When he was speaker of the parliament, with his wisdom and eloquence he so crossed a purpose of Cardinal Wolsey's, that the cardinal, in a chafe, sent for him to Whitehall; where, when he had danced attendance for a long time, the cardinal coming out, said in the presence of many, "Master More, I would you bad been at Rome when you were made speaker of the parliament house." He immediately replied, "And if it pleased your grace, so would I, for then I should have seen a famous city, whereof I have heard much, and read much. but never saw." The same cardinal, at a full counciltable, when Sir Thomas was first made privy counsellor, moved that there might be a lieutenant-general of the realm chosen for certain considerations. The body of the council inclined thereunto; Sir Thomas More opposed it, which so vexed the haughty cardinal, that he said, "Are not you ashamed, who are the meanest man here, to dissent from so many honourable and wise personages? you prove yourself a plain fool." Whereupon Sir Thomas replied, "Thanks be to God that the king's majesty hath but one fool in his right honourable council." When he was lord chancellor, he enjoined a gentleman to pay a large sum of money unto a poor widow whom he had oppressed. The gentleman said, "Then I do hope your lordship will give me a long day to pay it."-" You shall have your request, (said Sir Thomas ;) Monday next is St. Barnabas, the longest day in all the year; pay it then, or else you shall kiss the Fleet." Being asked, after his condemnation, and before his execution, whether he had changed his mind, he said, "Yea, for I thought to have been shaven, but now, seeing I die so shortly, I will let my beard grow." When he was in prison, and his books and papers taken from him, he shut his chamber-windows, saying, "When the wares are gone, and the tools taken away, we must shut up shop." When he went to be executed, a certain woman offered him a cup of wine, which he refused, saying, "Good woman, Christ in his passion drank gall and no wine." When he was to mount the scaffold, he said to one of the sheriffs, "I pray thee help me up, as for my coming down, I take no care." When the hangman (according to his custom) requested him to pardon him his death, he answered, "I do forgive thee with all my heart; but one thing I will tell thee, thou wilt never have honesty in cutting off my head, my neck is so short." When Erasmus, having visited Sir Thomas More, was about to return home, Sir Thomas lent him a favourite horse to convey him to the coast; but, instead of returning the horse, Erasmus took it into Holland, and, in return, sent More the following epigram : Quod mihi dixisti Crede quod edas, et edis; Crede quod habeas, et habes. This conveys a severe satire upon the zeal of Sir Thomas for that miraculous dogma of the Romish church, transubstantiation. A smart and pithy translation is requested. The Contemporary Traveller. RECENT EXCURSION TO MOUNT (From a Correspondent, in Brewster's Journal.) WE left Naples about eleven A.M., and having arrived at Resina, found Salvatore ready to accompany us. We mounted asses, and after a long ride during torrents of rain, reached the hermitage on the side of the hill at one o'clock. The road so far is very rugged, with many detached fragments of lava; but the great bed of the latter is now resuming marks of slight verdure. The habitation of the monks itself is placed on a projection from the mountain of tufa rock, formed in the year 1779 by the eruption, and lies so towards the crater, that, though the lava flows on both sides, the eminence itself is left untouched. When we arrived here the weather appeared to be clearing, and, as we had plenty of time to ascend and see the sun set from the top, we remained some time with the holy fathers, and the afternoon answered our expectations. When almost fair, we set off and pursued our way on asses towards the cone. Our road (if such it could be called) lay over an extensive bed of lava, partly formed in 1822. A more desolate scene can scarcely be conceived; rugged, rising grounds, with craggy, convulsed dells between, all formed of this hard, black, monotonous, and frightfully romantic lava; the very Tartarus on earth, whether we imagine it burning with sheets of liquid fire, unquenchable by human means, and rolling down its dread, resistless tide, or whether we see its wide convulsed remains, its indescribably horrid, desolate, uninhabitable aspect. It seems as it the elements of nature were exposed to light, and one chaotic spot left amidst the rich ness of creation. Passing this dreary tract, we reached the bottom of the cone at half-past two, where we left our beasts and ascended on foot. It is composed of productions of the volcano itself, and the exterior is quite coated with loose cinders, which render the ascent very laborious, as you often sink back till you are above the ancle in these loose materials. I ascended it in forty minutes. When we reached the brink of the crater, we found it full of smoke and fumes, while the strongest sulphureous smells prevailed. We rested and refreshed ourselves for some time in a hot crevice, where we left several eggs to roast, and then advanced round the south brink of the abyss, and