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Hanwell and Parker, Ox. ford; Rivingtons, London. The facred Oratorios, as fet to Mufic by George F. Handel. 2 vols. 12mo. 98. Heptinftall, Symonds. For 299 FOR THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. THE VALUE OF SUFFERING AND ENJOYMENT CONTRASTED. An Eastern Tale.. HOW many of the fons of men are prone to difcern the grains of infelicity that are mingled in the draught of life and it's enjoyments! Mifguided reafoners! While ye calculate, with fullen philofophy, the predominance of evil, and bemoan with the affected fhrug of beings, confcious that they are created to inhabit the chambers of mifery, how little are ye aware, that thefe very workings of your own foul conftitute the moft potent dregs in your cup, whofe mingled poifon ye thus triumph to execrate, and to expofe to your more guiltless fellow pilgrims on earth! Arreft your mind in it's impious train of thought. Behold, in the interval of candour, the other animated exiftences around you: Thefe range the foreft with blind, ferocious fteps; ye, if ye will, inveftigate the laws of your fublunary habitation and it's contents: thefe, like yourfelves, pafs through this tranfient fcene, partaking of it's bleffings and of its pains; not, however, like you, do they leek to enlarge the fum of the latter, nor to abuse what intellectual gifts they have to boaft of, by employing them in the gloomy work which ye cherish. Clofe, then, your fceptic's eye, and fhudder at the retrospect of your conduct. And when ye open it anew to the works of your God, fend it not with your wonted fcrutinizing caft, to brood with maligDant ingenuity o'er the limited evil of our goodly horizon: Let it beam with intelligence of another fort: Let it fpeak at least the will, to admit the beautiful and the good; and the fweet ferenity of a fummer's eve will be your reward. Haften to emerge from the fea of defpair: Alchamed the Perfian once was what ye are. Liften to the tale of Alchamed. In the pleasant plains of Georgia, where the towers of Tef lis are feen from afar to tuft the level green, and the yellow fields of rice, did Alchamed pafs, in Luftic fimplicity, the days of his early youth. Remote from the wiles of cities and of courts, but embosomed amid the pleafing attachments of his brother Twains, and the fond careffs of the warm maids; he led his willing flock where'er his fancy or his heart directed. In the glittering glade, while cooled by by the evening dews, he would warble his loves to the foft-breathing, sympathizing gales; he would wander with a chofen friend, o'er the fragrant moonlight fields of maize, and exchange the free confeffion of the fimple fecret; or would twine, while watching by his fleecy care, the gay wreath of jonquils and of rofes, to decorate his fmiling Fa tima, the miftrefs of his heart. Want, nor war, had e'er vifited thefe fons and daughters of nature. They had heard of the incurfions of the northern barbarians as a tale of other times. They knew not to brandifh the hoftile fpear, nor to ftrike, with din of war, the fhield of the hero: the crook, alone, and the useful ftaff, employed their harmless hands. The fecurity of peace and plenty foftered population, and banished mifery; and lulled, at the fame time, half the émotions of the, human heart. And, in fuch a fairy fcene, was Alchamed Happy? No: nor yet was he miferable. He was infenfible, he was indifferent to the real blissful nature of his fituation. All nature glowed around. Each valley fmiled. The fruits and flowers breathed, unasked, their sweets upon his fenfes. The aged tree caft it's broad brown fhade to fhelter him from the influence of the rolling god. The ftreams ever purled along. No gentle breeze was wanting to mitigate the day. Yet did Alchamed tire his life with liftlefs infenfibility. Thefe raised no emotion in his heart; like the boisterous wave, which dafhes againft the rock, ineffectual, unfeit. Alas! he dreamt not that the million in the city and in the school are fain after the leffon of dire experience; to tafle of the scenes of his unrufled life, that on fuch, among them, does fancy love to reft, and to build her moft extravagant, her moft exftatic enchantments. Alchamed had feen twice an hundred moons pafs over his head, when a murmur was circulated among his gaping brethren, that a ftrange man from the Weft was arrived, who was skilled in the knowledge of many things. It was a learned traveller from the continent of Europe, who paid them a temporary vifit; being ftruck with the contemplation of the fpot, which his philofophy taught Pp2 him him to confider, as all other places were in his eye, miferable, because calculated merely for negative comfort. Wretch ed fimpletons, cried he inwardly each time that he witneffed their innocent paftimes and toils, wretched fimpletons! they enjoy not the pleasures which the philofopher enjoys: they know not the real ftate of things: never have they queftioned whether the evil overbalances the good in the scale of human judgment, unfettered by religion: whether the upholding hand of nature be malignant: whether abject man, the unwitting fport of his Maker, be deltined to inherit another or a better hereafter. Our fhepherd was no vulgar youth. The philofopher could not refift the temptation which he felt, to try the work of initiation upon his new acquaintance; and pitched upon Alchamed as his firft fubject. Nature had not been fparing of her intellectual gifts to the