fore only delude themselves, who, instead of an humble and due deportment, assume haughtiness and arrogance. As to the influence of blood, or the qualities inherent from descent, though they are not to be insisted upon as infallible, yet they are not to be treated as really chimerical by any candid or rational person. The advocates for this say, it is so very apparent, even in animals, that they wonder any one will dispute it and many are the arguments made use of, which are admitted or disputed, as they tally with the principles or prejudices of the persons contending; but that which seems at once to surmount every objection that can be made, is, that we seldom fail to see the infirmities and maladies of human nature entailed on posterity. Madness, chronical diseases, violent and inordinate passions, and the various evils of interperance,are usually transmitted from the parent to his offspring; why then may we not from hence presume to infer, that many valuable and amiable endowments are as often derived from birth? An inherent generosity and benevolence have been the distinguishing characteristics of some families, and various other virtues of others. Children often more resemble their parents in manners and conduct, than in the external similitude of their persons. This has been observed in orphans and posthumous issue, where neither paternal example nor precept could have been the immediate cause of it. Certain it is, that, as there are no general rules without exceptions, so there are many men, who, without the advantages of birth, are possessed of the most valuable qualifications: and, on the contrary, there are many of a distinguished rank, of the most profligate and odious dispositions; but these last are of an unthinking, inconsiderate kind, who, by being immerged in a continual succession of sensual gratifications, never suffer themselves to reflect at all, or trouble themselves about those which have gone before, or shall come after them. But where persons have been observed to be filled with a just and due veneration for the virtues of their predecessors, I believe they have seldom been known very glaringly to deviate therefrom; but to imitate, if not improve upon them, has been a plan they have continnally kept in view; nay, I am persuaded, that next to religion, nothing has so strongly actuated thinking men, nor indeed produced so many good and brave men, as their being inspired with a desire of keeping up to the example of their forefathers. Such a spirit, therefore. (however visionary its basis) it is nationally requisite should be cherished. And many are of the opinion, it would be more consonant to the epithet our modern lucubratists assume, of being publicly beneficial, if they were properly to inculcate and enforce it, instead of advancing any thing derogatory thereto. HUGH. INTERESTING STORY. THE want of one sense is generally said to sharpen the others: such a deficiency may, perhaps, sometimes also render the heart more susceptible, or the feelings more acute; of which the following interesting story is related in Dr. Neale's Travels through Germany, Poland, Moldavia, and Turkey; the writer is speaking of Berlin: "I had almost forgotten to mention a small establishment for deaf and dumb children, on the plan recommended by the Abbes Sicard and De l'Epee, at Paris. The pupils here generally amount to 15 or 20. They are instructed in reading, writing, arithmetic, geography and drawing. The establishment was founded, as I believe, during the reign of the late King, and the Countess Lichtenau has left us a most interesting anecdote of a young man who was here educated. A Protestant Minister at Anspach, named Hoffmann, had nine children, and six of whom were deaf and dumb. But one, whom nature had not treated with so much injustice, was employed at Berlin in the department of the mines. He waited on me one day, accompanied by one of his deaf and dumb brothers, described to me the distressing situation of his family, showed me several pictures which this brother had painted, and beseeched me to take him under my protection. I remarked in the works of this unfortunate young man the germ of real talent, and immediately gave him a commission to make me some copies, of which he acquitted himself admirably, and for which I paid him. His accuracy, zeal, and good conduct having augmented the interest with which he had first inspired me, I settled on him a fixed salary, and I had shortly the satisfaction of learning, that he appropriated the greatest portion towards assisting his poor parents. I then determined on sending him to Dresden, that he might there copy the most rare pictures in that celebrated collection, where he spent nine months in fulfilling, with the greatest intelligence, the commission intrusted to him. He returned to Berlin, and lived honourably on the fruits of his talents and industry. I set off for Italy, and on my arrival wrote to his Majesty, requesting that he would permit Hoffmann to join me, which favour was granted me. Hoffmann repaired to Rome, and there I left him on my departure for Germany, but no sooner did he learn my misfortunes, than he quitted Italy, and came directly to my house at Charlottenburg, and when he became convinced by his own eyes that he had not been imposed upon, but that I was really absent and in captivity, he was seized with phrenzy, and went and threw himself into the Spree; he was saved; but, alas! his reason never returned, and this victim of gratitude afterwards put a period to his existence during a paroxysm of insanity.' "In my passage through Dresden (resumes Dr. Neale,) I endeavoured to procure a small painting, by this unfortunate Hoffman, but was not successful in my search. I am happy in having this opportunity of stating a circumstance which does so much credit to the memory of a woman, who has experienced the usual