NRLF B 3 327 067 ALVMNVS BOOK FVND . LORENZO AND BT JOSEPH ROGCIftE FT* V . "... . FROM CASAL Liberta va cercando ch e si cara, Come sa chi per lei vita rifiuta. DANTE. WINCHESTER, VA. FROM THE PRESS OF BROOKS & CONRAD. OFFICE OF THE REPUBLICAN. 1835. COPYRIGHT SECURED ACCORDING TO LAW. TO ITALY H| THE MISFORTUNES OF LORENZO ARE INSCRIBED. LORENZO AND OONALASKA, Like Cato firm, like Aristides just, Like rigid Cincinnatus nobly poor, A dauntless soul erect, who smiled on death. Thompson, We hear a great many exalting the civilization of our age ; but when we compare the fine pre cepts which men print for the improvement of so ciety, with the carelessness, we shall not say wickedness, which makes some men to believe it is their interest to leave those sacred books in the corners of libraries, the prey of mice and moths, we cannot help thinking, that from the history of Moses to this age, although arts and sciences have improved the physical welfare of society, our moral is inferior to that of the men of the fo rest. The reason of our immorality, we hope, will be explained in the course of the following short history of our hero s life ; and we shall see, that men of virtue often p&sfc.^rsiongst irj,,;;not only unnoticed and unrewarded, tut, [whilst socie ty receives from them the freJaafifc bf Hur{ifii>q in struction, she pays them with the most ungrateful acts, by slandering their characters, because, like mirrors, they have shown the faults of her face, From his childhood Lorenzo had been instruct ed by his mother to avoid all kind of selfishness, As we see a plant growing majestically on a fer- 6 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. tile land, spreading delicious fruit for all who ap proach it, so Lorenzo, from his childhood, gave in silence and with generosity all he had in his pos session. One day, going home from school with an unsealed letter written by his teacher to his father, the latter asked Lorenzo if he knew the subject of it. " My teacher told me it is written for a grave fault I have committed ; which, being a too grie vous one, thought proper to leave to your discre tion the punishment I deserve." " Did you read it ?" " No ; because when once I did, you told me I must not read a letter not being directed to me." " Well, my son, come now and read it." It w r as a letter inveighing against Lorenzo with the most bitter expressions, because my little he ro had broke the head of Hugo, one of the school boys. " Why have you done so, Lorenzo I" " Hugo is the stronger of three boys, who, whilst two of them were holding Charles on the ground, struck my dearest friend with a stick: I was^quite neutral injtheir quarrel ; but, seeing such an rmgmiero^sia^rcould not help springing at Hugo, .so that; after- many struggles, becoming in p/ostfesskm of Ms -stick^ I struck him on the head, and he fell senseless on the ground." " My son, if the fact is as you say, which I do not doubt, be more moderate in defending the weaker ; but you have done your duty." " Think, father, that the poor Hugo was brought senseless on his bed, and I do not know if he will LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 7 recover. Father, any punishment you may in flict on me will alleviate the pain I feel in my heart for Hugo." The father embraced his son with tears : he, af terwards, learned with feeling, that Lorenzo had before admonished the three little tyrants not to do so against Charles, and that the two untouched antagonists had threatened him to revenge Hugo. Once, being at a window with one of his friends, the son of a baker, larger than our little hero, flung stones at them. Lorenzo entreated him to cease ; but, finding the baker s son proceeding in his work, Lorenzo went in the street and knocked him down. The mischievous boy, leaving his cap on the ground, went crying away. In about an. hour a servant called Lorenzo, who was summon ed by his mother to go home, where he found the baker s wife claiming the money for her son s cap. " Mother, her son has insulted me ; and if he lost his cap, it is his own fault not to have picked it up." " My son, you might be right according to hu man laws, but you would have done better to fol low Jesus, by bearing patiently with your persecu tor. Take the box in which you put the money your father gives you when you know your lesson, and give this poor woman the value of her son s cap." " If it is because she is poor, here is the money, which I give with all my heart ; but if I had suf fered him to proceed much further, he would have broke the window, and perhaps have wounded my friend or me dangerously." 8 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. Whilst the other boys were filling up their me mories with Greek and Latin words, which they could not understand, Lorenzo was always put ting into exertion the sound moral principles which his mother inculcated upon him, not with vain words, but with her example, from the ear liest period of his understanding. One day, while his teacher was endeavoring to explain the moral of a fable of Esop, in which it is related the au thor gave a cent to a boy who wilfully struck him with a stone, telling him that he would gain more, by striking a richer man, who was at that moment approaching them. "My mother," said Lorenzo, "would not so have imposed upon his ignorance, because she would have thought such an irony, not being un derstood by a poor mischievous boy, could drag him into great difficulties ; and, indeed, the effect was, that he lost his life on the gallows." Lorenzo was one of those almost perfect crea tures, whom, from time to time, Nature gifts with benevolence, courage, patience, fortitude in adver sity, understanding, imagination, sensibility, and manly and commanding presence gifts, when alf combined with a true spirit of liberty in a society where reason cannot be understood, the possessor of it leads a very miserable life. But as the ob ject of this book is only the edition of my esteem ed, and persecuted countryman s sentiments, I do not wish to increase the volume of the following letters, which are now in my possession. LORENZO AND OONALASKA. TO CHARLES. Turin, t) terre du passe, que faire en tes collines ? Quand on a mesure tes arcs et tes mines, Et fouille quelques noms dans 1 urne de la mort, On se retourne en vain vers les vivans ; tout dort, Tout, jusqu aux souvenirs de ton antique histoire, Qui te feraient du moins rougir devant ta gloire ! Tout dort, et cependant 1 univers eat debout! Lamartine. The Prince .... fled into Spain ; a great many of my friends left Piedmont ; Austria invades Ita ly ; and the sound of liberty repeated every where is now silent. My mother and sisters, with tears rolling down their cheeks, wish me in Switzer land, fearing the government might cast me into prison. Indeed, if they will not doom me like G..., who lost his noble life by the hands of a vile executioner, a perpetual confinement might be my end. Now I never go out without two pis tols in my pocket; but what can these avail against the strongest 1 I, who wanted nothing but the rights of man, and sacrificed the whole of my property for my country, am now obliged to live as an outlaw. Dear mother, dear sisters ! how can I leave you, now destitute of every thing 1 The infamous tyrants, not satisfied to see us deprived of our whole property on earth, took from your mouth your daily support. But now, what can I do I I cannot stay longer in the land of my nativity. My dear father fell on the field of honor ; my brother Henry was hanged for having been another Gracchus ; and my bro- 10 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. ther-in-law Jacopo, and brother Hippolitus, are now fighting in Spain for the same cause of li berty. Charles, the sorrow carved on the beau tiful foreheads of my sisters is enough to make me cry like a child ! How different now the house of my father ! If thy soul, my worthy fa ther, see from heaven all the calamities we are un dergoing by having followed thy heavenly elo quence, alas ! pray the Creator of this wicked earth to send forth the thunder of his w r rath on the heads of our persecutors. A great many are passing their lives like streams meandering in a delicious garden of smiling flow ers and refreshing shades. In my past life, my existence was embittered with seeing every thing injuring my liberal education ; and now, I see nothing before me but a dreadful desert. P. S. In writing to me, address your letter to Geneva. LORENZO. Fearing to wound the delicacy of a respectable family, we omit all particular concerns and scraps, which would only increase our volume without purpose. JLORENZO AND OON ALASKA, 11 TO LORENZO. Paris. Et pourquoi craindre la furie D un injust dominateur ? N est-il pas une autre patrie Dans 1 avenir consolateur? Ainsi, quand tout flechit dans 1 empire du monde, Hors la grande ame de Caton, Immobile, il entend la tempete qui gronde, Et tient, en meditant, 1 eternite profonde, Un poignard d une main, et de I autre Platon. Delille. But is not the country of thy Charles open to thee 1 Come with me to England. The days of our sports are past, my dear Lorenzo. How of ten I recollect the university in which we received an education so contradictory to the iron govern ment of thy country ! Who would have believed the sentiments of Cicero, Cato, Plato, Dante, Pe trarch, and Machiavel, could have made unhappy my best friend Lorenzo 1 I will remember all my life when thou, in reading Bruto Secondo of Alfieri, spokest with such sublime eloquence a- gainst the oppressors of thy country. I feel yet a chill. If the Italian people had been present at thy oration, thou wouldst not now be obliged to flee from thy tyrants. I receive several jour nals from Italy, and particularly from Milan, whose pens, being sold to the German govern ment, have the impudence to disregard every Ita lian genius of liberal sentiment. Do tell me what thou wantest. I am rich. Not only is my whole property ready for thee 12 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. my blood, my life also. I do not know thy pre sent situation : when I think of that in which some of thy countrymen are now, I feel my hair stand straight up pn my head. CHARLES. In passing through the mountains of Savoy, Lorenzo met with a band of bandits. " Here is all rny money," said Lorenzo, taking out a purse in which he had three hundred livres : it was the scanty sum his mother saved from their confiscated property. But one of those outlaws, recognizing Lorenzo, said to the others not to be reave him of that subsistence, since he had seen Lorenzo fighting for the rights of the people in those last failing struggles. "Well," answered another fellow, ^ keep your money : we are taking it only from the aristo crats pockets." " God bless you, sir," said they all ; and, proceeding on their way, left Loren zo in a thousand philosophical reflections. On arriving in Switzerland he endeavored to give lessons ; but as it often occurs that man avoids man in necessity, although Lorenzo was a scho lar, and an eminent teacher, he was neglected. So Yoltaire : ! Les medians sont hardis ; les sages sont timides." For more than a year, he lived only on bread and water ; but when his ability became known, he gained a great deal of money, part of which he sent to his mother and sisters ; but feeling a sym pathy for Greece, he went to Missolongjri with LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 13 letters of recommendation to one of the heroes of that city, the worthy Bozaris. We find, among Lorenzo s papers, the follow ing copy of a letter, which seems to have been written to one of his creditors, when he was in a most heart-breaking situation : SIR : Geneva. I have received from my family two hundred livres, which I was anxious to send you imme diately, and deliver myself from your insupporta ble persecution ; but, finding I was debtor also to a gentleman who, although he does not live so comfortably as you, never asked me for a single livre ; beside, having dealt equitably with me, which you did not, I determined to follow the laws of reason, by doing at first my duty to him. Spare your trouble in sending every week for your money, since my intention is to leave not a single sous of debt. TO CHARLES. MissolonghL I^a trerita nelle anime corrotte corae il tuono che mugghia nelle tombe, ma non risveglia i cadaveri. Pananti. I cannot understand the Romaic ; but, in gen eral, the Italian language is tolerably well under stood here. The state of Greece is in great dan ger ; they have a great many intestine divisions : however I am determined to be either conqueror 14 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. or conquered for the good cause. A man must operate according to his own sentiments. The greater part of Greece is for freedom. I shall do all a man ought to do against the tyrants of an oppressed people. And when shall we see our rights established among men? The Pope, not feeling the interest his predecessor felt in the time of the crusades, does not impart his holy blessings in favor of his own Christianity, against the belie vers of Mahomet, because he prefers to sustain his temporal holiness with the diabolical alliance of kings, than to be crowned in heaven by the hand of Jesus : and now he is silent as a convict before the judges. LORENZO. TO CHARLES. Missolonghi. La nature appelle en vain a elle le reste des hommes ; cha-^ cun d eux se fait d elle une image qu il revet de ses propres passions. II poursuit, toute sa vie, ce vain fantome qui 1 egare, et it se plaint ensuite au ciel de 1 erreur qu il s est formee lui meme, Paul et Virginie. From my window I see the Turks surrounding the city of the most brave Greeks. Will men al ways be in contradiction with themselves 1 Be hold, Charles, within the walls of this city, men struggling against tyranny, and a greater number without ready to slay the former, because they took arms to defend their own rights. And for whom are those Turks now fighting against us ? For the LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. 15 Sultan ! for a man swimming in a haram of plea sures : for a man who shuts up their daughters in golden rooms, because they were the prettiest of the country : and after having shed their blood on the field, they present willingly their heads to the executioner, if the freak should pass through their master s brain of seeing their heads on the ground. And do you believe, Charles, they would be so blind, if they were not under the creed of Mahomet I So Lucretius " Bantum religio potuit suadere malorum." Write to my mother to tell my sister Carlotta, not to be alarmed about my situation. From the very moment that we, poor creatures of clay, breathe the breath of life, we are doomed to make the first step towards the Occident, among a thous and dangers, which very often put an end to us before the short period of 75 years of age. And, does this life of calamities deserve an attachment? My life is nothing else but a little spark, losing it self in infinity of atoms ; and when the molecules will be dissipated, it shall be the same as it was, obscurity around its little circle. Before the end of it, I am told, by my dear father, to act with ho nor and integrity towards the sufferers : I feel his own soul in my heart : and if I have a son, I would teach him the same principles : liberty, or death. While my soul animates this frame, I will act ac cording to my own reason : nothing is more painful for me than when I am in contradiction with myself. Nobody, I think, can have more 16 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. sibility than my sister ; and I tremble for her healths- she is so delicate my tears drop on this paper ! I cannot proceed writing about her. Tell my sisters I am cheerful in danger, and thoughtful in prosperity : and if I have any thing dear on earth, and which attaches me to this existence, it is know ing I am the object of the thought of our family ? and the brother of my dear Carlotta. LORENZO. TO CHARLES. Missolonghi. J erre maintenarit sans patrie. Quand je ne serai plus, aucim ami ne mettra un peu d herbe sur mon corps pour le gar- antir des mouches. Le corps d un etranger malheureux n in- teresse personne. Chateaubriand. Greece is swimming in her sacred blood ; and I have now very little hope of seeing her free. These annals deserve another Tacitus. Walking one day in the environs of Geneva, I met a Greek, with whom I proceeded towards Saleve. The poor old man cried like a child in relating his misfor tunes. If in five months he did not pay a debt of two thousand livres to a Turk, this believer in Ma homet would become the master of his wife and children ; and his daughters obliged to marry him. They were at that time in his possession. The people of that country were raising a subscription for the poor Greek. May it please God to give a perpetual enjoyment of liberty to the nation of Tell. LOHENZO AND OONALASKA. 17 And .why do n-A all ii&^ ojs shike htnds Tvith each other, and Crush to death tiie lew tyrants of this planet 1 Shall we always be obliged to ex claim with Campbell "Shall crimes and tyrants cease but with the world?" LORENZO. TO CHARLES. Missolonghi: Ainsi, quand Galilee accuse" de genie, Subit d une prison 1 illustre ignominie, Les juges, qu a son joug 1 ignorance attachait Disaient; la terre est fixe...et la terre marchait. Bigndri. It is not to one whose idol is money ; it is not to one who believes he has reached the top of rea son by having become insensible to every thing ; it is not to him whose friendship grows cold to wards his friend when he knows his fortune has been lost, I am now writing this letter ; not to an in dividual who feels no interest but towards his re lations or happy friends, without giving a look of compassion on misfortune, from whom they have no hope of reward. I write to you, dear Charles, whose country is the globe, because every where it is inhabited by suffering beings : to you, whose religion is neither a hypocritical dress of vices, nor an intolerable ignorance and superstition. Wearied of being confined within these walls of Missolonghi, I perused to-day several books which 3 18 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. came to my hand ; and passing so my time with- those men, from whom we learn to become better, I cried like a child in reading the mis fortunes of their lives. " N a-t-il pas expie par trois ans de prison L inexcusable tort d avoir trop tot raison ? " The selfishness of thousands and thousands of tyrants, is not sufficient to degrade humanity, when we think that a Socrates and an Aristides were men too. When we see Mutius Scaevola putting his right hand in the fire without manifesting the least symptom of pain in his countenance, we feel ourselves dignified. When I cast my eyes on the times which are passed, I feel for those geniuses who consumed their lives for the improvement of an ungrateful society who often committed them into prison, or left them dying on the straw LORENZO. The heroes of Missolonghi, seeing the impossi bility of defending their post, in blowing up the city buried themselves with a greater number of Turks. Lorenzo had been one of the few spared from that destruction: he went under another Greek ban ner, and fought during all the campaign, in which he had been wounded once in the left arm by a ball, and a second time in the left thumb by the hanger of a Turk, whom, after a long struggle, Lo renzo took prisoner. But the despotical cabinet of Europe having acted in a manner unworthy the sons of Themistocles and Leonidas, he went back LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 19 into Switzerland, Knowing very little of the agi tated life of our hero from the time of the insur rection in Italy, which happened in the year 1821, to the epoch he came back to Lausanne, in which country resided a great many Italian emigrants, Whom, whilst Lorenzo was in Greece, the govern- mont of Switzerland had been forced to send away . , by order of thedespotical powers surrounding that Republic, we shall only transcribe the * following letters, written from the Cantons of Vaud and Ge neva. TO CHARLES. Lausanne. II n etait pas difficile de voirque, s il est impossible que dans la societe tous les individus qui la cornposent aient le meme degre de puissance et de ridieeses, il est pourtant juste que tous jouissent dans la meme proportion de la protection de la loi civile, ce a quoi tendait effectivement 1 esprit des lois to rn aines. Botta. I believe the elected souls do not enjoy more pleasure than I do every morning in beholding a cloudless sky. The solitude in which now I live is for me an Elysium. I will change that uncul tivated land on the mountain, into n delightful Eden ; I shall see the branches of those trees I have planted, loaded with fruit ; and thou, dear Charles, when wearied of thy society, wilt corne to pour all thy cares into my bosom, I shall shew thee from under the beech-tree, which is on the top of the hill, this fine country. The dinners I take with Bran, under the cool bower, are delightful 5 thou shouldst be very much pleased in seeing thL- OHA1A9B ejctraordioary dog ! ii i* u pre< i of Otmalsskit, a young lady from thy country.... Here, I do not see the rich paying with usury the poor who served him with the sweat of his brow. Here, I do not see a beauty, the slave of superfluities : thou might- est have all the virtues of Socrates, the strength of Hercules, and the beauty of Ganymedes ; if thou art not rich, thou wilt be loved by such a woman, as if thou wert an Esop without his wit. I do not know whether it is in being out of my father s house, or my strange position in a society I dislike ; but when I was in the most miserable situation, in walking through a crowd of people, every body seemed to me without sentiment.... A superstitious veneration for Kings, spoils our understanding. Behold that nation loving the son of Alexander for no other reason than that of being the son of the conqueror of the world. Ulysses threw Astyanax from the tower, fearing the people might put him on the throne of his ancestors. History teaches us the people had always been just when the leaders were so ; and when they had committed faults, it was from the influence of a deceitful man who gilded badlogic with eloquence. So that, sometimes, nations are fighting not for their common rights, they shed their blood to put on the throne the son of their Ring, who, as the story relates, had not onjy degenerated from his father s virtues, but too often became their most shocking tyrant. It seems that men like to kiss the hand which strikes thorn ; and afterwards they become so fond of their master, that they try to LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. 