er; he forgot his arms, for he trusted to his brother; he was discoursing wonders to his friend, when our chiefs rushed upon him, and bore him away. But oh! my father, he must not die; for he is not a war captive; I promised that the chain of friendship should be right between us. Chieftains, your prince must not falsify his word: father, your son must not be a liar! Poc. Listen, warriors; listen, father; the white man is my brother's brother! Grim. King! when last night our village shook with the loud noise, it was the Great Spirit who talked to his priest; my mouth shall speak his commands: King, we must destroy the strangers, for they are not our god's children; we must take their scalps, and wash our hands in the white man's blood, for he is an enemy to the Great Spirit. Nan. O priest, thou hast dreamed a false dream; Miami, thou tellest the tale that is not. Hearken, my father, to my true words! the white man is beloved by the Great Spirit; his king is like you, my father, good and great; and he comes from a land beyond the wide water, to make us wise and happy. Powhatan deliberates. Music. Pow. Stranger, thou must prepare for death. Six of our brethren fell by thy hand. Thou must die. Poc. Bather, O father! Smith. Had not your people first beset me, king, I would have prov'd a friend and brother to them; Arts I'd have taught, that should have made them gods, Richer than red men ever yet beheld. Think not I fear to die. Lead to the block. Music. The king motions with his band, and Smith is led to the block. Mi. (to executioners) Warriors, when the third signal strikes, sink your tomahawks in his head. Poc. Oh, do not, warriors, do not! Father, incline your heart to mercy; he will win your battles, he will vanquish your enemies. (1st signal) Brother, speak! save your brother! Warriors, are you brave? preserve the brave man! (2d signal) Mami, priest, sing the song of peace; ah! strike not, hold! mercy! Music. The 3d signal is struck, the hatchets are lifted up: when the princess, shrieking, runs distractedly to the block, and presses Smith's bead to her bosom. White man, thou shalt not die; or I will die with thee! Music. She leads Smith to the throne, and kneels. My ather, dost thou love thy daughter? listen to her voice; look upon her tears they ask for mercy to the captive. Is thy child dear to thee, my father? Thy child will die with the white man. Plaintive music. She bows her head to his feet. Powhatan, after some deliberation, looking on his daughter with tenderness, presents her with a string of white wampum. -Pocahontas, with the wildest expressions of joy, rushes forward with Smith, presenting the beads of peace. Captive! thou art free!— Music. General joy is diffused-Miami and Grimosco only appear discontented. The prince Nantaquas congratulates Smith. The princess shows the most extravagant emotions of rapture. Smith. O woman! angel sex! where'er thou art, (To be continued.) [he bows upon her hand.] APHORISMS ON MAN. RECENTLY, HE, whom common, gross, or stale objects allure, and, when obtained, content, is a vulgar being, incapable of greatness in thought or action. The shameless flatterer is a shameless knave. As the imprudence of flattery, so the imprudence of egotism. Who affects useless singularities, has surely a little mind. A sneer is often the sign of a heartless malignity. Who courts the intimacy of a professed sneerer, is a professed knave. All moral dependence on him, who has been guilty of ONE act of positive cool villany, against an acknowledged virtuous and noble character, is credulity, imbecility, or insanity. Avoid the eye that discovers with rapidity the bad, and is slow to see the good. LAVATER. LETTERS ON MYTHOLOGY. TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH OF C. A. DEMOUSTIER. LETTER XXIÍ. THE celestial family were seated in all their magnificence at the divine banquet; Vulcan drank nectar in deep draughts, and devoured his conquest with his eyes. Though pale and languishing, Venus still eclipsed the beauty of all the other goddesses. The latter restrained their mortification, and kept silent. Jupiter sat near Juno with true conjugal dignity; while Weariness, under the mask of Ceremony, gravely presided at the feast. Apollo alone animated this monstrous dullness. He recounted his pastoral life; he spoke of his amours, of his errors, of the miseries of inconstancy, and of the happiness he should henceforth enjoy in fidelity. His looks seemed to address this promise to Venus. Venus listened to him with that interest which is excited by the amiable candor of youth. She was mute, attentive, motionless, and perceived not that Night made the signal for Pleasure and Amusement. Let us pass to the day. The toilet of Venus was peculiarly brilliant, for all the gods appeared