uits him best."

His lips have moved with mutter'd sound--
A pause--and still the taunt goes round;
"Oh! quite worn out--'tis doting age,
Why lags the driveller on the stage?"

Again the halting speech he tries,
But words the faltering tongue denies,
Scarce heard the low unmeaning tone,
Then silent--as tho' life were flown.

The curtain falls, and rings the bell,
They know not 'tis the Player's knell;
Nor deem their noise and echoing cry
The dirge that speeds a soul on high!

Dead in his chair the old man lay,
His colour had not pass'd away;--
Clay-cold, the ruddy cheeks declare
What hideous mockery lingers there!

Yes! there the counterfeited hue
Unfolds with moral truth to view,
How false--as every mimic part--
His life--his labours--and his art!

The canvass-wood devoid of shade,
Above, no plaintive rustling made;
That moon, that ne'er its orb has fill'd,
No pitying, dewy tears distill'd.

The troop stood round--and all the past
In one brief comment speaks at last;
"Well, he has won the hero's name,
He died upon his field of fame."

A girl with timid grace draws near,
And like the Muse to sorrow dear,
Amid the silvery tresses lays
The torn stage-wreath of paper bays!

I saw two men the bier sustain;--
Two bearers all the funeral train!
They left him in his narrow bed,
No smile was seen--no tear was shed!

THE CRUSADES.[5]

The Crusades are, beyond all question, the most extraordinary and
memorable movement that ever took place in the history of mankind.
Neither ancient nor modern times can furnish any thing even approaching
to a parallel. They were neither stimulated by the lust of conquest nor
the love of gain; they were not the results of northern poverty pressing
on southern plenty, nor do they furnish an example of civilized
discipline overcoming barbaric valour. The warriors who assumed the
Cross were not stimulated, like the followers of Cortes and Pizarro, by
the thirst for gold, nor roused, like those of Timour and Genghis Khan,
by the passion for conquest. They did not burn, like the legionary
soldiers of Rome, with the love of country, nor sigh with Alexander,
because another world did not remain to conquer. They did not issue,
like the followers of Mahomet, with the sword in one hand and the
"Koran" in the other, to convert by subduing mankind, and win the houris
of Paradise by imbruing their hands in