21 demonstrate, that man is not born to live under a free constitution ; and wishing to cover their shame, they endeavor to shew defects among Re publics, whilst they are unaware their servitude so dimmed their eyes that they cannot see the eagle s flight. Here I am neither obliged to speak haughtily to the clown, nor affectionately to those of exalted birth. I may now linger on objects agreeable to me, without losing time in insignificant attentions and ceremonies which people bestow one upon another. If sad, the cheerfulness of others seems an insult to you ; and if cheerful, you incur the disgust of being laughed at, by a concealed rival, who is waiting the moment of your goodness, ec centricity, or inattention, to injure you. I find among animals something more than that which divines call a mere natural instinct to avoid pains and death. The animal feels something more than self love. We see men so much attach ed to the study of philosophy, becoming insensible to every thing that recoils from reason. Codrus, Curtius, Decius, and Peter Micca going willingly to certain death, the love of their country being superior to the love of themselves : a lover for his mistress, and a mother for her child : so that, we see this noble feeling more or less among animals too. Yesterday seeing a nest in a bush, and being anxious to know if the little ones would take any crumbs from my hand, I approached them, when suddenly their mother flew against my face, and with cries of lamentation pecked me with the bra- 22 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. very ofa lion. I retired from that awful place with veneration. I brought to-day something for them to eat to the foot of that sacred bush : and I will do it hereafter, until I shall hear the cheerful notes of her reconciliation. Take from man the love of glory, humanity is nothing but idle clay moving about, without pur pose. The construction of this mysterious uni verse forces us to think there is a Divinity beyond our reach, inspiring us continually with the love of glory. It makes us poets or historians to eternize the deeds of our predecessors. Hence the songs of the country inspire those hearts susceptible of love with a desire to signalize themselves, by imi tating their fathers virtues : the love of ourselves creates pictures whence to represent, either the glorious battles of a generous captain, or the hap py fields where industry had caused to bloom a happy age. What more? The love of ourselves creates laws, without which society would be a forest of tigresses. LORENZO. Between the above letter and the folio wing, there is an interval of about a year, in which we know nothing of him but from rumor. We heard the aristocratical party of that country, when speak ing about Lorenzo, describing him with malicious colors, whilst the poor were giving blessings to the whimsical, (so he was epitheted,) shy, brave, and generous Italian gentleman who resided at the foot of Jura. All we know with certainty, is, that Mr. Ethelbert, an English gentleman, having tra- LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 23 Celled with his wife Elizabeth and daughter Oona- laska through France and Italy, stopped in Gene va for a long while, and there became acquaint ed with Lorenzo, who at that time taught Greek, Latin, French, and Italian. Oonalaska became one of his pupils, and her father and mother were so pleased with Lorenzo s society, that they loved him as a son ; so that, this English family except- ed, our hero lived in seclusion from other society, meditating on the writings of Plato and Rousseau. TO GARNER!.- Canton de Vaud. jfe le lisais partout ce norin rempli de charmes, Et je le relisais, et je versais des larmes. D un eloge enchanteiir toujours environne, A mes yeux eblouis il s offrait couronne. Je Fecrivais...bient6t je n osais plus Fecrire, Et mon timide amour se changeait en sourire. II me cherchait la nuit, il bergait mon sommeil ; II resonnait encore autour de mon reveil : II errait dans mon souffle, et lorsque je soupire C est lui qui me caresse et que mon coeur respire. Mad. Desbordes. The winter is passed : the spring smiles every where. Few books, and the warbling of birds, give me a charming existence. Yesterday morn ing I rowed on the Leman Lake with a fisherman. In going to my residence, which lies on the shore, the twilight was reflecting on the steady water, arid the fine tale of Rousseau was passing through my imagination with lively colors: but Oonalaska was not at my side ! Garneri, in reading her name, 24 LOBSNZO AND CON ALASKA. do you see, like lire, every thiog smiling arotind you I The love I feel fcr Ooaalaska has changed this earth into a garden of heaven. LORENZO. TO LORENZO. Lausanne . Toi c^ui rri aimas peut-etre, ou dont 1 art seducteur Par 1 ombre de 1 amour trompa du moins mon coeur! Qu irnporte que le tien ne fut qu un doux mensonge ? Je fus heureux par toi ; tout bonheur est un songe ! Lamartine. Emma wrote to me. It is not a love-letter ; she pities my situation, and tells me she has found a way by which I can get, with my work, a daily support. However, although she tells me I am very proud because I did not receive her money, it is a kind letter ; and I may say with the " Let- tres d une Peruvienne, Le poids de la reconnois- sance est bieri leger quand on ne le rec^oit que des mains de la vertir ": so that, with her magic wri ting folded on my bosom, the last night I was con templating from my window the firmament of myriads of other solar systems. Mont Blanc was reflecting from the Leman, still as a mirror, the silver brightness of the moon: a river of thoughts was passing through my mind, when, hearing the clock strike four in the morning, I went to bed. Those who never enjoyed the pleasure of a smil ing landscape, who never felt the heavenly senti ment at the idea of being beloved, -did never exist. LORENZO AND OONALASKA- 25 Our best enjoyments are those created by our imagination ; and if not so, Lorenzo, I should be unhappy. Reason, which makes us patient chil dren of our sufferings, cannot mitigate the con scious sentiment of being unnoticed by the object of our love. Although dragged like me from our country, Lorenzo, you are now not so unhappy as I : an angel leads you by the hand, feeling for you as Heloise felt for Abeillard: "Nihil unquam, Deus scit, in te requisivi : te pure, non tua concu- piscens. Non matrimonii fcedera, non dotes ali- quas expectavi, nou denique meas voluptates, aut voluntates, sed tuas sicut ipse nosti, adimplere studui," So, your fair Oonalaska. I am, Loren zo, destitute of all your gifts of nature, and I love Emma without hope, since nature has given me a soul full of sensibility in a frame incapable to in spire in her a sentiment of love for me ; and this earth without love, can it be any thing else than a vast and cold desert of warlike ravens t GARNERI. Garneri had so delicate a soul, that his corpo ral qualities were imperfect : he was one of the greatest of moralists : if he had not been obliged to leave his country for politics, Italy would have had another Franklin in him. Being daily oblig ed to work for his existence, he lost the best part of his time in writing ciphers on a merchant s book ; but, having portrayed Emma in such live ly colors, afterwards he was reputed one of the best limners of the country, and gained a great deal of 26 LORENZO AND OONAJLASKA. money. One day, being occupied on like business? a boy entered his room, asking him a thousand par dons for having insulted him the day before on the street by asking him if he would sell his hump. "You did not notice me," said the boy ; "it seem ed, sir, you were pre-occupied with some serious thoughts; and when I reached home, I heard you had just come from our house, where you had giv en money to my father, whom you saw surrounded by my little brothers and sisters in want." TO LORENZO. Bern. God is thy law, thou mine : to know no more Is woman s happiest knowledge, and her praise. With thee conversing, I forget all time, All seasons, and their change: all please alike. Milton. We have been in several parts of Switzerland: if I were to write you the description of every place which pleased me, I could not be able to finish this letter in a Week. When we shall have return ed to Geneva, I will have the pleasure to tell you every thing. I sat down on the very place where the son of William Tell w r as put with an apple on his h ead by order of Gessler. Write for me a son net in your fine language on this subject: I want some poetical composition from you. I found in this city a friend of yours, who gave rne some of your French verses. He does not know he has given me what I most value on earth. fcORENZO AND OON ALASKA. 27 My father and mother send their love to their son Lorenzo. Good-by, my dear brother : I long for the pleasure of seeing you in Geneva in a short time. OONALASRA. TO OONALASKA. Geneva. As I bent down to look, just opposite A shape within the watery gleam appear d, Bending to look on me : I started back ; It started back : bat pleased I soon return d ; Pleased it return d as soon with answering looks Of sympathy and love : there I had fix d Mine eyes till now, and pined with vain desire, Had not a voice thus warn d me. Milton. Since you left Geneva, every pleasure is gone from me. I began a thousand things, and I fin ished none. Bran, the only companion of my so litude, seems to partake my despondency. A few nights ago, I caught the man who stole a great many flowers from your garden : he has been so much frightened, that I believe his promise to come no more. GUGLIELMO TELL. Sonetto. Colui che veggio di soldati cihto, Si : Gessler egli e desso : il dice il volto Ebro di gioia nel veder lo stolto Ahi! propolo tremante in lacci avvinto. Guglielmo e quegli : mira 1 occhio tinto 28 LOBENZO ANI> OON ALASKA, D alto furor che serba in cor ravvolta. Ma qtiel fanciul dal biondo crine incoltcv Or or cader vedro nel sangue estinto 1 Slilla cade sull arco! al punto e fiso : D orror silenzio regna universale, E colle mani ognun nasconde il viso. Mentr esce dalla mischia irato un uomo Per afferrar del padre il crudo strale Fiscbia, la fronte lambe, invola il porno. LORENZO, TO LORENZO. Bern. Notre cceur est un instrument incomplet, une lyre oft il manque de cordes, et ou nous sommes forces de rendre les accens de la joie sur le ton consacre aux soupirs. Falkland. A beart and feelings in perfect unison with ours, are most difficult to be met with. Education and custom oblige us to suppress natural feeling, and appear in the world the thing we are not ; and, if by chance, supposing ourselves friends, nature as serting her rights, we shew ourselves as we are and as we ought to be, malice and envy immedi ately set to work to make us every thing we are not: so defame that merit which they cannot help inwardly acknowledging, until disgusted with the world, and its littleness, we retire within ourselves, andlook upon it with contempt. Miserable is that being whose heart is formed with every kind feel- LORENZO AND OONALASKA, 29 ing towards his fellow-creatures ; yet, looks around in vain for one congenial mind, into whose bosom it may pour the rich treasure of its affection : it fears to love, lest it meets with coldness and contempt s it fears to place confidence, lest it be betrayed : thus, the heart which possesses every requisite to make others happy, cannot be so in itself: its best feelings are chilled, its best affections are nipped in the bud : thus the mind, having no external ob ject on which it can repose itself, is obliged to have recourse to those intellectual pursuits, which can then alone render life desirable, by diverting its thoughts from its unoccupied feelings. But, there are moments, when even these pursuits, delightful as they may be, are not all-sufficient. If, in our pilgrimage through life, we chance to find one being who seems capable of understand ing us, who thinks and feels as we do, to whom it is not necessary to explain our feelings, with what pleasure do we look on, and converse with that being. The soul seems to have formed its better half, unto which it expands with delight ; all is in stantly seen through another medium ; to the heartlessness of the world we are no longer sensi ble ; our pains are mitigated, and our pleasures heightened. I want a true definition of the word society, Lorenzo : I believe that we abuse such a heavenly word, since we call society a great many persons crowded in a room, whilst you see among them nothing but feelings of self-interest : it seems to me that the society of snow-birds or geese are 30 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. more deserving than ours, though we call ourselves reasonable creatures. I read in the newspapers an account of your emigrate friend Santa-Rosa. I feel a great deal for him, whom I saw several times in Lausanne with others of your countrymen. Write for me a sonnet on his departure for Greece. It might be, as you say, it is my friendship which makes me feel your verses ; but since for me nothing is su perior, why will you not give me such enjoyment ? OONALASKA. TO OONALASKA. Geneva. There is a certain string which, if properly struck, the human heart is made to answer. Blair. Thy friendship is a gift which heaven sent on earth to fill me with love to men. Thy letter, Oonalaska, inspires me with a tenderness which is no stranger to my heart: the idea that thou thinkest of me, makes dear my life, mankind seems to partake of thy angelic feeling, and my soul re joices. You ask me to define society 1 Examine your heart, Oonalaska, and you will find a plain expla nation of it. The following lines of the Spectator will give you a sufficient idea of a good being s in fluence over society : "He does not seem," says he, "to contribute any thing to the mirth of the LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 31 company ; and yet, upon reflection, you find it all happened by his being there." Excuse my praise ; but,- how can I write to you without thinking of your qualities ? Examine your heart I say, and you will find you are the soul of society. It is not your fair presence which animates all who sur round you : it would be a faint quality without the goodness of your heart which shines around your angelic person. Where is the man or woman who does not desire to become as kind as you I Every person in the circle of your society feels an en couragement to become better ; and as they can not do otherwise than love you, in the very mo ment you are their superior, they enjoy the agree able sentiment of seeing you wishing to be no more than their equal. A sentiment quite contrary to that vulgar countenance of a great many smiling, conceited, coquettes or coxcombs, who, not know ing how to do better, are continually striving to show superiority over all those who surround them. But, whilst they fatigue their society, they are do ing nothing but to tire themselves ; and, when get ting home, believing to have been the soul of the evening party, they pass the next day in criticising those who could not take a part in such dandy fastidiousnesses. Where are those times in which men did not clog the most noble feeling with which nature gift ed humanity I Unhappy race ! Ye dance at the clinking of your chains. But when, ambitious man, didst thou feel in thy heart a real pleasure amidst 82 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. thy noisy fineries 1 Thou canst not enjoy the love for which nature created us. Tanto m aggrada il tuo comandamento, Che 1 ubbidir, se gia fosse, m e tardi. Dante. LA PARTENZA DI SANTA-RoSA PER LA GRECIA, Sonetto. Gli occhi all Italia intent! avea il guerriero, E sulla fronte stavagli Ip sdegno ; II cuore gli rodeva il destin fero, E di Nettuno il pin solcavail regno. Un Genio si vedea di pianto pregno Volare intorno lo stendardo nero, Che, dal vento agitato, dava il segno La guerra fa 11 Sultano al Dio-vero. L ombre di Machiavelli, Alfieri e Dante Scendean accompagnate da Bellona, E Liberta 1 ali spiegava innante. Portavan, le tre destre che vergaro Gli uniani dritti, laurea corona, E a Santa-Rosa in capo la posaro. It is with pleasure, Oonalaska, I heard sortie gentlemen of Geneva wishing to blot out capi tal penalty from human laws. We have only to read history, and we shall find the increasing of pains had only augmented crimes when the legis lators did so, without providing for the poor wretch es upon whom society had turned the back. Let us give to every body the means of sustaining them selves, and then, like Alfred of England, we shall have the satisfaction of hanging golden bracelets LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 33 on public roads, with the certainty that nobody would touch them. I transcribe a sonnet I wrote on this subject. SULL ? ABBOLIZIONE DELLA PENA DI MORTE. Sonetto. Apri del santuario omai le porte ; Sorge una legge degna di Solone, Temi, dai re negletta ; in bando pone Dell uomo ctegradato orribil morte. Ma se a virtude ride arnica sorte, Ove s inalzi un giovane Scipione, Ognuno s incoraggi a bella azione, Si frangan di miseria le ritorte : Ove lo merto personal s onori, E non di nobil padre infame figlio ; Ove il lusso le vergini non sfiori : La religion non metta iniquo artiglio Di Liberta sui cari, sacri allori, Diva, chi, mertera lo tuo cipiglio 1 LORENZO, TO LORENZO. Neufchatcl. Last night I went to a ball, at which, instead of enjoying the society of each other, I found a great many strangers wanting only to show a conscious ness of superiority over their fellow beings. It would seem that such aristocratic creatures ga Sf4 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. into society with no other purpose than as candi dates for king and queen, to secure the favor of their inferiors. I would not give an hour of your society, Lorenzo, for all the balls of the universe. In the house we are at present, we have a compa ny congenial to me. In a few days we shall be in Geneva, where I intend " educare la famiglia del fiori," which you have protected from the rapacity of the nocturnal man. OONALASKA. TO OONALASKA. Geneva, Turn from the glitt ring bribe thy scornful eye, Nor sell for gold, what gold could never buy, The peaceful slumber, self approving day, Unsullied fame, and conscience ever gay. Johnson, ODE. Lascia le danze, ingenua, Figlia de la bellezza ; Lascia il rumor le veglie Che il mondo tanto apprezza* Aspersi d amarissime Pene son tai contend : Restan, passati, deboli, Vani sovvenimenti. Merta piaceri stabili II tuo ben fatto cuore : Da tuoi grand occhi 1 anirna TJscire vidi fuore. LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. 35 D ambrosia e in un di nettare Sentii 1 aura impregnata; Ed oltre 1 alte nuvole La mia fu trasportata. Divo placer non abita Sulla terrestre mole ; Lieve, sublime e celere Yola di la del Sole. Lascia il teatro insipido De grami tempi nostri : Non piii sentir altissimo Echeggiar fa suoi chiostrL Le sole note musiche Oman pensier snervati ; E intanto la tirannide Beviam de sciagurati. Lascia 1 amaro calice Che 1 uomo porge alPuomo : Tutti quaggiii contendonsi Delia Discordia il pomo. Vieni negli amenissimi Carapi de la Natura : La, su que colli liberi, Spirar un 1 aura pura. Su rupi solitarie Vivremo la contenti ; E cangieransi in giubilo I lunghi miei lamenti. Al sorger de crepuscoli Corro. li freschi fiori In cotnpagnia de zefiri, Di Flora e degli amorL 86 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. E mentre i sogni aleggiano Dintorno al casto letto, Alle ttie nari eburnee Accostero il mazzetto. Ove fragranza diati Sogno di paradiso, Vedro sul labbro, estatico, L almo tuo bel sorriso. Sorgi, diro, vivifica La terra, il mare, il cielo 2 Le rose appese al talamo Curvan per te lo stelo. Quindi sui campi correre, Cinti di primavera ; Alzare i nostri cantici Alia stellata sera : O sotto un lauro leggere I pianti di Malvina, O coll Ariosto ridere Delia rugosa Alcina. AlFombra di que salici Mirar del rivo Fonda ; O sul lago ceruleo Solcare Paltra sponda. E mentre il giardin educa Tua mano delicata, Coll incurvato vomere Fendo la terra grata. Sotto la fresca pergola, Su quel ridente prato, Ove gli uccelli libransi, La, pranzeremo allato, LOBENZO AND OONALASKA. 87 Eco fara mia cetera Al nobile tuo canto : Ti narrerb di Tacito La storia : Achille al Xanto. La morte di Temistocle Sgorgar faratti il brio D una sublime lagrima Che render a in mi un Dio. Cosi passando i labili Giorni di rnorte a strida, Non saran mai monotoni Se la virtu ci guida. L uomo di senno misero Senz immaginazione, La chiama vita insipida Sol dato all ambizione. Intento negli amabili Tuoi occhi indaghero Tutto cio che desideri. Vieni, t adorero. LORENZO. Oonalaska was playing on the harp, when Lo renzo entered her room. " Why do you not proceed, Oonalaska." " I shall ; but, after so long an absence, I want to tell you a great many things." They sat down near a window, from whence the lake of Geneva presented a beautiful land scape. "How fine is now that lake, Lorenzo!" " Very much so " 38 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. " Do you see the steamboat ?" " I see it reflected in your eyes." She smiled and blushed ; and after a rapturous moment of interchanged looks, with her innocent manners, Oonalaska related all the little adven tures of their voyage. Afterward she took the Vicar of Wakefield ; and, in presenting it to Lo renzo, she asked if he had ever read that fine tale." " I have, Oonalaska ; but every time I open it, it seems always new to me." " Well, Lorenzo, read it now for me, whilst I am sewing this handkerchief for my father." He read ; but the fine descriptions of that little book could not prevent our reader from stopping, when he saw a tear rolling down the cheek of Oonalaska. "Well, Lorenzo, to-morrow we W 7 ill proceed from this touching passage : for the moment I will fulfil my promise." She took her harp, and with an expressive voice, she sung : " Di piacer mi balza il cor." The sunset was giving his last ray to the hori zon of the lake of Geneva, when Lorenzo took leave of Oonalaska. In going home, which was about two miles from that of Mr. Ethelbert, the full moon was enlightening the walk, which his lovely thoughts rendered still more delightful; and whilst he saw no obstacles before his future happi ness, his imagination was in extacy. But did the sky ever shine a long time for a worthy man of this earth t LORENZO AND OONALASKA. TO LORENZO. Geneva. Come, Lorenzo, and vivify all nature which sur rounds me. You request me to scrutinize your actions, but I cannot find a single imperfection in you : my friendship cannot have blinded me, since the feeling I have towards you is grounded upon the knowledge I had of your fine qualities. Oh I teach rne, Lorenzo, the means of becoming perfect ; every defect you will point out to me, will confer the greatest favor on your Oonalaska, whose only desire is to become the worthy friend of Lorenzo. Why, Lorenzo, does it happen to me, that very seldom I meet with people not wounding my feel ings 1 OONALASKA, TO OONALASKA. Nime* Heureux qui, s eloignant pendant que 1 erreur dure, Ernporte dans son cceur une image encore pure ! Qui peut, dans les horreurs de son triste avenir, Nourircomme un flambeau quelque cher souvenir, Et ne voit pas du moins, en perdantce qu il aime, Cette idole qui tombe ou qu il brisa lui meme, D un bonheur qui n est plus } etaler les debris Ou I etemel remords ranipe aupres du mepris. Lamartine. Leave, Oonalaska, the speech of imagination : it has too great power on my mind when it comes from you : do not praise my good qualities if you 40 LORENZO AND OONALASKA, find any in me. When I will do any thing deserv ing your approbation, your silence will be enough : but, praises, flowing from lips so dear, may raise my vanity. When we step aside from nature, that is to say, when we go a step towards society, our reason and feeling undergo sufferings at every moment. Example, Oonalaska, is so powerful, that when society has any faults, though willing to become better, we are forced to do like others, lest we should run the chance of being thought singular. A total loneliness, changes us into savages ; and our sensibility, in a short time, falls into suscepti bility. So Byron : " Alone I could not Nor would be happy : but, with those around us, I think I could be so." Man is the only creature on earth worthy of so ciety ; still, society becomes a burthen to those, who see selfishness destroying even the enjoyments of selfishness itself. Like crowds of people, who, with eagerness press around an object of curiosi ty, that instead of making a large circle, throw themselves one upon another : and then, not only do they obstruct the view of those, who are behind them ; but injure themselves by intercepting the light from the object of their curiosity. So, life is nothing but the anxiety of misers. Whilst nature can impart to all her children her benefits with an incredible liberality, they are doing nothing else, than losing time to agglomerate fortune to the loss of others. LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. 