fwain. He grew with aftonishing progress under the hand of his cultivator. Curiofity firft, and foon emulation ftimulated him on the easy road to general knowledge. Intelligence, quickly, was half the beauty of his countenance. Abftract thought became the subject of his folitary ramblings in the grateful fhade, and on the moonlight height; and as his circle of information enlarged, he was gradually taught to reft, and with pain to reft, on the fcholaftic topics of moral government and the lot of man. Now could he account for the clouds, which he had formerly obferved with thoughtless amazement to overhang the afpect of his ftrange preceptor. He difcovered what had funk his eye, and Ramped upon his manners and appear ance the unwelcome character of wayward and churlish: And, unhappy Alchamed! gradually didft thou begin to evince, that from the influence of the principles of habit and imitation, thy own mind was growing but too conge nial to that of the western ftranger. That unamiable moralift, at length took occafion to depart. But, like the blaft that carries with it the feeds of the peftilence, he left not the Georgian plain as he had found it. Alchamed, once it's greateft ornament, was loft to his friends and his fair. Not even his favourite Fatima could difpel the penfive gloom from his features. No more did he mix with the fimple occupations of the ignorant herd; to gladden each dance with his perfon and his fancy; to raise among the willing maids the foft tumult for his envied choice; to whifper into the ear of an affectionate equal the only fecrets that he knew; or to invent together the means of infnaring the frail fhepherdefs who might be the object of the moment. His pipe lay as neglected as his former aflociates. His flocks indeed, he attended; but he gave them his perfon alone: his fpeculations turned on far more serious matters. He pored on the pernicious doctrines which the philofopher had infpired; and he faw, or at leaft he fancied he faw, that every obfervation which he made, tended only to illuftrate the painful truth, that comfort is not made for man. At this time there happened an accident, fad and eventful, in the "fhort and fimple annals" of the Georgian fwains. Their rich and verdant vales tempted the lawlefs fword of the Tartar. An incurfion followed, with all the horrors of fword and fire. "The fhep"herds fled for fafety and for fuccour." -Alchamed, though he well knew the nature of war by description, had never learnt to wield the fpear or the bow, and fled accordingly with the faint, aftonished herd of his brethren: himself mufing on the way, with a fort of fullen triumph, on this new confirmation of his tenets. Fate, after many days of toil and wandering, at length conducted the weary fteps of the fugitives to a neighbouring fortrefs. The hoftile barbarians foon after arrived, and Alchamed witneffed the events of a fiege. A famine next, and its direful attendant a peftilence, affailed the inhabitants, and among the reft Alchamed. From the natural ftrength of his frame, he was among the few that furvived these complicated shocks: but he survived only to undergo more perpetuated infelicity in the difmal fuggeftions of his mind. How myfterious, thought he, as he furveyed the univerfal wreck in the fort, are the difpenfations of the great Alla on earth! He has given abject man a fellow feeling for the woes of others; and that is doomed to be inceffantly wounded. He has given him acuteft fenfations in the events which happen to his own individual frame; and are not these ever tinged with indifference, with difcontent, or with pofitive mifery? With this thought fresh in his mind, he refolved to remove from his prefent fituation. I will journey, thought he, into a better country. There, want nor disease fhall any more affail me: I fhall learn to know the rap tures of pofitive enjoyment. Alone and melancholy, he fet out upon his journey, with his face towards the eaft. He had not long given audience to the gloomy fuggeftions of his philofophy, when the furrounding elements were fuddenly raised into a form. No where was there any prospect of fhelter. The clouds emptied their contents upon the face of the earth. The helpless animals dropt in numbers around him. The zig-zag fluid, and the unutterable thunder difplayed all their horrors to his half-deadened fenfes. The foreft was rent, with a deftructive crash, and a hideous gap disclofed the shattered wreck of a caravan. Myfterious Heaven! his foot ftumbled on the blackened corfe of a once lovely female. Faint and horror-ftruck, he at length found himfelf feated in a friendly cave, whither he had crept for fhelter. His frame was exhaufted. Recruiting fleep began to embrace his faculties. But the angel of the prophet had defcended on the wings of fleep, and now flood before Alchamed. "Deluded mortal," exclaimed he, "liften to Azoran, the mi"nifter of reproof, whom the prophet "deigns to fend to thee. Betake thy"felf to the city, and join the crowd; "converfe with thy brethren of man"kind; mingle in the fcenes of bufinefs ❝ and intrigue; ufe aright the powers "which Alla has given thee. Do this, " and happiness is within thy grafp." Alchamed awoke to the beauties of reviving nature. Impreffed with the purport of his dream, he directed his fteps to the magnificent city of Ipahan; determined here to fix his abode, and to feck for enjoyment, or at leaft to drive away mifery by engaging in the active fcenes of civil life. Here were occupations