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attractions? Good old Gawin Douglas thus fitly addresses her :

"Hornyt lady, pail Cynthia, not brycht, Quilk from thi broder borrowis all the lycht, Rewlare of passage and ways mony one, Maistres of stremys and glaidar of the nycht, Schipmen and pilgrymys hallowis thi mycht.'

Milton, too, makes the brothers in Comus invoke her as a power to whom the wayfarer looks not in vain for kind protection:

“Unmuffle, ye faint stars; and thou, fair Moon,

That wont'st to love the traveller's benison, Stoop thy pale visage through an amber cloud,

And disinherit chaos, that reigns here

In double night of darkness and of shades,"

But faint, perhaps, or feeble in contemplative earnestness must be the love of other travellers compared with that which rivets the lonely seaman's gaze, in the watches of the night, on that object which brightens his watery scene, and on which, belonging as it does to earth aswell as to ocean, he would fain believe that the weeping eyes of friends at home are now fixed in sympathy with his. And if this gentle visitant of the night is thus dear to the sea-farer's heart, can we readily believe that she does not, in return, look in love on the gallant vessels that wing their way beneath her beams, and commiserate the sad disasters which they are doomed to undergo.

"O heavenly Queen! by mariners beloved! Refulgeat moon! when in the cruel sea Down sank yon fair ship to her coral grave, Where didst thou linger then? behoved

Sure it

A spirit strong and pitiful like thee
At that dread hour thy worshippers to save;
Nor let the glory where thy tenderest light,
Forsaking even the clouds, with pleasure lay,
Pass, like a cloud which none deplores,

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When death and danger, terror and dismay,

Are madly struggling on the dismal Ocean, With heedless smile and calm unalter'd motion,

Onward thou glidest through the milky

way,

Nor, in thy own immortal beauty blest, Hear'st dying mortals rave themselves to

rest.

Yet when this night thou mount'st thy starry throne,

Brightening to sunlike glory in thy bliss, Wilt thou not then thy once-loved vessel miss,

And wish her happy now that she is gone?”

To whom else than these can the

glimpses of the moon be so intensely dear as to prompt the spontaneous poetry of the Heart? Surely, more than to any others, to those who sit in the darkness and desolation of bondage, counting the tedious restingplaces of time, and reviving as if from the dead at any kind visitation that seems to break their loneliness, or to betoken the return of light and liberty. "Smile of the moon!-for so I name

That silent greeting from above;
A gentle flash of light that came
From Her whom drooping captives love;
Thou that didst part the clouds of earth,
Or art thou of still higher birth?
My torpor to reprove !"

Such are some of the imaginative impersonations of these fair orbs which spring from the feelings of the heart, and which, in all time, will give an additional beauty to their lustre, and a stronger energy to their moral influence, yet so as not to disturb, but rather to aid and enforce the sacred

truth, that these are but the dim reflections of ineffable brightness and transcendant power, in a Being infinitely greater than all his works, from whom our faculties have borrowed all their resources, and to whom we can communicate nothing unless it be the imperfections of our own unworthy and inadequate apprehensions.

THE TOBIAS CORRESPONDENCE.

No. I.

FROM NESTOR GOOSEQUILL, ESQ. TO TOBIAS FLIMSY, ESQ., ON THE GENERAL QUESTION OF EDITING NEWSPAPERS.

Ben Jonson's Head, Shoe Lane, Fleet Street,
Monday, 1st June 1840.

DEAR TOBIAS,-I have just received your letter, which I hasten to answer, though in reality I am any thing but sure that this will reach you, as you have forgotten to send your address. I called at your last lodgings in Arundel Street: the lady was so civil and attentive to your proceedings, that when I asked for your address, she said she wished she knew it. I saw Tom Wilkinson of the Goat and Compasses, and had a glass of brandy and water with him (cold), over which he mentioned to me that he supposed you would soon settle with him your last year's bill. Of course I said you would; and in order to show my opinion of your solvency, I ordered three or four glasses of the same (hot for him), which are put down to your account. So far as that goes, all is satisfactory. That rascally snip, Smashton, who has been a bankrupt some score of times, met me by chance, and had the impudence to speak to me of something he says you owe him. I really never was so disgusted in my life, and, with what I trust is a proper degree of moral feeling, told the fellow that if you ever paid him a farthing, I should be under the necessity of cutting your society, for your not appropriating the sum to the payment of his honest, his honourable, and his ill-used creditors. I spoke to him in such a manner against the villany of getting into debt, that if the scoundrel has any feeling-but no matter; I am sure, dear Tobias, you will never, by your conduct in this particular, reduce me to a predicament so distressing to my feelings as cutting you. Never pay him, my dear fellow, never-but I need not impress this more strongly upon your just and discreet mind.