41 When heaven sends any philanthropist on this miserable planet, to teach us we are the sons of the Almighty, such a virtuous man becomes oftenerthe victim of envy, because, like the sun, he brings to light the deeds that vice covets to conceal in dark ness. Posterity may put him on the altar of rea son; but, sometimes history is unjust, or cannot produce in evidence all generous actions which too often are stained by infernal hypocrisy. So Shakspear : " Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny." LORENZO. Mr. Ethelbert, finding his daughter in love with Lorenzo, one day he called the latter in his pri vate room. " Lorenzo," said he, "your sincerity leads me to perceive your love towards my daughter. I would have no objection if your political sentiments were like mine : however, after having been disappoint ed in your noble struggles, I find no reason why you should not renounce your democracy. I am a rich man in England, and I have this only daugh ter : should you coincide with me, not only Oona- laska is your wife ; but, with my means and your talents,! promise you an eminent place in London." " Dear sir," replied Lorenzo, " I love Oonalas- ka, and could not be happy had I all the world without her. But, sir, you are not bound as I am in behalf of my sentiments towards a Republic. I admire your politeness and hospitality, Mr. Ethel bert, in not having opposed my sentiments : but, 42 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. permit me only to tell you, that the cause I advo cate is but the progress of education, which wili bring all nations to banish any other government but that in favor of plurality. But, from this mo ment, in paying homage to your gentility, I will always be silent on this subject." " No, Lorenzo, it cannot be, unless you abandon your principles." " It is impossible, Mr. Ethelbert ; a few days be fore my dear father expired on the field of honour, he made me swear against every other principle of politic but those of Brutus, Cato, and Washing ton." " It is with a breaking heart I must tell you, Lo renzo, you cannot be my son-in-law." It was enough for Lorenzo to understand that Mr. Ethelbert, in telling him he could not be his son-in-law, he was too polite for objecting further visits. So that, without uttering a single word to Oonalaska, with a heart-break, Lorenzo took leave from the object of all his hopes. In going home, Lorenzo felt quite a contrary sentiment from few evenings before : the moon was not up, and the scenery, in which love was present ed so delightfully to his hopeful imagination, was now as gloomy as his mind. After a week, a ser vant of Oonalaska brought him the following letter: TO LORENZO. Coligny. What keeps you from me so long ? I have been informed you arc not ick* Last night, Lorenzo, LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 43 I had a dreadful dream : it seemed you were dying in my arms ; when I was awaked by mother, I found myself suffused in tears. Oh, Lorenzo, a ter rible presentiment threatens me ; oh, relieve me from such a terrible situation ! OONALASKA. TO OONALASKA. Geneva. We are not born for happiness, Oonalaska ; but, who is happy here below ? However, I cannot complain against my fortune, when I think that all the powers of the world cannot affect your kindness towards me. Yes, Oonalaska, it is for bidden for us to see each other once more ; it would do nothing but increase our passion ; but, I carry into my solitude, the consoling idea that you will never forget me. It is neither distance, nor length of time, which can disunite our souls. Time, whilst it wrinkles our faces, purifies our thoughts ; and, in strengthening our reason, will endear more and more our friendship. But, although I think with Chateaubriand : " L ame a besoin, pour se deve- lopper danstoute sa force, d etre ensevelie quelque terops sous les rigueurs de Padversite i;" neverthe less, the pain of our separation is beyond my phi losophy What more? I cannot even have the pleasure of explaining the cause of my absence in compliance with your request. LORENZO 44 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. TO LORENZO. Coligny. At last my father has told me the cause of your absence ! Lorenzo, a father has a thousand claims on his children ; but, he cannot have that of sepa rating the soul of his child from that which nature has created for her happiness. Politic has nothing to do with us, Lorenzo. Yiews, either of integrity, ambition, wealth, or whatsoever interested ones which bring men to follow different kinds of go vernments, must have no influence with the force of our sympathy. Our souls cannot subsist, unless united. On the other side, I cannot blame you, Lorenzo, since the oath which you took before your father is sacred, and, I do not think I would be happy with you, if for the sake of our love you would per jure yourself. My father has no such ties. And, why should he not be our friend, though differing in political sentiments?. ..But, as I know my father s character, I do not believe he would renounce his opinions even for my sake, who, after my mother, am the object of his most kind affections. Lorenzo, why shall we not be happy 1 My fath er, my mother are the most sacred and dearest per sons to me : but for you, Lorenzo, I feel something which, for want of a heavenly language, I cannot explain. ...No, I shall never be able to live without you: "ouje m attache, ou je me meurs."...If you have no objection, I arn ready to follow you in any corner of the world you think proper. OONALASKA. LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 45 TO OONALASKA. Geneva. KUlas, cette tendre mere habite de 1 autre c6t6 de ces flots ; peut-fetre qu en ce moment elle lea contemple du rivage op- pos, en songeant a son fils ( Chateaubriand. I feel as you the power of your reason, Oonalas- ka, when parents prevent so sacred tie, with no other reason but their caprice, I find no blemish in the side of two objects like ourselves when they follow their propensity. But, Oonalaska, in spite of it I would not be happy, under the idea of being a betrayer, by having abused the confidence of your father, who, knowing my principles, sleeps quiet in his bed without the least idea that I would run a- way with his dear daughter. You too, Oona laska, would not be happy with me when far from your desolate parents. We are often bad judges of our own feelings before success ; but when it is accomplished, we always feel a remorse in our conscience. Oonalaska, your love would not permit you to reproach me in not having pre vented such a step ; but, I should have the com plaint of seeing you fainting every day : your feel ing would kill you. On another side, I should pay with ingratitude the friendship and hospitality of your kind father. No, Oonalaska, we could not be happy. Angel of my painful existence, I would prefer not only a thousand deaths, but even to be forgotten by you, rather than bring the sorrow and the desolation into the bosom of your parents. LORENZO. 46 LORENZO AND OONALASKA, Quelquefois je me persuade que 1 Etre-Supreme a abandonn* le monde aux medians, et qu il a reserve I lmmortalits de Tame seulement pour les justes. Destael. Among the sceneries which I would always like to see, it is one about a mile from Geneva on an elevated ground near the conflux of the Rhone with the Havre. Whilst I sat down on a small piece of green over a ravine cut down perpendicu larly to the brink of the Rhone, sometimes admir ing the line of demarcation going down for a long tract between the two distinct colours of the rivers, and sometimes observing on my left the water of the lake flowing into the Rhone between Coutance, and Place Bel-air, I was surprized on discovering behind me an old friend of mine, Ca- millo, an Italian emigrant, father of a large family, He sat with me, and told that once Lorenzo was on the very piece of ground uttering the following monologue : " I am unhappy, very unhappy ! The compa nion of my thoughts is taken from me for ever. Oonalaska did never misunderstand me. ..But, why shall I wait a malady to put an end to this insup portable life ? Why shall 1 live when the sacrifice of my country is consumed 1" After a long pause, said Camillo, he sat down on the green, and taking a Bible from his pock et, he read with great attention : then he thought for a long while, and read again smiling bitterly ; &t last he uttered : "No, thou art not the God the heart of my dear Another has described to me, when, without experi- LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 47 fence, and insensible of the happiness which sur rounded me, I knew nothing but the pleasure of a lively existence. No, thou art not that just, and good Creator that the goodness of my sister was pleased to pen with the colours of her angelical soul. A stoick would be ashamed of thy wrath. Yes, I have a better idea of God : but, since I cannot admire him as a being separated from mat ter, and invisible to me, my God is every good thing coming from his mysterious hand. When I shall see him not like a passionate man condemn ing the poor to be stoned in the wilderness be cause he gathered a few sticks on Saturday, but, with more justice, to exterminate with his thunder bolts the vile tyrants of my country, then I will be lieve in Moses. But, how shall I worship him, who with an eye of indifference assists such wretch es on thrones, who soak themselves in human blood 1" Saying this, he flung the Bible into the river. But, when I saw him on the brink of a precipice, in the act of throwing himself, I cried : " Senseless Lorenzo, such was not the counsel I gave you, when you came in my poor hut to give me the bread which delivered me from death. Your tears infusing in my heart a balm which gave life to my decaying days, made me feel the power of virtue, and I blessed heaven. Without the school of mis fortune, I would have never been able to feel the celestial propensity of your fine soul. Oh, in anoth er moment, Lorenzo, you would be ashamed of the idea of killing yourself Although society is 43 LOBENZO AND OONALASKA. ungrateful to you, still you ought to be generous towards her by sparing your precious life. Look at me : I am more unhappy than you : old, exiled like you ; but, you have no wife, no children as I have, without hope of doing my duty towards therii: nevertheless, oftener I bless the hand which pro longs this miserable life." He closed his eyes, and fell senseless into my arms. I leaned him on the green ; and seeing he was receiving new strength, I put his head on my knees, and he fell asleep. Sometimes I saw very violent emotions passing through his mind, and then I was willing to awake him : but, seeing that from time to time he was taking a periodical rest, I waited until he returned from his lethargy, I went with him to his house ; and, in entering his closet, I had the satisfaction to see that his face was getting cheerful in reading with me the Divine Comedy of Dante. However, knowing his heart, I could not avoid thinking, whilst the unhappy young man was pleased in seeing virtue residing among those conspicuous men, whose life was nothing but a long string of vicissitudes, he was drinking the bitter chalice of his despair. Virtuous men had always suffered among their generations inferior to them of three or four cen turies, by being their ignorant age in contradic tion with them : besides, vice dislikes those, who would bridle it. LOHENZO AND OONALASKA, 49 TO CHARLES, Geneva. Socrate, condamne par un jugement inique d perdre la vie dans quelques heures, n avait pas besoin d examiner bien at- tentivement s il lui etait permis d en disposer. En supposant qu il ait tenu reellement les discours que Platon lui fait tenir, croyez moi, Mylord, il les cut medites avec plus de soin dans; 1 occasion de les mettre en pratique, et la preuve qu on ne pent tirer de cet immortel ouvrage aucune bonne objection contre le droit de disposer de sa propre vie, c est que Caton le lut par deux foix tout entier la nuit m6me qu il quitta la terre. J. J. Rousseau. Yes, Charles, we must be out of our sense for such an unnatural act. A few weeks ago, had not Camillo run to my assistance, I would have com mitted suicide ! and then what black stain I would have left beyond my grave ! Now, I may say with Young: How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, How complicate, how wonderful is man ! I was so overpowered with pains, that my reason has quitted my unsound mind ! Although the picture of heaven, which was pre sented me when a child, was quite inconsistent with my natural feeling, I allow that some religions give so fine poetical ideas of an eternal life, that find ing so little comfort ability on this globe, we take pleasure, without further demonstration, in stick ing with our utmost energy to a better existence- Then, although we have never heard from thence, our imagination creates a thousand things incon sistent \vith our human nature, and, like the man 7 .>0 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. building castles in the air, we confect every pleas ing thing, according to our own fancy. The lustful Mahometans imagine Houris ; the warriors, fight ing battles over the clouds ; the few virtuous men, a God rewarding human actions on a golden scale ; the fanatics, nobody rewarded but blind supersti tious believers; the monastics, the distinctions of a royal court ; so that, whilst, according to our dis senting creeds, human nature must be changed, still, we imagine to satisfy hereafter our earthly ruling passions, quite inconsistent with perfection. Habit has so great power upon us, that we have seen prisoners, in the last day of their detention, begging for remaining their whole life. And to whom, although ungrateful, is not the country of his birth dear 1 How sweet is the recollection of those places, the witnesses of our infancy, where every thing smiled before us in those happy days. Do you see that hill 1 There I walked one day with my father : he folded me in his arms, and I feel yet on my cheeks one of his warm tears when he bless ed me with a sigh, and uttering with affection : Please God to make this child happy when fortune shall have separated him from my embraces. Here, under this oak, my eldest sister gave me the affec tionate kiss of her innocence. But, where is now my father!.,.. My father? Behold; he sleeps the eternal slumber of the grave. Oh ! why his bones are not buried in a free country 1 Oh ! that tomb binds me with love to Italy L.Dear Italy, thou art overlaid with tyrants ! And when will it be grant ed me to shed tears on that stone, mixed with those LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 51 of Oonalaska? Oh, I would forget the pains, which, by want of her comfort, I did not endure with all that worthy, and manly fortitude of my sex.... But, I cannot be a stoic ; and if so, I would open my bosom, and cast out such a useless heart... With Oonalaska?. ..Charles, she is taken from me for ever ! Shall I have the hope of her society in heaven? No, Charles, we are too miserable, and selfish creatures for the gift of immortality : go to church, and listen attentively to him, whom they call the best preacher ; and then, in the very mo ment he preaches humility, thou wilt feel a dis gusting sensation of his pride ! Wouldst thou know the reason of it ? It is, because instead of the love towards his wandering sheep, he conceals in himself the wrath of Moses. LORENZO. TO LORENZO. London. Que ceux qui nous exhortent a faire ce qu ils disent, et non ce qu ils font, disent une grande absurdite ! Qui ne fait pas ce qu il dit, ne le dit jamais bien ; car le langage du cocur qui louche, et persuade, y manque. /. /. Rousseau. Yes, Lorenzo, I heard many clergymen, who ex cited in me the very loathful sensations which you describe in your last letter. As we find a great many, following professions for which they have no vocation, so, we find spouting orators of the church, who believe the true source of rhetoric is noth- 52 LORENZO AND OONALASKA* ing else but speaking loud, and inveighing against writers, whom they could not, or would not under stand. Then, people instead of learning good morals, and feelings worthy of a civilized nation, they do nothing but to drink a poison which kills reason in the bud. But, for the honor of a great many, professing our faith, I believe they are good, and sincere followers of Christ. However, it is useless to argue with you on this subject, since, although your letter seems too severe, I know that you think with me. What displeases me, is to see you bereft of the hope to find your friends in hea ven, the expected remuneration of the virtuous. If I were not acquainted with thee, I should never believe a man could be virtuous with thy dreadful philosophy. I admire the sublimity of thy mind always connected with nature : but, be lieve me, my best friend, the day will come, in which I shall enjoy the sight of my dear Lorenzo crowned with heavenly flowers before God. Thy lovely sisters " Col sorriso del pago desio," will set it on thy forehead. Thou art worthy, Lorenzo, thou, who dost good not only without the hope of other reward hereafter \ but, shunnest even the pleasure of seeing thy virtuous actions remunera ted with the approbation of those, whom thou es- teemest. I have not thy virtue, Lorenzo ; but, though without hope, perhaps, I should do noth ing deserving, when I can reach the sublimity of thy philosophy, then it seems a good action cannot be meritorious if it is done with the slightest idea of recompense . On the other hand, it would seera, LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. OO that God could not refuse an eye of complacency on those actions also, which \ve perform with pur pose of re ward, provided that we avoid the infernal propensity of the miser, or the Pharisee s pride ; since the nature of man, a compound of good and evil, suspending him between heaven and hell, renders it almost impossible for him to divest him self entirely of all selfish considerations. How ever, if a good action dignifies a man when he does it for the love of true glory, it ranks him with an gels, when he does it in secret with no other plea sure but to satisfy the liberal feeling of an educa tion, and pure conscience like thine. Thou art something superior to man ; and if thou have a "patria," thou shouldst be ranked with Cato. Our age does not understand thee. When thou speakest, selfishness is so inveterate, that thy hearers become thy antagonists. Their actions being against society, and by consequence against themselves, they feel in thee nothing but a censor. The soul which animates thy existence with heavenly inspirations will be extinguished for evert The more I ponder the Bible, the more I find the moral of Lorenzo, in being at variance with it, it cannot transgress the Maker of all. Thy Bible is Nature, thou sayest ; therefore thou art on the Lord s side, because Nature is the first book ema nated from the hands of God, CHARLES. 