beneficial effects of this mode of Christian compulsion were soon perceived." p. 186.

We shall quote no more passages of this sort, except one which is quite remarkable.

"It cannot be asserted, however, that this pope Alexander was a worse man than Henry the eighth of England, the greate royal reformer. What ornaments to Christianity are such characters!" p. 18.

Mr. Bozman cannot here be accused of imitation. It is. beyond all question the first time that our religion was made accountable for the lives of men of such character. We do not know what better return we can make to him for the pieces of valuable information which it was his intention to bestow on us American readers, than to take the trouble distinctly to state to him in return, that Christianity is in fact no more accountable for the vices of Alexander VI and Henry VIII, than it is for Mr. John Leeds Bozman's having written so worthless a book about the History of Maryland.

ARTICLE 8.

Psyche, with other poems, by the late Mrs. Henry Tighe. Phil adelphia, J. & A. Y. Humphreys, 1812. 12mo. pp. 230. THE fable of Cupid and Psyche is to be traced to no higher origin than Apuleius, a Platonic philosopher of the second century. It is found in one of his writings, whose titleis the Golden Ass, a work which he himself describes as a collection of fables. In this work, he represents himself as having been changed by magic into the form of an ass, and in this state as having passed through various adventures, and witnessed various scenes, till at last he recovered the shape of man. During his transformation he was seized and carried to a cave of robbers, the original perhaps of that described in Gil Blas. To the same subterranean retreat, was one day brought by the robbers a beautiful young lady. She was consigned by the banditti to the care of an old woman, who superintended their domestic concerns. She was full of dis

tress, and her keeper, for the sake of relieving her affliction, related to her the story of Cupid and Psyche.

Psyche was the third and youngest daughter of a king, whose name and country are left to the fancy of the reader. In consequence of her surprising beauty, she was worshipped, with the ceremonies consecrated to Venus, whose altars were deserted and forgotten; and the goddess, whose service was thus neglected and prophaned, sent her son to avenge her wrongs. In the mean time however Psyche, though she had the veneration, had not the love of any of her admirers. Her two elder sisters were married, but she remained single and disconsolate. On this account her father consulted an oracle, and received for answer, that she was to be exposed on a rock, with the rites of marriage mingled with those of a funeral, that no mortal would be her husband, but a winged being, fierce, cruel, and malicious, who subdued all things, and who was feared even by Jove. The oracular command was obeyed, and Psyche, weeping and trembling, was exposed in solitude to her fate.

From the place of her exposure, which on one side was the summit of a precipice, she was borne by Zephyrus to a grove beneath, and to a palace, splendid as those in Arabian fiction. Here all her wishes were gratified or prevented. Delicious food, baths, soft couches, and delightful music were all provided. In the darkness and silence of night she was visited by her lover, but he departed at the approach of day, and afforded her no opportunity of beholding his form and countenance. All this continued for some time; but one night he informed her, that her sisters, the next day, would visit the rock, where she was exposed, for the purpose of lamenting her as dead. He warned her of the danger of an interview with them, as what would probably produce much evil to him, and ruin to herself; and he told her at the same time, that the duration of her happiness depended upon her never beholding his person. Of the interview with her sisters, however, Psyche became passionately desirous; and at last, by entreaties and blandishments, obtained from her lover permission, that Zephyrus should transport them to the palace in the same manner in which she had been conveyed. This was accordingly done;

but her sisters were filled with envy at her prosperity, and plotted together the means of its destruction. At their third

visit, by making use of some false stories, and by appealing to the oracle before mentioned, and by taking advantage also of the warning of her lover against her beholding his person, they persuaded her, that she had been married to a monster, a serpent, by whom she would in a short time be devoured, if she did not prevent it by destroying him in his sleep. Psyche believed the story, spent the day in trouble and horror, and before night secreted in her bed chamber a lamp and an instrument of death. Her lover came as usual, and fell asleep: Psyche rises, brings the lamp, approaches, and the god of love appears before her. The whole of this scene is described with great beauty and effect in the following passage,* which is not however from the poem of Mrs. Tighe. The description is sufficiently conformable to that of Apuleius,† except that the third verse has reference to an allegorical interpretation of the story hereafter to be mentioned.