which called forth his latent powers. He employed them at firft in procuring a comfortable fubfiftence, 'till gradually he came to conduct with ability a profperous trade. Many moons rolled over his head; and fortune ftill continued to fmile upon his lot. His caravans were feldom robbed; and his treasures increased apace. Now he was a polifhed merchant courted by the little, and encouraged by the great: no longer the member of an ideot ruftic tribe; but the active and knowing citi zen. No more was he afraid of incurfions from the Tartars: no more was his tender heart fhocked with horrid fcenes of suffering humanity, either in reality or in imagination. He dwelt fecure from poverty and invafion, in the extenfive city of Ipahan. And in this train of life was Alchamed happy? No! ftill he was but negatively fo. All his views of things were warped with the poifon of the infidel philolo pher, and he was confcious of no unalloyed transports which he believed to be the effence of the feeling. Strange to tell! he faw that he profpered, yet could he not own a pure fentiment of fatisfaction. "Ah!" thought he one night, as he fat in a penfive pofture with his lamp burning before; Thou dream of mortal man, how does thy fantaftic nothing form, bewilder, and elude his views! Ï have fought thee in the village glade: in the paths of fcience: in the boisterous fafe habitation of a fortrefs: in the folitary journey; in the bufy crowd. But hidden Alla !". I finished not his thought when he felt the influence of the prophet to be upon him. His fight became obfcured: and his chamber difappeared. Light returned again, and he found himself as if awakened from a flumber feated under the broad fhade of a tree, on a gay flowery plain. An azure cloud floated along his fide. It was the train of a winged angel who refted one hand on his fhoulder, and with the other pointed to the paradife around. The merchant of Ifpahan was ftruck with awe at the confcioufness of his fituation, and remained in a pofture of mute reverence. The divinity needed not to command filence. "Alchamed," he began with a voice which breathed mildness and dignity, "I "am Azoran, the minifter of reproof: "Fret not at the lot of man: nor forbid "thy mind to relish thy own. The lot "of Alchamed has been fair and envied among the fons of fortune. But thy 66 per verfe tenets have darkened thy mind "and fhut it.to the bleflings of conscious "enjoyment. In the plains of Georgia, "with not a blaft of adverfity to ruffle "the uniform fea of thy life; how wouldft "thou have valued the real blifs of thy "fituation, hadft thou known, without "the fceptic's reflections, of the reign of "mifery among thy fellow-creatures. In 66 Ipahan, where thou haft been a ftranger to poverty and difeafe, where thy coffers have been filled, where fociety has opened its arms, offering thee a wel"come reception; what morning mightst "thou not have anointed thy head with "the oil of gladness, upon contemplating fcenes of experienced or of imaginary "woes; "peftilence or the ftorm? Go, now, "into the world. It has occupations "more worthy of thee than thy ufe"lets lite in the vales of Georgia. It "calls upon thee to fulfil the duties "which utility impofes. Cherish the poor with thy treasures, enlighten the "ignorant by thy talents. Do this; and "if thou difcardeft the baneful tenets "of thy mad philofophy, happiness will "light upon thee of its accord. But go "with this leffon deeply graved upon "thy heart (a leffo which the mind "alone, unclouded by the gloomy precepts of deluded philofophers can learn "to practice) that Contraft can soften each woe, and that Contraft can "Sweeten each joy." "woes ;-had not the leffons of the wife felf in its pureft extreme: fay- Azaron fpake and difappeared. Alchamed was now left to muse on the words he had heard. His eye began to wander o'er the profpect, and to whif per that it recognized the scenery. Yes! for the fcenery was his native plan. The aged tree whofe friendly fhade now harboured him, had often witneffed his youthful sports, his youthful loves. An expreffive figh Ipoke the refult of the angel's vifitation; and led, infenfibly, to many a tear of regret for paft conduct and many a fervent vow for the regulation of the future. While thus he loft himself in the labyrinth of thought, the enchantment was diffipated. He awoke from his vifion, in his apartment at Ifpahan with his lamp burning before him. He continued to mix with the world. Society from that moment owned Alchamed for a benefactor; and Alchamed, in each fentiment of fatisfaction on the contrary, faw the fuperior value of the angel's doctrine; and loved, in many a moment of fweet converfe with abfent things, to ponder on the period and to reflect on the fcene where he had been converted by Azoran the minister of reproof. POETRY. FOR THE EDINBURGH MAGAZINE. THE DIRGE OF ATTILA. Attila, the fon of Mundzuk king of the Huns, a numerous tribe of Sarmatian Tartars, reigned over the nations of Scythia and Germany, from the Volga, perhaps, to the Dunube. His inroads into both the Eaftern and Western Roman Empires were R. M. the most destructive, bloody, and refistless of all the Barbarian Invafions. Had he fucceeded in the battle of Chàlons, A. D. 451, it is more than probable that Europe at prefent would have been as illiterate and mifərable as Turkey or Perfia. He died hastily at his camp on the Danube, 453, on the eve of a new and more formidable expedition. His chofen fquadrons of Huns cutting off |