"Nor doubt the facts, for I can witness call

"For every crime, and prove them one and all."
Here ceased th' informer; Arabella's look
Was like a school-boy's puzzled by his book ;
Intent she cast her eyes upon the floor,

Paused-then replied

"I wish to know no more:

"I question not your motive, zeal, or love, "But must decline such dubious points to prove― "All is not true, I judge, for who can guess "Those deeds of darkness men with care suppress? "He brought a slave perhaps to England's coast, "And made her free; it is our country's boast! "And she perchance too grateful-good and ill "Were sown at first, and grow together still; "The colour'd infants on the village-green, "What are they more than we have often seen? "Children half-clothed who round their village stray, "In sun or rain, now starved, now beaten, they "Will the dark colour of their fate betray: "Let us in Christian love for all account,

"And then behold to what such tales amount."

66

"His heart is evil," said th' impatient friend :

My duty bids me try that heart to mend," Replied the virgin-" We may be too nice, "And lose a soul in our contempt of vice;

VOL. III.

"If false the charge, I then shall show regard
"For a good man, and be his just reward:
"And what for virtue can I better do
"Than to reclaim him, if the charge be true?"

She spoke, nor more her holy work delay'd;
'Twas time to lend an erring mortal aid :
"The noblest way," she judged, " a soul to win,
"Was with an act of kindness to begin,

"To make the sinner sure, and then t'attack the sin*."

* As the author's purpose in this Tale may be mistaken, he wishes to observe, that conduct like that of the lady's here described must be meritorious or censurable just as the motives to it are pure or selfish; that these motives may in a great measure be concealed from the mind of the agent; and that we often take credit to our virtue for actions which spring originally from our tempers, inclinations, or our indifference. It cannot therefore be improper, much less immoral, to give an instance of such self-deception.

TALE X.

THE LOVER'S JOURNEY.

The sun is in the heavens, and the proud day,
Attended with the pleasures of the world,

Is all too wanton.

King John, Act III. Scene 3.

The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,

Are of imagination all compact.

Midsummer Night's Dream.

Oh! how the spring of love resembleth
Th' uncertain glory of an April day,
Which now shows all her beauty to the sun,
And by and by a cloud bears all away.

And happily I have arrived at last

Unto the wished haven of my bliss.

Taming of the Shrew, Act V. Scene 1.

"

TALE X.

THE LOVER'S JOURNEY.

It is the soul that sees; the outward eyes
Present the object, but the mind descries;

And thence delight, disgust, or cool indiffärence rise:
When minds are joyful, then we look around,

And what is seen is all on fairy ground;

Again they sicken, and on every view
Cast their own dull and melancholy hue;
Or, if absorb'd by their peculiar cares,
The vacant eye on viewless matter glares,
Our feelings still upon our views attend,
And their own natures to the objects lend;
Sorrow and joy are in their influence sure,
Long as the passion reigns th' effects endure;
But love in minds his various changes makes,
And clothes each object with the change he takes;
His light and shade on every view he throws,
And on each object, what he feels, bestows.

Fair was the morning, and the month was June, When rose a lover; love awakens soon;