CHARACTER S. 



541 



tliecloiulsdistil their dew? Where 

 f^liall the lips of the spring breathe 

 fragrance, or the hand of autumn 

 i diffuse plenty ? Remember, Cara- 

 I zan, that thou hast shut compas- 

 sion from thine heart and grasped 

 thy treasures with a hand of iron : 

 thou hast lived for thyself and 

 therefore henceforth forever thou 

 shalt subsist alone. From the light 

 of heaven, and from the society of 

 all beings, shalt thou be driven ; 

 solitudeshall protract thelingering 

 hours of eternity, and darkness 

 aggravate the horrors of despair. 

 At this moment I was driven by 

 some secret and irresistible power 

 through the glowing system of 

 creation, and passed innumerable 

 worlds in a moment. As I ap- 

 proached the verge of nature, I 

 perceived the shadows of total 

 and boundless vacuity deepen be- 

 fore me, a dreadful region of eter- 

 nal silence, solitude, and darkness ! 

 Unutterable horror seized me at 

 the prospect, and this exclamation 

 burst from me with all the vehe- 

 mence of desire : ' O ! that I had 

 been doomed for ever to the com- 

 mon receptacle of impenitence 

 and guilt! there society would 

 have alleviated the torment of de- 

 spair, and the rage of fire could 

 not have excluded the comfort of 

 light. Orif I had been condemned 

 to reside in a comet, that would 

 return but once in a thousand 

 years to the regions of light and 

 life, the hope of these periods, 

 however distant, would cheer me 

 in the dread interval of cold and 

 darkness, and the vicissitudes 

 would divide eternity into time.' 

 While this thought passed over 

 ray mind, I lost sight of the re- 

 motest star, and the last glimmer- 



ing of light was quenched in utter 

 darkness. The agonies of despair 

 every moment increased, as every 

 moment augmented my distance 

 from the last habitable world. I 

 reflected with intolerable anguish, 

 that when ten thousand thousand 

 years had carried me beyond the 

 reach of all but that Power who 

 fills infinitude, I should still look 

 forward into an immense abyss of 

 darkness, through which I should 

 still drive without succour and 

 without society, farther and far- 

 ther still for ever and for ever.'' 



All the allegories in the Adven- 

 turer arc the product of our au- 

 thor's pen; these constitute how- 

 ever, if we except an allegorical 

 letter from To-Day, but three ; 

 viz. The Influence of the Town 

 on Theatric Exhibition, in No. 26; 

 The Origin of Cunning, in No. 31 ; 

 and Honour founded on Virtue, 

 in No. 61. A fancy playful" and 

 exuberant may be discerned in 

 these pieces ; but they possess 

 not, either in style or imagery, the 

 slow and richness of his Eastern 

 fictions. 



In the conduct of his domestic 

 tales, the genius of Hawkesworth 

 appears again to great advantage : 

 . they indicate his possession, not 

 only of a powerful mastery over 

 the passions but of no common 

 knowledge of life, of manners, and 

 of the human heart. The History 

 of IMelissa, in Nos. 7 and 8, is a 

 pathetic and interesting example 

 of the soothing hope and consola- 

 tion that await integrity of con- 

 duct, though under the pressure 

 of poignant distress. The wretch- 

 edness and ruin so frequently at- 

 tendant on infidelity are pointedly 

 illustratedinthestoryofUpsinous;* 



• Nos. 12, 13, 14. 



