Far other suns!—A sun O how unlike In grandeur terrible,-all heav'n descends :— While (dreadful contrast!) far-how far beneath! And worldly fancy feeds on golden dreams,— Man,-starting from his couch,-shall sleep no more! The day is broke,-which never more shall close! Where,-where-for shelter, shall the guilty fly, And an eternity, the date of Gods, Descended on poor earth-created man! At thought of thee,-each sublunary wish ALTAMONT. YOUNG. The sad evening before the death of the noble youth,-whose last hours suggested the most solemn and awful reflections,-I was with him. No one was present, but his physician-and an intimate whom he loved,-and whom he had ruined. At my coming in, he said—“ you and the physician are come too late,-I have neither life nor hope.-You both aim at miracles.-You would raise the dead!" Heaven, I said, was merciful.--Or,-exclaimed he,-" I could not have been thus guilty.-What has it not done to bless, and to save me !-I have been too strong for Omnipotence!-I have plucked down ruin." I said, the blessed Redeemer," Hold! hold! you wound me!-That is the rock on which I split:-I denied his name!" Refusing to hear any thing from me,-or to take any thing from the physician, he lay silent,-as far as sudden darts of pain would permit, till the clock struck:-Then with vehemence he exclaimed, "Oh! time!-time! it is fit thou shouldst thus strike thy murderer to the heart! -How art thou fled for ever!—A month!-oh, for a single week!-I ask not for years!-though an age were too little for the much I have to do." On my saying, we could not do too much :that heaven was a blessed place- "So much the worse.-'Tis lost! 'tis lost-Heaven is to me the severest part of Hell!" Soon after, I proposed prayer—“ Pray you that can-I never prayed. I cannot pray-nor need I. Is not Heaven on my side already? It closes with my conscience. Its severest strokes but second my own." Observing that his friend was much touched at this, even to tears-(who could forbear? I could not)—with a most affectionate look, he said, "Keep those tears for thyself, I have undone thee. Dost thou weep for me? That is cruel. What can pain me more. Here his friend,-too much affected-would have left him." No stay-thou still mayst hope; therefore hear me. How madly have I talked! How madly hast thou listened,-and believed!-but look on my present state,-as a full answer to thee, and to myself. This body is all weakness and pain;-but my soul, as if stung up by torment to greater strength and spirit, is full powerful to reason; full mighty to suffer. And that,-which thus triumphs within the jaws of immortality, is doubtless immortal. And, as for a Deity, nothing less than Almighty could inflict what I feel." I was about to congratulate this passive,→ involuntary confessor, on his asserting the two prime articles of his creed,-extorted by the rack of nature, when he thus very passionately exclaimed;—No, no!-let me speak on. I have not long to speak.-My much injured friend! my soul,-as my body, lies in ruins; in scattered fragments of broken thought.-Remorse for the past throws my thought on the future. Worse dread of the future, strikes it back on the past. I turn and turn, and find no ray. Didst thou feel half the mountain that is on me,- thou wouldst struggle with the martyr for his stake; and bless Heaven for the flames!-that is not an everlasting flame;—that is not an unquenchable fire!" How were we struck!-yet soon after, still more. With what an eye of distraction, what a face of despair, he cried out! "My principles have poisoned my friend! my extravagance has beggared my boy! my unkindness has murdered my wife And is there another hell? Oh, thou blasphemed, yet indulgent LORD GOD! Hell itself is a refuge, if it hide me from thy frown! Soon after, his understanding failed. His terrified imagination uttered horrors not to be repeated, or ever forgotten. And ere the sun (which I hope has seen few like him) arose, the gay,-young,-noble,-ingenious,-accomplished,and most wretched Altamont, expired! If this is a man of pleasure,-what is a man of pain? How quick,-how total,—is the transit of such persons! In what a dismal gloom they sit for ever! How short, alas! is the day of their rejoicing!-For a moment they glitterthey dazzle! In a moment,-where are they? Oblivion covers their memories. Ah! would it did! Infamy snatches them from oblivion. In the long living annals of infamy their triumphs are recorded. Thy sufferings,-poor Altamont !still bleed in the bosom of the heart-stricken friend-for Altamont had a friend., He might have had many. His transient morning might have been the dawn of an immortal day. His name might have been gloriously enrolled in the records of eternity. His memory might have left a sweet fragrance behind it, grateful to the surviving friend,-and salutary to the succeeding generation. With what capacity was he en dowed! with what advantage for being greatly good! But, with the talents of an angel,-a man may be a fool. If he judge amiss in the supreme point,-judging right in all else, but aggravates his folly;-as it shews him wrong, though blessed with the best capacity of being right. DR. YOUNG. IFICA CLIMAX OR AMPLIFICATION Is an enumeration of particulars to increase the force of an oration or harangue, and each particular requires to be read with an increased emphasis of voice.-1, 2, 3, &c. mark the climax. EXAMPLES. -but,-without this match The sea enraged, is not half so deaf The cloud capp'd towers,'-the gorgeous palaces2 The solemn temples-the great globe itself- It is to you Veturia, that these women have recourse in the extreme peril, with which they and their children are threatened.They entreat'-implore-conjure3 you, to compassionate |