made such surprising proficiency, that in a few days, he wasable to hold intelligent intercourse with those around him.

3. The noble host now resolved to take an early opportunity of satisfying his curiosity respecting the country and quality of his guest; and upon his expressing his desire, the stranger assured him, that he would answer his inquiries that evening, after sunset. Accordingly, as night approached, he led him forth upon the balconies of the palace, which overlooked the wealthy and populous city. Innumerable lights from its busy streets and splendid palaces, were now reflected in the dark bosom of its noble river; where stately vessels, laden with rich merchandise from all parts of the known world, lay anchored in the port. This was a city in which the voice of the harp and the viol, and the sound of the mill-stone, were continually heard; and craftsmen of all kinds of craft were there; and the light of a candle was seen in every dwelling; and the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride were heard there.

4. The stranger mused awhile upon the glittering scene; and listened to the confused murmur of mingling sounds. Then suddenly raising his eyes to the starry +firmament, he fixed them with an expressive gaze, on the beautiful evening star, which was just sinking behind a dark grove, that surrounded one of the principal temples of the city. "Marvel not," said he to his host, "that I am wont to gaze with fond affection on yon silvery star. That was my home; yes, I was lately an inhabitant of that tranquil planet ; from whence a vain curiosity has tempted me to wander.

5. Often had I beheld, with wondering admiration, this brilliant world of yours, even one of the brightest gems of our firmament, and the ardent desire I had long felt to know something of its condition, was at length unexpectedly gratified. I received permission and power from above to traverse the mighty void, and to direct my course to this distant sphere. To that permission, however, one condition was annexed, to which my eagerness for the enterprise induced me hastily to consent-namely, that I must thenceforth remain an inhabitant of this strange earth, and undergo all the vicissitudes to which its natives are subject. Tell me, therefore, I pray you, what is the lot of man; and explain to me more fully than I yet understand, all that I see and hear around me."

6. "Truly, sir," replied the astonished noble, "although I am altogether unacquainted with the manners and customs, products and privileges of your country, yet methinks, I can not but congratulate you on your arrival in our world; especially since it has been your good fortune to alight on a part of it, affording such various sources of enjoyment, as this our opulent and luxuriant

+

city. And be assured it will be my pride and pleasure, to introduce you to all that is most worthy the attention of such a distinguished foreigner."

7. Our adventurer, accordingly, was presently initiated into those arts of luxury and pleasure, which were there well understood. He was introduced by his obliging friend to their public games and festivals; to their theatrical diversions and convivial assemblies; and, in a short time, he began to feel some relish for amusements, the meaning of which, at first, he could scarcely comprehend. The next lesson which it became desirable to impart to him, was the necessity of acquiring wealth, as the only means of obtaining pleasure. This fact was no sooner understood by the stranger, than he gratefully accepted the offer of his friendly host, to place him in a situation in which he might amass riches. To this object he began to apply himself with diligence; and soon became, in some measure, reconciled to the manners and customs of our planet, strangely as they differed from those of his own.

JANE TAYLOR.

LESSON CXL.

THE SAME

CONCLUDED.

1. He had been but a few weeks, diligently engaged in his new plans for the acquisition of wealth, when, walking in the cool of the day with his friend, in the outskirts of the city, his attention was arrested by the appearance of a spacious enclosure near which they passed. He inquired the use to which it was appropriated. "It is," replied the nobleman, "a place of public interment." "I do not understand you," said the stranger. "It is the place," repeated his friend, "where we bury our dead." sir," replied his companion, with some embarrassment, "I must trouble you to explain yourself yet further."

"Excuse me,

2. The nobleman repeated the information in still plainer terms. "I am still at a loss to comprehend you perfectly," said the stranger, turning deadly pale. "This must relate to something of which I was not only totally ignorant in my own world, but of which I have, as yet, had no intimation in yours. I pray you, therefore, to satisfy my curiosity; for if I have any clew to your meaning, this surely, is a matter of more mighty concernment, than any to which you have hitherto directed me."

3. "My good friend," replied the nobleman, "you must indeed be a novice among us, if you have yet to learn that we must all,

sooner or later, submit to take our place in these dismal abodes. Nor will I deny, that it is one of the least desirable of the circumstances which appertain to our condition; for which reason it is a matter rarely referred to in polished society; and this accounts for your being hitherto uninformed on the subject. But, truly, sir, if the inhabitants of the place from whence you came are not liable to any similar misfortune, I advise you to betake yourself back again with all speed; for be assured there is no escape here, nor could I guaranty your safety even for a single hour.

4. "Alas!" replied the adventurer, "I must submit to the conditions of my enterprise, of which, till now, I little understood the import. But explain to me, I beseech you, something more of the nature and consequence of this wondrous change, and tell me at what period it commonly happens to man." While he thus spoke, his voice faltered, and his whole frame shook violently; his countenance was as pale as death. By this time his companion, finding the discourse becoming more serious than was agreeable, declared he must refer him to the priests for further information, this subject being very much out of his province. "How!"

exclaimed the stranger, "then I can not have understood you. Do the priests only die? Are you not to die also?" His friend, tevading these questions, hastily conducted his importunate companion to one of their magnificent temples, where he gladly consigned him to the instructions of the priesthood.