Jack Random, I spent the evening with last Saturday: he tells me that on looking over your cases, he does not see what you have to apprehend.

He is really a good fellow, though an attorney, and has done every thing for you that a man could, except paying the costs out of pocket, for omitting which ceremony he had many reasons; and look after your fifteen or sixteen cases, from which he was prevented by the accident of his being on a visit in White Cross, which may be, and indeed is, a valuable seminary for learning the principles and practice of the debtor and creditor law, but is remarkably unfavourable for locomotive exertion. He is out, however, now, and will attend to your affairs as soon as he gets through a couple of dozen dinners with recently emancipated Knights of the Cross, whom he assisted, by acceptances or otherwise, in their escape from the Philistines. On the whole, he thinks that there are not more than five executions against you-there may pos sibly be six, for there is no knowing whether that infernal vagabond, Moses Abuddibus, has issued an Ex. for that sixty-one day bill you accepted for me last March two years, though I have promised to pay him six, ay, eight months ago, because ruffians like him are never to be trusted, as they have no notion, like gentlemen, of keeping their word: but say six exes, and that's all. There are seven or eight razor-strops-little Victorias by the grace of God-besides, but they are only serviceable-so that's not at all pressing.

As for the exes

First, as to paying Humphry Hocus for the wine

[This part of the letter is so completely of a private nature, that we cannot print it. It is sufficient to say, the writer advises his correspondent on the great impropriety of wasting his money in paying debts. He says he has known it to be the ruin of many a man. It is a worse propensity than gambling, he observes, be

cause gambling, though the practice is immoral, yet you may get something by it; but in paying debts, the money is assuredly lost to you and your heirs for ever, without any hope of equivalent.]

I called at Charley Owen's in the Strand, and backed the tickets on your watch and waistcoats, so that they are safe for three months. As my money happened to be locked up at the time in some heavy speculations in the city, I took the liberty of selling one of your tickets to Charley, to raise the wind for keeping the rest out of danger. There was some money in your favour, on the strength of which he and I and Mac dined at Dubourg's. He behaved so civilly that I could not do any thing less with common decency; and I am sure you will approve of it. You can draw a bill upon me for the balance whenever you like, and when it is dishonoured, I will pay the three and sixpence for noting with pleasure. We had a remarkably agreeable evening, and as I was putting Owen into a cab at about three in the morning, I took the precaution of borrowing from him a ten-pound note and some loose silver, least he might be robbed by the cabman. I have observed with regret that the appointment of our mutual friend, Daniel Whittle Harvey, to the office of jarvey-general has not effected any considerable emendation in the lives and characters of the tribes entrusted to his sceptre; nor do I think that the missionary societies, so successful among Blacks, Hindoos, Jews, Quakers, and other heterodox sects, or pagans far off, have done any thing material in introducing Christianity among the cabs. I therefore deemed it no more than my duty to pay the fare for Charley beforehand, although it amounted to a shilling, (eightpence was the just fare, but I would not stand quarrelling with a swindling knave upon a trifle,) out of my own pocket.

Mother Phillips has your linen, but there seems to be a difference between you, which I cannot reconcile. You say you have three shirts, five collars, and four pair of socks. She maintains that it is but two shirts, three collars, and two pair of socks, both in holes. I really cannot offer an opinion as to which is right; of course I maintain it is you, but she is positive. As to the bill, the difference there is remarkable. You sent me five and six

pence to pay it, and get a receipt in full. I tendered her the money, but she refused it, saying you owed her eleven and eightpence-partly for washing, partly for quarterns which she got for you. Finding the discrepancy in your respective statements so material, I could not do you the injustice of handing over the money to her. Under such circumstances, I thought the best thing to do was to take it to Jack Lomas's, where Harry, Jack, Joe, Roe, Jemmy, and I drank it to your health. Do you intend to pay the eleven and eightpence? Perhaps you had better, as it is unpleasant to have a small balance hanging on among these low people. If you will send me eleven shillings, I think I can save you the difference; and eightpence, let me tell you, is something to save out of an account of this kind; and a man should be cautious. If you think that there has been any imposition played off, or even attempted upon you, do not think of submitting to it. Straightness in accounts is always best, even in trifles.

I tumbled upon Sloman in Covent Garden by mere chance. He came up to speak to me. I was at first somewhat impressed with the idea it was upon some business of my own, but was much relieved when I found it was upon yours. He fumbled in his pocket-book, as if looking for a writ; but, fortunately, the manuscript was not discoverable. He spoke to me in the kindest manner of you, but as I perceived that he had sent his man, after a confidential whisper, in the direction of Cursitor Street, I was not anxious to detain him from his business. I told him that if he held over the writ he has against you in the case of Slapbang and Swindlebody, he might expect a sovereignand so no doubt he may. Being a very hospitable man, he asked me to take share of a bottle of champagne, at his expense, at Evans's; for he could wait, he said, until his man returned. I consented; but as I knew that it would occupy some time in swallowing the expensive wine recommended by my disinterested friend of Herne Bay, I preferred getting through a glass of gin and water with extreme rapidity, relieving Mr Sloman from the necessity of treating me, as he benevolently proposed, to a second. I passed the river Thames, by the noble bridge called after the

immortal battle of Waterloo, and, ensconcing myself securely in the Feathers, reflected upon the ease of a snug situation in the southern latitudes. I thought of Tom Macaulay in the East Indies, and called for a cheroot. As I sate in the end window enjoying a fine view of the Thames, I perceived that my friend Sloman and his companion were prowling about the northern extremity of the bridge, which, I assure you, was not one of the least agreeable features in the landscape. He particularly asked about your habitation, and I told him that had joined the Chinese expeyou dition, and were at present, in all probability, outside the celebrated harbour called by the English Canton, but by native authorities Kwangtchoo-foo-ht; and as you were to return as soon as the war was over, he might consider his sovereign as secure to him as if you had been in England; which I am certain is no more than the plain truth. The only observation which Sloman made on this consisted in a single word, which was "gammon." I cannot conceive what he meant, nor how he, being a strict professor of Hebrew theology, and a great rabbi among the Jews, can have anything to say to pig's meat. I did not, however, wait to enquire, feeling convinced that it was, after all, nothing but some low slang expression, such as is to be expected from people of his low business, whose company I have always, therefore, most sedulously avoided.

Sam Jones is not that fool you take him for. I wrote to him as you desired; and, to ensure his punctuality, asked him to take a chop and a glass of grog with me at the Blue Posts in Cork Street-at my expense of course. He came to the minute; and, on my mentioning your name, broke out into the highest encomiums upon you, and at one time was on the point of shedding tears. I had no notion of the extent of your kindness to him. You were taken, he told me, three times upon a cognovit, which you gave to satisfy an acceptance you had prudently lent him; and though his heart bled for you, he was obliged to leave you to settle the whole debt, costs and all, in the course of a couple of years. You had taken him out of the Marshalsea, he said, where he was locked up for L.3, 15s.; and his creditor had so high an opinion of

your credit, as to take your bill at three months, though the postscript of costs had swelled it to L.18, 6s. 6d., which you liquidated in the manner above mentioned. At what time, my dear friend, did these extraordinary events occur? You never mentioned a word to me about them. Seeing that he was rather well-dressed, I suggested to him that now was the time to show his gratitude: and he exclaimed, in a fit of irrestrainable enthusiasm, that there was nothing he would not do to serve you. "I'd move heaven and earth," said he, "to serve that man!" "Then," said

I, "send him a sovereign." Any thing-ask me any thing but that," he said, with much vehemence-"that I cannot do." On enquiring into the reason of his objection, he told me that you had not inserted his name as indebted to you in your schedule, and that paying you now would involve him in a connivance with-pardon me for saying the word-with perjury, as you had sworn that you had inserted all your credits. "It would hurt the character of us both," he remarked, "if, by paying Tobias any thing, he acknowledged that the sacred obligation of an oath was violated or trifled with." It was in vain that I plied him with a couple of extra bowls of punch. I could not get over the tenderness of his religious scruples; and, finally, I became so disgusted that I departed from the room without bidding him good-night. I was so carried away by indignation, that it was not until next morning I recollected I had not settled the bill. On hastening to the Blue Posts to rectify the error, I found that Sam, not having any thing in his waistcoat pockets, satisfied the waiters by the deposit of his waistcoat itself, besides his stock and bandana; all articles too costly and quite out of taste for a fellow like him. As the weather was remarkably sultry, and Sam had been rather too liberally applying "hot and rebellious liquors to his blood," as the divine Shakespeare has it, he must have felt considerably relieved by the removal of his stock and waistcoat, as he walked airily home in the cool of midnight. As for the bandana, in his then state, it would probably have fallen into the hands of pickpockets, or loose women. Seeing that every thing was much safer as it stood, and not wishing to disturb Sam's arrangements, I did not

