Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

their absurdities, and lament the existence of their vices, while we are able to benefit by another lesson in human nature, wherein we have seen folly ridiculed, and vice discouraged, and merely by exhibiting it unmasked. I believe every thinking being will grant, that in order to be most benefited by an insight into the human character, vice, as well as virtue, must be seen wholly undisguised; and when all the good and bad qualities are exposed naked to our view, we adinire and derive infinite advantage from a contemplation of the good and their happy effects, while we are shocked by and abhor the bad. As I am convinced, that in many cases it is only necessary to hold up the mirror of Truth, wherein the virtues and vices of mankind are seen in their native colours, to the gaze of society, in order to be productive of a vast deal of real good, I will never, by so doing, be amenable to the shallow and contracted opinions of ignorant and mistaken men, whatever pretensions they may imagine themselves entitled to as censors, but continue to exhibit vice loaded with all its deformity, virtue adorned with all its heavenly attributes, and folly arrayed in all her empty pomp, in despite of any private opinion.

Let

every human being see to his own actions, and be amenable to the awful tribunal of his own

conscience.

"I cannot tell what you and other men
"Think of this life; but, for my single self,

"I had as lief not be, as live to be
"In awe of such a thing as I myself.

"I was born free as Cæsar; so were you:
"We both have fed as well; and we can both
"Endure the winter's cold as well as he."

[ocr errors]

66 Quid de me alii loquantur, ipsi videant; sed loquentur tamen."

"As to what some persons may say of me, let them look to their own words; but nevertheless they will talk."

THE

TRAVELS OF ABDALLAH,

A LEARNED MAHOMETAN

OF THE LAST CENTURY.

"Historia quoquo modo scripta delectat.”
"History is always pleasing, write it as you will."

"Where'er I roam, whatever realms to see, "My heart, untravell'd, fondly turns to thee; "Still to my brother turns, with ceaseless pain, "And drags at each remove a lengthening chain."

[graphic]
« PreviousContinue »