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into Custody and have seized the Treasure for the King's use. For the King's use! exclaimed the Chief, now in his turn astonished. Does the Sun shine on that Country?O yes!-Does it rain there?-Assuredly.-Wonderful! but are there tame Animals there that live on the grass and green herbs?-Very many, and of many kinds.-Aye, that must be the Cause, said the Chief: for the sake of those innocent Animals the All-gracious Being continues to let the Sun shine and the Rain drop down on your Country.

2

Whoso hath found a virtuous Wife, hath a greater treasure than costly Pearls.

Such a Treasure had the celebrated Teacher RABBI MEIR found. He sate during the whole of one Sabbath day in the public School, and instructed the People. During his absence from his House, his two Sons died, both of them of uncommon beauty and enlightened in the Law. His Wife bore them to her Bed-chamber, laid them upon the marriage-bed, and spread a white covering over their Bodies. In the Evening Rabbi Meir came home. Where are my Sops, he asked, that I may give them my blessing? They are gone to the School, was the answer. I repeatedly looked round the School, he replied, and I did not see them there. She reached to him a Goblet, he praised the Lord at the going out of the Sabbath, drank and again asked: where are my Sons, that they too may drink of the cup of blessing? They will not be far off, she said, and placed food before him that he might eat. He was in a gladsome and genial mood, and when he had said. Grace after the meal, she thus addressed him. Rabbi, with thy permission I would fain propose to thee one question. Ask it then, my Love! he replied. A few days ago, a person entrusted some Jewels to my custody, and now he demands them again: should I give them back to him? This is a question, said Rabbi Meir, which my Wife should not have thought it necessary to ask. What, wouldst thou hesitate or be reluctant to restore to every one his own?-No, she replied; but yet I thought it best not to restore them without acquainting thee therewith, She then led him to their Chamber, and stepping to the Bed, took the white covering from the dead Bodies, -Ah, my Sons, my Sons, thus loudly lamented the Father, my Sons, the Light of mine Eyes and the Light of my

Understanding, I was your Father, but ye were my Teachers in the Law. The Mother turned away and wept bitterly. At length she took her husband by the hand and said, Rabbi, didst thou not teach me that we must not be reluctant to restore that which was entrusted to our keeping? See, the Lord gave, the Lord has taken away, and blessed be the name of the Lord! Blessed be the name of the Lord! echoed Rabbi Meir, and blessed be his name for thy sake too! for well is it written. Whoso hath found a virtuous Wife hath a greater Treasure than costly Pearls: She openeth her mouth with Wisdom, and in her tongue is the law of Kindness.

HYMN

Before Sun-rise, in the Vale of Chamouny.

Besides the Rivers ARVE and Aveiron, which have their sources in the foot of Mount Blanc, five conspicuous Torrents rush down its sides, and within a few paces of the Glaciers, the Gentiana Major grows in immense numbers-with it's" flowers of liveliest Blue."

HAST thou a charm to stay the morning Star

In his steep Course? So long he seems to pause
On thy bald aweful top, O sovran BLANC !

The Arve and Arveiron at thy base

Rave ceaselesly; but thou, dread aweful Form!
Risest from forth thy silent Sea of Pines,
How silently! Around thee and above
Deep is the air and dark, substantial, black,
An ebon Mass: methinks, thou piercest it,
As with a wedge! But when I look again,
It is thy own calm Home, thy crystal Shrine,
Thy Habitation from eternity!

O dread and silent Mount! I gaz'd

upon thee, Till thou, still present to the bodily sense, Didst vanish from my Thought: entranc'd in

I worshipped THE INVISIBLE alone.
Yet, like some sweet beguiling Melody

So sweet, we know not we are listening to it,

prayer

Thou, the meanwhile, wast blending with my Thought,

Yea, with my Life and Life's own secret Joy:
Till the dilating Soul, enrapt, transfus'd,

Into the mighty VISION passing, there

As in her natural form, swell'd vast to Heaven!

Awake, my Soul! not only passive praise
Thou owest! Not alone these swelling Tears,
Mute Thanks and secret extacy! Awake,
Voice of sweet Song! Awake, my Heart, awake!
Green Vales and icy Cliffs, all join my Hymn.
Thou first and chief, sole Sovran of the Vale!
O struggling with the Darkness, all the night,
And visited all night by troops of Stars,
Or when they climb the sky, or when they sink :
Companion of the Morning-star, at dawn,
Thyself Earth's rosy Star! and of the Dawn
Co-herald! Wake, O wake, and utter praise!

