Happiness and virtue are twins, which can never be divided; they are
born and flourish, or sicken and die together.---They are joint
offsprings of good-sense and innocence, and while they continue under
the guidance of such parents, they are invulnerable to injury, and
incapable of decay.
* * * * *
* * * *
THE VICTIM OF MAGICAL DELUSION.
_OR, INTERESTING MEMOIRS OF MIGUEL, DUKE DE CA*I*A._
Unfolding Many Curious Unknown Historical Facts.
_Translated from the German of Tschink._
(Continued from page 22.)
I found indeed a number of letters, however, they were written in
cyphers. Now I comprehended why the Count had asked repeatedly whether I
could read cyphers? Having made it a rule, in regard to this point,
always to deny the question, he had probably left these writings on the
supposition that I should not be able to read them, and saved only those
which were written in common characters. However, the Count had deceived
himself this time, for I am pretty well skilled in the art of
decyphering. I took one of the papers which were marked 1. 2. 3. &c. &c.
however, I perceived on the first attempt, that my art would encounter a
hard trial. Yet this did not deter, but rather animated me to exert all
my skill to find the key to these papers, while my servant was occupied
with taking an exact copy of the rest.
I had already been working above twenty-four hours without seeing my
labour crowned with success, when my servant, whom I had sent to the
post, returned with a letter. Conceive my astonishment, when I found it
was from the Count.
“Whatever Paleski may have discovered to your Grace with respect to me,
yet I am assured that he cannot have said any thing for which my
conscience condemns me, though I should not be able to defend it before
an ecclesiastical, or a civil court of justice. I have deceived you;
however, I have done it for a great and noble purpose, and by order of a
powerful being, whose authority I and you acknowledge. I should despise
myself, if mean, or self-interested views, could have prompted me to do
what I have done. To stimulate you to take an active part in the
delivery of your country, was the sole reason for which you have been
imposed upon. Although Paleski should not have disclosed the secret to
you, yet you would not have remained in the dark much longer, because it
was the plan of the _Unknown_ to remove the veil from your eyes, and to
introduce you into a new world, for which you was to be prepared by the
delusions which you have experienced. Man is led to truth by error,
according to an eternal law of nature. It was necessary that you should
be made acquainted with delusions, that your look might be sharpened for
future knowledge; it was necessary you should experience the highest
degree of delusion, that you might acquire the prerogative of discerning
fraud from reality, and of never suffering yourself to be imposed upon
again. Then, and not sooner, the time would have arrived, when the
_Unknown_ would have shown himself to you in his real shape, and
embraced you not only as a preserver of your country, but also as a
member of that sacred society of wise men, who are admitted behind the
curtain of nature, whither no eye of common short-sighted men can
penetrate. A power and a happiness of which you can form no adequate
notion, would have been your reward. Your tutor already enjoys that
reward, and if you had been keen-sighted enough to penetrate, without
assistance, the mist of delusions with which you have been encompassed,
you would have been admitted some time since to the sanctuary where that
reward awaits you. More I dare not say at present; however, I would
advise you not to postpone your journey, and neither to betray me or the
U_nknown_. If you slight my advice, then you must ascribe to yourself
all the bad consequences which may arise from it, and you never will
meet again in this world your tutor or Amelia. I conjure you not to
mistake this for a new delusion. If you, on the other side, are inclined
to profit by this advice, you will continue your journey with all
possible expedition, and not think it finished before you shall be
arrived at Ma***d, the capital of Sp***n, you will meet the _Unknown_,
Amelia and your tutor, on the road. At *ubea you will stop at the inn
which bears the sign of the golden mirror, where you are to receive an
important visit. You will have the goodness to send my trunk to the
post-house, where one of my people will call for it. I remain, with that
respect and love with which I always have been,
“Your Grace’s, &c. &c.”
I must confess, I never should have expected _such_ a letter. I fancied
it would be couched in terms of repentance and submission, and when I
opened it, found it to be a letter of a man of good conscience, who took
it upon himself to advise and to warn me. What he told me of a hidden
sanctuary to which the _Unknown_ had designed to introduce me after I
should have completed my time of probation, was an utter riddle to me,
but what he told me about my tutor was still more so. At first I fancied
this to be nothing but a varnish, by which he would conceal his
deceptions, and an artifice to ensnare me a second time; however the
idea that the matter _might_ be as he had stated it, made me uneasy, and
his menaces with respect to the bad consequences of my discontinuing
my journey, frightened me. The bare possibility of the execution
of his threats, was sufficient to determine me to continue my
journey.---Pietro, my faithful servant, endeavoured indeed to persuade
me to drop my design assailing me with tears and prayers; however,
nothing could change my resolution. I would have encountered any danger
and difficulty in order to meet Amelia and my tutor again, and departed
with the first dawn of day. I left the Count’s trunk at the post-house
at **zin. At ***jelo, I was, at length, so fortunate as to find a key to
the cyphers which I had despaired to unfold. I had already tried all
languages which I was master of, and succeeded at length with the Latin.
