with the vivid imagery and luxuriant fancy of a Spenser and a Shakspeare, and with the melody of our own Hafiz; what may we not expect when "knowledge shall cover the earth, as the waters cover the sea ?"

Never has genius in her happiest hours, or in her most exalted aspirations conceived the intellectual glories that await mankind, on the revival of that prophetic day, "when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy,' and when the globe itself shall become the living temple of virtue and of science, and reflect a brighter effulgence as it moves onward through the firmament of heaven.

SAADI.

CHAPTER XIII.

"See there the olive grove of Academe,
Plato's retirement, where the Attic bird

Trills her thick-warbled notes the summer long;
There flowery hill, Hymettus, with the sound
Of bees' industrious murmur, oft invites
To studious musing."-Milton.

WE must now return to our colony upon Ben Lomond, whose bleak atmosphere rendered all the magic influence of the wand of Allan Ramsay necessary to preserve them from a torpid state. So effectually, however, was this influence exerted, that the bees were deeply interested in all the proceedings about Loch Lomond. Already had the disaffected lost most of their prejudices, when an event took place, on the morning after the festivities, which entirely dissipated every remaining antipathy to mutual co-operation. Under the brow

of a hill which gradually rises above the village of Luss, there was a considerable number of glass hives; and, as the inhabitants were about to remove a portion of the honey, the Genius directed the attention of his assembly to their operations. Instead of cruelly destroying the bees, as the poet pathetically laments,

"Ah see where robb'd, and murder'd, in that pit
Lies the still heaving hive! at evening snatch'd,
Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing night,
And fix'd o'er sulphur: while, not dreaming ill,
The happy people in their waxen celis,
Sat tending public cares, and planning schemes
Of temperance, for Winter poor; rejoiced
To mark, full flowing round, their copious stores.
Sudden the dark oppressive steam ascends;
And, used to milder scents, the tender race,
By thousands, tumble from their honey'd domes,
Convolv'd, and agonizing in the dust.

Ah! was it then for this you roam'd the spring,
Intent from flower to flower; for this you toil'd
Ceaseless the burning summer-heats away?
For this in autumn search'd the blooming waste,
Nor lost one sunny gleam,-for this sad fate?
O man! tyrannic lord! how long, how long,
Shall prostrate Nature groan beneath your rage,
Awaiting renovation? When obliged
Must you destroy? Of their ambrosial food
Can you not borrow; and, in just return,
Afford them shelter from the wintry winds ?"-

a small part only of the honey was abstracted, and without the destruction of a single bee.* When this was beheld by the spectators on the mountain,

*"I esteem Colonna more entitled to the honours of a monument, for having introduced the practice of obtaining honey without destroying the bees, into the vale of Festiniog, than Field Marshal Turenne. Turenne destroyed his thousands; Colonna has preserved his tens of thousands :-Turenne's monument is of marble,-let Colonna's be formed of honeycomb !"-See Beauties, Harmonies, and Sublimities of Nature, by Mr. Bucke.

their joy became unbounded. They flew around the Genius in the greatest ecstasy, and all declared that henceforward they would live together in amity. Orpheus and his followers delighted in the anticipation of the happiness that awaited them on their return to the laws of nature, felt no discomfiture in the overthrow of their theories; and Emilius, disdaining to triumph in a victory so joyous to all, embraced with ardour his former opponents. The Genius finding their conviction complete, prepared to depart; but as night came on, the clouds collected in masses mid-way down the mountain, and gave every indication of an approaching storm. Heavy clouds sailed in from the west, and entirely obscured the view of the communities, while the summit of the mountain was perfectly serene. Soon the lightning began to flash, and the thunder to roll but on the eastern side there was an almost unfathomable precipice, and there the tempest raged with redoubled violence ;-nothing could exceed the fury of the elemental strife, the terrific glare of the lightning, and the deafening peals of thunder. Over this frightful scene the Genius waved his wand, and exclaimed, "Behold the demon of discord, ruling paramount over his turbulent empire, the chaos of Competition." And as the vivid flashes illuminated the dread abyss, there appeared in the midst a hideous monster of gigantic stature, wearing an iron crown, and seated on a throne raised upon the tombs of those who had been consigned to a premature grave, from the sorrows and conflicts of contending interests. Surrounding this throne, but at some distance, were small eminences, with men attempting to climb to the summit; but when they had got half way up, or even higher, they fell to the bottom, or pulled down

