who lived in disguise, and had gained the reputation of a sorcerer, was employed by Ordonio for this very purpose. Alvar, however, so arranged his wizard plans, as to discover to Valdez and Teresa in the presence of Ordonio, that he had fallen by the hand of an assassin, and had not perished in a storm. Ordonio's veracity, thus called in question, together with his incautious agitation create suspicions. He precipitately leaves them, suspecting Issidore as the author of this contrivance, and that he had revealed his secret to the sorcerer. Alvar is immediately hastened to a dungeon by the familiars of the inquisition for 'foul sorcery,' and Ordonio invites Issidore to a cave, claiming his protection against the arm of danger. Ordonio there murders Issidore, and thence proceeds to the dungeon with a view of despatching the sorcerer, and thus to rid himself of those to whom alone his secret was known.

Teresa had gained admittance into the dungeon a few minutes before Ordonio's entrance. Alvar discovers himself to Teresa, and a most tender and affecting interview ensues. On Ordonio's appearance Teresa secretes herself. Here a deep feeling colloquy follows between these brothers, and at the instant as Ordonio raises his dagger to the sorcerer's breast, Teresa rushes out, 'Ordonio! tis thy brother.' Here the catastrophe commences. Horror, anguish of mind, and remorse, in full array, present themself to the distressed, tortured Ordonio. Self murder is hailed as the only relief; but the foul deed was prevented by the generous and

amiable Alvar, who yet loved his brother, and would have saved his life and 'honour,' had not at this moment the distracted Ahadra, the wife of the murdered Issidore, rushed in and stabbed Ordonio. Here the curtain drops, leaving us under the pleasing prospect of Alvar's union with Teresa, and their becoming the solace and comfort of their aged father.

Alvar's uniformly amiable character, his forgiveness of the many wrongs he had sustained from his brother, and his tender and honourable feelings in the highly interesting scene with him in the dungeon, is contrasted, with a master hand, with the malignity and vice of Ordonio. Alvar is restored to Teresa and happiness, at the moment in which Ordonio meets that fate which even in this world very generally attends those who stray far into the very paths of vice.

'Hence learn what blessings wait on virtuous deeds,
And though a late, a sure reward succeeds.'

NOTE XXI.-THE ADVANTAGES OF IMPUDENCE.

THE lives of some men, from youth to old age, illustrate so forcibly the advantages of Impudence, that I am disposed, with Menander, to rank it among the greatest of deities; and, from my inner soul to lament that I have ever blushed, and that nature had not given me even more than the as frontis triplex. Moreover, when I do remember that Holy Writ hath declared 'the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,' I naturally

inquire, what is left, then, but sure success to the impudent? and the chronicles of all past time, as well as my own reason, do respond-'thou hast said it.' Nay, it seemeth to me as if 'twere a golden law of nature, not only that he who buries his talent shall languish in obscurity, but also, that he who fails impudently and importunately to blazon forth all that he hath, and more, and to usher into broad day light, with every meretricious garniture, his very all, is surely destined to pass down the stream of time, as worthless rubbish; and, in the great abyss of eternal forgetfulness to remain, a poor martyr to the purest of nature's products-modesty!

Be, then, my theme the proud advantages, the radiant glories of unalloyed, disembodied, prolific Impudence of that callous sort which hath its seat deep in the soul, which forms part of our inmost nature, takes but its light complexion from adventitious causes, is ever harmonious with itself, and which triumphs equally over circumstances, and the would-be shadowing influences of superior minds!

Some do, indeed, gain many a point by modesty, clad in Impudence's habiliments; but I sing of that mysterious influence which nature doth to some impart, and which commands success, appa rently, sine assentatione, sine blanditiis, sine dicacitate, sine audacia ferrea frontis; and this, the highest order of its attributes, points it out as the only kind of Impudence the prince of Greek comedies would have ranked among the greater deities!

The inferior sorts of Impudence, though admirable in their kind, and truly useful in their way, need too much of industrious cultivation, and of man's feeble art, to claim omnipotence: but, where nature hath truly laid deep her brazen foundations, and thereon hath been raised a goodly superstructure, the result of long experience in the art, the castle of Impudence thus raised, becometh impregnableall arms are silenced, and the lord thereof hath crowds of suppliant worshippers, who grant unto him freely, in the ratio of the enormity of his demands!

For who, let me ask, accordeth any thing to mere anticipators, nay, even to diffident askers? And, on the other hand, who so bold as to refuse something at least, to the importunate demands of the daringly impudent ?-very few, I ween; for all experience teacheth that the multitude pileth blessings and honours upon the adventurous, the fortunate, and the self-adulating, as Pelion upon Ossa, and Ossa upon Pelion; and that the crowd doth love to exaggerate the successes of such, quite as much as these hardy-faced personages do love to loom so largely! It is so, and yet even more than this, for, some of the most renowned charlatans the world hath ever known, were made so, partly by the flattery of the plebs. The noble distinction of being essentially and ex natura impudent, belongeth only to a blessed few; and when to this be added their own industry in this line, and the hosannas of the multitude, so sure to follow, they

then do truly become Menander's deities, and the most brilliant among fortune's favourites.

There are, indeed, instances where modest merit hath become a favoured child of Impudence, vaunting as loud as any, after it hath made some happy hit, and for which it hath been long and inordinately praised-but genuine, lordly Impudence is that which starts into life full grown, and with brazen armour, regardless of teachings and trainings, reposes on nature's high endowments; and, with magic skill, embalms all flatteries, and annihilates all frowns!

When I take a retrospect of the chronicles of Impudence in all ages, nations, tribes, families, and individuals, and find how much it hath been mentally idolized by them all, I am lost in wonder that' temples and altars have not been openly raised to it, and that no avowed god hath therein presided,for, when poets, and others have spoken of it as a great deity, they simply meant that it well deserved so to be regarded. In more modern ages, and in our own day, the triumphs of Impudence were, and are, equally signal, as may be seen in the marvellous history of the necromancers, of the astrologers, alchemists, empyrics, panaceavenders, and in the golden accumulations of those whose trifles have been grandiloquently puffed; and lastly, in the contrasted neglect and poverty of those whose great inventions change the face of nature, annihilate time and space, convert mere operatives into philosophical thinkers, cause the desert to bloom, and which are fast elevating