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Venice. The former freely expended at home the money wrested from the unbeliever, and granted a daughter her every wish; the latter neither loved nor hated as a Jew. Neither have the disciples of Jesus hesitated to treat as a foe, those who crucified their Lord. Fancy has joined alliance with falsehood to increase this mutual enmity, and the story of Christian blood mingling in the dark rites of Judaism, has not yet lost credence. Shakspeare lived when this feeling was at its height. Scarce half a century before, the prudent Ferdinand and the kind Isabella had expelled from their dominions one hundred and sixty thousand of their ablest subjects, thus inflicting a blow on the prosperity of the state from which she has never recovered, and concerning the cause of which their late historian ably remarks, "we need look no further for the principle of action in this case, than the spirit of religious bigotry, which led to a similar expulsion of the Jews from England, France, and other parts of Europe, as well as from Portugal, under circumstances of peculiar atrocity, a few years later."

It was on account of this universal detestation of the Hebrews, that the poet classed Shylock with them. He strove to form a being, in whose destruction all would find delight. He knew the human heart retained one chord, unbroken by the fall, which would vibrate in joy at the overthrow of villainy. Had he added foolishness to guilt, ignorance would have been pitied, and crime forgotten. Had Shylock loved a fellow, sympathy would have concealed many a fault. Had his been a daring spirit, courage would have dazzled, and other failings freely been forgiven. Solely selfish in his feelings and his acts, men find no connecting link between themselves and one who wants not a companion. They shudder to see his meshes twining around the innocent, when at a touch, the just fastening bonds sever, and exulting, they behold the victim freed, and justice righted.

Admirably is the whole play calculated to arouse the feelings, without exciting those unholy passions for which tragedy is so often blamed. The number and affection of his friends, causes us at first, to look with favor on Antonio, and as we find him sacrificing self, we also love. Our heart abhors, and must need hate the narrow minded Shylock, at once Jew, miser, hypocrite, and villain. The interludes at Belmont rest and please the mind, while the assertion of servant and child still more increases our previous prejudice. We joy to see the lovely Jessica wrested from a brute, and cherished by one who can prize her worth. Next, Bassanio's fortune, Lorenzo's happiness, and Antonio's losses, cause us to vary as the Hebrew, until, the scheme unfolding, we feel the interest of a party in the cause, and wonder if the youthful judge (whose character we know) can convict her husband's friend, or

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MARIUS IN CARTHAGINIS RUINIS.

[Nov.

think "to soften" that (than which what's harder?) "a Jewish heart." When Portia triumphs, and the craven falters, we could with Gratiano, taunt and throw his answers back into his shrinking face. And at the close, how does the playful teasing of the brides, with the glad news that all is safe, delight and satisfy. In common language, "it ends well."

Nor is the play wanting in those bursts of genius for which its author is distinguished. Portia's acceptance of Antonio, her apostrophe on mercy, the thoughts Lorenzo breathed, when lying on the bank where moonlight slept, he told his love

"There's not the smallest orb which thou beholdest,

But in his motion like an angel sings."

are but single examples of those isles, living with beauty, which stud the reader's course.

Whether or no Shakspeare here intended to enforce a moral, cannot be determined; but as each event in life has its lesson, profiting him who learns, so here a precept speaks from every page, bidding man be upright and true, if he wishes to prosper, or in the hour of trouble to be sustained by the soothing touch of sympathy.

MARIUS IN CARTHAGINIS RUINIS.

CARTHAGO deleta erat; et nunc monia celsa
Fortuna imperii Romanii strata jacebant ;

Nec regina Deum atque Jovis conjuxque sororque,
Juno, suum populum, dextram jam fulminis irâ
Armata, excidio et turres servaverat altas.

Quis verò intentis oculis vestigia claræ
Igni vastata et ferro circumspicit urbis ;

Dirutasque hominum manibus celsas stupet arces
Exitio immiti magis ævo irâve Deorum?

Fallor? an hic Marius longè expulsus patriâ exsul?
Nil fallor; Marius sexto perfunctus honore
Consulis, inditum erat cui nomen conditor urbis
Tertius æternæ, fortunâ nunc inimicâ,

Per varios cursus maris has pervenit in oras
Atque adiit quâ olim Tyria urbs et moenia Elissæ.

Hic tacitus tristisque diu stat pectore mæsto

Sed demum erumpit dolor et jam talia fatur :

Hæc Carthago superba; domusque hæc regia Didûs;
Atque hæ relliquiæ belli et Martis furiosi,
Obruta tot tantisque ruinis æmula Romæ.
Egregiè tamen, egregiè virtuteque summâ
De imperio certavit ei quæ præsidet orbi

VOL. VI.