others, whom they destroyed, for the sake of supplanting them.*

Of the millions endeavouring to rise, but a few reached the summits; which even when attained, disappointment lowered on their brows, for they envied those whose eminences were still higher than their own, while they in turn excited the envy of all below. The failure of the multitude did not abate this general eagerness to ascend; for the unfortunate, however numerous, were soon lost sight of and forgotten, while the successful few occupied conspicuous stations. Again the Genius waved his wand, and the demon with his throne vanished, "like the baseless fabric of a vision," and his empire was but dimly seen: the storm began to subside; and, as the lightning played with less intensity, it disclosed in a lower depth, the gulf of oblivion. Hither were hastening all the supports and appendages of the Competitive System;+prisons, and the terrible instruments of punishment,

"Like so many buckets in a well, as one riseth, another falleth, one's empty, another's full; his ruin is a ladder to the third ;-such are our ordinary proceedings. What's the market? A place, according to Anacharsis, wherein they cozen one another, a trap: nay, what's the world itself? Å vast chaos, a confusion of manners, as fickle as the air, domicilium insanorum, a turbulent troop full of impurities, a mart of walking spirits, goblins, the theatre of hypocrisy, a shop of knavery, flattery, a nursery of villany, the scene of babbling, the school of giddiness, the academy of vice; a warfare ubi velis nolis pugnandum, aut vincas aut succumbas, in which kill or be killed; wherein every man is for himself, his private ends, and stands upon his own guard."-Burton's Anatomy.

"From this principle of individual interest have arisen all the divisions of mankind, the endless errors and mischiefs of class, sect, party, and of national antipathies, creating the angry and malevolent passions, and all the crimes and misery with which the human race has been hitherto afflicted. In short, if there be one closet doctrine more contrary to truth

with books and pamphlets out of number-Puffendorf, Vatel, Coke, Littleton, the Statutes at large, Currency, National Debt, Principle of Population, &c., &c.

A volume of clouds rolled over the gulf; and then gradually opening, an immense globe turning on its axis, and representing the earth, emerged from the centre. The seasons, and all the operations of nature, appeared in rapid succession: the seed dropped into the ground, and soon reappeared in the beautiful form of the flower; the acorn fell, and anon the oak extended its luxuriant branches. Each revolution, instead of describing diurnal changes, exhibited a different æra. At the first, mankind were seen in the hunting state,-"When first in woods the noble savage ran. At the second, shepherds were tending their flocks, and playing on the oaten pipe." Silvestrem tenui musam meditaris avena." At the third revolution,

than another, it is the notion that individual interest, as that term is now understood, is a more advantageous principle on which to found the social system, for the benefit of all, or of any, than the principle of union and mutual co-operation. The former acts like an immense weight to repress the most valuable faculties and dispositions, and to give a wrong direction to all the human powers. It is one of those magnificent errors (if the expression may be allowed), that when enforced in practice, brings ten thousand evils in its train. The principle on which these economists proceed, instead of adding to the wealth of nations or of individuals, is itself the sole cause of poverty; and but for its operation, wealth would long ago have ceased to be a subject of contention in any part of the world. If, it may be asked, experience has proved that union, combination, and extensive arrangement among mankind, are a thousand times more powerful to destroy, than the efforts of an unconnected multitude, where each acts individually for himself, would not a similar increased effect be produced by union, combination, and extensive arrangement, to create and conserve?"—Mr. Owen's Report to the County of Lanark.