54 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. TO HIS DAUGHTER AMALIA. Nessun maggior dolore Che ricordarsi de 3 tempi felici Nella miseria. Dante. Thy sentiments have painted me the benevolent religion of thy mother, and I felt my heart throb bing as it did in the days of my first love, days which are gone, and will return no more ! Tell me, my dear daughter; do my enemies insult her grave 1 Go thither, and cover it with the last flow ers of autumn. I read thy letter to Lorenzo ; and when I arrived to the following passage which I take now the pleasure of transcribing, I had the consolation to see him better. "I would havebeen with you to deviate Lorenzo from the danger in which his misfortune was leading him ; and lift up his noble heart to the greatness for which nature has created him, and make him feel that his soul is not fit for this earth, but, to fly into the immense space of God, of God, who called him from noth ing to immortality." In the bosom of our family I We have no hope now of embracing you ! Lorenzo thanks you for your kind feelings towards him; and tells you, whilst he acknowledges your moral, and true cha rity, he advises you to avoid the Jesuits disguised in a great many shapes. This last night thou wert my tutelar angel, Amalia ; it seemed I was with you all in the very garden, once our property : tliou wert gathering flowers; and after having made a fine wreath LORENZO AND OONALASKA. earnest to set it on my head with the comeliness of a grace of Albano. Without my dreams, I should be like a patient deprived of the intervals of calm. Do not be uneasy concerning me, my daughter ; the pain does not endure always ; and, when I am released, I feel all the happiness of a free conscience. If you, who are now the only objects of my af fections, were not separated from me, I would say with Bulwer : " I am one to whom all places are alike ; it matters not whether I visit a northern, or a southern clime." But, your absence, my dear daughters, is too painful for my weak philosophy. The life of man is a very trifling thing! When boys, we aspire to manhood : and when this ar rives, which comes but too soon, we suffer in seeing wrinkles on our forehead. Soon the hair becomes gray ; and we find ourselves in uncomfortable old age daily awaiting, what?.. .A tomb, which whilst, for me, it will put an end to my sufferings, still, in the very moment of my death, I shall bring with me the painful idea of leaving you behind in a state of indigence. Then, hope tells us : Thou shalt walk above the stars.... Let us drop the cur tain for the time to come ! I received a letter from Hippolytus, the brother of Lorenzo. The poor children of Italy are now scattered around the globe, dying unnoticed ! I will transcribe for you, only these few lines of him : "A pure air, and a smiling country were pouring in my heart a sweet melancholy, when we reached the top of a small mountain, our eyes were some times on the Indian sea, and sometimes on the 56 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. gulf of Arabia. We went towards a hut, and saw in it an Italian emigrant lying nearly dead. A man, lifting up his head, and his beautiful daughter not yet twenty years of age, giving to the patient all those succours which that miserable abode could bestow : Before expiring he said, that in seeing Italians around him, he was dying not quite un happy." Be cheerful my daughters, in thinking that our friend Lorenzo has for me the same affection he had for his father : the benefits I receive from his hand are such, that whilst they give illustration of his gentility, interfere not with my delicacy. CAMILLO. Poor child of danger, nursling of the storm, Sad are the woes that wreck thy manly form ! Rocks, waves, and winds, the shattered bark delay ; Thy heart is sad, thy home is far away. Campbell, The darkness of the night increased, as Loren zo with his heart full of joy travelled towards the town of all his hopes. The moonlight began to enlighten his way, when he arrived within two or three miles of the lovely habitation of his mother, and sisters. " Permit me, my God," said he, lifting his hands towards the starry sky, " to live till I have press ed my mother to my bosom !" He arrived, running to the door where he had breathed for the first time the breath of existence... A melancholy silence was reigning in the house ; and his sisters and little brothers were praying around his mother, who had expired a few hours LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 57 before. The unexpected pleasure she receiv ed from the letter of her dear son, announcing his arrival, joined to the last painful period of her life, carried her to the grave. At that sorrowful sight, Lorenzo fell in the arms of his sisters, and broth ers ; and, folding Carlotta in his arms, he remained a long time without being able to utter a syllable. After the burial, he climbed up the mountains. The cries of his grief sounded like the wolfs long howls ; he was heard to utter the most piercing cries of a maniac. As in the following night a dreadful storm carried away several large trees, and some enormous cliffs ; some of the former were found swimming along the Tiber ; and some of the latter in the bottom of it, and a man shot among rocks, his sisters, and friends, after having spent several months in making useless inquiries, and been reported them he must have died, with the afflicted situation of being deprived of the sad satisfaction of burying so dear a brother, erected to his memory a tombstone, which is now seen un der two oaks, where he used to sport in the happy days of his infancy. After five or six months they received the following letter. TO HIS SISTERS. Lyons. Si je regrette quelque chose dans la vie, ce sera de ne plus aller sur le mont Ithome voir les troupeaux avec mon pere, de ne pouvoir nourrir Pauteur de mes jours dans sa vieillesse, comme il me nourrit dans mon enfance. Chateaubriand. Our persecutors did not permit me to mourn 8 58 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. with you our dear mother. When we were in the church-yard, one of our friends whispered in my ear, that two officers were not far from us in search of me. I took immediately the way of the Apen nines : when I was not farther than ten miles from you, I was assailed by the very officers: they both discharged their arms on me ; but, the souls of our father, and mother must have shielded me, since I was untouched : I killed one with my pistol, and put the other to flight. I passed that stormy night on the Appennines, protected by a rock. After five days, I reached Genoa ; and, with difficulty, went on board for Marseilles. I shall be more diffused in my next letter. LORENZO. TO CHARLES. Chatillon. Ni les jours du printems, ni 1 azur des cieux, ni 1 aspect des fleurs ne peuvent distraire Tame d une douleur profonde. Mais, le bruit du tonnerre plait au cceur dechirS par le desespoir; et lorsqu au fort de nos peines un sanglot, un murmure s echap- pent de nos levres, nous aimons a entendre la nature murmurer autour de nous, et le bruit des vents dans les cavernes, et des torrena sur la montagne couvrir la faiblesse de notre voix. Le Barde. Who called me on this globe to weep and die ? My existence is nothing but a torture : I have here not a single person to whom I may pour out the hitter chalice of my sorrows which is undermining my life. I run upon this earth, like a hopeless LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 59 extravagant ; and every where find nothing but disgust : here, after my death, no friend will shed a tear on my eternal bed : time, says the philoso pher, will heal the wounds death has given thee in cutting off thy best brother : he was kind to me, and when I bade him farewell, it was my last ! My dear John !...My dear Carlotta too, is gone in heaven! This earth was too depraved for her; she could not survive our mother. Oh ! how dreadful is the idea, that I shall see them no more ! I shall not hearken to the sweet sound of their melodious voices, which often poured in my heart the balm of life. The wind, and lightning raged sometime ago on the hill ; a river from heaven has overflowed the dale : cattle, and men were drowned, or suffoca ted, whilst I was gazing on the destruction with apathy. LORENZO. 60 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. TO AMALIA. Geneva. It is not without interest to observe in those remote times, and under a social system so widely different from modern the same small causes that ruffle, and interrupt the course of life, which operate so commonly at this day ; the same inven tive jealousy, the same cunning slander, the same crafty and fabricating retailings of petty gossips, which so often now suf fice to break the ties of the truest love, and counteract the tenor of circumstances most apparently propitiousl When the bark sails on over the smoothest wave, the fable tells us of the dimi nutive fish, that can cling to the keel, and arrest its progress ; so it is ever with the greatest passions of mankind : and we should paint life but ill, if, even in times the most prodigal of romance, and of the romance of which we must largely avail ourselves, we do not also delineate the mechanism of those tri vial, and household springs of mischief, which we see every day at work in our chambers, at our hearths. It is in these, the lesser intrigues of life, that we mostly find ourselves at home with the past. Bulwer. The above citation is sadly true, my dear Ama- lia. They are but spoiled children of nature, whose life has always been a cheerful day of spring. Oh ! this world is wicked, my dear ! Now, that Lorenzo has left this place, a great many, who professed to be his friends, slander him with such an art, and cunning, that, if I were not thoroughly acquainted with him, they would even make me believe their lies. A young man, careless of the insects around him, will easily lose his reputation, when a skilful foe, having the opportunity of entangling webs athwart his tracks, colours his innocent actions with infamy. There are many lagos who feel an LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 61 evil enjoyment, when they can see another Desde- mona smothered by the hands of an Othello. Does an enemy tell a lie in a circle 1 Every one there present, whether he be of good faith, or wick ed, in repeating the same to others, will make it so public, that if the innocent were an Angel, he would not be able to w r ash out such a black stain. Since it is very easy to disrepute a stranger, I would punish every slanderer by the rigour of the law. It is related that a family, who understood the right of hospitality, learning that their present guest had murdered their father, after having giv en the wretch the means of quitting their roof, ad vised him not to meet them again, having deter mined to revenge the death of their father. The evil that a bad tongue may cause to absent innocence, cannot be described, since human kind has a great propensity to listen to a slander with pleasure. It is a pity, Amalia, to see men, who would be silent before Lorenzo, now endeavoring to bring down his character. Every word, and every little action of him are distorted but to de molish his reputation. Nay : many have even the impudence to charge him with cowardice, as if we were not acquainted with the heroic deeds of Lo renzo. The other day Mr X.. paid us a visit ; and, speaking with my father, he said that Loren zo had borne an insult without the least resent ment. Sir, I answered, it might be, that the virtue of Lorenzo, like Jesus, enabled him to endure an insult : but, I expected from you more delicacy to wards him, since it has been told me, that it requir- 62 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. ed Lorenzo s utmost efforts to arrest the anger of Mr J...., who was determined to challenge you for an offence you had given him in a coffee-house. I find, dear Amalia, my character is losing all the gentility of our sex in listening to so many de tractors of a young man, whom I not only esteem, but, admire. If Lorenzo were not perfection it self, they would not take the trouble of slandering him. Indeed, Lorenzo once told me, that he would think highly of himself in proportion to the number of the enviers speaking badly of him- Amalia, it seems, that when they find any man su perior to themselves, they are not satisfied unless he be brought down to their own common level. They would only speak highly of him, if he were dead, or in a far country, where he could not be their competitor in the circle of their society. And why so ?... Because they are afraid, that every lady, turning the back upon them, would admire their virtuous antagonist. Because, in a word, they understand these two lines of Shakspeare : " He hath a daily beauty in his life, That makes me ugly." We have in history the most striking example of such wickedness. When Aristides was con demned to ostracism, a man not being able to write, called the very Aristides to put his name on the shell. " Do you know him," said Aristides to the unlettered 1 " No," was his answer. " Why, then, will you banish him." "Because," said the LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 63 idiot, " I am tired of hearing people calling him the Just." But, what would you say, if I tell you, that the hypocrite whom you know, has done all in his power to injure Lorenzo s character in the sight of my father? However, since they judge us so mean by listening to the detraction of those, who delight in slandering the absent, I willingly an swered with irony, that I wanted a husband for this world, and that I cared not, should he go to hell in the next, provided he leave me to enjoy the paradise of his honesty, and integrity on earth. Few days ago, I went to Mrs A.. ..Before this my last visit, I believed she had a fine education ; but, her last conversation obliges me to think, that all her wealth will never constitute her a lady. Some body present, speaking disparagingly of Lo renzo, she said, that once, hearing, as she supposed, under the vestibule the voice of Mr R..., she rose from her chair to meet him ; but, when she saw it was but Mr Lorenzo C..., she could not avoid laughing at her mistake ; and, having been quite ashamed to have demonstrated too much polite ness to the teacher of her boy, she told him to take a chair under the vestibule. However, she said> I was very much pleased in seeing, that he, my politeness not going farther, in putting on his hat, and looking at me with a smile of contempt, went away without uttering a word. So that, she proceeded, I ha,d the pleasure of getting rid of him. My heart was too deeply wounded, Amalia, in that moment, to find words adapted to such arc 64 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. occasion : I rose, and begged my mother instantly to leave the house. 1 learned after two or three days, that the faults of Lorenzo was, not having reciprocated the love she had for him, and taught Greek, and Latin to her boy for nothing. I would hint to every body willing to speak badly of him, that since they are not angels, they have no reason to speak uncharitably even of those, who have really the very faults they are tickling to produce in public. Come to England with me : your father Camil- lo would not hesitate, if you, and your sisters were determined. OONALASKA. TO CHARLES. Chatillon. But, what heart can conceive, what tongue utter the sequel ? Who is that yonder, buffeted, mocked, and spurned ? Whom do they drag like a felon? Whither do they carry my Lord, rny King, my Saviour, and my God ? And will he die to expi ate those very injuries? See where they have nailed the Lord, and giver of life ? How his wounds blacken, his body writhes, and heart heaves with pity, and with agony ! Oh Almighty suf ferer, look down, look down from thy triumphant infamy ! Lo, he inclines his head to his sacred bosom ! Hark, he groans ! See, he expires ! The earth trembles, the temple rends, the rocks burst, the dead arise. Which are the quick ? Which are the dead ? Sure nature, all nature is departing with her Crea tor. Steele. From the earliest period of history, we find learning and theology intimately connected. The LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 65 Bible was the only instruction among the Jews, as well as the Iliad, and Koran among Heathens, and believers in Mahomet. With the progress of ages, sciences, and arts, taking a more extensive ground, and giving a more exact idea of natural things, in many parts inconsistent with the above books, and more suitable to the refined ideas of a more, and more educated people, created another class of men of letters, who, assuming the name of philosophers, and grounding their reason on na tural knowledge, could not, and I think will never agree with the former, who, not minding the real work of God, which is in the nature itself, stand like champions to defend either the Bible, Iliad, Ko ran, Ossian, Zemi, and the long sequel of creeds without number. These theologers by a punctilio which always springs either from ignorance, pride, or interest, whilst they close the ears to any other reason than their own, in wishing, with the arm of terror to stop the progresses of human rnind, be came so great enemies of well grounded instruc tion, that we have only to open history, if we want a disgusting view of morals mixed with the most tyrannical actions a bloody-minded man can pro duce. Thence two classes of men of letters in contradiction with each other : So, Reason, the only Divinity we received from above to soothe our miseries, by being presented in so many shapes, inconsistent with the laws of the common mother Nature, does nothing but augment our woes. Thence every thing is inverted in the economy of human society : and whilst hypocrisy, and super- 66 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. stition are turning the people towards the life to* come, they endeavor to disregard the earthly pres ent. Certainly, I would say, we shall always have a subject of complaint against the depravity of hu man society if we have no regard to the improve" ments of our natural rights, the very labor to which God put the human mind at work with the exam ple of the astronomical perfection. And, would not, the justice of this earth, be a good preparation for the life to cornel We cannot serve two Mas ters, they say. It is not so, I would answer : let reason improve society ; and we shall see, that the very Lord of the earth is the same one who form ed the heaven : and since, according their own judgment, this earth is our first voyage to celesti al happiness, let us teach to the whole human race, that we do not want tyrants to make us suffer here below in order to sanctify with martyrdoms our religious virtues; but, having a more charitable feeling towards the very ones, who, forgetting that heaven is open for them too, cause the harmless virtuous man to suffer, by a unanimous consent let us stand all on our rights with the power of na tural reason, with which God gifted us, and force those poor, and wretched tyrants to become on the way of a happy conscience: and plant flowers where our idleness left growing thorns, and this tles. Should we commit so many faults without the false notions of our own nature ? The theoreti cal moral we are taught in our education, being inconsistent with the theatre of human life, by LORENZO AND OOiS ALASKA. 67 want of this knowledge, of human heart, and of ourselves, we fall the victim of our ignorance. The education I received from the embraces of my dear mother, forced me to commit a fault, Charles, which will bring me to another still griev ous. Seeing from my childhood a predisposition of revenge, and resentment, she took great pains in inculcating me the heavenly moral of Jesus s forgiveness towards our persecutors : and, I be came afterwards so enthusiastic of such a Christian virtue, that falling on my knees, I said with O. Goldsmith : " And now I see it was more than hu man benevolence, that first taught us to bless our enemies." How attractive was for me the hea venly benevolence of Christ ! They laughed at, mocked, and spat on his face ; and whilst he was dying on the cross, he asked pardon for the sins of his persecutors ! It is grand, it is sublime, Charles ; such goodness, it is the self-denial of a God ! And whilst I write these lines, my tears drop on this paper for the love of Jesus ! Even, supposed he was not the son of God ; shall we not feel grati tude towards him, whose good intention, being for the improvement of society, his life had been the most striking example of morality ? As it was referred to you, it is true, I have been insulted : and, in that moment, the angelic soul of my dear mother being to my imagination with such an attractive influence, I did not repulse so gross an insult. Besides, the villain provoked me with such rascality of mean people, that whilst he wish ed to fight, he wanted to push me the first to chal- 68 LORENZO AND OONALASKA, lenge him for the right, as the law of duel prevails, of choosing the arms in which he is skilful. So, thinking with the following lines of Goldsmith too, I found the divine, and civil reason coincided to gether : " You imagine, perhaps, that a contempt of your own life gives you a right to take that of another : but where, sir, is the difference between a duellist, who hazards a life of no value, and the murderer who acts with great security 1 Is it any diminution of the gamester s fraud when he al leges that he staked a counter ? " All precepts might appear beautiful in theory; but, put it into practice, you will find it is not so. I learned afterward, when society does not pro vide for better, we ought not deviate from the laws of nature. As the Spectator is one of those rare books to whom civilization is very much indebted, I shall not produce it to you, as an object of my criticism : I would only say, that the declaration of his edict seems rather too particular against the challenger, whikt he inflicts no punishment to the aggressor. It seems to me, the rules of good society, and virtuous conversation are inverted not only from the very moment that an offended man writes a cartel ; but, we must allow they have been inverted from the first slight, and trivial, as well as great, and urgent provocation. It is noi the challenger I would put under the rigor of the law, provided he have a well grounded reason ; it. is the first provoker, unless asks pardon, or ac knowledges his fault. As a brave man cannot be ungenerous, it is too painful for a polite society to LORENZO AND O^N ALASKA. see impertinents disregard a man of honour. Yes, Charles, since justice does wot take an interested part by putting immediately her protecting hand without obliging one of the antagonists to the base act of denouncing his adversary, man is obliged to defend his own honour, unless he be the only sup port of a distressed family, or occupying an emi nent post useful to his country. However, forgiveness of injuries will never be vile and shameful in the judgment of the few phi lanthropists : but, should Rousseau have been sto ned by the populace, if they had thought to meet from himself, or from the law, the due punishment of their rascality? Would we find so much po liteness, and respect if cowards were not checked by the fear of meeting his man ! Men would be like game-cocks in a yard, without such a fear. But, let us listen to Walter Scott on this subject. " Wise men say, that we resign to civil society our natural rights of self-defence, only on condition that the ordinances of law should protect us. Where the price cannot be paid, the resignation takes no place. For instance, no one supposes that I am not entitled to defend my purse, and per son against a highwayman, as much as if I were a wild Indian, who owns neither law nor magis tracy. The question of resistance, or submission, must be determined by my means, and situation. But, if armed, and equal in force, I submit to in justice, and violence from any man, high or low, I presume it will hardly be attributed to religious, or moral feeling in me, or in any one but a quaker. 