Qualis ubi semel atque iterum victus gladiator
Corpore non animo, stimulat cujus dolor acer
Mentem altam memorem casus additque furorem,
Ardet ab integro magna instaurare pericla,
Dedecora ardet honoribus occultare priora
Præclarè seu vincere sive paratus obire;

Hæcque animo secum volvens pugnamque lacessens
Certamen durum nimis et letum invenit unâ,
Sanguine purpureoque infelix tingit arenam ;
Talis ab urbe bis infensâ Carthago subacta,
Fracto pene animo, jam tandem restitit atrox;
Acriter at frustra pugnavit; sic peritura,
Et cladem celeram in sese illaturaque diram,
Sicut in immotos scopulos sese æquora frangunt.
Namque pati geminos soles cœlum nequit unum,
Nec rexêre duæ splendentia sidera lunæ ;
Solaque lumen eris tu, patria, gentibus almum,
Eripiet sæclum neque lucem quam dabis ullum,
Inque ævum mundo toto dominaberis omne,

Nec regio ulla tuum imperium excutiet neque tempus.
Sed mihi, qui hostiles pópulos domui tibi multos,
A Româ procul in terras errare coacto

Ne licet hac quidem in urbe pedes requiescere fessos,
Neve astare ruinas Byrsæ, haud dispare fato ;
Fortunæ nostrum viguêre ambo et ceciderunt:
Posthac dissimiles. Nunquam Carthago resurget:
Ast ut ubi agminibus nigrantes æthera densis
Obscurant nitidum mimbi, cæcasque tenebras
Offundunt terris tempestatemque sonoram
Erumpit subito nebulasque abigit fugientes,
Atque polum radiis sol lucidioribus implet;
Sic Marius pulsus patriâ patriam remeabit;
Atque feret cunctisque metum clademque inimicis.
Dixerat avertitque et, Sidoniâ urbe relictâ,
Longinquas tardo regiones jam pede quærit.

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TURN back far enough, reader, and you will find inscribed upon the Tontine register, with a careful hand, the above name and place. I had come to-college. I was a new creature.

The bustle and the jar of this great caravansary, how unlike the little bar-room of our Brighton tavern! where have I sat many a time when a boy, and watched the great glittering sign of 'the Eagle,' swinging to and fro upon its gallows frame. But the recollection of our portly landlord, and his little wooden bench without the door, and the pipe stumps carefully cleaned and laid away above the lintel-I would not bring to mind.

I had gone out from the home of my father's, and in my native kindness could not but pity the simple and unpretending ignorance I had left behind me. [Alas! now I can smile at the folly which I then thought my wisdom!] Back and forth I strode with an air of conscious pride, already anticipating the elation of spirit which I should soon realize when fairly immured within those scholastic walls. Stirred by the crowd of busy present and prospective pleasures, which thronged upon my mind, I could scarce contemplate with any degree of calmness, the novelty and the reality of my situation. Friends of my youth I had left, and had they now appeared before me, I doubt whether I could have relished their society, so enthralled was I by the strange emotions which lifted my mind into an ideal sphere.

* We give in full, the note accompanying: "Messrs. Editors,-I purpose giving in the proposed series of papers, of which two are laid before you, a history of my short-sighted experience, while in this University. If they may meet with your favor, please suffer me to continue an anonymous correspondence with you, since an acknowledged authorship might throw some suspicions upon me of direct allusions in my portraitures, which I would avoid, and in which allusions, I shall by no means indulge. Yrs, T. B."

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Days passed, and I was a partaker of the duties-delightful duties enjoined upon me. Acquaintances had not yet been formed, save some few furniture and clothes venders, and they-how gentlemanly-how obliging! I felt really charmed by their politeness and respect to one so much a stranger. By degrees, however, their disinterestedness abated, for the customs of Brighton were those of the strictest economy, and the state of my funds, I found, notwithstanding my change of spirit, required a most rigid conformance with them.

Weeks passed on, and duties thickened on me ; I thought of the trifling anxieties of home-of the watchful solicitude, and playful tenderness of friends, and the relapse came. Still I had too much pride to feel it, and I struggled on, though my heart sometimes quailed, and the tear started to my eye, when I felt the gross outrages of my elders in college life.

A keen sensibility had early marked me for her victim; my sympathies were strong, and I remember well the time when they first came upon me in their full force-yet when I was too young to have my views regarded;-rude hands were taking down the old paintings from my grandfather's room, and the clock ticked louder than ever, as if sorrowing at the bereavement; they all stood huddled together in the corner,-the high book-case frowned from its dark pannels upon the despoilers, and scowled at the sacrilege; and my heart was gladdened in me, as I felt that they could not lessen its height. But alas! "for human wishes, and alas for pride!"—the next time I visited the old place, they had employed a carpenter to transfer its stateliness into the prim coxcombry of a fashionable cabinet! and my heart bled at its mishap! For its dark panels, was substituted 'patent crown glass,' and the dusty folios, and old modest manuscripts of my grandfather shrunk and shivered in the glare of day.

No wonder, then, that my pride was not enough to sustain me in all the difficulties to be encountered by a college tyre. But there was something more than sensibility at work, to make me a laggard at my tasks; it was an utter lack of the appreciation, in me, of the high aims of education. Then, and for months following, did I study under the strange infatuation that my governors were endeavoring to wrest knowledge from me, and that I must as far as consistent with a decent appearance, endeavor to retain it. Strange that the infatuation is so general! I would not ask a question-I would not avail myself of a thousand means of improvement, for the simple reason that I never had realized (and never did till a late hour,) that I was studying for actual service to myself.

I may have been wrong, but I had no relish for any of the outward marks of attachment; hence I never had visited among the

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