Who sank thy sunless Pillars deep in Earth?
Who fill'd thy Countenance with rosy light!
Who made thee Parent of perpetual Streams?

And you, ye five wild Torrents, fiercely glad!
Who call'd you forth from night and utter Death,
From dark and icy Caverns call'd you forth,
Down those precipitous, black, jagged Rocks
For ever shatter'd and the same for ever?
Who gave you your invulnerable Life,

Your Strength, your Speed, your Fury, and your Joy,
Unceasing Thunder and eternal Foam !

And who commanded (and the silence came)
Here let the Billows stiffen, and have Rest!

Ye Ice-falls! ye that from the Mountain's Brow
Adown enormous Ravines slope amain-
Torrents, methinks, that heard a mighty Voice,
And stopp'd at once amid their maddest Plunge!

Motionless Torrents! Silent Cataracts!

Who made you glorious, as the Gates of Heaven,
Beneath the keen full Moon? Who bade the Sun

you

Cloath with Rainbows? Who with living Flowers
Of loveliest Blue, spread Garlands at your feet?

GOD! let the Torrents, like a shout of Nations,
Answer! And let the Ice plains echo, GOD!

God! sing, ye meadow streams! with gladsome voice!
Ye Pine-groves, with your
soft and soul-like Sounds!
And they too have a Voice, yon Piles of Snow,
And in their perilous Fall shall thunder GOD!

Ye living Flowers, that skirt th' eternal Frost!
Ye wild-goats sporting round the Eagle's nest!
Ye Eagles, play-mates of the Mountain Storm!
Ye Lightnings, the dread Arrows of the Clouds!
Ye Signs and Wonders of the Element!
Utter forth GoD, and fill the Hills with praise!
Thou too, hoar Mount! with thy sky-pointing Peaks,
Oft from whose feet the AVALANCHE, unheard,
Shoots downward, glittering in the pure Serene,
Into the depth of Clouds that veil thy breast-
Thou too, again, stupendous Mountain! thou,
That as once more I raise my Head, bow'd low
In adoration, upward from thy Base
Slow-travelling with dim eyes suffus'd with tears,
Solemnly seemest, like a vapoury Cloud,

To rise before me-Rise, O ever rise,

Rise, like a Cloud of Incense, from the Earth!
Thou kingly Spirit thron'd among the Hills,
Thou dread Ambassador from Earth to Heaven,
Great Hierarch! tell thou the silent Sky,
And tell the Stars, and tell yon rising Sun,
EARTH with her thousand voices praises GOD.
S. T. COLERIDGE.

Penrith; Printed and published by J. Brown.

No. 12, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1809,

ON THE VULGAR ERRORS RESPECTING TAXES AND

TAXATION.

In a passage in the last Essay I referred to the second part of the "Rights of Man," in which Paine assures his Readers that their Poverty is the consequence of Taxation: that Taxes are rendered necessary only by Wars and StateCorruption; that War and Corruption are entirely owing to Monarchy and Aristocracy; that by a Revolution and a brotherly alliance with the French Republic, our Land and Sea Forces, our Revenue Officers, andthree-fourths of our Pensioners, Placemen, &c. &c., would be rendered superfluous; and that a small part of the Expences thus saved would suffice for the maintenance of the poor, the infirm, and the aged, throughout the kingdom. Would to Heaven! that this infamous mode of misleading and flat tering the lower Classes were confined to the Writings of Thomas Paine. But how often do we hear, even from the mouths of our parliamentary Advocates for Popularity, the Taxes stated as so much money actually lost to the People; and a nation in Debt represented as the same both in Kind and Consequences, as an individual Tradesman on the brink of Bankruptcy? It is scarcely possible, that these Men should be themselves deceived; that they should be so ignorant of History as not to know that the freest Nations, being at the same time commercial, have been at all times the most heavily taxed; or so void of common sense as not to see that there is no analogy in the case of a Tradesman and his Creditors, to a Nation indebted to itself. Surely, a much fairer instance would be that of a Husband and Wife playing Cards at the same Table against each other, where what the one loses the other gains. Taxes may be indeed, and often are injurious to a Country, at no time, however, from their amount merely, but from the time or injudicious mode in which they are raised. A great Statesman, lately deceased, in one of his anti-ministerial harangues against some proposed