had a tolerably easy walk for about half its circumference, during which we heard occasionally noises like thunder proceed ing from rocks every now and then giving way from the sides in vast masses, whose fall is reverberated and renewed by the echoes of the vast cavern. At length the edge of the crater grew much lower, forming a gap in the side of the cone next to Pompeii, which we first descended, and then scrambled inwards towards the centre of the mountain, being a fall on the whole of 1,000 feet. In this gulf nature presented herself under a new form, and all was unlike the common state of things. We were, in truth, in the bowels of the earth, where her internal riches are displayed in the wildest manner. The steep we had descended was composed of minerals of the most singular, yet beautiful description. The heavy morning rains were rising in steam in all directions, and had already awakened each sulphureous crevice, while almost every chink in the ground was so hot, that it was impossible to keep the hand the least time upon it. But this sensation was in unison with the objects around; the great crater of the volcano opening its convulsed jaws before you, where the rude lava was piled in every varied form, in alternate layers with pozzulana and cinders. Below us the newlyformed crater was pouring forth its steamy clouds, and at every growl which labouring nature gave from below, these volumes burst forth with renewed fury. At our feet, and on every side, were deep beds of yellow sulphur, varying in colour from the deepest red orange, occasioned by ferruginous mixture, to the palest straw-colour, where alum predominated; * A small crater burst out in the bottom of the large one on the morning of the 18th excursion was on the 21st of November This 7 and beside these, white depositions of great extent and depth, which are lava decomposed by heat, and in a state of great softness. Contrasted with these productions of beauty, we find the sterner formations of black and purple porphyry, which occasionally assume the scarlet hue from the extrenie action of heat; add to this the sombre grey lava, and that of a green colour glittering throughout with micaceous particles, with the deep brown volcanic ashes, and you will have a com bination which, for grandeur and singularity, must be almost unparalleled. It is singular enough, that, among so many sulphureous fires, we should have suffered from pinching cold. At the lowest point to which we went, the thermometer stood at 43 10-2. We employed ourselves for a considerable time in collecting the finest specimens we could obtain of the abovementioned minerals. We then retraced our steps in this descent, which proved considerably laborious; and after gaining the top, visited a crevice a little way down on the outside of the cone, opened within the last forty days, which, though about one finger broad, and not much longer, admits a current of air so tremendously heated, that, on laying a bunch of ferns quite wet with the morning's rain upon it, they speedily were in a blaze. Resuming the edge on the summit, we returned the way we came to the top of the descending path, and on our way saw the sun set in a very splendid manner, illuminating the distant islands of Ischia and Procida, the point of Misenum, and the bay of Baia, with his last rays. Having eaten our eggs, we descended the cone; being rather dark I made no particular haste; but on a former occasion I went down the cone with great satisfaction in four minutes Had there been fewer stones I could easily have gone quicker. We left the top about half-past five, and having taken our cold dinner at the hermitage, we descended to Resina by torch light, and reached Naples safely at halfpast eight o'clock. SPIRIT OF THE Public Journals. PRESENTIMENTS OF DEATH. To say that those bright, rapid flashes of what appears prophetic intelligence, named presentiment, are produced by a latent taint of superstition, is to elude the question. They have been confessed by men of the sternest intellect by the sceptic and the Christian, the hero and the poet-by Bacon ard Johnson-by persons of the most dissimilar characterby the most energetic of modern men, and by the highest genius of modern times. Napoleon's faith in his high destiny, his peculiar star, though a vague, appears to have been a permanent and even an influential belief. Many visible presentiments rest upon authority so good as to be not a little troublesome to those who would explain them all implicitly on natural principles. The well-known story related of Dr. Donne by his affectionate biographer, Isaac Walton, very easily admits of a natural explanation. In France, Donne, at midnight, saw the vision of his wife, then in England, pass across his apartment, carrying in her arms a dead infant. But Donne had recently left his wife, under circumstances peculiarly distress ing, and in spite of her earnest entreaties and gloomy forebodings of evil from his absence; and her superstitious and womanly fears increased his natural apprehensions for her safety: he foresaw a very probable event. But, embarking on a fine morning with a gay bridal party-all around him joy and hope-whence arose the feeling, the presentiment soon fatally