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CHRIST STILLING THE TEMPEST.

BY MRS. HEMANS.

"But the ship was now in the midst of the sea, tossed with for the wind was contrary."

waves,

ST. MATTHEW, Chap. xiv. Ver. 24.

FEAR was within the tossing bark,
When stormy winds grew loud,
And waves came rolling high and dark,
And the tall mast was bowed.

And men stood breathless in their dread,

And baffled in their skill

But One was there, who rose and said
To the wild sea, Be still!

And the wind ceased-it ceased-that word
Passed through the gloomy sky;
The troubled billows knew their Lord,

And sank beneath his eye.

And slumber settled on the deep,
And silence on the blast,

As when the righteous falls asleep,
When death's fierce throes are past.

Thou that didst rule the angry hour,
And tame the tempest's mood,—
Oh! send thy Spirit forth in power,
O'er our dark souls to brood!

Thou that didst bow the billow's pride, Thy mandates to fulfil,

So speak to passion's raging tide,

Speak and say,-Peace, be still!

A TALE OF THE FRENCH REVOLUTION.

BY AN OLD TRAVELLER.

WHEN the French Revolution broke out in 1789, I had just completed my 21st year, and left the academic bowers of Cambridge to travel for a few years over the Continent. Proud of being a native of the only free country in Europe, my mind full of the early deeds of Greece and Rome, and my imagination seduced by visions of ideal perfection and happiness, I hailed with transport what I then conceived the first dawn of liberty in France, and giving up all thought of travelling farther, immediately set off for Paris, there to watch and study the mighty workings of a people I had pictured to myself as shaking off, by one sudden and sublime effort, the rivetted chains of despotism and ignorance.

The numerous letters of introduction I was furnished with, procured me an admittance into the best society, and I had full opportunities of becoming acquainted with the feelings of the different parties which then divided the capital. The majority of the nobility and clergy I saw were panic-struck. The incredulous derision with which

they treated the first demonstrations of public feeling, soon gave way to that abject fear and fatal irresolution which marked their conduct during all the stages of the Revolution; injudiciously making a faint resistance one day, and the next giving up every thing as lost, when a moderate and cheerful compliance in the beginning, joined to a becoming and dignified firmness, would have preserved them against farther encroachments. The minority, consisting mostly of men who, in the old "regime," would have lived out their luxurious and useless life unnoticed, now courted popularity and fame at the expense of their privileges: yet a few were sincere. Some of the "haute noblesse" felt real, not affected, sorrow for the situation of their monarch, and did not cloak, under an hypocritical zeal for the throne, their regret at losing those oppressive privileges which they had looked upon as theirs by divine and unalienable right. They boldly rallied round their king, and with praiseworthy, though ill-judged warmth, hurried him and his family into measures which proved their ruin. Many, on the other hand, joined the ranks of the people from a heart-felt love for liberty. Some of these it was my good fortune to know. With anxiety have I watched their brilliant, but short and stormy, career; beheld them the idol, then the scorn of the mob; generously sacrificing distinctions and fortune at the altar of liberty, and then polluting it with their blood. But none excited in me such sympathy as the young Count Eugène St. George. I met him first at the house of one: of the leading members of the Constituent Assembly, where I heard him exposing, with all the force of truth and

eloquence, the abuses of government, tracing despotism through all its stages, and firing every bosom with the flame which burnt in his own.

Since that time 36 years have rolled over my head, and left traces of their passage. The changes which I have seen, and the vicissitudes which have fallen to my lot, have sobered my feelings; but though made much wiser now by sad experience, I must say that never, no, not even in the days of my childhood, under the shade of the paternal roof, did I spend such a delightful year. The visions of my youth were about to be realized; I saw a great nation happy and free, possessed with new powers; I saw all France, as I thought, uniting with one soul to lay the eternal foundation of future prosperity. In this feverish state of existence, I forgot parents, friends, and country, and drank deep of the intoxicating cup that threw a whole people into a frantic and delirious joy. But that happiness was short as it was vivid. I saw my friend become one of the leaders of the popular party, and enjoyed his triumph as if it had been my own. But soon the bright perspective we had conjured up began to lower : division, ambition, and party-spirit, soon undermined the fairy fabric which was to have stood for ages. But why repeat what I wish I could forget for ever. Three years passed away, and the next saw the king of France a priand his life at the mercy of an infuriated and misled mob. My friend made a last and noble, but unavailing, effort to save him; he pourtrayed with almost prophetic spirit, the evils which threatened his country, the days of

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