Now trembling, now distracted; bold,
And now irresolute she seems;
The blue lamp glimmers in her hold,
And in her hand the dagger gleams.
Prepared to strike, she verges near,

The blue light glimmering from above,
The HIDEOUS sight expects with fear,
And-gazes on the GOD of LOVE!

We have found this passage in the Quarterly Review of Mrs. Tighe's poem. It is there said to be taken from a poem on the same subject, published some years past.

†The following passage, is from Apuleius's description of Cupid. It has perhaps more beauty than any other which could be selected from

his story.

......

"Videt capitis aurei genialem cæsariem, ambrosia temulentam, cervices lacteas, genasque purpureas, pererrantes crinium globos decoriter impeditos, alios antependulos, alios retropendulos. Per humeros volatilis Dei pinnæ roscida micanti flore candicant; et quamvis alis quiescentibus, extimæ plumulæ tenellæ ac delicatæ, tremule resultantes, inquiete lasciviunt."

Not such a young and wanton child
As poets feign, or sculptors plan;
No, no, she sees with transport wild,
Eternal beauty veil'd in man.
His cheek's ingrain'd carnation glow'
Like rubies on a bed of pearls,
And down his ivory shoulders flowed
In clustering braids his golden curlss
Soft as the cygnet's down his wings;
And as the falling snow-flake fair,
Each light elastic feather springs,
And dances in the balmy air.

The pure and vital stream he breathes

Makes e'en the lamp shine doubly bright,
While its gay flame enamour'd wreathes

And gleams with scintillating light."

Psyche was overwhelmed with wonder and delight; she held the lamp with an unsteady hand, and a quantity of burning oil fell from it upon the neck of the god. He started from his slumbers, reproached her for her neglect of his warning, and for the crime she had meditated, and spread his wings to depart. Psyche clung to him, was borne with him through the air, till at last, relaxing her hold, she was left by him on the ground.

Venus soon learnt the extent of her son's disobedience, and determined to visit a full retribution on its author. The forlorn and wandering Psyche, after endeavouring, without success, to obtain the protection of Juno and Ceres, and finding herself proclaimed as a runaway by Venus, and a reward of seven kisses offered to him by whom she might be discovered and returned,* determines voluntarily to deliver herself up to her enemy, Venus receives her in a manner very unworthy, as it will seem to many readers, of the goddess of love, upbraids her in violent language, chastises her with her own hands, and bringing together a large number of different kinds

• The whole conception of the search after Psyche and the reward offered for her discovery is taken, as some of our readers will recollect, from the Idyll of Moschus; entitled 'Cupid runaway.'

f

of seeds, throws them in a heap, and commands her to separate them before night. Psyche gazes on them, stupified by the contemplation of her task, and without any attempt to execute the command. A good natured little ant, however, who compassionates her sufferings, assembles the neighbouring nations of ants, brings them in a body, wave upon wave, (as Apuleius expresses it), and by their united labors they sepa rate the seeds into distinct heaps. Venus returns from supper, drunk with wine, (vino madens,) fragrant with ointments, and her whole body entwined with wreaths of roses, sees the labor performed, throws Psyche a crust of poor bread, and confines her for the night. The next morning she shows her a flock of wild and fierce sheep, with golden fleeces, in a neighbouring pasture, and commands her to bring a quantity of their wool. She goes, but it is for the purpose of casting herself into a river, to terminate all her miseries. The river speaks, (which we all know was the privilege of rivers in times of antiquity,) warns her against this act of desperation, and informs her how the wool may be obtained, from the bushes in which it had been caught. Psyche gathers a large quantity and returns, but Venus is yet unsatisfied. She commands her to go to the fountain of the river Styx, and to return with a vessel full of its waters. Psyche sets out, but as she approaches, she perceives that the fountain is on the summit of a craggy precipice, guarded by great numbers of serpents, while its waters themselves utter voices of prohibition and commands to depart. She regards with despair the impossible labor, but the bird of Jove, willing to propitiate the mistress of Cupid, descends, takes the vessel which she is carrying, fills it with the waters, and returns it to her again. Venus now appoints a fourth labor, which is, to visit Proserpine, and to bring from her a box of celestial beauty. The shortest way to the shades, Psyche thinks is self-destruction. She goes to a tower for the purpose of casting herself headlong, but the tower speaks as the river had done before, (for which we are afraid there is no precedent or authority), expostu lates with her on the unreasonableness of her design, and gives