5. The emotion, which the stranger had betrayed when he received the first idea of death, was yet slight in comparison with that which he experienced as soon as he gathered, from the discourses of the priests, some notions of immortality, and of the +alternative of happiness or misery in a future state. But this agony of mind was exchanged for transport, when he learned that, by the performance of certain conditions before death, the state of happiness might be secured. His eagerness to learn the nature of these terms, excited the surprise and even the contempt of his sacred teachers. They advised him to remain satisfied for the present with the instructions he had received, and defer the remainder of the discussion till tomorrow. "How!" exclaimed the novice," say ye not that death may come at any hour? May it not come this hour? And what if it should come, before I have performed these conditions? O! withhold not the excellent

knowledge from me, a single moment!"

+

6. The priests, suppressing a smile at his simplicity, proceeded to explain their theology to their attentive auditor. But who can describe the ecstasy of his happiness, when he was given to understand the required conditions were, generally, of easy and pleasant performance, and the occasional difficulties, which might

attend them, would entirely cease with the short term of his earthly existence. "If, then, I understand you rightly," said he to his instructors, "this event which you call death, and which seems in itself strangely terrible, is most desirable and blissful. What a favor is this which is granted to me, in being sent to inhabit a planet in which I can die!"

7. The priests again exchanged smiles with each other; but their ridicule was wholly lost on the tenraptured stranger. When the first transports of his emotion had subsided, he began to reflect with more uneasiness on the time he had already lost since his arrival. "Alas! what have I been doing?" exclaimed he. "This gold which I have been collecting, tell me, reverend priests, will it avail me anything when the thirty or forty years are expired, which you say I may possibly sojourn in your planet?" "Nay," replied the priests, "but verily you will find it of excellent use so long as you remain in it." "A very little of it will suffice me," replied he; "for consider how soon this period will be past. What avails it what my condition may be for so short a season? I will betake myself from this hour, to the grand concerns of which you have so charitably informed me.”

8. Accordingly, from that period, continues the legend, the stranger devoted himself to the performance of those conditions on which, he was told, his future welfare depended; but, in so doing, he had an opposition to encounter wholly unexpected, and for which he was at a loss even to account. By thus devoting his chief attention to his chief interests, he excited the surprise, the contempt, and even the enmity of most of the inhabitants of the city; and they rarely mentioned him but with a term of reproach, which has been variously rendered in all the modern languages.

9. Nothing could equal the stranger's surprise at this circumstance; as well as that of his fellow-citizens' appearing, generally, so extremely indifferent as they did, to their own interests. That they should have so little prudence and forethought, as to provide only for their necessities and pleasures, for that short part of their existence in which they were to remain on this planet, he could but consider as the effect of disordered intellect; so that he even returned their incivilities to himself with affectionate expostulation, accompanied by lively emotions of compassion and amazement.

10. If ever he was tempted for a moment to violate any of the conditions of his future happiness, he bewailed his own madness with agonizing emotions; and to all the invitations he received from others to do any thing inconsistent with his real interests, he had but one answer-"Oh," he would say, "I am to die: I am to die."

JANE TAYLOR

LESSON CXLI.

CRATER OF KIRAUEA.*

+

1. ABOUT two o'clock in the afternoon, the crater of Kirauea suddenly burst upon our view. We expected to have seen a mountain with a broad base, and rough, indented sides, and whose summits would have presented a rugged wall of scoria, forming the rim of a mighty caldron. But, instead of this, we found ourselves on the edge of a steep precipice, with a vast plain before us, fifteen or sixteen miles in circumference, and sunk from two hundred to four hundred feet below its original level. surface of this plain was uneven, and strewed over with large stones and volcanic rocks, and in the center of it, was the great crater, at the distance of a mile and a half from the precipice on which we were standing.

The

2. Our guides led us round toward the north end of the ridge, in order to find a place by which we might descend to the plain below; and we soon discovered a point, from which—the precipice being less steep-a descent seemed practicable. It required, however, the greatest caution, as the stones and fragments of rock frequently gave way under our feet and rolled down from above; but, with all our care, we did not reach the bottom, without several falls and slight bruises.

3. The steep, which we had descended, was formed of volcanic matter, apparently a light red and gray kind of lava, lying in +horizontal strata, varying in thickness from one to forty feet. In a small number of places, the different strata of lava were also rent in perpendicular or oblique directions, from the top to the bottom, either by earthquakes, or other violent convulsions of the ground, connected with the action of the adjacent volcano. After walking some distance over the sunken plain, which, in several places, sounded hollow under our feet, we, at length, came to the edge of the great crater, where a spectacle, sublime, and evea appalling, presented itself before us :

"We stopped and trembled."

4. Astonishment and awe, for some moments, rendered us mute; and, like statues, we stood fixed to the spot, with our eyes riveted on the abyss below. Immediately before us, yawned an immense gulf, in the form of a crescent, about two miles in length, from north-east to south-west, nearly a mile in width, and, apparently, eight hundred feet deep. The bottom was covered with lava, and the south-west and northern parts of it were one vast flood of burning matter, in a state of terrific ebullition, rolling to