70 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. An aggression on my honour seems to be much the same. The insult, however trifling in itself, is one of much deeper consequence to all views of life, than any wrong which can be inflicted by a depre dator on the high way, and redress is much less in the power of public jurisprudence, or rather it is entirely beyond reach. If any man chooses to rob Arthur Mervyn of the contents of his purse, if he has not means of defence, or the skill, and cour age to use them, the assize at Lancaster, or Car lisle will do him justice by taking up the robber: yet, who will say I am bound to wait for this jus- tice,and submit to be plundered in the first instance, if I have rnyself the means, and spirit to protect my own property \ But, if an affront is offered to me, submission to which is to tarnish my character for ever with men of honour, and for which the twelve judges of England, with the chancellor to boot, can afford me no redress, by what rule of law, or reason am I to be deterred from protecting what ought to be, and is so infinitely dearer to every man of honour than his whole fortune ? Of the religious views of the matter I shall say nothing, until I find a reverend divine, who shall condemn self-defence in the article of life, and property. If its proprie ty in that case be generally admitted,! suppose lit tle distinction can be drawn between defence of person and goods, and defence of reputation. That the latter is liable to be assailed by persons of a different rank in life, untainted perhaps in morals, and fair in character, cannot effect my regal right of splf-defonce. I may be sorry that circumstan- LORENZO AND OON ALASKA, 71 ces have engaged me in personal strife with such an individual ; but, I should feel the same sorrow for a generous enemy, who fell under my sword in a national quarrel. I shall leave the question with the casuists, however, only observing, that what I have written, will not avail the professed duellist, or he, who is the aggressor in a dispute of honour. I only presumeto exculpate him, whom is dragged into the field by such an offence, as, sub mitted to in patience, would forfeit for ever his rank, and estimation in society." But, the philosopher, or to explain myself with a periphrasis adapted to my grateful feeling, the friend of my mind would reprove me by doing what my judgment disowns. And the following Fragment of my friend Manesca, will receive his approbation. " What a fine thing courage is ! I mean not that courage which braces up our energies, and ena bles us to work our way through civil life, amidst the difficulties which assail our moral career ; that courage which cheers us in our industrious exer tions, and too often unprofitable labours ; which as sists us in our struggles against seduction, rescues us triumphantly from the clutches of vice, and guides us in the narrow path of virtue ; in short, that courage which sustains us with dignity in the various relations of husband, father, friend, and cit izen. No, I mean that brilliant, that dazzling courage, which prompts us to face and receive a bullet, or speed it through a man s heart, in order to demonstrate that we are men of honour. Hon our! What is honour 1 Is it not the offspring of 72 LO n r: N zo A N i> OON A L ASK A . public respect 1 Can Mr X... be a man of honour^ because he has been a principal in several duels? Has he not been twice a fraudulent bankrupt I Does he ever pay any debts except those which he contracts at the gaming table I Is any one igno rant that, by his irregular conduct, he has precipi tated to his grave an aged parent ; that he neglects his children, and his amiable wife, whose property he has squandered in nightly revels 1 All this is true ; but Mr X... is at all times ready to pull a trig ger ; his courage is doubted by no one : he is an honourable gentleman. Then, after a long life of industry, and uprightness, notwithstanding that I have strictly fulfilled my duties as a dutiful son, a tender husband, a prudent and kind father, a sin cere friend, and an honest citizen, I am unworthy of public respect ; I am a dishonourable man, be cause I neither know how to fire a pistol, nor han dle a sword ; because I neither wish to kill nor be killed ; because I tremble at the atrocious alter native of being a murderer, or of depriving my in nocent family of their natural protector, and leav ing them a prey to misery, and burthen upon so ciety ! O reason, reason, where art thou I " This, indeed, is most unreasonable, it is ab surd, but custom will have it so: we must submit. Custom! abolish it then. Is there any thing im mutable but what is written in nature s laws ? Ought not custom, anti-social ridiculous custom to disappear at the voice of reason and humanity ? "What is custom but a more or less general disposition regularly to act in certain circumstan ces \ Custom, therefore, is nothing but the result LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 78 of opinion ; but as the latter, however general, may be erroneous, custom in an enlightened communi ty is amenable to the tribunal of reason. Opin ion says, that gentlemen should never be suspect ed of being deficient in courage. Does opinion say nothing else 1 Does she not say, that gentle men should never have quarrels I Does she not hold that excesses of any kind are degrading, un becoming well bred men I Does she not bid a real gentleman refrain from hurting the feelings of any one, and insist, that should be ever so far to forget himself as to offer an insult, a manly apology only can retrieve his character 1 In short, does not opinion maintain that true magnanimity consists in pardoning offences, and that genuine honour can be^sulliedby him only, who possesses it, if he swerve from the line of conduct which has merited him public respect I " Opinion needs no proof of the warlike courage of any gentleman, for the plain reason that, except in those rare circumstances, where national inde pendence is threatened, society has nothing to gain by the loss of one of its members, social order should be the pole-star, of all opinions whether private, or public ; and warlike courage can be ra tionally fostered only in the case that it may be subservient to social interest, "A generous soldier, who exposes, and sacrifices his life for his country, will ever be entitled to pub lic respect ; but, it is yet to be proved that a duel list is necessarily a valiant warrior : nay, many have been known to turn pale before the com- 10 74 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. mon enemy, who confident in their skill in taking aim, or handling a sword, were notorious duellists. The famous St. George, in Paris, whom had been forbidden to fight duels, because he was sure to kill his antagonist, proved to be a coward at the head of a regiment of horse which he commanded. " That sort of courage which prompts us to brave death is not natural ; it is a feverish state to which all men are naturally adversj ; but, to which they all may be stimulated by various ar tificial means, which respectively operate accord ing to circumstances, and tempers. The vain gratification of winning the good opinion of some deluded contemporaries, is the stimulus which op erates upon the duellist s brain ; a mercenary sol dier s courage may be lighted up with a little al cohol ; nothing, in short, of the certainty of fulfill ing a sacred duty to his country should stimulate a freeman. " Can any one be so simple as to imagine, that the savage courage of braving death is the quality admired, and revered in great warriors ? Many worthless fellows in the file, possess such a courage in a higher degree, than the superior, who leads them on. Patient industry, unconquerable perseverance through long, and laborious studies ; a sacrifice of all vvordly pleasures, in exchange for toils, cares, abstemiousness, anxieties, and suffer ings ; solid judgment, prudence, self-possession, great talents, still greater honesty ; such are the offspring of the courage which recommends heroes to the veneration of ages. LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 75 " But, many superior men have fought duels. So much the worse for them : their fair fame, most surely, is not indebted to such deeds. What then does the assertion prove ? It proves only, that men of superior order are not free from weakness, and that, in all their actions, they are not worthy of imitation. If superior men, who fight duels are not aware that opinion, respecting that custom, is erroneous, they are deficient in good sense, and judgment, two qualities without which a man can not be truly great : if, on the contrary, they know it to be wrong, they are doubly guilty in yielding to its mischievous caprice, when they should be the first to resist and correct it. "A young man was heard to ask whether Na poleon was not a great master at the broad sword. Such are the silly notions which are too common ly entertained about great men. Napoleon never fought a duel. He dared in his youth, to set at defiance the brutish custom, and braved the scorn of his fellow officers ; the pretenders to despise him where are they I " Washington, greater than Napoleon, since his genius will, in the end, more generally obtain the veneration of mankind, Washington never fought a duel ; nay, it is well known, that he once made an unasked for apology to a person whose feelings, he thought, he had wounded. Franklin did not fight duels ; yet Franklin was a gentle man, as well as a statesman, and philosopher. Perhaps he had never occasion to fight. Well, let genuine gentlemen in our days imitate him; 76 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. let them prove their good breeding by scrupulous ly shunning all circumstances which might involve them in those despicable transactions ; or, if un fortunately precipitated in those anti-social p ro- ceedings, let them adopt means of conciliation which may spare a family the loss of a father or husband, and society a useful citizen, which will insure them the gratitude, and respect of the so ber portion of the community. " But, it is not to be expected that the mere ef forts of the individuals eventually concerned in these sad affairs, will be sufficient to put an end to the atrocious custom. Opinion which fosters it, should be resolutely assailed, and shamed out of the social pale. Novelists, poets, dramatists, and writers in general, should join hand in hand in this holy crusade. A great deal might be a- chieved in this reform of public opinion, by those, who have the charge of the education of youth, by the heads of families, and particularly mothers. "Women, O women J what could you not do? Like the sun s rays upon nature, your influence in society is irresistible ; let it ever be vivifying, and cheering. O ye, who give us life, never suffer death to emanate from you, and by more than one attribute, resemble the beautiful luminary to which we dare to compare you." It is with an edifying feeling I see in some cor ners of the world the people listening with an anx ious ear the wishes of benevolent philosophers and time, in spite of legislators forgetful of their duty, bringing the nations to more extensive in- LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 77 struction, will blot out the custom of duels as it has been done in regard to the vain glory of knights fighting in the arenabefore the object of their love. Nay: though it is with sorrow of mind we find, in some countries, people going as spectators of such single combats, others, where the public opin ion is more enlightened, in spite of the law not pursuing such kind of murders, still, shameful of such a ferocious act, they go concealed fighting in the most remote woods. But, as we are obliged to dress ourselves according to fashion if we want not to appear ridiculous, so a man, whose fortune depends from the respect of little minded plurali ty, is forced to do what his reason disapproves. Besides, how can a man, not only dependent, but exiled, abandoned, unknown, poor, and friendless in a strange country, scorn the general custom? I shall never forget the poor unprotected Jews of my still poorer country, whom the greater part of Christians think it lawful to insult. Yes, Charles, one day I could not refrain from rescuing a poor old Jew from the persecution of my school com panions ! But, why shall I allege so many reasons, Charles, when my own example proves the evidence of my argument 1 After having endured so gross an af front, they had so scornful an idea of me, that eve ry wicked creature did not lose the opportunity of showing his false bravery with petty insults. And what would you say, Charles, should I tell you, that villian, wh ) insulted me, has been imboldened by hearing fro m others, that I had been much indul- 78 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. gent in forgiving the impoliteness of two others be fore him 1 Addison writing about the customs of his time, which were in many respects the same as ours, says : " The great point of honour in man is courage, and in woman chastity. If a man lo ses his honour in one rencounter, it is not impos sible for him to regain it in another ; a slip in a woman s honour is irrecoverable." The moral Addison, conscious of the false notions of his age, added : " I can give no reason for fixing the point of honour to these two qualities, unless it be, that each sex sets the greatest value on the qualifica tion which renders them the most amiable in the eyes of the contrary sex. Had men chosen for themselves, without regard to the opinions of the fair sex, I should believe the choice would have fallen on wisdom, or virtue ; or had women deter mined their own point of honour, it is probable that wit or good nature would have carried it against chastity." So, whilst I was displeased in seeing the severity of society towards women, whose fault might be caused either from disinterested love, want of judgment, or innocence, finding that the first opportunity would have carried me to recov er my honour with so little an expense, that, in meet- ing in the street the first rascal, who thought to mock me with impunity, I pulled off my coat, and boxed him with such alacrity, that, though he was a bulky man, I had the satisfaction of seeing him on the ground without, however, any mortal inju ry : So, the very mob, Charles, who would have scorned me if 1 had proceeded my way without LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 79 resentment, after the fight, they were inclined to bring me in triumph. But, what shall I conclude after so long a let ter ? Charles, when I was in the arms of my dear mother, I esteemed men, and myself: the rascali ties I met afterwards on the theatre of life, whilst they obliged me to pity myself, caused me to de spise the whole human race : but, after a long re flection, finding human kind under improvements, though yet we are very far from deserving the hon ourable title of rational, or sociable creatures for which it seems we have been called on earth, still I begin to feel highly of man. But, until the mass of the people, in getting better judgment will have provided for better laws on the subject of duels, some individuals might be under obligations to stand before death, rather to suffer an injury to their reputation. LORENZO. TO LORENZO. Geneva. Do ye imagine to reprove words, and the speeches of one that is desperate, which are as wind ? Job. Do not believe ^our soul mortal, Lorenzo : I do not pretend to defend one creed more than another ; but, for w r hat purpose could nature have given us a life so toilsome, and afterwards take it away for ever? O, this spirit which I feel within me, pant ing for immortality is fit to worship God : he may 80 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. have created in other planets, beings more sublime than man ; but, the wish, and imagination able to understand the divine idea of the infinite, is e~ nough to make us believe we are fit for an eternity. When I think of the greatness of this creation my mind would pass through the immense space of the ether, where the vail of my ignorance would be taken from my eyes, and contemplate the mys terious incantation. OONALASKA. A FRAGMENT FROM LORENZO. Paris, Any one may do a casual act of good nature, but a contin uation of them shows it is a part of the temperature ; and cer tainly, added I, if it is the same blood which descends to the extremes, touching her wrist, I am sure you must have one of the best pulses of any woman in the world. Sterne. She was knitting at the door of her shop : her smile reminded rne of my candid sisters, whose acute sight was reading my heart s most secret thoughts. She rose from her chair ; and with a kind-hearted look asked me if I wished to look at any thing. I come to buy something, madam, which I have entirely forgotten. You must have a great deal of business, sir, sit down. She re sumed her work, blushed, and remained silent for some time It seems by the above, and following letters, that many of it must have been lost. LORENZO AND OOIV ALASKA. 81 TO LORENZO. Lausanne. J ailes yeux sanscesse fixes sur les montagnes qui separent la Suisse de la France ; il vit par dela, mais il ne m a point oub- Iie6: la douceur de mes pensees me Passure. Quand je me prom&ne sous les routes de la nuit, mes regrets ne sont point amers, et s il avait cesse de m aimer le frissonnement de la mort m en aurait avertie. Mad. Destael. Thou thoughtest of me ! Every time I walked through these delightful fields, I did the same, and thy memory endeared my life. My heart embra- ced all nature, and nature smiled on me. How many times I sent my heart to thee on the wmgs of my thought, and then I felt the ambrosia exha ling from the plants, and a zephyr caressing my forehead. If our souls were not immortal would I have felt such sympathy I When on the moun tains of Swizerland thou feltest an inebriate plea sure of divinity, it was thy soul, which flying to me made me feel the joy thou wishedest impart tome. OONALASKA. TO OONALASKA. Ingouville. Tu m appeleras toujours quand tu seras seule. Plusieurs fois tu repeteras le nom de Leonce, et Leonce recueillera peut- *tre dans les airs les accens de son amie. Destael. That which most deeply wounds my feeling, is to see moral perverted by the hand of men, who, under the cloak of piety, slander those, whom they believe in contradiction with their hvpocrisy. 11 82 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. However, I think with Destael: "Je dedaigne ceux qui me blameront; ils ne m atteindront pas dans Pasile de mon cceur ou je suis content de moi ; ils n ebranleront point cette parfaite convic tion de 1 esprit qui est aussi une conscience pour I homme eclaire." I have some moments, Oona- laska, in which, by want of your company, who would partake my sentiments, the above conviction not only is not sufficient; but, instead of pouring the balm of life into the wound with which false piety has deeply poisened the vital centre of my heart, it does oftener exacerbate it, in thinking my self-denial led me a victim of monsters in human shapes. Every thing in your possession must turn in your favour, because a society dreaming nothing but wealth, forgive even your virtue, which is a re proach for them. But, I poor, without other mer it in the world but the good intention of practising virtue, I would bring into your private family but the envy of the wicked without number. "The world is made for Caesar," exclaimed the virtuous Cato, few moments before his glorious death : in our age we may say, the world is made for wealthy people. When troublesome thoughts will agitate thee, look upon the star which precedes the day break : often I do the same, and then I feel relieved. It is a religion for every body : it does not re side in books ; it speaks in our hearts, and tells us this sufficient precept: Love thy fellow crea ture. Because our ancestors began human soci- LORENZO AND OOINALASKA. 83 ety with superstions, some of our legislators be lieve it cannot be otherwise ; and consider every body wicked, because in spite of Solon, Lycurgus, Brutus, Cato, Machiavel,Bentharn, we are still not better than the time of Moses. But, I would ask only one single question : Has the people been ruled by the laws of the above legislators, or by that of Moses I Nay ; because our forefather s government was a perfect theocracy they are led to conclude that the foundations of human laws should be grounded on those principles, and think it cannot be otherwise since it had always been so. Then, they call the man a wicked creature, without thinking that all human faults originate in a ne glected education. They are like that father, who, whilst obliges his sons to perish by hunger, up braids them because they cannot stand up. Man is but the creature of his habits : and, we find slaves, after having received liberty, to submit themselves again to their own masters. When will man enjoy the confederacy of man ? Then, our posterity in reading history will conceive all the horrours of our situation. If I have the hap piness of seeing the dawn of so fortunate a day, I would not complain on my death bed of the in gratitude of my fellow Beings: I would carry to my grave the idea, that I shall not be entirely for gotten. It is no wonder if we are continually in war ; since, spoiled from contrarieties without number, we must feel our wicked selfishness from the bo som of our mothers. Thence, sensibility becomes 84 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. a fatal gift when we are forced to live with people with a little heart ; love, which endears life, be comes an object of calculation, and friendship a hypocritical name. The original sin, Oonalaska, is the want of ed ucation. Reason is a star which leads us to virtue : and although she cannot reach her desti nation soon as we would, she always leaves on her way the brilliant traces of her painful, and noble career : nothing deserving reproach on the grave of her sons. Havre is built on a marsh ; and the harbour be ing surrounded of a rampart,! am obliged to climb the hill of Ingouville whenever I wish to contem plate the beauties of nature. What fine month of November ! 