county of Banff, Scotland. Among the few books possessed by his parents, who were Roman Catholics, the principal was an English Bible, and the attentention of the young Geddes was chiefly directed to this volume, after he had been taught by the village school-mistress to read; a circumstance which, it is supposed, gave the bias to his infant mind, and formed the biblical critic in embryo. From the tuition of the matron of the village, he was intrusted to the care of a student of Aberdeen, whom the Laird of Arradoul had engaged to instruct his two sons. The education of Mr. Geddes was gratuitous. Hence, by the aid of his patront, he was removed to Scalan, a free Roman Catholic seminary in the Highlands, of obscure fame. In this academy, situated in a deeply-excavated valley, so overshadowed by surrounding hills, that the sun seldom made his appearance, the pupil commenced his acquaintance with the Latin language, but made no great proficiency in it. From Scalan he was removed to the Scotch college at Parist, where a new field of literature was presented to his view, and was not opened in vain. We shall not enumerate his various attain

He was born in the year, 1737.

+ He was then 14 years of age.

He arrived in that metropolis, in December 1758, at the age of twenty-one..

ments, which excited equal pleasure and astonishment in the professors. An offer was made to him to settle at Paris, and take a share in the public labours of the college; this, however, he refused, and he returned to Scotland*, when he was ordered to Dundee, to officiate as a priest in the county of Angus, and became a resident in the mansion of the Earl of Traquaire, amid the delightful scenery of Tweeddale. Leisure for study was afforded in this elegant retreat; and the esteem of the family were additional circumstances which increased the attraction of his situation. But, alas! love shot his arrows at this priest+, and Buxtorf was in danger of being supplanted by Ovid. A female relation of the noble earl made a wound for which philosophy has no cure. As Mr. G. had taken the vow of religious celibacy, flight was the only measure to be adopted. He again quitted his native country, to forget himself amidst the greater varieties and volatilities of Parist.

To North Britain, however, he returned, and ac cepted the charge of a Catholic congregation at Auchinhalrig, where he built a new chapel and parsonage house, not only superintending these buildings, but labouring at them himself, being as ready a carpenter, and as expert in the use of the saw and the plane as if

In the year 1764.

He was then in the 28th year of his age.

Mr. G. before his departure, addressed to his fair one a poem, intitled the Confessional.

It was in the spring of 1 769.

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