How amply did I think my trouble rewarded, when I found the papers to be
copies of letters which the _Unknown_ had wrote on my account to Pinto
Ribeiro, privy counsellor of the Duke of Br**za. Here follows the
translation:
“Your Excellency knows how carefully we endeavoured to conceal the place
of our secret meetings from the intrusion of prying strangers, by
spreading the report that it was haunted. However, this did not deter a
young nobleman who is on his travels, from entering last night the
castle, in company of his tutor, with the intention of forming an
acquaintance with the ghosts. No sooner had we been informed of their
being arrived at the castle, when Georgio de M**** offered to chastise
them for their inquisitiveness, fixing twelve o’clock at night for the
execution of his design. He disguised himself as the most dreadful
spectre which ever has appeared at midnight. Concluding from the
undertaking of the two strangers that they were men of spirit and
resolution, he put on a coat of mail, and covered his face with a mask
made of bull-skins, in order to be proof against swords and pistols;
a precaution which, as the event proved, was not superfluous. Thus
accoutred, he approached at twelve o’clock the apartment of the
strangers with a tremendous noise. Their door was bolted from within as
he had apprehended; however, all the locks and bolts in the castle being
constructed in such a manner that they can be opened from without,
Georgio found it not difficult to push their door open. I remained at
the threshold in order to wait the event. Georgio no sooner had entered
the room with a design to chastise the young man who was sitting near
the window, at a table on which two candles were burning, than his tutor
started up, aiming a blow at him from behind which would have done his
business at once, if Georgio had not been protected by his coat of mail.
The pretended spectre threw the old gentleman so violently on the ground
that he was unable to move a limb. This sight entirely disconcerted the
young man, who was on the point of firing a pistol at his frightful
visitor, rushed on him with a thundering voice, extinguished the
candles, and beating him in such a manner as if he was going to beat him
to atoms. Georgio’s dress being anointed with a salve composed of
phosphorus, he appeared in the dark, to be all on fire. The dreadful
impression which this sight produced on the mind of the young man was
increased by the howling, groaning, and the tremendous noise which some
of our company raised in the apartment over his head; he seemed to be
senseless. As soon as Georgio perceived his helpless state, he lighted
the candles with phosphorus, and left the apartment which he carefully
bolted and locked.
“An hour after this scene had been acted, Georgio returned to the
apartment, partly with the intention of seeing what effect the incident
had produced on the strangers, and partly with a view to deter them from
paying a second visit to the castle, and renewed the former scene. Both
of them were again stretched senseless on their beds. As soon as Georgio
had done with the young nobleman, he left the room without kindling the
taper, for fear of being watched by the young spark, if he should
recover his recollection a little too soon. He was not mistaken. But who
would have thought that the young man would be so daring to pursue the
spectre on his return through the dark passage? Georgio, who did not
entertain the most distant idea of such an attempt, neither looked back,
nor shut the trap-door thro’ which he had jumped down into the
subterraneous vault, upon a heap of hay and straw. He had not advanced
four steps, when the report of a pistol re-echoed through the
subterraneous fabric. Some of our company who were at hand, hastened to
the spot from whence the report of the pistol had proceeded, wrapt in
black cloaks, and provided with torches and swords. They found the young
man lying upon the straw upon which he had fallen in the dark through
the trap-door. He was instantly seized and conducted to the
assembly-room, where the conspirators, who had previously masked their
faces, were sitting around a long table. Hearing that he was to pay with
his life for his rashness, he drew his sword, but was soon disarmed and
confined in an adjoining chamber.
(_To be continued._)
* * * * *
CURSORY THOUGHTS ON THE FICKLE GODDESS,
SHEWING WITH WHAT INJUSTICE SHE GENERALLY DISPENSES HER FAVOURS.
It has long been the complaint of the experienced, that no human
foresight, no prudence, can at all times ensure prosperity, and avert
ill fortune. Something still arises to baffle the counsels of the wise,
and to counteract the intentions of the good. The Roman satirist has
indeed asserted, that fortune is a deity of our own creation, and that
he, who submits to the guidance of prudence, needs not the interposition
of any supernatural power; but experience proves the assertion to be
rather the effusion of rigid and affected philosophy, than the cool
suggestion of well-informed reason.
The observation of a sacred moralist, that the race is not to the swift,
nor the battle to the strong, is more agreeable to truth, and has been
confirmed by the repeated testimony of some thousand years. Wisdom is
often found guilty of folly, and ingenuity of error.
As merit cannot always ensure success, even in the exertion of its
peculiar excellence, so it is by no means certain of obtaining a good
reception in the world: for history and experience furnish many examples
to prove, that wealth and power are not the necessary consequences of
wisdom and virtue. To be wise and virtuous, may be learned from an
Epictetus, to be fortunate from others.
It might indeed be supposed, that strength of intellects, accuracy of
judgment, and extensive erudition, would either secure to themselves
good fortune, or would, at least, be rewarded by the world; but it is an
incontestable truth, that poets and philosophers, of every age and every
nation, have been as much distinguished by their indigence, as their
ingenuity. Poverty and poetry are almost synonymous, while the unerring
experience of mankind has reduced it to a proverb, that fools have
fortune.
The insufficiency of merit, and of honest endeavours, to the acquisition
of fame and fortune, has given occasion to the discontented to repine,
and censure the economy of human affairs: but they who are conversant in
the investigation of final causes, easily perceive, that such a
dispensation tends to perfect virtue, by the exercise of patience.
* * * * *
_MORAL AXIOM._
Those who reprove with passion for every trifle, in a little time will
not be regarded when they reprove with reason.
* * * * *
* * * *
_For the +New-York Weekly Magazine+._
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