1 prove a very singular sensation every time I present myself in a hotel in which hospitality is given with more, or less kindness according to the extensiveness of your purse. They measure all travellers from foot to cap ; and elevate them to wards heaven, according to the exterior appear ances of their travelling expenses. Such is their acuteness, that they are seldom found putting a Lord on the seventh, or a Burgess on the first floor ; so that, from the first floor to the garret, where all pedestrians are confounded, you would know the standing of each traveller in society by the sever al degrees of their rooms : and the landlord is more or less cheerful with you, according to the quantity of money you spend. If in the New- world J shall not find better people, I will go on the top LORENZO AND OON ALASKA, 85 of a mountain to breathe the air embalmed with flowers. Yesterday evening I clambered up the hill to the light houses : I set near a ravine where the sea touches the foot. A light north wind was driving a great many ships on the lee shore of France. Crows, and eagles were hovering, when I saw a pigeon preceding a vessel: perhaps that bird was bringing news to some more happy than I in France. ...More happy than I?. ..Although alone, thy image is always with me. The sinking sun told me I must leave that place : I had yet two hours of walk to reach Havre, and no more than an hour of day. As I wanted to see the sun sinking in the flood, in going back I took another road. I gave him the good night, and reached the hotel at dinner time. After my solitary reflections on the top of a hill. I do not like to see at the table, fops fond of dis tinguishing themselves by causing the servants to feel their inferiority before them. It seems they sit at the table of four francs, not to satisfy their want; but, to play the gentlemen. To-day a captain of a vessel, father of a large family, having some difficulties with a man of the vexing custom-house, brought the quarrel to a du el : he was killed instantly. The officer of the custom-house is not persecuted by the law. There is a pleasure in sorrow : it is the shiv ering mixt with tears in the very moment we are quitting, perhaps for ever, persons worthy our friendship : the last day of a man with pure 86 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. conscience, must be the moment of his happi ness. Farewell, Oonalaska : do not be afraid for me : the passage I undertake now, is very well known. How sublime is the ocean ! When the shore ot France will have disappeared from my sight, still, I will give thee the good-bye. I cannot proceed longer ; the vessel is now rea dy tp start. LORENZO. It seems here some other letters must have been lost. TO CHARLES. Philadelphia* Or qual estranea mai lontana terra, E selvaggia, ed inospita pur sia, Increscer puote a chi la propria vede . Schiava di crude, ed assolute voglie ? Alfieri. I cannot describe the painful feeling occasioned by being far from the remains of my distressed fa mily. It is not the tyrants of my country 1 left under that blue sky ; it is the dear house of my father. I may say now with Petrarc : " Exul ab Italia furiis civilibus actus Hue subii, partimque volens, partimque coactus. Hie nemus, hie amnes, hie otia ruris amceni: Sed, fidi comites absunt vultusque sereni." Nobody will impart to me the affection I enjoy ed from mv father, mother, brothers, and sisters. LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 87 The whole world seems to me a desert now : where shall 1 find a friend to whom I might communicate my sufferings?. ..However, I walk this wide world thinking with Casirnir Bonjour : " Je sais qu il est beaucoup d ames interess^es, Que 1 argent est au fond de toutes les pens^es; Mais, j ose 1 assurer, il est de nobles cosurs." In answer to your letter, dear Charles, certain ly no nation deserves the consideration of a civil ized one, if she, in spite of discordant supersti tion, does not honour, and help the true, moral, unsuperstitious, sincere, and innocent man. Cowper says : " The only amaranthine flower on earth Is virtue; the only lasting treasure, truth." LORENZO TO OONALASKA. Philadelphia. As the persecuted seek refuge at the shrine, so they recog nised in the altar of their love an asylum from the sorrows of earth. Bulwer. By the interference of Charles, I received your letter. If there is any disgusting sensation, it is the recollection of those who were ungrateful to us. I had formed an idea too sublime of man ; but, how humiliating is the selfishness of human species ! 88 LOBENZO AND OON ALASKA. "Ubique pavor, et plurima mortis imago," Says Virgil. However, I thank the heavenly Hope for having led me by the hand through this life of dangers ; and told me I shall find the virtue I am seeking for. I found myself alone on a barren rock surround ed by a sea without end ; and the fainting light of virtue, agreeable delusion of my passed life, was now too far away. Every day I felt my chains more and more heavy. When a supernatural strength overwhelms us, courage fails. What a- vails to struggle for life, when the wound is mor tal 1 Why, my God, said I, didst thou create me but for sufferings I Hast thou made the world only for my oppressors 1 O ! your letter, Oona- laska, has changed rny sufferings of hell into the enjoyments of Eden! Poor Malvina ! Yesterday she was shining like the sun ; and now, under ground .....All this smil ing family of plants which surrounds her grave, does not now cheer her sensibility ; and tears can warm her bosom no more ! Excuse me, my love, if I do not write to thee on the manners and customs of this nation: excuse rne, if I do not describe to thee these fine mountains: every thing is sublime because I am thinking of thee. Yes, this beautiful nature should be a de sert without the thought of thy love : every time I am occupied in something, I see only thy inspir ing image : and how could I be able to write were it not about thy amiability. Very often, absorbed in the fine ideal which surrounds thee, my pen falls, believing thou art in my presence. LORENZO AND OONALASfcA. 8 P. S. The sun was sinking when the groom came to tell me, my horse was ready. I had for gotten, that I gave him order to do so However the moon is up, and I have no more than about 15 miles to reach my society in the country. Every evening I contemplate the planet which shines in the twilight : when at ten o clock it leaves our horizon, I feel the sensations I had when I bade thee farewell : it is as pretty as thy thought. Dear Oonalaska, look at it also, when quivering it bids thee good night. It appears to me I am still with thee walking around by the lake of Geneva with thy arm linked in mine, gazing at the silent moon.... Well, the groom tells me the vessel will not start from America to France in a week ; so that, I will not yet seal this letter. P. S. Yesterday, seeing all society smiling at my distractions, however they are kind to me, and at that moment hearing to strike ten o clock, I hur ried out, without taking leave, with the intention of going back, after having gazed on the lovely plan et. The harmony of the sky bringing to my mind so delightful an idea of thee, I proceeded home ward without my hat, fearing the presence of any body else should have interrupted the lovely senti ment 1 proved in that moment : the dream I had of thee the last night was heavenly as thy smile, I shall attempt in another letter to describe it. P. S. To-night the planet, which calls me to happiness, disappeared above the clouds, leaving me in darkness, and bitterness. LORENZO, 12 90 LOKENZO AND OONALASKA. TO HIS BROTHER HIPPOLITUS. Philadelphia. Quand on veut consacrer des livres au vrai bien de la patrie^ il ne faut point les composer dans son sein. /. /. Rousseau. Do not yet attempt to emulate the splendid style of any author, who has dazzled you : your tender age is not fit to follow the eagle in his flight. No strong passion if you do not feel it : write according to your own heart. Your age is only fit for an in genious sensibility ,which is always agreeable when you exhibit it in its natural simplicity : no excla mations; no tropes, no figures: write as if you were explaining your feeling with the sincerity of a soul before the Great Judge of human secrets ; and your writing will be eloquent. If you wish to run the difficult career of learn ing, form your heart, and nothing will be wanting: but, if we do not feel in ourselves nobility, and su blimity of mind, the attempt will be always a dis graceful one : it is the fire of heaven alone, which can purify the mind of man. * Europe, my dear brother, swarms now too much with pretensions to learning : but, if the writer s aim is not that of being useful to society, this noble art is nothing but a profane prattle. When you have finished the course of your stu dies, if you don t feel yourself able to soar towards the sun, you may turn your thoughts elsewhere. In whatever situation a man finds himself, either of mind, or fortune, he may be always happy, if he LORENZO AND OONALASKA, 91 do not swerve from the knowledge of himself, right, and honesty. As we can always distinguish the beginning of the day, even in the most cloudy weather, so, in spite of wicked enemies, virtue will always have the consideration, and esteem of eve ry nation. It is not an elevated occupation, which gives consideration to man ; it is the little, perform ed with integrity : and, should there be no suitable judges for your actions, comfort yourself in your superiority, and always endeavor to become bet ter. " Knowledge will always predominate over ignorance, as man governs the other animals," says Johnson. Do not bewail our situation, dear Hippolitus: man is born to undergo inconveniences : misfor tune is a great school for those, who are wise to learn from it : a life spent among books in all the comforts of the closet, may fit a man for becom ing an astronomer, or artist ; but, he will be al ways ignorant of himself, and of the human heart. It is true, that when we reach the knowledge of it, we would desire to retrograde to the sports of our infancy, in \\hfch we believed all men had to wards us the very affection of our father, and mo ther : but, who would desire this happy ignorance when we find ourselves daily obliged to have some thing to do with them 1 If you feel in yourself the demon of genius, you will have nothing in your life but cares, and dis gusts. The way to glory is easy among people, who enjoy a real liberty : but, if you speak truth where despotism reigns, you have nothing to ex- 92 LORENZO AND OONALA8KA. pect but ingratitude. Who would believe, Hip-, politus, that Volney, that great luminary of human reason is yet slandered after his grave I And, did he write any thing but to teach us the means of being happy, and honest on earth? These few lines are sufficient to show his integrity. " Re- cherchez des lois que la nature a posces en nous pour nous diriger, et dressez-en 1 authentique, et immuable code ; mais, que ce ne soit plus pour une seule nation, pour une seule famille ; que ce soit pour nous tous sans exception ! Soyez le legisla- teur de tout le genre, humain, ainsi que vous seriez Finterperte de la merne nature, montrez-nous la ligne qui separe le monde des chimeres de celui des realites, et enseignez-nous, apres tant de religions, d illusions, et d erreurs, la religion de 1 evidence, et de la verite." But, it is not only our misunderstood creed, which persecutes the benev^ olent .philosophy ; so Pananti : " Maometto e ii piii gran nemico che la ragione umana abbia avu- to. Uomini pieni del suo feroce spirito esclama- rono che Dio punirebbe il Califfo al Mamon per avere appellato nei suoi stati le ficienze a detrimen- to della santa ignoranza raccomandata ai veri cre- denti : e che, se qualcuno osasse imitarlo, impalar si doveva, e di Tribu in Tribii trasportarlo, pre- ceduto da tin Araldo, che andasse ad alta vocegri- dando : Ecco quale e stato, e quale sara il guider- done dell empio, che preferisce la Filosofia alia Tradizione, e la sua superba Ragione ai precetti del divino Koran." However the martyrs of Rea son will prevail on the martyrs of superstition. So LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 93 Franklin : " It is only by degrees that the great body of mankind can be led into new practises, however salutary their tendency. It is now near ly eighty years, since inoculation was introduced into Europe and America, and it is so far from be ing general at present, that it will, perhaps, require one, or two centuries to render it so." The glory of fame is a very trifling thing, since there are few, who in reality admire the worthy work of a great man ; So Bulwer : " Often, when in the fever of the midnight, I have paused from my unshared, and unsoftened studies, to listen to the deadly pulsation of my heart, when I have felt in its painful, and tumultuous beating the very life warning, and wasting within me, I have sickened to my inmost soul to remember, that amongst all those, whom I was exhausting the health, and en joyment of youth to benefit, there was not one from whom my life had an interest, or by whom my death would be honoured by a tear." Again, a genius like that of Homer will have very little con sideration, when his book is among a thousand others equal to it^f There is no human strength which can scorn the power of time. But, if in spite of your happiness you wish to show to the people among whom you live, that they are far from deserving the approbation of a wor thy society, you ought to recollect, that the boys of an academy have very little friendship towards their teacher for no other reason than that, he is in the habit of correcting their faults. What are men among vicious laws! Large boys hardened 94 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. in their vices. They will grant you every justice, or injustice against others; but, if you do not vilely flatter their own faults, and self-interest, they will become your enemies. See, even among repub lics, the many are attached to the richest party, because they fear to lose their direct interest with the wealthy people. Ignorance is deceived by want of knowing a gentleman among cunning ras cals: and you would hear in America, men calling those Yankees, whom they dislike, whilst they are Yankees themselves in all the extensiveness of the term. As I suppose you are not acquainted with this word, I will endeavour to explain it to you. Hearing in this country to utter the word Yan kee with contempt, I referred to the American dic tionary, in which it is said, the Indians, or origina ted savages of America, in consequence of being unable to pronounce the word English, they said Yankee. Afterwards it became a word of con tempt applied by settled European-Americans to every stranger from Europe : so, by a spirit of re venge, an English author calls Yankees the Amer icans smoking Havanna s tobacco on sugar bales. But, not satisfied of this explanation, by seeing so many, giving different colours to this word, I asked several persons ; and, the most inoffensive idea un der such word, I found it was the supposed Amer icans from north in respect to those from south. For instance, the Nevv-Englanders would be Yan kees to the New- Yorkers, the New-Yorkers to the Pennsylvanians ; these to the Virginians, the Vir ginians to the Carolinians, and so on. If it were LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 95 so, though the offence trifling in itself, I would pre fer to be under the equator s line where those, who are in this side of North America have no right to call me a Yankee, a word which, even pronounced by persons of the most high education, does not sound to my ear a kind one. In regard to those, who call Yankees the strangers coming into America, they must offend themselves, since the American blood is stranger to this country. You know, Hippolitus, Switzerland not being able to afford enough for all her inhabitants, they are obli ged to live in France, and Italy with their industry. In America such kind of people would be bapti zed Yankees. Among persons of education they call only Yankees now, those cunning creatures, who are getting money with deceit: and it seems to me, in this last case, such degrading title, is very happily applied. The foundation of America be ing a wise liberty, and a compact of true United States, all the petty lines of demarcation disap pear with general instruction; and every true A- merican feels pleasure in seeing every nation hav ing a reciprocal consideration of each other. This little globe turning around, the very inconsistent Being called Man improving, must feel the noble sentiment of becoming a true citizen of the world : so, now a Yankee is generally called a poor crea ture, who is far from understanding the feeling of a gentleman. But, for what reason a philanthropist is paid with ingratitude, whilst the selfish becomes rich ! Ol iver Goldsmith will show you in the following 96 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. lines, that sometimes flattery has power even over wise men : " Upon returning home, I could not help reflecting with some astonishment, how this very man, with such a confined education, and capacity, was yet capable of turning me as he thought proper, and moulding me to his inclina tions ! I knew he was only answering his own pur poses, even while he attempted to appear solici tous about mine ; yet, by a voluntary infatuation, a sort of passion compounded of vanity and good nature. I walked into the snare with my eyes open, and put myself to future pain, in order to give him immediate pleasure. The wisdom of the ignorant, somewhat resembles the instinct of animals ; it is diffused in but a very narrow sphere, but within that circle, it acts with vigour, uniformity, and suc cess." If you take the hard career of being a deserving writer, after your death, you might receive the honour of a stone on which the virtuous like your self, among posterity will shed a tear for reconcil ing your insensible bones to mankind ; and perhaps a poet might sing your virtues ; the only wreath re served to the children of true glory : still, although " Non vive oltre la tomba ira nemica," as Mont* says, if your generous feeling excites you to de monstrate the evil that society undergoes under the scourge of an ignorant, arid false religion, after your death you may expect to be slandered by those, who find their interest in telling the people, that Hume, Volney, Rousseau, and other illustri ous writers, are now burning in heil. And, for LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 97 what reason have we the displeasure of hearing from the pulpit such kind of language, if it is not by having those superior men written the truth, as these few lines of the historian Hume I " Mo nastic observances were esteemed more meritori ous than the active virtues : the knowledge of natural causes was neglected, from the universal belief of miraculous interpositions,and judgments : bounty to the church atoned for every violence a- gainst society : and the remorses for cruelty, mur der, treachery, assassination, and the more robust vices, were appeased, not by amendment of life, but by penances, servility to the monks, and an abject and illiberal devotion." Would that virtuous man have written the next following lines, if he had known, that his ashes would have been curs ed by zealots? " Though most men, anywise em inent, have found reason to complain of calumny, I never was touched," says he, " or even attacked, by her baleful tooth ; and though I wantonly ex posed myself to the rage of both civil, and religious factions, they seemed to be disarmed, in my behalf, of their wonted fury. My friends never had oc casion to vindicate any one circumstance of my character, and conduct : not but that the zealots, we may well suppose, would have been glad to invent, and propagate any story to my disadvan tage, but they could never find any which they thought would wear the face of probability." But, what is virtue I It is to bear up against ad versities with calmness, and heroism ; it is to gain our subsistence with honour among the vicious ; 13 98 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. virtue is to speak truth against our own interest ; it is never to complain of the injustice of our for tune ; virtue is the loosing the opportunity of acquiring glory when we are wanting in another part for the good of our fellow-creatures ; virtue is a constant endeavour to better our own charac ter : In a word, virtue is nothing else than a divine goodness of humanity. If you love letters, you have nothing to do, but to aim at the perfection of your own character : your book is your own heart ; and in whatever situation you might be, in com paring yourself with others, avoid all their faults, imitate all their fine qualities, and your eloquence will touch every heart. LORENZO. TO CHARLES. New York. Virtue is a quality much more rare than is generally imagined ; and therefore the words humanity, virtue, patriotism, and many others of similar kinds, should be used with greater caution than they usually are in the intercourses of mankind. Zi m m eTHi an . Those, who are taught by their philosophy, pro perly to estimate the merits of every people, will feel disgust when they hear persons inveighing a- gainst a nation for the sole purpose of indirectly boasting, that their own country is free from the defects which they censure. I was once introdu ced by an American family to a French lady. Af ter she had sung several patriotic songs, I conver- LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 99 sed with her in her native tongue. As the French language was not understood by the rest of the company, she lavished praises upon the French nation in so outrageous a manner, that it seemed, according to her judgment, that all others were de ficient. As she was not informed, upon my intro duction to her, that I was an Italian, I thought it my duty to tell her that I was not a native of France. I proceeded as follows : As I have kind, delicate, and sensible friends among the French people, I have the honour to tell you, Madam, that I love them as my own. I am one of those cos mopolites, who believe, that a person has no right to disregard a nation, because he observes in it, particular instances of depravity, for, he should reflect, that man is always man with more, or less modification, according to the age in which he lives. We cannot find a single nation which is not adorned by men of virtue, and my impression is ? that we are prejudiced in favour of our native country, because we there received the first caress es of our parents. Upon this, perhaps too severe reproof, she assumed the expression of a cunning fox, and, had I been Raphael, I would have given to the world a singular,and striking picture. How ever we proceeded to converse on various topics ; and the subject of languages rising, I advanced the proposition, that no language is perfect, since we find, that in all those with which we are ac quainted, there are many words wanting to express our sentiments. " You must possess a great ge nius, sir," said she, with her cunning smile, " since 100 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. the languages spoken by nations through so long a course of years, are insufficient to give expres sion to your ideas." I was not unprepared for this exhibition of petty revenge. Poor humanity ! We seem born to make painful the lives of each other. Sometimes I endeavor to explain to my self the inequality of the gifts of nature. In the very moment that she delights to bestow upon one all the good qualities of mind and body, she in flicts upon another, external deformity joined with a repulsive character. Why, I ask myself, are we not all cast in the same mould 1 One is blind, another lame, the face of this is turned upon his left shoulder, and that bears it on his right. This man jumps on crutches, and that sees nothing de serving attention except his own precious person: the one is passionate, the other sardonic. This man is a fool, and that delights to insult him with his clownish wit.. ..But, I have entered into too long a digression : so that, resuming the thread of the conversation, although I like to yield to the ladies, I was not disposed to give the victory to her, " It is the witness still of excellency To put a strange face on his own perfection," Says Shakspeare. So that, wishing to put all my poor wit into operation, Madam, said