refined by a collegiate education, grafted on the precepts of the law: it matters little that he is vain and fickle, for none of us is without his faults, and frailty is an attribute, from which whoever is free is more or less than human.

Poetry claims him for her truest votary, and many are the offerings he pays at her shrine; while music, that waits upon his tongue, seasons them with a vocal melody of which his throat is the peculiar source. He therefore frequently mounts into the consecrated altitudes of song, and delights the company with the smooth inflexions of his voice, attuned to some sonnet of his own composing.

The course of a traveller who, in quest of novelty, has passed over the varieties of earth's wide landscape, and the fairy glades blessed with the hand of fertility, is not unlike the route I have performed through the varied regions of mind, and the survey I have taken of the blooming tracts of cultivated nature. I have by no means described all the members of our CENOBIUM, which branches out still farther into every

modification of character and feeling, which originality of mind naturally assumes, but these are the principal personages who have just claims to mention, or who possess qualities which lay within the scope of a pen like mine to delineate. The society in the precarious nature of its continuance is not unlike the rainbow in the variety and union of its colours; and possibly before this lucubration shall have had time to appear before the public eye it may cease to exist to observation. My labours then will not, in that event, be the less acceptable, if they shall be the means of preserving and recording the transitory peculiarities of genius, and the diversities of individual taste. I hope they may also be expected to have another effect; that of promoting the institution of similar associations in other parts of the country; and of impressing the caviller with a firm conviction, that the apparent antipathies in the elements of humanity, tend only to promote the grand design of creation, and to strengthen the chain of universal harmony. CRITO.

A DREAM.

How wondrous 'tis that when the eyes are clos'd,
And all the senses in deep slumber bound,
The mind still holds her functions undepress'd;
Sees, hears, and feels; recalls events gone by,
Hath strange presentiment of those to come,
And, quitting earth's dull sphere, exulting soars
To each bright realm by fancy conjur'd up,
And cloth'd in hues of beauty; there to mix
With laughing spirits on the moonlit green;
Or rove with angels thro' the courts of Heaven,
And catch the music flowing from their tongues!
Is it the soul that, by her innate power,
Doth cause those phantasies to rise in all
The air and seeming of reality?

Or do celestial beings hover round

The couch of mortals, and instruct the mind
With visions of futurity? It may be :-
And these same spirits do perchance delight
To watch the slumbers of the man of woe,
And give to his worn mind sweet dreams of bliss,
For which he sighs in vain. But, Oh! there are
Visions so full of horror, that they shake
The soul with fear, nor let tir'd nature find
Rest e'en on slumber's still and downy couch :-
To such belong the Dream I would recall,

Eur. Mag. Nov. 1823.

3 E.

On the proud summit of a lofty rock
Isat, and gaz'd upon the pale, round moon,
As she roll'd smiling thro' the angry clouds
That spread their gloomy mantle o'er the sky,
And shrouded all the stars of Heav'n, save one,
Which shone awhile in solitary state,

Then sunk among the clouds, as tho' to seek
For shelter in their wide and dark'ning pall,
From the rude winds that revell'd in the air.
The wild waves roar'd beneath me, and their foam
Dash'd on the steep rock's adamantine side,
And mingl'd with the hurricane that swept
O'er ocean's bosom. On my right hand grew
A forest, where each lofty tree bent down
In adoration of the ruthless blast,
And not a leaf within its wide domain
Was still, but all made music to the winds.
I hark'd, delighted to their rustling sound,
And mus'd on wild, unutterable things;
When, lo! the moon had vanish'd, and the forest
It's foliage ceas'd to wave; the rough blast slept,
And the wide sea became a boundless plain,
Thro' which a bright, interminable line
Of pale light ran, and into two strange realms
Divided it:-from out the one there rose
Commingling sounds of merriment and woe,
And beings of all ages dwelt therein;

Of whom, some smil'd right joyfully, but they
Were few, for most did weep, and others seem'd
Mute with a hidden sorrow; many tore
"Their hair in agony, whilst others laugh'd
With maniac wildness, as they viewed the sun
Roll proudly o'er them thro' a host of clouds,
Which seem'd to envy his magnificence,
And throng'd around him as if fain to bar
His wide and glorious passage thro' the heavens;
But he mov'd onward in his majesty,
And clothed them in his radiance as he past.
This was the realm of Life:-the other that
Of Death, where all was desolately still;
No verdure deck'd the earth; the sky above
Was lost in utter darknesss, and the shades
Of buried mortals wander'd thro' the gloom
Unceasingly and silent: in the midst,
Upon a throne built up of human bones,
Sat Death exulting; in his lank right hand
He held an iron sceptre, and his left
Contain'd a scroll, in which his victim's names
In mystic characters of blood were trac'd.
The ghastly monarch gaz'd upon the crowd
Of spectres that surrounded his high throne,-
Then look'd upon the length'ning scroll and smil'd.