at it. Apollo was amiable, lively, and seducing; he pleased; he was invited to come the following day, and on that day he was asked for every succeeding one. His conversation was animated, intellectual and tender. Vulcan loved Venus, but it was not with a delicate affection; and when the husband began his reign the lover disappeared. Apollo's society filled up those interregnums, rendered so interesting by sentiment. Their intimacy became every day more tender; Venus began to be alarmed; she even confessed her scruples to her friend; but the latter threw himself at her feet. "Alas!" said he, "how unjust you are, and how little do you know my heart! without aspiring to any thing, I find happiness near you. A word, a single kind look, a smile places me at the height of my desires. Love wants flattery, VOL. II. 37 favors are his aliment; but friendship, more delicate, lives only on the flowers of sentiment." These tender metaphysics re-assured Venus; but the snare was not the less fatal. Concealed under the veil of friendship, love is like the rose-bud enclosed in its green sheath; by imperceptible degrees it pierces the thin covering, it half unfolds, its progress is rapid but insensible to the eye which watches and waits for it. Thus did Apollo, by a slight artifice, make Venus pass from apprehension to confidence, and from confidence to desire. His looks became yet more expressive, his voice more tender, his song more touching, and Venus was never weary of hearing him sing. One day he hesitated some moments; Venus insisted; then casting down his eyes, he sung with a faultering voice sentiments like these:-" E'er since I pass my sweetest moments at the feet of Cypris, it is in vain that I examine my heart, to unravel my sentiments; I know, alas, too well that I sigh, that I am intoxicated with a wild emotion, but I know not whether to call it love or friendship. I believe these two powers are in intelligence together to torment me by turns; in the glances she directs to me, friendship counterfeits love; my heart then full of hope palpitates beyond its usual measure; but if I advance near her, love is then obliged to counterfeit friendship. By an involuntary error, fearing that my heart will fly the sister only for the brother, or the brother for the sister, I confound the sacrifices of love and of friendship." After Venus had given this mysterious song a kind reception, friendship did not remain long of their party; and soon our tender friends became passionate lovers. But the eyes of Vulcan, the looks of all Olympus would intercept their slightest glances. A private interview would be so sweet! yet neither the one nor the other had any pretext for absenting themselves. Submitting yet to established usages, Venus dared not abandon her spouse; Apollo, newly recalled, might not quit the king of heaven. At length circumstances altered; Vulcan was obliged to repair to Lemnos. During his absence, Venus obtained permission to visit her planet. Apollo supplicated Jupiter to grant him again the chariot of the Sun. Jupiter consented. Without doubt our lovers encountered in the celestial road, and Venus's infidelity may be foreseen. But their guilty joys will pass away, and Hymen be avenged. Since that period Apollo has never quitted the throne of light. We are even assured that it is he who regulates the order of the seasons; who makes the fruits and the flowers expand, and who, during his rapid course, sees every thing change, except my heart and yours perhaps.-Every year Phœbus, in recommencing his tour, finds in you new talents, new graces, but always the same lovers. While frantic youth runs after variety, ah what a sweet uniformity do I not find in my passion! could my heart indeed joy to wander from the object of its tenderness? My love is like yourself, Emilia, it cannot change. LETTER XXIII. At the peaceful moment in which Vesper harnesses the car of Night, the chariot of the Sun stopped on the horizon of heaven; it was environed by clouds of gold and purple, forming a radiant chaos. The astronomers of those times took this phenomenon for a meteor, and spent the night in admiring it: But how ignorant are mortals of the secrets of the gods! this phenomenon was but a brilliant veil under which the king of Day waited for the queen of Beauty. She arrived at the appointed place borne on the shepherd's star. The lovers now descended secretly into the island of Rhodes, and under cover of the meteor escaped the telescopes of the curious. Alone in this island, covered with woods and hills, they were not long in sweetly losing themselves; happily they wandered together, and Mystery, who guided them, knew the clue of the labyrinth. To assure the steps of Venus, Apollo sustained her gently in his arms; from time to time |