AHASUERUS THE WANDERING JEW, AHASUERUS the Jew crept forth from the dark cave of Mount Carmel. Near two thousand years have elapsed since he was first goaded by never-ending restlessness, to rove the globe from pole to pole. When our Lord was wearied with the burthen of his ponderous cross, and wanted to rest before the door of Ahasuerus, the unfeeling wretch drove him away with brutality. The Saviour of mankind staggered, sinking under the heavy load, but uttered no complaint. An angel of death appeared before Ahasuerus, and exclaimed indignantly, "Barbarian! thou hast denied rest to the Son of Man: be it denied thee also, until he comes to judge the world.” A black demon, let loose from hell upon Ahasuerus, goads him now from country to country; he is denied the consolation which death affords, and precluded from the rest of the peaceful grave. Ahasuerus crept forth from the dark cave of Mount Carmel-he shook the dust from his beard -and taking up one of the skulls heaped there, hurled it down the eminence: it rebounded from the earth in shivered atoms. This was my father! roared Ahasuerus. Seven more skulls rolled down from rock to rock; while the infuriate Jew, following them with ghastly looks, exclaimed-And these were my wives. He still continued to hurl down skull after skull, roaring in dreadful accents-And these, and these, and these, were my children! They could die; but I reprobate wretch, alas! I cannot die! Dreadful beyond conception is the judgment that hangs over me. Jerusalem fell I crushed the sucking babe, and precipitated myself into the destructive flames. I cursed the Romans-but, alas ! alas! the restless curse held me by the hair and I could not die ! Rome the giantess fell-I placed myself before the falling statue-she fell, and did not crush me. Nations sprung up and disappeared before me-but I remained, and did not die. From cloud-encircled cliffs did I precipitate myself into the ocean-buț the foaming billows cast me upon the shore, and the burning arrow of existence pierced my cold heart again. I leaped into Etna's flaming abyss, and roared with the giants for ten long months, polluting with my groans the Mount's sulphureous mouth -ah! ten long months. The volcano fermented— and in a fiery stream of lava, cast me up. I lay torn by the torture-snakes of hell, amid the glowing cinders, and yet continued to exist. A forest was on fire: I darted on wings of fury and despair into the crackling wood. Fire dropped upon me from the trees, but the flames only singed my limbs— alas! it could not consume them. I now mixed with the butchers of mankind, and plunged in the tempest of the raging battle. I roared defiance to the infuriate Gaul-defiance to the victorious Ger¬ The serpent dragon tor man; but arrows and spears rebounded in shivers from my body. The Saracen's flaming sword broke upon my skull-balls in vain hissed upon me the lightnings of battle glared harmless around my loins-in vain did the elephant trample on me-in vain the iron hoof of the wrathful steed! The mine, big with destructive power, burst upon me, and hurled me high in the air. I fell on heaps of smoking limbs, but was only singed. The giant's steel club rebounded from my body; the executioner's hand could not strangle me; the tyger's tooth could not pierce me, nor would the hungry lion in the circus devour me. I mixed with poisonous snakes, and pinched the red crest of the dragon. stung, but could not destroy me; the mented, but dared not to devour me. voked the fury of tyrants: I said to Nero, Thou art a bloodhound! I said to Christiern, Thou art a bloodhound! I said to Muley Ismail, Thou art a bloodhound! The tyrants invented cruel torments, but did not kill me.- -Ha! not to be able to die -not to be able to die-not to be permitted to rest after the toils of life-to be doomed to be imprisoned for ever in the clay-formed dungeon-to be for never clogged with this worthless body, its load of diseases and infirmities-to be condemned to hold for millenniums that yawning monster Sameness and Time, that hungry hyena, ever bearing children, and ever devouring again her offspring!-Ha! not to be permitted to die! Awful avenger in heaven, hast I now pro thou in thine armoury of wrath a punishment more dreadful?then let it thunder upon me-command a hurricane to sweep me down to the foot of Carmel, that I there may lie extended: may pant, and writhe, and die!— — This fragment is the translation of part of some German work, whose title I have vainly endeavoured to discover. I picked it up, dirty and torn, some years ago, in Lincoln's-Inn Fields. SHELLEY. ACCOUNT OF SAM SCOT'S SMOKING CLUB. My magotty man Sam, as his master used to call him in the time of his apprenticeship; when he set up for himself, kept a music shop at the TempleGate, where the bastard sons of Apollo were accustomed to furnish themselves with harps and fiddles; and the tiptoe masters of the mathematical step used to supply their occasions with new minuets and bories. Sam Scot, the better to ingratiate himself with his customers, affected such a sort of life as he thought might be most agreeable to those whimsical performers, who, having their heads stuffed with crotchets, and their heels full of activity, could never rest in their beds till they had tamed their faculties, and drowned all thoughts of their airy professions, with an inebrious excess. This Sam Scot observing, was resolved to be as forward as any of them * in all bottle adventures, and merry midnight revellings; till at length by habitual drinking, smoking, and sitting up a-nights, he found but few upon a level with his quality, and those he selected as his dearest bosom companions. One a linen-draper, who marrying a boarding-school miss without a fortune, and being qualified in the step, was forced to turn dancing-master. Another was a Salisbury Court barber, one of the city musicians, who used to act the countryman upon my Lord Mayor's-day, and play the fool after dinner to please the wise men of the city. A third was a graver, who used to dig new songs upon copperplates, for his magotty musical companion. And the fourth a Scotch writing-master, famous for graving the Lord's Prayer, which he seldom said, within the compass of a silver penny. These had acquired such an expeditious way of consuming a pipe of tobacco, that when they met together, they would make no more of smoking a pound in an hour, than the drinking shoemaker does of a gallon of claret for his morning's draught, and were so extremely proud of this singular qualification, that they took a delight in smothering all the houses they frequented; so that, at the request of the victuallers, they were forced to adjourn from place to place; for though they spent their money freely, yet they were unwelcome guests, because, wherever they came, they poisoned the rest of the customers; for which reason, though they used no house constantly, they were called Sam |