All that is man within me, to disdain Selim. What is the signal of the appointed hour ? meeting; And when the second watch of night is rung, Selim. Speed, speed, ye minutes! Now let the rising whirlwind shake Algiers, And justice guide the storm! Scarce two hours Sadi. All, all is hushed. Throughout the empty streets, Nor voice, nor sound. As if the inhabitants, Like the presaging herds, that seek the covert Ere the loud thunder rolls, had inly felt And shunned the impending uproar. Oth. There is a solemn horror in the night, too, That pleases me: a general pause through nature: The winds are hushed Sadi. And, as I passed the beach, The lazy billow scarce could lash the shore: No star peeps through the firmament of heavenSelim. And, lo! where eastward, o'er the sullen : wave The waning moon, deprived of half her orb, That tolling bell ? Oth. It rings the midnight watch. [Bell tolls. Come, Othman, we are called: the passing minutes Chide our delay; brave Othman, let us hence. Selim. One last embrace!-nor doubt, but, crowned with glory, We soon shall meet again. But, oh, remember, Oth. So may we prosper, As mercy shall direct us! Selim. Farewell, friends! VOL. V. [Exeunt Отн. and SADI. G SELIM'S SOLILOQUY BEFORE THE INSURRECTION. Selim. Now sleep and silence Brood o'er the city. -The devoted centinel Now takes his lonely stand; and idly dreams Of that to-morrow he shall never see! In this dread interval, O busy thought, From outward things descend into thyself! Search deep my heart! bring with thee awful con science, And firm resolve! that, in the approaching hour That dares not meet its foe. - Detested thought! 13 MICHAEL BRUCE. BORN 1746.-DIED 1767. MICHAEL BRUCE was born in the parish of Kinnes wood, in Kinross-shire, Scotland. His father was by trade a weaver, who out of his scanty earnings had the merit of affording his son an education at the grammar-school of Kinross, and at the university of Edinburgh. Michael was delicate from his childhood, but shewed an early disposition for study, and a turn for poetry, which was encouraged by some of his neighbours lending him a few of the most popular English poets. The humblest individuals who have befriended genius deserve to be gratefully mentioned. The first encouragers to whom Bruce shewed his poetical productions were a Mr. Arnot, a farmer on the banks of Lochleven, and one David Pearson, whose occupation is not described. In his sixteenth year he went to the university of Edinburgh, where after the usual course of attendance, he entered on the study of divinity, intending, probably, to be a preacher in the Burgher sect of dissenters, to whom his parents belonged. Between the latter sessions, which he attended at college, he taught a small school at Gairney Bridge, in the neighbourhood of his native place, and afterwards at Forest-Hill, near Allan, in Clackmannanshire. This is nearly the whole of his sad and short history. At the latter G2 place he was seized with a deep consumption, the progress of which in his constitution had always inclined him to melancholy. Under the toils of a day and evening school, and without the comforts that might have mitigated disease, he mentions his situation to a friend in a touching but resigned manner-" I had expected," he says, " to be happy here, but my sanguine hopes are the reason of my disappointment." He had cherished sanguine hopes of happiness, poor youth! in his little village-school; but he seems to have been ill encouraged by his employers, and complains that he had no company, but what was worse than solitude. "I believe," he adds, " if I had not a lively imagination I should fall into a state of stupidity or delirium." He was now composing his poem on Lochleven, in which he describes himself, " Amid unfertile wilds, recording thus During the winter he quitted his school, and returning to his father's house, lingered on for a few months till he expired, in his twenty-first year. During the spring he wrote an elegy on the prospect of his own dissolution, a most interesting relic of his amiable feelings and fortitude. |