1825.] 
distance, which is the object of his re- 
search.” ' 
- We must add, also, that all his re- 
flections breathe a deep and sincere 
love of human nature, and of virtue. 
There are many episodes interspersed, 
purposely to illustrate the most im- 
portant precepts, clothing them, as it 
were, in sensible and dramatic forms. 
Perhaps, also, the author intended by 
these means, to obey the sad necessity 
of the day, in which it appears that - 
naked truth is displeasing to many; 
and that, in order to obtain due ho- 
mage for her, it is necessary to adorn 
her a little with the girdle of the graces. 
But there is a circumstance which 
forms a leading feature in this descrip- 
tion of the passions, and which must not 
be passed over in silence. The most 
celebrated moralists, ancient as well as 
modern, have generally looked upon 
the passions, with respect to the im- 
pulse they give to society, and the par- 
ticular character they induce: whence 
truth has sometimes, in their conside- 
ration, been either neglected, or not 
sufficiently examined; because the pas- 
sions rarely act openly, and are often- 
times covered with an impenetrable 
veil. There is, however, a field in 
which they may be seen in their naked 
semblance, and where the philosophical 
observer may contemplate them, in all 
their varieties of form. This is the bed 
of death. 
There the vast projects of ambition, 
the base desires of avarice, and the vile 
hopes of the betrayer and hypocrite, are 
at an end. There the mask falls off 
from the face of the wicked simulator, 
his heart is laid open, the ear is no 
longer deaf to the reproaches of con-. 
science, and the hisses of the vipers 
which mock and revile him, are heard 
in all their dissonance. The veil of 
the past is rent; the illusions of the 
future diappear; and guileless virtue 
alone, which the perfidy of man has 
tortured upon earth, smiles, unfettered, 
at the flattering prospect of soothing 
repose and final recompense. We 
think that here M. Alibert, impelled by 
the love of science, has often success- 
fully hastened to the discovery of the 
secrets of human passion, while shed- 
ding the tear of a benignant grief on 
the miseries of mankind. His pro- 
found descriptions seem conceived at 
the moment when death strikes with 
his foot at the threshold of the ex- 
piring; and deserve, for their energy, 
to be classed with the noblest parts 
The Lake Asphaltites. 
319 
of Theophrastus, Plutarch, and La 
Bruyere. 
a Ode 
For the Monthly Magazine. 
The Lake AsPHALTITES. 
te reports, respecting 
the dreariness and insalubrity of 
the Lake Asphaltites and its vicinage, 
have long taken possession of the popu- 
lar ear, and have also crept into a de- 
gree of authority and respect, from the 
circumstance of being found without 
marks of reprehension or doubt in works 
of real and unquestionable value : it has 
frequently been unhesitatingly affirmed 
that fish could not live in the waters, 
that even weighty solid bodies would not 
sink in them, put that, though hurled 
(with violence) into the lake, the up- 
ward pressure would instantly buoy 
them to the surface ; that, owing to the 
destructive exhalations continually is- 
suing, the rapid flight of birds was 
checked, and the poor exhausted 
zrial voyager fell panting into the 
deadly gulf, in his passage from 
shore to shore; that dismal woe-stir- _ 
ring sounds issued from it, resembling 
the half-stifled thrilling groans of dying 
wretches, ingulphed beneath the horrid 
flood; and that, to crown all this, a 
-fruit grows on the margin, very beauti- 
ful to the sight, but which was no 
sooner touched than it became “ dust 
and bitter ashes.’ In short, it has 
been deemed not unreasonable to sup- 
pose that Milton had in mind the hor- | 
rors of the terrific region of this lake, | 
when he penned these awful lines (B. IT. 
614—628.) 
“ Thus roying on 
In confused march forlorn, the adventurous 
bands 
With shuddering horror pale, and eyes 
aghast, 
Viewed first their lamentable lot, and found 
No rest: through many a dark and dreary 
vale 
They pass’d, and many a region dolorous, 
O’er many a frozen, many a fiery Alp, 
Rocks, caves, lakes, fens, bogs, dens and 
shades of death. 
A universe of death, which God, by curse, 
Created evil, for evil only good, cS 
Where all life dies, death lives, and nature 
breeds, 
Perverse, all monstrous, all prodigious 
things, 
Abominable, unutterable, and worse \ 
Than fables yet have feigned, or fear con- 
ceiv’d— 
Gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire.”’ 
And that all our poets, ancient and of 
the 
‘ 