I, I do not believe myself to be a genius because I cannot name with a particular word every part compound ing this chair which I now hold. Besides, if I were in love with you, Madam, I do not believe that LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 101 I should find words adequate to the description of your charms, as Byron says : " Who hath not proved how feebly words essay To fix one spark of beauty s heavenly ray ?" And Chateaubriand : "Ah, si tu m aimais, quelle, serait notre felicite ! Nous trouverions pour nous exprimer un langage digne du ciel ; a present il y a des mots qui manquent, parce que ton arne ne repond pas a la mienne." She smiled with her natural cheerfulness, and we continue now to be good friends. LORENZO. TO . London. Those, who find themselves severed from society by peculi arities of form, if they do not hate the common bulk of man kind, are at least not altogether indisposed to enjoy their mis haps, and calamities. Walter Scott. Though we say, man ought not to be partial to his own country, still we find a great many tra vellers judging of nations with rashness. The prejudices of our childhood are so dangerous to our reason, that very often men endeavour to find faults among nations, because they have not their own habits. A traveller may converse with thou sands of individuals of a foreign nation which he undertakes to describe, and still, have no idea of their real character. We have only to open their books, and we find nothing is so full of contradic- 102 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. tions as the writers on their journeys. From whence does it come, that Madam Destael praises so much the Italian nation, whilst Lady Morgan de bases them, if it is not, that Destael had the good chance of finding among them something agreea ble to her, and Morgan displeasing things ? Be sides, the life of a man is hardly sufficient for judg ing of a nation, since, admitting he understands the language, if on many an occasion we find the character of particular persons very different from what we have judged before, so, with greater rea son, we may mistake the character of a whole na tion. In the first period of his residence in Italy, Byron judged of the Italians in a quite different manner from, what he did, during the last period of his life.,.. Wlio. can read Alfieri s Misogallo with out feeling the injustice of his having written so contemptuously of the nation of Fenelon, Mably, Montesquieu, and so on 1 How can we find justice among men, if eminent writers depreciate other nations with rashness 1 In opening a book of Madam Destael, and reading several praises on Italy, I find the following lines: "In that nation, where one does not think but love, there is not a single romance, because love is so rapid, so public, that it yields no developement : and to pen with reality the general manners on this subject, it would be necessary to begin, and finish in the first page." There are authors, who sometimes prefer to show their wit at the expense of their good sense, since Madam Destael knowing the life of Dante, Pe- trarc, Tasso, and many other Italians, she could LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 103 not deny that, although Italy has not so great a quantity of romances in prose as the French libra ry, still she has persons of both sexes, whose life was only a long chain of Platonic love. Howev er a romance is only but a plot on which love acts the first part : and if it is so, how can we agree with Madam Destael for the mere reason the Ital ian writers had chosen other subjects ! But, still, the form implies nothing if the substance is the same : so, if France has romances written in prose, Italy has as many Italian romances in poetry. If every writer, who undertakes to speak badly of some nations have the following just sentiment of Chateaubriand, we would have the satisfaction of not meeting with so much nonsense: " Malge les nombreuses injustices que Chactas avait eprou- vees dela part des Francais, il les aimait. II se sovenait toujours de Fenelon, dont il avait ete Fhote, et desirait pbuvoir rendre quelque service aux compatriotes de cet homme vertueux." We know, that Chateaubriand had been the guest of Washington. CHARLES. 104 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. TO LORENZO. Lausanne. ruines ! je retournerai vers vous prendre vos leoons ! je me replacerai dans la paix de vos solitudes ; et la, eloigne du spectacle affligeant des passions, j aimerai les hommes sur des souvenirs ; je m occnperai de leurbonheur, et le mien se com- posera de 1 idee de 1 avoir hate. Volney, Every thing is now in bloom ; and that snow on which I rode on a sledge two months ago has dis appeared. In the short space of a century, all these mortals contending for a span of ground will have vanished in the same manner : but, time has no power when history relates to posterity the good, or bad qualities of men. Yes, I have propensity to think with you. We, perhaps, a small part of the Soul animating the whole creation, are not happy, unless we find a Be ing able to partake our sentiments. Compose for me, Lorenzo, a sonnet on the Se pulchre of Santa-Rosa. OONALASKA. TO CHARLES. Richmond. For what end has the lavish hand of Providence diffused in numerable objects of delight, but that all might rejoice in the privilege of existence, and be filled with gratitude to the be neficent author of it. Carter. If it were given to me the enjoyment of the love that men attempt to snatch from ni^^jfeisp; and afterwards, provided I were leaving beyond my grave no stain injuring my honour, I would die LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. 105 without regret, though I was sure that my spirit would pass into a state of nonentity. Life seems but an ephemeral moment between the infinite passed time and the next to come : so, being it the centre of two infinite extremities, the world must be the beginning, and end for every mortal Being: but, I think this universe has always been, and it will never be destroyed. I believe it is Voltaire, who said : " Nous sommes d hier, et FAmerique estde ce matin." I saw Oonalaska in a dream with all the attrac tions of her charms ! The world now seems to me the garden of Armida. How beautiful, Charles, is the ruin on that mountain! That lightning striking just now the top of that tree, it does not present to my mind tyranny and despotism : I see nothing else in it, but nature falling at the feet of Oonalaska, and worshiping her beauty. Sun of this fine universe ; when thou wilt glitter in vain for me, do, tell her, though I was without hope of meeting her on earth, when in my life I turned out of the way of her virtuous sentiments, it was my ignorance of not being able to discern my du ty ; never willingly ! To-day I read "Gerusalemme Liberata," which had never been delivered from the hands of the Turk into another called the Pope. Misfortune was the inheritance of Tasso. Passions, and suf ferings seem the only movers of that genius. In reading the episode of Olindo and Sofronia, I was thinking of the writer s walking with agitation in his room, suffused with tears, stopping from time to 14 106 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. time, and speaking to Eleonora as if she were pre sent. But, suddenly, with eyes cast down, almost breathless, taking the pen, inspired by a divinity, smiling with a tear ready to drop on the paper, and writing these fine lines : " O sia grazia del ciel che Tumiltade D innocente pastor salvi, e sublime, O che siccome il folgore non cade In basso plan, ma su 1 eccelse cime : Cosi il furor di peregrine spade Sol de gran re Paltere teste oprime : Ne gli avidi soldati a preda alletta La nostra poverta vile e negletta. What shame for those, who made him pass for a fool ! Once, a friend of mine, speaking about ge niuses, thought the pre-occupation, or concentra ting state in which sometimes a man of talent dives, appears something near to foolishness. A man starting from a profound meditation, seems as one awaking from sleep by a sudden noise ; and wish ing to speak before his clear ideas be at his com mand, all he is saying is nothing but absurdi ties. Reflection having no part in his discourse, a man of a great mind is more apt to talk foolishness, than a real fool. Yesterday walking in a dale, I found William sitting on a rock in gloomy meditation. " I am, Lorenzo," said he, " like a terrestial bird in the middle of an immense sea, flying in search of land with exhausted wings : but, the more it looks a- round the wild horizon, the more its piercing eye discovers the flood interminable, and black clouds, LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 107 forwarded by lightning, hovering over its head... After a long pause. Society, he proceeded, is for me the same dreadful ocean 1 I killed by a vain point of honour the brother of Julia in a duel. When I saw my dearest friend struggling with death, putting my homicidal hand on the wound, I swore to use arms no more." To-day I read an account of a dreadful execu tion under the tyrannical laws of Don Miguel : the priests of Christ, after having led to the scaf fold seven young men, whose crime was that of having tried the liberty of their country, and get ting rid of such a monster, those very ministers, who durst to speak with the moral of Jesus, were af terwards praying in church for the preservation of the tyrant of Portugal. Please to send the following Sonnet to Oona- laska. IL SEPOLCRO DI SANTA-ROSA. Sonetto. II fumo che sbocco da tutte Parmi, Formava in Grecia grande mausoleo: Cangi^ndo sull Ausonia in un trofeo, Qual nuovo Sole il vidi innanzi starmi. Tre Dive usciro tra funebri carmi, Scendendo il frale sul colle Euganeo, Ve gia Natura ombrosa grotta feo, E dorme I Ortis sotlo i freddi marmi. Ma Tombra di Canova ch era accanto Del suo lavoro al monumento bello, Baciollo, e Firroro di caldo pianto. 108 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. Raccolto poscia lo divin scalpello, Di Caritade incise il voler santo : H Cielo a Santa-Rosa erse 1 avello." LORENZO. TO OONALASKA. New- York. It is only through woe that we are taught to reflect, and we gather the honey of wordly wisdom, not from flowers, but thorns. Bulwer. When I find a man continually at variance with himself, it is with difficulty, that I hinder myself from smiling bitterly, thinking, that at the very moment in which he is searching for a comforta ble life, and supposing himself in possession of a harbour, the waves swallow him forever, and lies a miserable wreck. A young lady loses her mo ther : the silent pains of her heart, prevent the free course of her tears : at length she cries and laughs at the same time : and whilst mourning over the wretchedness of mortal life, we meet with a ma licious, conceited, and small minded woman, who, because you did not pay her the vile baseness of a courtier, the next time you have the politeness to pay her a visit, she will either not be at home, sick, or not able to return your kindness in consequence of the indisposition of her child : and though she goes to church, and believes nobody saved out of her creed, she will be very much pleased after such wickedness, and showing superiority towards her LORENZO AND OON ALASKA, 109 fellow creature. Do you know why 1 Her boast ed religion is not her ruling passion ; it is that of despotism. So, when nature spares us from pains, whilst we complain of the wretchedness of our life, we endeavor to torment each other. There is no reality on this little globe, and some times I desire its destruction by coming in contact with some other planets, perhaps worse than this, and bury in a moment our shameful race in which the most cunning triumph over the just. So Byron : " Some men are worms In soul more than the living things of tombs." I have too strong a conviction of the perfection of astronomy for believing a comet might destroy the fine order of it : but, when my imagination, and mankind s perversity exalt my mind, I think with some passages of the Bible, that God cannot be satisfied with our ill-nature. The spectacle of the destruction of this globe, must be a very agree able, and sublime moment for the virtuous man, who did not find but ingratitude : it is not the spir it of vengeance ; it is the pleasure of seeing the end of a planet, in which the best is very often doom ed to suffer under the paw of the most cunning animal. Yesterday I felt in my heart the nails of a falcon hovering over me, when my ears were pierced by the dying screams of an innocent bird under its talons. I hear great many complaining of the ingrati tude which man meets with man : but, if they ex amine their own conscience with equity, they .110 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. should find, that while they feel the blows they have received, forget the mortal ones they gave unjustly to their fellow creatures. We have no right to reprehend our injuries, unless our conduct towards others be unblemished. The slightest slip from morality is enough to create thousand disorders in society: and if we were not overruled by the benevolent, and provident nature, the ex ternal order of society would have no more allure ment for us. The most well disposed man if he is not an angel, by dint of finding himself the vic tim of his goodness, drinks with it a poison de caying his fine natural qualities ; so that, in an swering blow for blow, soon finds himself dragged to the level of the very scoundrels, whom at first he was so reluctant to be associated with. So the few aristocrats have their complaints because they cannot tyrannize the plurality : the latter by want of instruction, not being able to revenge their real sufferings, imitate the former upon those, who feel a second rank of inferiority, and so on, one spoil another until that the most abject class of men, by want of finding other inferior of them, when the last spark of moral becomes extinguish ed in their heart, finding themselves contemned by society, they finish always by giving themselves to crimes, for whom, lawyers have a good oppor tunity of demonstrating, that, if it happens to find briberies protecting the rascalities of the rich, at least they have laws always exact, and severe, in judging the rabble. So Shakspeare : "TheWor- ser allow d by order of law a furr d gown to keep LORENZO AND OONALASKA. Ill him warm ; and furr d with fox and lamb skins too, to signify, that craft, being richer than inno- cency, stands for the facing." In our present state of society, the man s existence is only a lottery. Society not only do not help the poor ; but, every individual turns the back to a man, who has noth ing in the world. Bugiardo has some bad goods to sell ; and if he does not gain money with it, he must perish : so, he will tell the lie to save him self on such only plank. How can we call soci ety a compound of bustling human creatures, leav ing the poor struggling with necessity, when in helping him, it would turn not only on his favour, but on the happiness of the whole commonwealth ? In a country like this, wanting population, we find suicides as frequent as in Europe. This country, Oonalaska, though, at my notion, is the most promising throughout the world, still she wants better administration. Yesterday, passing by Maiden-lane, seeing a track of blood crossing the street, I went to a crowd surrounding the dead body of a merchant, who cut his throat when he found himself failed in his business. For what reason Machiavelli the teacher of Buonaparte, has not the thousandth part of admi rers of his pupil, if it were not by having taken no advantage with depriving society of her rights, and turning it into his favour by the superiority of his mind? A musician becomes rich by the exertion of his art ; and people will not only prefer him to a philosopher, whose reason improves their own happiness ; but, their blind ignorance will force 112 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA* them to call such a philanthropist an exalted man> or a fool. Human praises spring from success, not from real intrinsic merit : and "I patimenti dei grandi uomini formano la felicita del genere umano." A day after another leads us where 1 Indeed I do not know : but, if we come on this earth only to kick and cuff each other, what kind of existence is ours, if not a pestiferous exalation of hell, leav ing, behind its paths, indelible traces of death I When we shall lie in the common abode of leth argy from whence we came to this life, our past, painful, or delightful existence will be alike for us : but, some in reality, and some by imagination, we may say, few have the fortune to call this earth an Eden. We are sociable creatures by selfishness : and still, what kind of sociability, if continually in guard one against another? Then silence, while it seems proceeding from a want of confidence, it is because we fear to lose our respectability in the sight of fellows always ready to take advan tage on the goodness, and innocent abandonment of another. If nature were giving us in a moment a sense bringing into light our secret thoughts, few w r ould stay in public without shame. However, sci ences and arts going on, whilst are purifing the human heart, are always clearing the clouds of ignorance, superstition, and hypocrisy, three evils leading mankind into such a hellish confusion, that man thinks foolishness to follow integrity. But, they may chain Prometheus on the top of LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 113 Caucasus, and leave him the prey of ravens ; they may forsake Columbus begging bread for his son ; cast Galileo into a dungeon, and leave Thomas Paine dying on the straw : but, people will always learn, that Jupiter was a tyrant, the Scripture s writers less mathematicians than Columbus, that the earth turns around the sun, and Paine a true citizen. The love of ourselves being a natural instinct for our conservation, it should be the mover of all fine actions, if it were based on true principles of society. But, it is painful for those, who, knowing the source of inexhausted pleasures, that the hu man compact might possess, see at the same time the impossibility to reach it among flocks of igno- rants. Improvements rose but with our reason ; and our interest turns on our loss, when it is not bound with the happiness of the whole mankind. This common interest is what wise men call love of true glory. Though our social improvements are too slow for the suffering virtue, still, we are always going a step towards perfection. From the fall of a na tion, another learns, and becomes wiser : this falls, the other rises : but, history stands there a monu ment of light which is only offending the sight of owls, and bats. It will come the day in which ev ery man finding his own interest on the way of in tegrity, the selfish eloquence of rascals will be scorned, and trampled by an enlightened people. It is with sorrow of mind I find among Americans too much anxiety of money. If this wise govern- 15 114 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. ment were encouraging superior men on every side of the United States to deliver public lectures on history, showing to the people the evil of the times which are past, America would become the pole- star of a true Republic. All she wants now, it is instruction. Who would have believed, before the invention of vessels, that man would have sailed around the globe 1 And now, who would believe our age or posterity will find the means of swimming in the air ? Till now the attempts of going against the wind have failed : but, if I were a mechanic, I would construe a balloon in the shape of a fish ; and by means of a machine, I would move the fins in several directions. It seems to me it would not be difficult to swim against the airy element as the fishes do against the most rapid waterfalls. Yes, you are right, Oonalaska ; in private life, very seldom a man can judge another, our feelings being so disparate as the sound of human voices: still, if every sensible man were obliged to answer at every displeasure he meets in society, he should be obliged to use very often the sword, or pistol. We are always in contradiction by want of under standing. Once, I was praising with Catholics the virtue of Brutus when he supported with heroism the death of his sons : and such Christians, who could not comprehend, and thought unnatural a father condemning his children to death, sustain ed with all their energy that hereafter we might see in hell our father, mother, sons, and wife with out the least pain, if God have condemned them. LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 115 I find in the Alcoran the same stoicism. " O croy- ans ! cessez d aimervos peres, vos freres s ilspre- ferent 1 incredulite a la fois. Si vous les aimez, vous deviendrez pervers. Si vos peres, vos en- fans, vos freres, vos epouses, vos parens, les rich- esses que vous avez acquises, le commerce dont vous craignez la ruine, vos habitations cheries ont plus d empire sur vos coeurs que Dieu, son en- voye, et la guerre sainte, attendez le judgement du Tres-Haut." P. S. Bran my only, and faithful companion of my misfortune is so much attached to me, that I find no language apt to explain this dog s feel ing. Whilst I write this letter, his head is on my knees. The sagacity of this animal is beyond comprehension. I heard always this dog growl ing every time a man, whom I thought honest, came in my room ; I heard afterwards he is a swindler, and cheated me out of twenty dollars. I went to pay a visit to the tomb of my friend C I put a wreath of perpetual flowers on his modest cross, bearing his name, and made a little garden on the small piece of ground covering his remain. But, whilst I was engaged in such a pi ous ceremony, my eyes did neither contemplate the immense void of the skies, nor I did think of my infancy s feeble prayers. His lively existence is gone like a river, which receives motion by dash ing against rocks on a declivity. Enjoyments, and sorrows were the rocks which gave him existence, until he found in the vale of death a monotonous silence. 