The New-York Weekly Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository Part 35

_HAPPINESS._

The road to happiness is seldom strewed with flowers, nor perhaps ought it to be so; as we should, in that case, be inclined to take our pa.s.sage for our port, and while we enjoyed the manna, we might neglect the promised land.

Interesting History Of THE PRINCESS DE PONTHIEU.

_Translated from the French._

(Continued from page 67.)

"The people of the s.h.i.+p had placed about me a young woman extremely amiable;--the tenderness she expressed for the griefs she saw I was involved in, made me conceive a very great friends.h.i.+p for her; and, indeed, as she was the only woman there, it was natural for us to be more than ordinarily pleased with each other. When she found me a little composed, she informed me that we were with Flemish merchants, who were trading to the Levant; that having perceived from deck my extraordinary tomb, the hope of finding something valuable in it, had made them take it aboard; but having opened it, they were surprised to see a woman richly habited: that at first they thought me dead, because I was very much swelled, but having placed me in the open air, a little motion of my heart gave them hope of recovering me; that accordingly, with great difficulty, they effected it; and finding, as they thought, some beauty in me, they resolved, at the expence of my liberty, to make themselves amends for having found nothing but me in the tun. ''Tis with this design,' added she, 'that we are sailing towards Almeria, where these merchants design to sell you to the Sultan of that place: it is now six months since they took me away from the coast of France, which is my native country, on the same account; but I very well foresee that your beauty will preserve me from being exposed to the Sultan's desires: yet, as I cannot avoid slavery, I beg, madam, that you will not let me be separated from you. The Sultan will without doubt buy you; contrive it so, that he may think I am a dependant of yours.' I was very glad to have a French woman with me, so promised her, that whatever was my fate, she should, if she pleased, share it with me; but what she had told me, giving me great uneasiness, I desired to speak with the captain of the s.h.i.+p. I began with thanking him for the succour he had given me, and thinking to have gained him with the hope of a reward, I a.s.sured him it should be made even beyond his wishes, if he would land me on the coast of France. He answered me that he doubted not my generosity, nor my being considerable enough to recompense the service he had done me; but that he could not follow his own inclination in doing what I desired him, because he was accountable to his companions, who had resolved to sell me and the other young French woman to the Sultan of Almeria: that they knew would be certain gain to them, without running the risque of what my promises might produce. With these words he returned to his companions, and gave me not leave no answer him; I made several other efforts, but finding it impossible to persuade them to alter their resolutions, I was obliged to submit to my ill destiny. In proportion, as I recovered my reason, my affection to my dear Thibault resumed its empire over my soul.--I was sensible of the whole extent of my misfortunes, and my despair would perhaps have kept no bounds, if it had not been for the prudence and good-nature of my young companion. Yet for all her cares, I fell into such a melancholy, as frighted the merchant, lest I should lose the l.u.s.tre of my beauty, of which he proposed to himself so great an advantage.

"At length they arrived at Almeria, and we were immediately led to the Sultan. As he was accustomed to traffic with those people, he received them perfectly well, and was so well pleased with their prize, that he gave them their demand both for myself and Sayda. We were placed in the palace of the Sultan's women, where he soon followed us; and I had the misfortune of affecting him in so extraordinary a manner, that he seemed to make his loving me an affair of state.--I call that a misfortune, which any one but me would have looked on as the highest felicity: for I owe the Sultan the justice to say, that he is full of merit, and adorned with the most heroic virtues; but I was a christian, and prepossessed with a pa.s.sion, which left no room for any other; I therefore considered his a.s.siduity as my worst of troubles. This prince perceiving my regard for Sayda, gave her to me; (Sayda is a name I made her a.s.sume to conceal her own.) He placed me, in an apartment different from those the rest of the women were lodged in, and commanded that I should be served as queen. All these honours added to my uneasiness; yet the submission with which he treated me, gave me sometimes a hope he never would have recourse to force that which I was resolved never to grant; but alas!

this prince at last, worn out with his own consuming pa.s.sion and the continual murmurs of his subjects, who could ill endure he should express so much consideration for a christian, resolved to speak to me in stronger terms than he had hitherto done. My resistance had lasted a whole year, and he thought he had sufficiently testified his respect, in allowing me so long a time: he came to me therefore one day, and finding me extremely melancholy, 'Madam,' said he, 'it is with great regret I find myself obliged to exceed the bounds I have prescribed myself in gaining your heart, but you must now consent either to marry me or publicly abjure your religion; all my power cannot exempt you from the laws which oblige the women of the seraglio to embrace our faith.---I adore you, and though I ought to compel you to a change so beneficial to you, yet I will not, since it is not your desire.--I promise you the free exercise of your religion in private, provided you accept of the crown I offer you;---my subjects, and all my court, will then believe you have changed your religion, without seeking any further proofs, and you will be at liberty to observe your own in secret:---this is the only means to preserve you from the fury of a people, who, when enraged, have no regard even for their sovereign. It would have been more agreeable to me, if my love and attentions had engaged you; but I hope time will inspire your heart with those sentiments, that will be conducive to my felicity, and your repose.' I could not refrain from tears at this discourse of the Sultan:---the choice appeared terrible to me; 'Is it possible, my lord!' replied I, 'that among the number of beauties who would be proud of the honour you offer me, you cannot find one more worthy than myself? If you had not distinguished me, your subjects would have thought nothing of me.---Consider, my lord, what glory you might gain by subduing your pa.s.sion, and suffering me to return to my native country.---What felicity can it be, to live with a woman obtained but by fear and force, who will always be regretting her parents and liberty.'

"The Sultan smiled at these words; 'I see, madam,' said he, 'that you are ignorant of your own condition---you are in this place for life---when once a woman has entered within these walls, there is no hope of ever getting out again, law and custom have decreed it so.

Therefore you are more obliged to me than you imagined, for the respect I have paid you, being from the first moment the master of your destiny.' I then intreated he would give me three days to answer him; he granted my request, and I spent them in prayers: but at length seeing myself without any hope of relief, or ever returning to my country, that my death there was thought certain, and that I had no means of letting you know I was living, or if I had, could not promise myself, that, since you had consented to my death, the news would find a welcome: I looked on myself as utterly abandoned; and the facility of following in private my own devotions, determined me, in submitting to the Sultan's persuasions. The three days being expired, he came to me again, and I then told him, that if he would swear never to force me to alter my religion, I was ready to give him my hand. His joy at my consent was inconceiveable; and though he saw plainly that what I did was out of necessity, he a.s.sured me he thought himself the happiest man on earth, and bound himself by an oath sacred in their law, to suffer me to exercise my own religion, provided I took care not to be discovered.

(_To be continued._)

CONTEMPLATION.

To contemplate the Creator of heaven and earth in the magnificence of his works, enlarges and elevates the soul---lifts it above the impertinence of vulgar cares, and gives it a kind of heavenly pre-existence. To consider the benevolent purposes for which he called forth this variety and mult.i.tude of being, that comes under our cognizance, must be a perpetual source of comfort. A rational creature, that is conscious of deriving its existence from a being of infinite goodness and power, cannot properly entertain any prospect but of happiness. By the imperfection of its nature it may fall into temporary evils, but these cannot justly be the subject of complaint, when we reflect that this very imperfection was necessary to a probatory life, and that without it, there could neither have been virtue, nor the rewards of virtue. Every degree of excellence depends upon comparison.

Were there no deformity in the world, we should have no distinct ideas of beauty: Were there no possibility of vice, there would be no such thing as virtue; and were the life of a man exempt from misery, happiness would be a term of which he could not know the meaning.

INDIAN ELOQUENCE.

_The following beautiful, simple, energetic, and affecting SPEECH was made by LOGAN, Chief of the Shawanesses, in the Year 1774, to Lord Dunmore, Governor of the Province of Virginia._

I now ask of every white man whether he hath ever entered the cottage of Logan, when pressed with hunger, and been refused food; or, whether coming naked and s.h.i.+vering with cold, Logan hath not given him something to cover himself with? During the course of the late war, so long and so b.l.o.o.d.y, Logan hath remained quiet upon his mat, wis.h.i.+ng to be the advocate of peace. Yes, such is my attachment for white men, that even those of my nation, when they pa.s.sed by me, pointed at me, saying, _Logan is a friend to white men_. I had even thoughts of living amongst you; but that was before the injury received from one of you. Last summer Colonel Cressop ma.s.sacred in cold blood, and without any provocation, all the relations of Logan, without sparing either his wife or his children. There is not now one drop of my blood in the veins of any human creature existing. This is what has excited my revenge. I have sought it; I have killed several of your people, and my hatred is appeased. I rejoice to see the prospect of peace brighten upon my country. But do not imagine my joy is instigated by fear. Logan knows not what fear is. He will never turn his back in order to save his life.

But, alas! no one remains to mourn for Logan when he shall be no more.

ON ENTHUSIASM OF CHARACTER.

The shades of human character are so numerous, and the advantages resulting from an extensive acquaintance with them, of so much importance, that few subjects, perhaps, are more worthy of attention or speculation; and it would be a task of the highest advantage to society, could we trace the source and causes of the diversities, and point out the particular advantages resulting from each. By the former of these, we should, in some degree, be enabled to train the mind to the fas.h.i.+on most amiable and really advantageous; by the latter, we should have the opportunity of directing to their proper objects of pursuit the pa.s.sions and dispositions as they are displayed before us.

BON MOT.

A gentleman who possessed a much larger quant.i.ty of nose, than nature usually bestows upon an individual, contrived to make it more enormous by his invincible attachment to the bottle, which also beset it with emeralds and rubies. To add to his misfortunes, this honest toper's face was somewhat disfigured by not having a regular pair of eyes; one being black, and the other of a reddish hue. A person happening once to observe, that his eyes were not _fellows_, congratulated him on that circ.u.mstance. The rosy gilled old tipler demanded the reason. "Because,"

replied the jocular genius, "if your eyes had been _matches_, your nose would certainly have set them in a flame, and a dreadful conflagration might have been apprehended."

_Account of the COURTs.h.i.+P and MARRIAGE of the celebrated DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON._

Johnson had from his early youth, been sensible to the influence of female charms. When at Stourbridge school, he was much enamoured of Olivia Lloyd, a young quaker, to whom he wrote a copy of verses, which I have not been able to recover; and I am a.s.sured by Miss Seward, that he conceived a tender pa.s.sion for Miss Lucy Porter, daughter of the lady whom he afterwards married. Miss Porter was sent very young on a visit to Litchfield, where Johnson had frequent opportunities of seeing and admiring her; and he addressed to her the following verses, on her presenting him with a nosegay of myrtle:

"What hopes, what terrors does this gift create, "Ambiguous emblem of uncertain fate: "Thy myrtle, ensign of supreme command, "Consign'd by Venus to Melissa's hand; "Not less capricious than a reigning fair, "Now grants, and now rejects a lover's prayer.

"In myrtle shades oft sings the happy swain, "In myrtle shades despairing ghosts complain; "The myrtle crowns the happy lovers' heads, "Th' unhappy lovers' grave the myrtle spreads: "O then the meaning of thy gift impart, "And ease the throbbings of an anxious heart!

"Soon must this bough, as you shall fix his doom, "Adorn Philander's head, or grace his tomb."

His juvenile attachments to the fair s.e.x were, however, very transient; and it is certain, that he formed no criminal connection whatsoever. Mr.