same for me, as I am sure you have, upon more than one occasion, done already.

Having thus, I think, pleasantly arranged your private affairs, I must now touch upon your future functions but in the very outset I am puzzled. You tell me you have taken the office of editor of a newspaper, and seem not a little elated at the dignity—an elation, in esteeming which at its proper value I should have the more ready means of ascertaining, if I had seen your agreement, or knew the present state of the stability of your journal. But you do not tell me what the paper is where published-how backedor what politics; and yet, leaving me thus in the dark, you ask me to give you sound practical advice, such as you say my long experience, and, as you are pleased, dear Tobias, flatteringly to add, "the diversified and astonishing scope of my undoubted abilities so admirably qualify me to offer." I was pleased to see you making that last remark, not from the idle suggestions of vanity, but because it shows a power of rounding a sentence-not merely melodiously, but with a due feeling of the propriety of conciliating the member you mean to puff. Sheridan has made his hero in the Critic give a lecture upon puffing. Witty, no doubt, and well to laugh at, as a thing in a play. But mind me-when you want to puff any man, let it not be oblique, collusive, or any other of the categories of Sheridan's friend. Do it straightforward lay it on with a trowel. The public, if there is such a being, is no more deceived in the one case than in the other-that is not the way to humbug the public: but the man is tickled, which is the main object of the writer, or, at least, ought to be. I think that the word "admirable" is a good word when used thus-" as Soand-so said in his admirable speech"

accede to the request of the waiter to take possession of the goods, on pay ment of the bill. I am neither by inclination nor license a pawnbroker, to advance money on wearing apparel; and, on the whole, even if they are finally sold, which will probably be the case, yet as they were articles not suited to his manners, or his condition in life, and as it is to be feared that they were obtained in no very credit. able manner, he is better without them. As for your money, give it up. Sam, I repeat it, is no fool, whatever he may appear, and displays a considerable degree of cunning in his general dealings. I should think it would be no easy matter to make him a dupe, or to play any tricks upon him. I have found it so by experience. Though it is a visit not in consonance with my usual habits, yet, to oblige you, I called in the Edgeware Road upon Sally. That girl, it is evident, has a sincere regard for you. She asked me most anxiously where you had gone; and, on my informing her that I could not tell, she stamped gracefully, or at all events, emphatically, upon the ground, and exclaimed that if she knew she would follow you all over England, and ferret you out: an assertion which she confirmed with the solemnity of an oath. It is pleasant to witness these bursts of affection, especially when, as I believe is her case, the solicitude about a lover is rendered more intense by the maternal desire of supporting her offspring. The landlady, who, she told me, was a very unfeeling woman, harasses her every week with her vulgar visits; and, she added, the circumstance of your not taking a formal leave of her on your departure the day before the half-year became due, gives the coarse creature an opportunity of talking of your want of politeness. In those classes you may often observe a ridiculous attention to the forms and ceremonies" my Lord So-and-so is the most of etiquette. As I wished to afford Sally protection from these insults, I came to the resolution of taking up my quarters for the present in the Edgeware Road. The rooms, indeed, are small for two; but Sally and I make ourselves as comfortable as we can, without grumbling. I know your generous mind will lead you to regret that I should put myself to so much inconvenience: but I do not regret what I do for a friend. In a similar difficulty you would do the

admirable man of his party"-" the conduct of Sir Blunderbuss So-andso was admirable throughout," and so forth. It is almost as good a word of command as "accommodate" in the days of Bardolph, and generally as easy of exact definition. Therefore the compliment of your letter I hail, not as ministering to any feeling of self-gratulation, but as proving that you have obtained, or at least are in the road of obtaining, the mastery of one branch of your profession.

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