116 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. Yes, Oonalaska, Ada was not only beautiful ; but, the qualities of her mind were such, that you would have found in her a sincere friend. Far from being, as often we see silly girls, full of pre sumption, always pleased whenever they can show before the object of their thoughts, that their re ligion does not go so far as to correct their uncivil carelessness towards the politeness of a friendless gentleman. Her disposition was retiring, and con ciliatory. In her whole life she never committed intentionally a single unkind deed, or thought to wards her fellow being. When, by distraction, Ada believed she had not reciprocated the atten tions of those around her, she was thoughtful, and mortified ; but reconciliation immediately illumin ed her divine countenance with joy, and gratifica tion. One day, Ada, Charles, and myself having proposed to go on the top of a mountain, not far from her father s house, Charles finding Ada on the out door, offered her his arm. Though she wanted to be with me, her gentility did not permit her to refuse the mere politeness of Charles. On reaching the top of the mountain, we found a Chapel surrounded of tombs, and under the altar, the grave of her younger sister, which she drew my attention to, with tears rolling down her cheeks. She kneeled down, and prayed so fervently, that I was prompted to do the same. On rising, she took my hand, and led me silently to the ground fresh moved, in which lay one of my friends, a few days before deceased, over which our aspirations commingled!.... And now, where is Ada! In LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 117 the grave with her sister ! Few know that sacred place, and perhaps nobody has now a friendly re collection of Ada. I passed one night on her cold tombstone ; and I felt her spirit hovering a- round me, and caressing my forehead. I heard the angelic sound of her voice ; and told in my ear, that I would have been unhappy all my life, because I dare to speak truth among men unable of understanding me. Never mind, Oonalaska, now that the sufferings became my element, as I think with the following lines of Chateaubriand, let the prophecy of Ada be fulfilled : " Mais qu irn- portent la mort, et les revers, si notre nom, pro- nonce dans la posterite, va faire battre un coeur genereux deux mille ans apres notre vie?" You are one of those angels, Oonalaska, that God sends from time to time to teach us we are sons of heaven. All professors of Divinity may say every thing they will on the wickedness of mankind : but, around the worthy, I breathe an embalmed air which opens my heart, and then I am not ashamed to be a man. LORENZO. TO CHARLES. New- York. Non nihil aspersis gaudet amor lacrymis. All fine qualities were united in her. She was reading on a chair near the window, from which is seen the fine prospect of a chain of mountains loosing itself in the clouds, and at the right, un- 118 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. dulating hills, which, decreasing with the distance, terminate in a vast plain, the ending of which, is the shore of an interminable sea. Her hair was veiling her dazzling countenance ; and the tears dropping from her large eyes, were like the morn ing dews on the queen of flowers. O, why did I not breathe that sweet sigh which embalmed the air with heavenly fragrance ? And to whom was directed her sigh !...Her heart is formed to feel for sufferers. I shall recollect all my life w r hen she spoke with those, who were detracting the charac ter of poor Henry, her words sound yet in rny heart. " Genius is banished," she said, " where luxury is introduced ; and love is a chimera where merit is not appreciated. By a certain impulse, natural to us, we join house to house : but selfish ness makes divisions between us. Man lives with man, not by having his character assimilated to his own ; but, because fortune permitted him to have the same quantity of servants. Look on the peo ple of Geneva, whilst they call themselves repub licans, they are not ashamed to repeat the aristo- cratical phrase: Gens du haut. Every body endeavours to obtain the rich man s friendship for no other motive than that of having his consider ation, which, as they believe, it may turn in favour of their increasing property : but, they do not think they are gathering flowers on a precipice, instead of taking them on an even meadow." Angel of rny suffering heart, excuse if I tremble for thy vir tue ; but, how can I be calm, whilst thy boat is passing between Scylla, and Charybdis ? LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 119 harles, when I think on thy friendship, on the pure love of Oonalaska, and the tender affection of my family, no, I cannot be unhappy. The morn ing walk with Oonalaska near Lausanne, is always in my imagination. Leaving our company behind, we reached the top of the hill; She was leaning on my arm sha ded with her hair, which like a black veil hanged loosened on her shoulders : her left hand was in mine ; and silently waiting the rising sun, her large eyes were steadily fixed on the morning star. My God, if the enjoyments of blissful regions are not like the pleasure I felt in her lovely tears, let rne live a single year in the rapturous delight of her love, and I renounce forever to the heavenly im mortality of my soul. After so great a favour, shall I ask of thee an endless happiness? When ever I think of her I feel this life of cares, difficul ties, and adversities, changed into a delightful Eden ; and every thing smiling around me. How, Almighty, without Oonalaska would I be able to admire thy greatness, and worship thy glory I She is the image of thy Divinity. In her, I feel the love of my God ; and when forlorn I think to the solita ry place, now consecrated with her tears, I often find myself involuntarily on my knees adoring the Creator. When I feel in my dreams her rosy lips pressing my mouth, suddenly it awakes me, and I feel the existence of a God. LORENZO. From the above letters with some unconnected thoughts of our hero, we argue, that, though he 120 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. avoid to speak of himself, his life having been tossed by great many misfortunes it would afford great interest if related. He migrated almost around the world ; and when he heard Mr. Ethel- bert s family went to England, he returned to Switzerland among his old acquaintances. He used to board in a house, where the pretty daughter of the landlady when had either said Wal ter Scott, Byron, Madam Cottin, or Destael are fine writers, she thought it was enough to show the acuteness of her intellect : and whilst every body ad mired the volubility of her tongue in praising such, and such preacher, she did never lose the opportu nity of presenting Lorenzo, when absent, with man ners injuring his reputation,because,when Lorenzo was at the dinner table, he was sometimes so much abstracted, that he forgot all petty attentions which a gentleman is often compel to use. Her mother s conversation would have tired the most benevolent hearer with her incessant praises about her daugh ter : a fop, who believed all ladies were in love with his pretty long person, and ten thousand li- vres a year ; and a widower, who wanting to get a young wife to give instruction to his large daugh ters, whose discourse, when his sweet-heart was present, rolled on his bravery, and his ability of shooting a fox at the distance of two hundred yards, were all the boarders, besides Lorenzo, of that fashionable house. But, as our hero was si lent, and thoughtful, he did not mind such self con ceited creatures sneering on his back. One of the most uncharitable sin of human so ciety, it will always be the pleasure of the envious LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. 121 disregarding the absent. The superiority of Lo renzo was such, that persons of small education could put no price on his fine qualities : and, though they could not deny his superiority when he was present, in the long course of his absence, seve ral malevolent creatures prevailed in such a man ner against him, that in arriving thither, even great many of his friends received him with coolness, and indifference. One evening Lorenzo bein in a large circle of ladies, and gentlemen, Mr Hugo, the very one, as we have related, whom was knocked down by our hero when they were school boys, was speaking of Mr Ethelbert, as an Englishman unworthy his country by having sentiments against liberty. Lo renzo, who was speaking with a young lady, inti mate friend of Oohalaska, hearing to disregard her father, could not forbear from remarking to the detractor, that what seemed to Mr Hugo de serving reprobation, would perhaps be for Mr Ethelbert the most meritorious, and good intention towards his country. " You would not defend Mr Ethelbert, sir, if you were not in love with his daughter." "Your answer, sir, deserves to be reproved, since, suppose I love Miss Oohalaska, it is not your inspection to publish it. But, if I defend Mr Eth elbert, it might: be either for the love of his daugh ter, or for the propensity of defending an absent gentleman." " You speak like a brave man, Mr Lorenzo ; but, we know very well, that if you were so, when we 16 122 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. were boys, your character has changed great deal in your manhood." " It is, perhaps, such a conviction which gives you boldness. Did }ou ever read Spurzheim 1 " " Yes, sir ; but, though your skull announces a man of genius,! would not stick for your courage." " It is the first time, sir, I hear praising my skull. But, in answer to your doubting of my courage, I would say, it is a hard matter to judge one s cour age. I do not know if the theory of Spurzheim is a good one to judge human character : but, what ever it may be, I find in his books many things de serving the attention of those, who want study human nature. He says, there are different com binations of causes, which form the character of man : for instance, we cannot say that man is wanting courage, because in many an occasion he acted with prudence. The protuberance indica ting courage being larger than any body else : but, that of benevolence being superior, he will always check his self-esteem, when he finds himself on the way of being a murderer." " Your language is that of a coward defending his pusillanimity : but, since your benevolence checks your self-esteem, I may say, without dan ger, before these ladies, and gentlemen, that Mr Ethelbert is a scoundrel, as well as any body wish ing to protect him." " Whilst you name ladies, and gentlemen, sir, you bring to my recollection that, as I am before a respectable company, I cannot use your mean expressions." LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 1 28 Lorenzo withdrew ; and on the next morning the following letter was sent : TO HUGO. Geneva. I have marked a brave spirit succeed in buffeting its way out of its adversities ; and I have seen as brave a one overcome by them, and falling vanquished, even with the sword of resolution gleaming in its grasp ; for there are combinations of evil against which no human energies can make a stand. The Diary of a late Physician. If it were not my duty to defend an absent friend of mine, who would not pass an insult unrevenged, your conduct being contemptible, for my own part, I think it deserves not my resentment. You are under obligation to retract your slander, and ac knowledge before the same society, that MrEth- elbert is a gentleman of respect, and esteem, oth erwise you know very well, that your language of yesterday evening deserves no benevolence to wards you. LORENZO- TO LORENZO. Geneva. To-morrow morning at 6 o clock I am at Fer- ney s tavern to your invitation with a brace of pis tols, which we must discharge at the distance of pocket handkerchief. HUGO. 124 LOKENZO AND OONALASKA. TO LORENZO. Geneva. Yesterday evening I wanted to leave the socie ty with you : but, I thought proper to stay, and pre vent any further slander. Robinson, the Ameri can gentleman, spoke a long time in your favour, and said, nobody would call Lorenzo a coward, if he had seen you as he did, when you jumped in the middle of New-York s bay to rescue a boy, who fell in the water, and bring him with difficulty on the shore. To-day I heard great many reproaching the be haviour of Hugo : he could not find here a single person willing to be his stickler. The whole town turned him the back. GARNERI. TO CHARLES. Geneva. Hearing you are in Saint-Etienne, I hurry you this letter. I am dragged to a duel with Hugo, and want you in Ferney to-morrow morning at 6 o clock. LORENZO. Charles received the letter of his friend in the evening, mounted immediately his horse, and went to Geneva. In reaching the house, he asked the landlady information of Lorenzo. " He is just gone to bed, said she : the servant told me he wrote letters all the evening." LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. 125 Charles went to his bed-room ; and finding his friend in a quiet slumber, sat next his bed, and signed the servant to go without noise. At day-break the carriages through the streets, awaked our hero, who found his dear Charles by him. "Charles, how long since are you here 1" At his voice, Charles embraced Lorenzo with out uttering a syllable. " Have you any news of my sisters,and brothers, Charles ]" "Yes, they are all well." "God bless them. When I shall be no more, give them those letters I left on that table. See from the window what kind of weather is it." "It is very damp." " What hour is it !" " Five o clock." " Let us go out. Did you come on horseback 1" "Yes." "Well, Charles, let us ride to Ferney." In a moment they got on their horses : and be fore reaching Coutance, they stopped a little on the bridge. " Before this blue water, Charles, will have reached Bellegarde, where loses itself under the rocks for some while, I shall have ceased thinking of Oonalaska, and the hope at once of seeing her again. Death should be nothing for me, if she were not in this side of the grave." " That scoundrel ought to fight with me before. When we were boys he would have beat me to 126 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. death without your interference. Besides, Ethel- bert not only is one of my countrymen ; but, he was a friend of mine before you were acquainted with him." "I would not have called you, if your intention is to broil yourself with my antagonist. If you do not promise me your coolness, and after my death to renounce any hatred against him, let me go alone. "But, Lorenzo!" " No, Charles, I insist. I would die unhappy if you do not promise me to take no revenge after me." " Well, I shall not displease you !" They were now out of the gate of the city, and Lorenzo indicating Les Paquis, " There, said he to his friend, Oonalaska gave me this ring. When they will bury me, let nobody take it off from my finger. It is the promise of our unfortunate love. You will find Bran chained in the stable : it is a present of Oonalaska to me, which now I make a present to you, Charles : he is one of the largest dogs I have seen. I thought proper not to take him with us, because if he sees me falling on the ground, he would eat my antago nist." They reached Ferney ; and did not stay a quar ter of an hour in the tavern, when Hugo with a certain Holland came in ; and without uttering a word to Lorenzo, or Charles, Hugo swallowed up a full glass of pure brandy which, as it seemed, was not the first he had drunk in that awful morn- LORENZO AND OONALASKA. 127 ing. Holland in going out with Hugo, told their antagonists they were going in the wood. " Will you take any stimulant, Lorenzo 1" " No, my dear." "Though I do believe that wretch is tired of his life, I saw in a corner of his eyes, that he does not face death as he pretended : and, I do opine, if he were not drunk, he would retract." They followed their antagonists. It was quite a sublime, and awful moment in seeing the heart- aching pains of Charles graved on his manly, and noble countenance, whilst the smooth, calm, firm, and cheerful Lorenzo was endeavouring to cheer his friend with his sound reason. In seeing the interest of those two noble friends they had for each other, you would have thought it was Charles, who was going to death ; not Lorenzo. It is always on the brink of danger, that a great man shows the sublimity of his mind. At first he is careful, and prudent : but, when the step is done, he stands like a rock. In reaching their adversaries, Charles said to Holland, that he was not come into such a place to be a spectator of a decided murder, and wanted to put them at the distance of chance. " No, sir, uttered Hugo with the accent of a drunkard : the only chance is the snapping of the pistols. But I took all precautions to prevent it." " Charles, said Lorenzo, do recollect your promise." The mouths of their pistols were almost touch ing the breast of each other. A striking contrast was in the faces of the two antagonists : terror, 128 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. hatred, and despair was printed in that of Hugo ; whilst in Lorenzo s it w r as a heavenly serenity of pure conscience ; he looked like an Angel fighting with Satan. At the command of three, the only pistol of Hugo was fired : and Lorenzo still hold ing his cocked pistol in his hand, fell in the arms of Charles. u Charles, prevent the news of my death to be referred to Oonalaska If, in spite of your friend ly interference, it will reach her ear, tell her, that in dying by such a death, contrary to her, and my principles, I did never have the less sentiment to murder my adversary, and that I want no other blessing but her forgiveness. Farewell, dear Charles !" His pistol dropped ; and, in shaking the hand of his friend, he expired with a smile on his lips, Among the letters he wrote the evening before, we shall produce the following, which Charles sent to Hugo. TO CHARLES. Geneva. I thought it was a sad life, when we must be always obliged to be killing our fellow-creatures to preserve ourselves; and indeed, I think so still, and I would even now, suffer a great deal, rather than I would take away the life even of the worst person injuring me. I believe, also, all considering people, who know the value of life, would be of my opinion, if they entered seriously into the consideration of it. Daniel DQ Foe. Whilst you read this letter, the world has no more allurements for me : and the fire of the il lustrious geniuses, and philosophers can warm my LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. 129 heart no more. I leave on this earth an object, which the whole world is nothing in comparison ; an Angel; my Love; Oonalaska behind me! But, if I do not follow the plurality s sentiment, I should be considered a coward ; and then, what kind of existence would be mine, I, whom am de pendant from society I Indeed, it is very wrong to judge the courage of a man with so an unrea sonable, and bad action. Dear Charles, I disap prove what society compels me to do. But I have nothing, nothing on earth now but my ho nour !... He slandered the father of Oonalaska.... Well ; since my moral defends me to be a mur derer, you will find my pistol loaded, by me : he is a wretch ; but, he has a family ; he must live for her sake. If we have another existence after this miserable one, and my example can touch his conscience, by leaving him time to become bet ter, it might be still a place in heaven fof him. If you wish bless my grave on this strange coun try, do not revenge the blood of your friend LORENZO ! TO CHARLES Geneva. II n y a point de hainc qu on ne desarme a force de douceur, et de bons precedes ; au lieu qu au contraire la haine des me- chans ne fait que s animer davftntage par rimpossibilite de trouver sur quoi la fonder. /. /. Rousseau. The magnanimity of Lorenzo, sir, touches me in so a delicate part of my heart, that I should be the most wretched creature on earth, if I do not 17 130 LORENZO AND OON ALASKA. confess to all the world a crime which is buried in my bosom. As you were the most intimate friend of Lorenzo, it is useless to tell you, sir, that I have killed the most virtuous young man : still, you do not know all the deeds of Lorenzo ! I would not finish, if I were to relate you, the heroic actions of Lorenzo at my only notice : and though I accused my worthy countryman of cow ardice, as I did see him in Italy to behave himself like a hero in the most difficult occasions, I did never have the less sensation of doubting his bra very. But, since I deprived society of so useful a member, my confession, will stop, at least, so many badly grounded braveries of duel. Though, sir, I was challenged by Lorenzo, it is I, who drove so an honourable young man to such an excess. I loved Oonalaska ; and finding my self refused, and her father not receiving my vi sits, at first I projected to kill Mr Ethelbert, and myself: but, thinking that so unnatural death would have stained, in the mind of the people, my recollection with horrour, and detestation, I forc ed my rival Lorenzo to deliver me from a life which became every day most insupportable to me. God has punished me in sparing my miser able existence. But, if it will be given me to imi tate a single virtue of Lorenzo, I will exert the greatest penance of my remaining days. HUGO. Charles after having put in order every thing of his friend, went back to Italy, and induced the LORENZO AND OONALASRA. 181 brothers, and sisters of Lorenzo to settle in Eng land. In reaching Calais, not being able to find Bran, Charles announced a high premium for any one, who would have brought his dog saved to him. After two months, Bran was found dead on the tomb-stone of Lorenzo, with a piece of his strong chain around his neck. By order of Charles, he was buried by Lorenzo s grave. E quelle parole frizzavano sull anima della poveretta, come lo scorrere d una mano ruvida sur una ferita. Manzoni. All friendly attentions of Charles, could not prevent the terrible new from the ears of Oona- laska. For several days she could neither speak, eat, sleep, nor cry : her situation was the most dreadful. At length, she burst into laughing, and crying at a time : and after a year of silent sad ness, and consumption we shall transcribe her last following words. " O, my father, my father, Lorenzo died for you ! Don t you see yonder] O, take away that bloody man ! He is covered with the blood of Lorenzo. Mother, this world is a very wretched one ! Lo renzo, in a few minutes, I am with you. Beyond that star, Lorenzo, no father has right to prevent me from being with you ; beyond that star, no slanderer will be able to stain your reputation : the depravity, malignity, and envy of this human race is to be washed out : your integrity, your vir tue, Lorenzo, will not only appear to the eyes of your Oonalaska ; there, every one will see the ex cellence of your soul. Father, mother, don t you 132 LORENZO AND OONALASKA. that man dressed in black ? His soul is black as his gown ! He has endeavoured to stain the rep utation of Lorenzo, whilst he called himself a mini ster of Christ. Father, if I spoke any unkind word to you, do, forgive your wretched child. Mother, you did never give me the less displeasure through whole my life. Father, mother, fare you well : don t cry for your only child ! I am flying into the arms of Lorenzo: don t you see 1 He opens his arms to receive me ! Do not cry ! The affec tion of Lorenzo is that of a father, mother, bro ther, sister ; he did never deceive me ; he has al ways been kind to me ; he is my best friend, my love." She expired in the arms of her father, and mo ther, who seemed dying with her. 924447 THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY