Come, ye happy virtuous few, You each guardian fay shall bless. 1 Zephyrs bland, soft,gentle breezes. 2 Grosser clay, in allusion to the creation of man from the dust of the earth. 3 Minion, favourite; pet. 4 Slave of passion, one who acts as if bound to satisfy the longings of his lower nature. 5 Son of av'rice, one greedy of gain. 6 The luxury, &c., a very remarkable line, as true as it is beautiful, as every one knows that has denied himself for the sake of another. NA NAPLES AND ITS VICINITY. TAPLES is famed for the unrivalled beauty of its situation, with its bluest of blue skies, its picturesque bay, and its stately mountain. To see Naples as we saw it in the early dawn from far up on the side of Vesuvius, is to see a picture of enchanting loveliness. At that distance its dingy buildings looked white, and the eye could range across the whole city, from terrace to terrace, ever ascending from the shore of the blue bay to the colossal 1 castle of St. Elmo on the crown of a lofty eminence. And when the rising sun threw its rosy light over the city it was inexpressibly beautiful. The frame of the picture was no less charming. In front, the sea, like a mosaic of many colours, with lofty islands peering out of the mists in the dim distance; whilst under our feet the strong black ribs and seams of lava only served by their grim aspect to heighten the effect of the smiling fertility of the plain below, with its vineyards, orchards, and gardens, interspersed with charming cottages and snug villages. But if you go within the walls you must not expect unmixed delight. The people are lazy and filthy in their habits, and so their streets present many disagreeable sights and sounds. Naples, with its immediate suburbs, contains about 700,000 inhabitants, but it covers no more ground than an ordinary city of one-third its population. Its buildings rise skyward to such a height, that thousands live in a small compass. The old streets are generally about wide enough for a single waggon, without any side-walks for foot-passengers. The sun has a difficulty, even in this sunny land, to light up these narrow streets, with their rows of tall houses, that in the distance seem to the spectator to meet. Every window has its balcony, as if to save the people from falling out of the window, or to enable them to come out into the open air without having to take a long descent to the street. As we looked up and saw tier above tier of these windows, each with its iron railing in front, there seemed to be somebody looking out at every window-people of ordinary size looking out from the first floor, people apparently a shade smaller from the second, people that looked a little smaller yet from the third; and from thence upwards they grew smaller and smaller, till the folks in the topmost storey appeared no bigger than pigmies. The contrasts between opulence and poverty, and magnificence and wretchedness, are perhaps more frequent and more striking in Naples than any other European city. In the thoroughfares of Naples are jumbled together people of every rank and condition of life; children of poverty in rags and tatters, and children of luxury in the most superb dresses; beggars and bishops, peasants and princes, jostle each other in every street; donkey-carts, hand-carts, waggons, and carriages compete with cach other for every inch of available space. Of the many interesting things to be seen in the vicinity of Naples, none surpasses the wonderful Blue Grotto on the island of Capri. The entrance to the cave is four feet high and four feet wide, and is in the face of a lofty perpendicular cliff the sea wall. You enter in small boats, and a tight squeeze it is too. You cannot go in at all when the tide is up. Once within, you find yourself in an arched cavern about one hundred and sixty feet long, one hundred and twenty feet wide, and about seventy feet high. How deep it is no man knows. The waters of this placid subterranean lake are the brightest loveliest blue that 4 can be imagined. They are as transparent as plate glass, and their colouring far surpasses the richest sky that ever bent over Italy. No tint could be more lovely, no lustre more superb. Throw a stone into the water, and forth flash a myriad of tiny bubbles, like splendid sapphires. Dip an oar, and its blade turns a splenil frosted silver tinted with blue. 1 Colossal, gigantic. The word is derived from the celebrated Colossus at Rhodes, a gigantic brazen statue placed astride of the harbour at its entrance, and sufficiently high to permit ships to pass full sail between its legs. It was one of the "seven wonders" of the ancient world. Adapted. THE PERSECUTED TURNED PERSECUTOR. T is only quite recently that men have begun to tolerate any religion differing from their own. The Act for the "Emancipation of the Roman Catholics," entitling them to the same civil rights as their fellowsubjects, only dates from 1829. It was not until the Revolution which placed William III. on the throne (A.D. 1689), that the religious freedom of the Nonconformists, or Dissenters, was established. It might have been thought that those who had suffered persecution on account of their religion would have dealt tenderly with the conscientious convictions 2 of others. But the records of history prove that the persecuted have too often in their turn become persecutors. One remarkable instance of this occurs in the history of the Puritans. A body of these men, commonly called the Pilgrim Fathers, left England in the reign of James I. to seek |