Hector, who lived with him in his younger days in the utmost intimacy and social freedom, has a.s.sured me, that even at that ardent season his conduct was strictly virtuous in that respect; and that though he loved to exhilarate himself with wine, he never knew him intoxicated but once.

In a man whose religious education has secured from licentious indulgences, the pa.s.sion of love, when once it has seized him, is exceedingly strong; being unimpaired by dissipation, and totally concentrated in one object. This was experienced by Johnson, when he became the fervent admirer of Mrs. Porter, after her first husband's death. Miss Porter told me, that when he was first introduced to her mother, his appearance was very forbidding: he was then lean and lank, so that his immense structure of bones was hideously striking to the eye, and the scars of the scrophula were deeply visible. He also wore his hair, which was straight and stiff, and separated behind; and he often had, seemingly, convulsive starts and odd gesticulations, which tended to excite at once surprise and ridicule. Mrs. Porter was so much engaged by his conversation that she overlooked all these external disadvantages, and said to her daughter, "this is the most sensible man I ever saw in my life."

Though Mrs. Porter was double the age of Johnson, and her person and manner, as described to me by the late Mr. Garrick, were by no means pleasing to others, she must have had a superiority of understanding and talents, as she certainly inspired him with a more than ordinary pa.s.sion; and she having signified her willingness to accept of his hand, he went to Litchfield to ask his mother's consent to the marriage, which he could not but be conscious was a very imprudent scheme, both on account of their disparity of years, and her want of fortune. But Mrs.

Johnson knew too well the ardour of her son's temper, and was too tender a parent to oppose his inclinations.

I know not for what reason the marriage ceremony was not performed at Birmingham; but a resolution was taken that it should be at Derby, for which place the bride and bridegroom set out on horseback, I suppose in very good humour. But though Mr. Topham Beauclerk used archly to mention Johnson's having told him, with much gravity, "Sir, it was a love-marriage on both sides," I have had from my ill.u.s.trious friend the following curious account of their journey to church upon the nuptial morn. "Sir, she had read the old romances, and had got into her head the fantastical notion that a woman of spirit should use her lover like a dog. So, Sir, at first she told me that I rode too fast, and she could not keep up with me; and, when I rode a little slower, she pa.s.sed me, and complained that I lagged behind. I was not to be made the slave of caprice; and I resolved to begin as I meant to end. I therefore pushed on briskly, 'till I was fairly out of her sight. The road lay between two hedges, so I was sure she could not miss it; and I contrived that the should soon come up with me. When she did, I observed her to be in tears."

This, it must be allowed, was a singular beginning of connubial felicity; but there is no doubt that Johnson, though he thus shewed a manly firmness, proved a most affectionate and indulgent husband to the last moment of Mrs. Johnson's life; and in his "Prayers and Meditations," we find very remarkable evidence that his regard and fondness for her never ceased, even after her death.

[[Sources:

Both articles about Johnson are taken from Boswell's _Life of Johnson_.

Notes: Johnson's wife is called "double the age of Johnson". They were born in 1689 and 1709 respectively, met in 1732 and married in 1735.]]

ANGER.

Lord SOMERS was naturally of a choleric disposition; and the most striking part of his character, was the power of controuling his pa.s.sion at the moment when it seemed ready to burst forth. Swift, in his "Four last Years of Queen Anne," has in vain endeavoured to blacken this amiable part of that great man's character, as what the dean mistook for a severe censure, has proved the greatest panegyric. "Lord Somers being sensible how subject he is to violent pa.s.sions, avoids all incitements to them by teaching those, whom he converses with, from his own example, to keep within the bounds of decency; and it is indeed true, that no man is more apt to take fire upon the least appearance of provocation; which temper he strives to subdue, with the utmost violence upon himself; so that his breast has been seen to heave, and his eyes to sparkle with rage in those very moments when his words and the cadence of his voice were in the humblest and softest manner."

THE VICTIM OF MAGICAL DELUSION.