next general election will be a time of uncommon turbulence; violence and outrage.

Of literature no great product has appeared, or is expected; the attention of the people has for some years been otherwise employed.

I was told a day or two ago of a design which must excite some curiosity. Two ships are in preparation which are under the command of Captain Constantine Phillips, to explore the Northern Ocean; not to seek the northeast or the northwest passage, but to sail directly north, as near the pole as they can go. They hope to find an open ocean, but I suspect it is one mass of perpetual congelation. I do not much wish well to discoveries, for I am always afraid they will end in conquest and robbery.

I have been out of order this winter, but am grown better. Can I never hope to see you again, or must I be always content to tell you, that in another hemisphere I am,

Sir, your most humble servant,

SAM. JOHNSON,

Johnson's Court, Fleet Street,

London, March 4, 1773.

THE INDIAN GOD AND THE BAYADEER.

[THE readers of the Atheneum Magazine are not unacquainted with the merits of the German poet, Goethe. The following ballad is a monument of his friendship for his rival, Schiller. It was written in 1796, for the Almanack of the Muses, a periodical publication, edited by the younger poet. A tradition of the eastern religion, is here made the foundation of a sublime moral; and if we consider for a moment the nature of classic mythology, to which allusions are made without hesitation, we need not take offence at the introduction of superstitions which are incorporated into the faith of a large part of the human family. In France, no less than in Germany, but one opinion has been expressed respecting the value of the original poem. The judgment of Madame de Stael is given at length, in her admirable and interesting work on Germany. She also made an attempt to translate it into French. In this ballad, the eastern fiction is managed with great delicacy and care. No one need fear to approve what Schiller was willing to accept. In reading the poem, we are reminded of the honorable friendship of these two most illus trious men. Happy the nation, whose fine writers leave no sources of the beautiful undiscovered; whose men of genius, free from narrow jealousies, unite in mutual affection and common patriotism, to lay the garlands which they may gather, on the altar of their country.]

VOL. I.

SEVAH, mighty God of earth,

Comes the sixth time from the skies,

22

And with those of mortal birth
Shares desire, and joy, and sighs.
Veiled in human shape, their Lord
Deigns to dwell with men below,
Will to punish, or reward,

Mortals, as a mortal know.

And when as a pilgrim the town he hath seen,
And hath secretly watched both the rich and the mean,
He leaves it at night, that he further may go.

When to the remotest streets

In his wanderings he had strayed,
One with painted cheeks he meets,
Beauteous, though a ruined maid.
"Peace be with thee.". "Welcome here ;
Wait and I'll be at thy side."
"Who art thou?" "A Bayadeer;

Love and joy with me abide."

She moves in the dance, and the cymbal she beats,
And gracefully bending, advances, retreats,

And waves the young flowers in her dark tresses tied.
Soft she draws him tow'rds her cell;
"Youthful pilgrim, come with me ;
Come where sorrow cannot dwell;
Bright and blithe my cot shall be.
Art thou faint? I'll heal thy pain,
Sooth thee of thy weariness:
Claim, thou wilt not ask in vain,
Slumber, pleasure, or caress.

She mildly assuages the woes that he feigned;
The mighty one smiles, for her spirit, though stained,
In the depths of corruption can feel for distress.

And the maid become his slave;

But she cheers and strives to please;
And the charms which art first

gave,

Change to nature by degrees.
Where the opening bloom ye find,
Soon the ripened fruit will glow ;
Is obedience in the mind,

Love to follow ne'er is slow.
But he, that can fathom the secret design,
Hath chosen, her spirit to prove and refine,
Pleasure, and horror, and heart-rending wo.

Kisses on her cheeks he heaps,

Till with love her heart runs o'er;
And the captive maiden weeps,
She who ne'er had wept before.
Motionless she sinks by him,

Ah, 'tis not the hope of gain-
'Tis not passion-each weak limb
Fails her, all her arts are vain.
And now for the festival couch of delight
The close veiling web, by the hours of the night,
Is woven, as darkness begins her mild reign.

Late in sleep she shuts her eyes,
Early wakes from transient rest,
Lo! upon her bosom lies,

Dead, her dearly cherished guest.
Loud she calls him in despair,

But no more shall he respire;
And the stiffening corse they bear
To the sacred funeral fire.