accomplished, which made a pious clergyman, the father of the patriotic Andrew Marvel, throw back his walking-stick to the land, exclaiming, as the boat left the shore, "Ho! for heaven!" Stories of supernatural intelligence of the death of friends at a distance are familiar to the recollection of every person, both from reading and conversation; and that the solemn presentiment of the most awful event of life is not only frequently entertained, but very accurately verified, must have been observed by every attendant of the dying, who, as they approach the confines of the invisible world, will often, with inexplicable exactness, fix the day and hour of final dissolution. This presentiment of the hour of death is most generally experienced by those who, best prepared for their great change, are calmly resigned to the event of death or life, and seldom by those whose agitated and feverish minds might be presumed to realize their own diseased and imaginary fears. Where shall we seek for an explanation of this supernatural impression, or of this preternatural acuteness of expiring sense, if we refuse that of the poet :"I hear voice you cannot hear, Which says I must not stay; I see a hand you cannot see, Which beckons me away." The story of the requiem of Mozart is singular, as shewing the power of a gloomy presentiment in realizing itself in an ener▾ated ïnind and a debilitated frame. But there are numerous instances of heroes and soldiers, men of the greatest moral and physical courage, who have fought bravely in many fields, entering on their last battle with the fixed presentiment of the death which they certainly encountered. Brave men have entertained this foreboding feeling for their friends and comrades, and have seen it strangely realized. Our own Nelson, who, to an active and energetic mind, united a warm and enthusiastic temperament, whose soul was ever feelingly alive to every impulse, had not only the avowed presentiment of death as strong as that of victory, on the twenty-first of October, the battle-day of Trafalgar, but after having kept the same station watching the French fleet for many months, and very closely for weeks and days, he entertained the firm persuasion that this very day, the anniversary of a festival in his family for a victory obtained over the French, was to be the day of action. The combined fleet of France and Spain, which had played off and on for nearly two years, moved at last from Cadiz, and formed in order of battle; and, on the day he foresaw, Nelson fought, conquered, and fell, as his prophetic feelings had predicted. It is worthy of notice, though out of place, as a proof or the universality of this foreboding feeling, that on this brave man's taking leave of his wife for the last time previous to his forming that infatuated attachment, which embittered his remaining life, and sullied his public fame, Lady Nelson experienced that strong impulsive feeling of impending misfortune, which led her to anticipate his death, but which was interpreted to her mind by an event yet more painful the alienation of his affections, and the destruction of their domestic peace. The circumstance is noticed by Nelson's biographer, Mr. Southey. A remarkable instance of presentiment is given in the "Life of Wolsey," by his favourite and faithful attendant, Cavendish. The unfortunate prelate, wher seized with his last fatal illness on his journey to London, predicted, or prophesied, his own death at eight o'clock of a particular day. The chime struck as he breathed his last-and his attendants, remembering his prediction, gazed on each other. The Memoirs of Bayard," written by the Loyal Servant, record a very striking prediction of the death of this illustrious knight at the battle of Ravenna remarkably fulfilled; and Sully relates an instance of a presentiment of death experienced by the "fair Gabrielle," the beloved mistress of Henry IV., which appears to have even affected the cool. sensible, and faithful minister whom he power over the king had so often vexed. -The king, who was not willing to incur the censure of keeping this lady with him during the Easter holidays, entreated her to leave him to spend them at Fontainebleau, and to return herself to Paris. Madame de Beaufort received this order with tears; it was still worse when they came to part: Henry, on his side, more passionately fond than ever of this lady, who had already brought him two sons, and a daughter, named Henrietta, did himself equal violence. He conducted her half-way to Paris; and although they proposed only an absence of a few days, yet they dreaded the moment of parting, as if it had been for a much longer time. Those who are inclined to give faith to presages, will lay some stress upon this relation. The two lovers renewed their parting endearments, and in every thing they said to each other at that moment, some people have pretended to find proof of those presages of an inevitable fate. Madame de Beaufort spoke to the king as if for the last time; she recommended to him her children, her house of Monceaux, and her domestics; the king listened to her, but instead of comforting her, gave way to a sympathizing grief. Again they took leave of each other, and a secret emotion