fate of royal mistresses-that of being flattered and worshipped during her prosperity, and reviled and calumniated after her fall. This beautiful woman, the Jane Shore of the Court of Berlin, was ever a kind and merciful protectress of the poor and distressed." DESCRIPTION OF THE MOUNTAINEERS OF SULI, IN EPIRUS, AFTER THEIR CONQUEST BY ALI PACHA OF JOANNINA. THE mountaineers of Suli had, from their retired situation, assuined the character of a peculiar tribe. They inhabited ten or twelve large villages, the most considerable of which might perhaps be a mile distant from the fortress of Suli. They were originally Albanians, of the tribe of the Tzamides. The majority of their former countrymen had turned Mahometans; but they had retained the Christian religion, though much disfigured, and adapted to their situation. Their number scarcely exceeded 12,000, of which the third or fourth part were capable of bearing arms. They were distinguished from all the other Albanians by their rudeness and invincible cou rage. The Suliot women shared the employments and dan gers of their husbands, and sustained all the inconveniencies of an unquiet life. It is said that the women were allowed to draw water from a certain fountain in succession, and in the same order as their husbands had gained glory in war; and in the war which Ali Pacha had with these mountaineers, their women performed actions which would have done ho nour to men. Yet, in describing the Suliots, we must not forget that they are robbers, who have become by degrees warriors, and joined some virtues with savageness and pillage. They were the terror of Southern Albania. When they descended from their mountains, seeking revenge and plunder, the whole country trembled. Their own valleys were visited by nobody; neither friend nor enemy dared to come near them. They were never subject to the Turkish rulers of Albania; but Ali Pacha could not endure the thought that a tribe so near him should defy his authority with impunity, and even extend their robberies almost to his capital. His first attempts were weak and limited; in proportion as his power increased, he rendered himself more formidable to them; he continued the war from year to year, and, though the events are of little importance, there is not one which is not celebrated in some Albanese song. He at length attacked the Suliots with great force, it is said 18,000 men, the command of which he gave to his sons Mouctar and Veli, and at last succeeded in making himself master of an elevated position, where he established a place of security for his troops; the Suliots, however, did not abandon their position, and it was only by bribing their chief that he attained his end. His soldiers penetrated into the village of Suli; but the inhabitants, led by their priests, and assisted by their wives, obstinately continued the combat. A woman named Cheito displayed the most admirable intre. pidity, and one of their priests, when he saw no more hope of flight, blew up the building in which he had taken refuge. Enclosed on all sides, without prospect of escape, many cut their way through, others killed themselves, but more were cut to pieces. It is said that a crowd of women, being pushed towards a precipice, threw their children down it, devoting them to death rather than to slavery. Some found a refuge in Parga, others in Corfu, and it is said that Ali Pacha, dreading the effects of their despair, connived at their flight, although it had been his intention to extirpate the whole tribe; for he destroyed their villages, and peopled the few. habitations which he had left with Albanians. It is now ten years since this war took place, and yet people are still full of the heroism and the stratagems to which it gave birth. ON PARENTAL AFFECTION. "I feel a grandeur in the passions too, "That speaks their high descent and glorious aim, YOUNG HOBBES has observed, with justice, that the parental title of dominion over children proceeds not from begetting but from sustaining and preserving them. Whatever we conceive the parental title of dominion to impart, this is certainly its foundation; and I think it is also the foundation of parental affection, the noblest and loveliest passion that glows in human hearts; that ray of the supreme benevolence that pervades and sustains the universe, imparted to the father of the species at his creation, and transmitted without tuition to the hearts of his descendants, that "bright effluence" which has preserved in purity some lineaments of the celestial image after which we are taught that man was made. There is no feeling by which the human heart more strongly attests, or more nearly resembles its divine artificer, than the gratification a parent feels in seeing his children love each other, and the pleasure with which he contemplates, in their ripening worth and virtue, the effect and object of his own care and benevolence. Nor is there any impiety in assimilating parental to divine benevolence; since the purest illustration which holy writ affords of the bountiful providence exercised by our creator, is that which compares it to "the pity of a father for his children." A most perverse ingenuity has been excited by some writers in tracing parental affection to selfish and ignoble sources. We love our children, (says Dr. Mandeville,) from the silly vanity that makes us consider them as our own; our own handiwork which must necessarily be admirable; the reflection of ourselves in a mirror, which we may caress and applaud without vanity. (Fable of the Bees.) This absurd idea is as venerable as age can make it; every strong fool and every weak philosopher, every deep dunce and every shallow sophist who has doubted the reality of human virtue, has professed it; and silly and humiliating as it appears, it seems even to have enlisted the belief of that famous English Divine, Dr. |