The bramins are chanting the dirges aloud

She hears them, she runs, and she pierces the crowd,

"Who art thou? and why dost thou rush to the

Frantic by the bier she falls,

Fills the air with sorrowing shriek;

"Give me back my spouse," she calls,

"Him beneath the flames I seek.
Shall the fire to dust consume

Limbs, that shone with heavenly light?
Mine he was by heaven's high doom,

pyre

Mine, though but for one short night."
Hark! the song of the bramins-"We bury the old,
That have wearily languished, and late have grown cold;
We bury the young, ere they dream of life's blight."

"Maid! thy priests' stern precepts hear;
Thou'rt not bound by nuptial tie,
But didst live as Bayadeer:

Ask not as a bride to die.
Shades alone, so death allows,
Follow the departed frame;
Spouse alone may follow spouse:
This is duty, truth, and fame."

The sacred lament with the tabors they raise;

"Receive O ye Gods! the young pride of our days, Receive to your mansion the youth from the flame."

Thus the choir unpitying cried;

Rent with grief, she pants for breath,
And, with arms extended wide,

Darts into the fiery death.

But serenely from the place,

Rose the godlike youth once more ;
And within his safe embrace

Up the rescued maiden bore.

Of the Godhead, the smiles on the contrite are bent;
Immortals will stoop to the souls that repent;
Through flames to the skies the lost sinner may soar.

PARAPHRASE

Of the Hymn sung by the Hierophant, at the Eleusinian

Mysteries.

[THIS celebrated hymn, in which the Unity of the Deity is promulged, is preserved by Eusebius. The Hierophant, arrayed in the emblems of the Creator's attributes, clothed in a cærulean robe, and bearing a sceptre tipt with wings, came forward during the celebration of the mysteries, and sang this hymn to the initiated.]

To the' awful truths that I declare.
And thou, Musæus,* thou!
Blest offspring of Selenè fair,
Attend the song,

And through the vail-hung roof the sacred strain prolong.
O! let not evil, not dark error mar
Thy destiny, and thy happy star

Truth crowned, shall lead thee to the heights of heaven,
The bliss to the holy given.

* Musæus was the disciple of Orpheus, the supposed author of this hymn

O! take the virtuous part:
Revere the aspéct divine

Of nature, and before her shrine,

Keep pure the soul, and govern well the heart.
Behold! the One Supreme,

Who rules the world, whose eye's far-piercing beam
The universe surveys;

From whom all life and all creation sprung.
Lo! he exists alone,

But by his glories and his mercies known.
Him, therefore, praise!

With golden lyre, and with inspired tongue
Breathe forth the holy hymn with awe,
To him who bindeth all things in his law;
Whom mortal eye may never see,

But who beholdeth all, throned in eternity.

MUSEUS.

WORKS IN PRESS.

The Last of the Mohicans. By the author of Lionel Lincoln. Charles Wiley.

A Continuation of Wilson's Ornithology, or the Natural History of the Birds of the United States. Illustrated with plates, engraved and coloured from original drawings taken from nature. By Charles Bonaparte. Samuel A. Mitchell, Philadelphia.

Elements of Phrenology. By George Combe. With two engravings. E. Littell, Philadelphia.

Pharmacologia, in 2 vols. 8vo. Sixth edition. By John Ayrton Paris, MD.

A Dictionary of Pathology and Practice of Medicine.

volume.

Blackall on Dropsies. From the fourth London edition.
Sir Astley Cooper's Lectures. Complete edition.

1 royal 8vo.

Potter's Grecian Antiquities. By Charles Anthon. 1 volume 8vo. Collins & Co. New-York.

Essays on Education. By the Rev. Wm. Barrow. Harrison Hall, Philadelphia.

Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Men, with portraits, autographs, &c. &c. Harrison Hall, Philadelphia.

The Commercial Chart and Universal Traveller. Containing general information respecting roads, steam boats, stages, packets, hotels, &c. &c in the United States. By D. Hewitt.

Merivales' Reports, 3 vols. O. Halsted.

An Essay on Political Economy, by Dr. Macculloch of Edinburgh, republished from the supplement to the Encyclopedia. With notes by Professor Mac Vickar of Columbia College. Wilder & Campbell.