again drew them to each other's arms. Henry would not so easily have torn himself from her, if the Marshal d'Ornano. Roquelure, and Frontenac, had not taken him away by force. At length they prevailed upon him to return to Fontainebleau; and the last words he said were to recommend his mistress to La Varenne, with orders to provide every thing she wanted, and to conduct her safely to the house of Zamet, to whom he had chosen to confide the care of a person so dear to him.” Her presentiment was realized, for she aied a few days after she had parted from the king. The omens and forebodings that preceded the murder of Henry IV. himself, are quite too marvellous to be of much weight. The well-known story of the warnings given by those beautiful little dogs whom this popular monarch-who seemed endowed by nature with the rare quality of attaching every living thing that came near him-used to fondle and play with, is one of those relations which imagination loves to entertain in despite of reason and probability. But the grave narrative of Marshal Bassompierre is entitled to more attention. It proves that Henry, who was far superior to the vulgar superstitions that influenced many of his courtiers, possessed, with other high mental qualities, much of the quick intuitive perception inseparable from acute and energetic minds. The state of this monarch's mind places the doctrine of presentiment in its true and rational light. On the May-pole planted in the court of the Louvre falling down from no apparent cause, a few days before his assassination, a gloomy conversation arose among the courtiers about this disastrous omen. "You are fools," said Henry, who overheard them, "to amuse yourselves with prognostics. Learn from me never for the future to care about omens and predictions, which are vain and frivolous. For the last thirty years all the astrologers and quacks have predicted every year that I should be killed. In the year when I do actually die, all the presages that occurred in the course of it will be remarked and put into histories; and those who predicted my death will be thought great and wonderful persons, while nothing will be said of the omens of preceding years." It was in this manner Henry regarded prediction, even while he had a strong presentiment of his own murder, and of the manner of its accomplishment. About the time of his death, he was on the eve of a journey into Germany. "I don't know how it is, Bassompierre," he said, "but I cannot persuade myself I am going into Germany." "Several times," continues Bassompierre, "he said to me, and to others also, I think I shall die soon ;'" and the day before his death, after the coronation of the queen, when he seemed in very high spirits, this was repeated to Bassompierre and the Duc de Guise. "My God! sire," said one of the courtiers, will you never cease to afflict us by saying you will soon die? These are not good words to utter.' "Yet, though this great and wise king had no superstition, and laughed at omens and divinations," continues the marshal, " he not only, by a particular sort of inspiration, foresaw his death, but even the manner of it, and the place where he should be killed. He had always the apprehension of being killed in his carriage by some melancholy madman. Those who rode with him will testify, as I can, to have heard him say, that there was no place more dangerous than that, to be attacked and wounded, and that the only men he had to beware of were gloomy madmen; for no wise man would undertake such an action." It would scarcely be a fair instance of presentiment to mention that Swift, a man of the most unbending and masculine understanding, through his whole life fore. boded the gloomy and furious madness in which he ended his days. To a mind so acute, bodily complaints, and the obvious tendencies of a violent temper, might have made this appear no improbable event; but it is more remarkable that the dean of St. Patrick's, of a character so decided and thorough-going, should have kept the letter announcing the sudden death of his friend Gay in England, in his pocket, unopened, for some days, from the presentiment that it contained intelligence of some heavy misfortune. Blackwood's Magazine. The Selector, AND LITERARY NOTICES OF NEW WORKS. A VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY JAMES MONTGOMERY. EMBLEM of eternity, Let me launch my Soul on thee. Sail, nor keel, nor helm, nor oar, Thy whole realm's before me brought All thine aspects now 1 view, Time nor tide thy powers subdue All thy voices now I hear; But thy depths I search not now, Here a breeze, I skim thy plain; To the native's heart are dear; Yet even here, in glens and coves, Pennsylvania, while thy flood Horror-struck, I turn away, Loud the voice of Freedom spuke; Every accent split a yoke, South America expands Stretch their limbs, unclose their eyes, The immense Pacific smiles But the powers of darkness yield, Rays from rock to rock it darts, North and west, receding far Pale Siberia's deserts shun, From Kamschatka's headlands run, Ages in succession find Forms unchanging, stagnant mind; Lo! the eastern Cyclades, Pass we low New Holland's shoals, Where no ample river rolls; -World of undiscover'd souls |