ences, like children of the same family, mutualy assist and bring forward each other.

SCENE-Alexander the Great in his tent. Guards. A man with a fierce countenance, chained ana fettered, brought before him.

Alex. What, art thou the Thracian robber, oi whose exploits I have heard so much?

Rob. I am a Thracian, and a soldier.

A. A soldier!-a thief, a plunderer, an assassin! the pest of the country! I could honour thy courage, but I must detest and punish thy

crimes.

R. What have I done of which you can complain ?

A. Hast thou not set at defiance my authority, violated the public peace, and passed thy life in injuring the persons and properties of thy fellow subjects?

Ř. Alexander! I am your captive-I must hear what you please to say, and endure what you please to inflict. But my soul is unconquered; and if I reply at all to your reproaches, I will reply like a free man.

A. Speak freely. Far be it from me to take the advantage of my power to silence those with whom I deign to converse!

R. I must then answer your question by another. How have you passed your life?

A. Like a hero. Ask Fame, and she will tell you. Among the brave I have been the bravest : among sovereigns, the noblest: among conquerors, the mightiest.

R. And does not Fame speak of me, too? Was there ever a bolder captain of a more valiant band? Was there ever-But I scorn to boast. You yourself know that I have not been easily subdued.

A. Still, what are you but a robber—a base dishonest robber?

R. And what is a conqueror? Have not you, too, gone about the earth like an evil genius, blasting the fair fruits of peace and industry ;plundering, ravaging, killing, without law, without justice, merely to gratify an insatiable lust for dominion? All that I have done to a single district with a hundred followers, you have done to whole nations with a hundred thousand. Ifl have stripped individuals, you have ruined kings and princes. If I have burned a few hamlets,

you have desolated the most flourishing kingdoms and cities of the earth. What is then the difference, but that as you were born a king, and I a private man, you have been able to become a mightier robber than I?

A. But if I have taken like a king, I have given like a king. If I have subverted empires, I have founded greater. I have cherished arts, commerce, and philosophy.

R. I, too, have freely given to the poor what I took from the rich. I have established order and discipline among the most ferocious of mankind; and have stretched out my protecting arm over the oppressed. I know, indeed, little of the philosophy you talk of; but I believe neither you nor I shall ever repay to the world the mischiefs we have done it.

A. Leave me -Take off his chains, and use him well. (Exit Robber.)-Are we then so much alike?-Alexander to a robber ?-Let me reflect.

sider, then.

Eleventh Evening.

ON MAN.

man defined? Let us con

Charles. You gave me the definition of a horse some time ago-Pray, sir, how is Father. That is worth inquiring. He must either stand by himself, or be ranked among the quadrupeds; for there are no other two-legged animals but birds, which he certainly does not resemble.

C. But how can he be made a quadruped?

F. By setting him to crawl on the ground, in which case he will as much resemble a baboon, as a baboon set on his hind legs does a man. In reality, there is little difference between the arms of a man and the fore legs of a quadruped; and in all other circumstances of internal and external structure, they are evidently formed upon the same model.

C. I suppose then we must call him a digitated quadruped that generally goes upon his hindlegs.

F. A naturalist could not reckon him otherwise; and accordingly Linnæus has placed him in the same division with apes, macocos, and bats. C. Apes, macocos, and bats!

F. Yes they have all four cutting teeth in the upper jaw, and teats on the breast. How do you like your relations?

C. Not at all.

F. Then we will get rid of them by applying to the other part of human nature-the mind. Man is an animal possessed of reason, and the only one. This, therefore, is enough to define him.

C. I have often heard that man is a rational creature, and I have a notion what that means; but I should like to have an exact definition of

reason.

F. Reason is the faculty by which we compare ideas and draw conclusions. A man walking in the woods of an unknown country finds a bow. He compares it in his mind with other bows, and forms the conclusion that it must have been made by man, and that therefore the country is proba bly inhabited. He discovers a hut; sees in it half-burnt wood, and finds that the ashes are not quite cold. He concludes, therefore, with certainty, not only that there are inhabitants, but that they cannot be far distant. No other animal could do this.

C. But would not a dog, who had been used to live with men, run into such a hut and expect to find people in it?

F. He probably would-and this, I acknow