who, out of all the dishes served up at the table, would only eat of one, and that the most simple; yet his conversation was sprightly, his knowledge great, his countenance cheerful, and his constitution strong. When the philosopher took his leave, he invited Chremes to sup with him at a house in the neighbourhood; this also took place in his imagination, and he thought he was received with the most polite and affectionate tokens of friendship, but was greatly surprised when supper came up, to find nothing but milk and honey, and a few roots dressed up in the plainest manner, to which cheerfulness and good sense were the only sauces. As Chremes was unused to this kind of diet, and could not eat, the philosopher ordered another table to be spread more to his taste; and immediately there succeeded a banquet composed of the most artificial dishes that luxury could invent, with great plenty and variety of the richest and most intoxicating wines. These too were accompanied by damsels of the most bewitching beauty. And now Chremes gave a loose to his appetites, and every thing he tasted raised ecstasies beyond what he had ever known. During the repast the damsels sung and danced to entertain him; their charms enchanted the enraptured guest, already heated with what he had drank; his senses were lost in ecstatic confusion; every thing around him seemed Elysium, and he was upon the point of indulging the most boundless freedom, when, lo! on a sudden their beauty, which was but a vizor, fell off, and discovered to his view forms the most hideous and forbidding imaginable. Lust, revenge, folly, murder, meagre poverty, and frantic despair, now appeared in their most odious shapes, and the place instantly became the direct scene of misery and desolation. How often did Chremes wish himself far distant from such diabolical company! and how dread the fatal consequence which threatened him on every side! His blood ran chill to his heart; his knees smote against each other with fear, and joy and rapture were turned into astonishment and horror. When the philosopher perceived that this scene had made a sufficient impression on his guest, he thus addressed him: "Know,

Chremes, it is I, it is Esculapius, who have thus entertained you; and what you have here beheld is the true image of the deceitfulness and misery inseparable from luxury and intemperance. Would you be happy, be temperate. Temperance is the parent of health, virtue, wisdom, plenty, and of every thing that can render you happy in this world or the world to come. It is indeed the true luxury of life; for without it life cannot be enjoyed." This said, he disappeared; and Chremes, awaking, and instructed by the vision, altered his course of life, became frugal, temperate, industrious; and by that means so mended his health and estate, that he lived without pain to a very old age, and was esteemed one of the richest, best, and wisest men in Greece.

Such is the beautiful moral drawn by the pen of elegant and instructive fiction; with which if there be any mind so insensible as not to be properly affected, let us only turn to that striking reality presented to us in the case of Lewis Cornaro. This gentleman was a Venetian of noble extraction, and memorable for having lived to an extreme old age; for he was above a hundred years old at the time of his death, which happened at Padua in the year 1565. Amongst other little performances he left behind him a piece entitled, "Of the Advantages of a Temperate Life." He was moved, it seems, to compose this little piece at the request and for the benefit of some young men for whom he had a regard; and who, having long since lost their parents, and seeing him, then eightyone years old, in a fine florid state of health, were desirous to know of him what it was that enabled him to preserve, as he did, a sound mind in a sound body, to so extreme an age. He describes to them, therefore, his whole manner of living, and the regimen he had always pursued, and was then pursuing. He tells them, that when he was young he was very intemperate; that his intemperance had brought upon him many and grievous disorders; that from the thirtyfifth to the fortieth year of his age, he spent his nights and days in the utmost anxiety and pain; and that, in

short, his life was grown a burthen to him. The physicians, however, as he relates, notwithstanding all the vain and fruitless efforts which they made to restore his health, told him, that there was one method still remaining, which had never been tried, but which, if they could but prevail with him to use with perseverance, might free him, in time, from all his complaints; and that was, a temperate and regular way of living. They added, moreover, that unless he resolved to apply instantly to it, his case would soon become desperate; and there would be no hopes at all of his recovery. Upon this, he immediately prepared himself for his new regimen; and now began to eat and drink nothing but what was proper for one in his weak habit of body; but this was at first very disagreeable to him. He often wanted to live again in his old manner; and did indeed indulge himself in a freedom of diet sometimes, without the knowledge of his physicians; but, as he informs us, much to his own detriment and uneasiness. Driven, in the mean time, by the necessity of the thing, and resolutely exerting all the powers of his understanding, he at last grew confirmed in a settled and uninterrupted course of temperance; by virtue of which, as he assures us, all his disorders had left him in less than a year; and he had been a firm and healthy man from thenceforward until the time in which he wrote his treatise.