My dream was chang'd-and in the realm of Life
Two lovers held fond converse side by side:
There was a language written in their eyes,
By them alone to be interpreted;

There was sweet music in each other's speech,
Which they alone could hear and answer to ;
And there was magic in each other's touch,
Which only they could feel. Both were in youth,

And so surpassing beauteous was the maid,
That as I look'd upon her graceful form,,
Mark'd the soft azure of her speaking eye,
Where joy and passion mingled, trac'd the hues
Of health and gladness on her glowing cheek,
And view'd the ringlets of her glossy hair,
Bound o'er a brow of whiteness, I could fain

Have deem'd young Hebe had come down from heaven,
Array'd in everlasting loveliness,

And left her blissful station 'mong the gods

To seek new raptures in a mortal passion.
The youth gaz'd on her, and his large, dark eyes
Betray'd his adoration. She the while
Past her fair hand across them playfully,
Bidding him look upon a fading flower
That grew beside him, with its little head
Reclin❜d in gentle modesty. He turn'd
And gather'd it, and plac'd it in her hair;
Then his dark eyes met hers again-and worshipp'd.
Oh! 'twas a scene of bliss ;-but soon it chang'd:-
Over my eyes a thin mist slowly came-

Then moving on, it vanish'd-and I sought
Those lov'd and loving ones upon the spot
Where they had sat together: I beheld'

Nought save the sweet flower which they lately cull'd
Now with ring on the earth :-they both had died-
And as I view'd their dim shades wandering
In death's dark empire I did weep to think
That youth and loveliness should perish thus.

My Dream was chang'd again-and I beheld,
Within the realm of life, a dying child
Upon its mother's lap; a hectic flush

Play'd o'er its features: in its half-clos'd eye
The soul seem'd waiting for a summons thence,
And as the weeping parent bent to kiss
Its parched lips it gave a long, faint cry,
Lisp'd the dear name of "mother"—and expir'd.
Oh! then it was most pitiful to see

How that fond mother did bemoan her child,
Now pale and lifeless in her arms; she shed
Tears of deep sorrow on its pallid cheek,
And tore in agony her long, dark locks,
Whilst death look'd on her from his lofty throne
And smil'd at the destruction he had caus'd.

Again my vision chang'd-and in life's realm
A youth stood gazing on the fleeting clouds
Which pass'd above him in phantastic show;
And whilst his busy fancy pictur'd there
A multitude of strange and various shapes,
A spirit, unimaginably bright,

Was seen to glide sublimely thro' the air,
Borne on a silver car. A robe, whose hue
Was like to that of love's peculiar star,

Flow'd round her heav'nly form; an amaranth wreath

Past o'er her forehead, and encircled locks,

Which seem'd of living gold: her eyes had drunk

Of the blue colour of the skies, and youth
Immortal o'er her features cast a charm
Ineffable:-undying music breathed,
In strains of sweetest harmony, where'er

The beauteous spirit pass'd :-the car mov'd on
Amid the melody, and proudly lit

Upon the wond'ring earth. The youth had gaz'd
On that bright vision till his eyes were dim,
And all his senses in amazement rapt;
The spirit smil'd on him, and from the car
She took a golden chalice, mantling high,
With juice, which but to look upon was joy:
She plac'd it in his outstretch'd hand, and said,
“Drink deep, and fear not 'tis the cup of bliss:"
He knelt, and grasp'd it eagerly-but as
He touch'd the liquid with his longing lip
The chalice broke to atoms-and he died
In one wild agony of boundless grief:-
The monarch of the grave look'd joyful then,
And laugh'd in mockery of human woe.

Still my wild vision chang'd-and now appear'd,
In life's wide realm, a most majestic mount,
On whose high top a glittering bauble shone
Bright in the sun-beams, and allur'd all eyes
To turn towards its splendour;afar off
Stood one who look'd on it with eager gaze
And strove anon to tear it from its height,
To deck his brows withal;-upon his way
He trampled innocence to earth: brave men
He put aside by cunning and fair words,
Or vanquish'd them by treason; then he slew,
Beautiful women and sweet smiling babes,
Without one tear of pity or remorse,
In his ambitious striving for a toy.

Now reach'd he the high summit of the mount,
And anxiously stretch'd forth his hand to grasp
The plaything which he sigh'd for-but in vain;
He toppled headlong, and grim death laugh'd loud.

Then o'er my vision came a fearful change:-
The sun, moon, stars,-all beam'd in heav'n at once,
Dazzling the earth with splendour.-In the midst
A fiery comet rear'd his burning crest,

And mov'd along triumphantly and fast:
Each star that he approach'd ran blazing on
To other orbs: they too took fire, and spread
One mighty conflagration o'er the skies.
Earth caught the universal sympathy,
And soon a burning wilderness became :-
The countless beings it contain'd set up

One long, long shriek--and all was mute again.

My wild dream chang'd once more:-the fires of heaven And earth were all extinguish'd, and the moon,

In rayless and majestic solitude,

Seem'd fix'd for ever in the alter'd skies: "

The plain which lay beneath me had become

One dark and silent realm; death rul'd o'er all,
And desolation fill'd the universe!

H. AD.