THE ANCIENT AND MODERN HISTORY OF NATIONS.

ANCIENT SACRED HISTORY.

SCRIPTURE history being so much interwoven with the different parts of ancient history in general, we intend to give a rapid sketch of the principal epochas into which the Old Testament history is usually divided. In doing this, we trust, that we shall be performing a work that will be deemed useful and interesting, especially to our young readers.

The first remarkable period of the Old Testament history contains the age of the antediluvian patriarchs,

which includes about one thousand six hundred and fifty-six years, from the creation to the deluge. The most remarkable characters who flourished during this space of time, were our first parents, Adam and Eve, who, for disobedience to the divine command, were banished from the garden of Paradise. From these descended Cain, whose name is infamous on account of the murder of his brother Abel; and Seth, from whom the race of patriarchs descended. Under the patriarchal government every father had the sole government of his family, and exercised the power of distributing justice and inflicting punishment, according to his own will, upon those who had been indebted to him for existence. Enoch is another remarkable character that flourished in this period, who, on account of his piety, was translated from earth to heaven. Methuselah is celebrated on account of his great age; and Noah for having lived both before and after the flood. The antediluvian fathers are supposed to have been ignorant of arts and letters, but the great extent of their lives must have enabled them to obtain considerable knowledge of nature, and of the business of agriculture. It appears also that the art of building* and music, and some of the handycraft arts were known and practised in this period.

The second period of ancient sacred history includes eight hundred and fifty-seven years, or the space which passed from the deluge to the going forth of the Israelites out of Egypt. Noah with his family entered the ark in the year before Christ 2348: and we are informed that when the waters assuaged, the ark rested upon Ararat, a mountain of Armenia. By this event the earth is supposed to have undergone considerable alterations; the spoils of the sea, such as the bones of fish, &c. which are frequently found on the tops of mountains and in the midst of rocks, do not merely render this supposition highly probable, but demonstrate the certainty of such an event as the deluge having taken place at some period of the world. NOAH had

* Gen. iv. 17. 21, 22.

three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet, whose descendants peopled the earth. Europe, with a part of Asia, fell to Japhet; the rest of Asia to Shem; and Africa to Ham. Of the posterity of Ham and Japhet we have no certain accounts; but the Scriptures have given us a very ample history of the descendants of Shem, the most remarkable of whom are Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. Abraham was styled the father of the faithful. He passed into the land of Canaan, called the holy land, a district of Asia, bordering on the Mediterranean Sea, which has been since inhabited by Jews, Christians, and Mahometans, and at present is subject to the Turks. Circumcision was instituted by Abraham, by which his posterity was distinguished from other nations. Isaac, the only son of Abraham by Sarah, was father to Jacob. JACOB, afterwards called Israel, left twelve sons, the founders of the twelve tribes of Israel. With the interesting history of Joseph all our readers are doubtless acquainted. After Joseph's death the offspring of Jacob increased in Egypt to such a degree as to alarm the reigning monarch, who commanded the destruction of every male infant; but Moses was saved by the interposition of Pharaoh's daughter. MOSES was employed in executing the divine command for freeing the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. The fate of Pharaoh and his army has been already described in our history of Egypt. The Israelites continued travelling in the deserts of Arabia forty years, when they entered into the promised land under the conduct of Joshua, which closes the second period of ancient sacred history. The circumstances which deserve particular notice in this period are the institution of the rite of circumcision by Abraham; and the promulgation of the written law by Moses from Sinai, which is a mountain in Arabia Petrea, near the Red Sea, and about two hundred and sixty miles east of Cairo.

The third period of sacred history commences with the going out of the Israelites from Egypt, and extends to the time of the kings, a period of three hundred and ninety-six years. During this period the people of Israel were governed first by Joshua their leader, then by the