tiers, and said, "What a great pity that the finest genius of the age has become suddenly mad!"
Upon this charge of madness, the prince caused Tasso to be shut up in the hospital of St. Anna. His long years of imprisonment, his sufferings, his laments, are known to everybody. In a few words, we will close the story of the unfortunate Eleonora. Obliged to witness the cruel punishment of her lover, and knowing the inflexible character of her brother, she fell into a slow fever; constantly receiving the tender complaints of the poet, whose pangs were daggers to her heart, she gradually sank into the grave. Solitary and melancholy, she dragged on the last days of her life; holding converse with no one, living on sad memories, languishing, and fading away. The doors of Tasso's prison were at length opened; but she was dead! Youth, love, fortune, all had vanished; fame, it is true, remained. The laurel-crown was placed on his brow at Rome, in the midst of a pompous festival. Could this recompense him for his wasted youth and his lost Eleonora? She died in 1681, about the first year of Tasso's imprisonment.'
ESTHER,
A Jewish maiden, whose great beauty raised her to the throne of Persia, whereby she saved her countrymen from total extermination. Esther was an orphan, brought up by her cousin Mordecai, who was of the tribe of Benjamin, the great-grandson of Kish, one of the captives taken from Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar. Mordecai was probably born in Babylon; but he was a devout worshipper of the God of Israel. He had adopted Esther as his own daughter;—and when, after King Ahasuerus had repudiated his first queen Vashti, and chosen the "fair and beautiful" Jewish maid, then her uncle, who had strictly enjoined her not to let it be made known to the king that she was a Jewess, left Babylon for Susa, where he often waited at the gate to see his niece, and hear of her welfare.
About this time Ahasuerus passed an ordinance, importing that none of his household, under penalty of death, should come into his presence while he was engaged in the administration of justice. If, however, he extended the golden sceptre towards the intruder, the penalty was to be remitted. Not long after, two of the chamberlains of the king conspired against him; the plot was disclosed to Mordecai, and, through the medium of Esther, the king was apprised of his danger. Mordecai received no reward for this service, except having the transaction entered in the records of the state, and being allowed the privilege of admission to the palace.
Haman, an Amalekite, now became the chief favourite of King Ahasuerus; Mordecai, probably proud of his Jewish blood, and despising the base parasite, refused to bow down to him in the gate, as did all the king's servants. This affront, so offensive to Haman's pride, determined him not only to destroy Mordecai, but all the captive Jews throughout the dominions of King Ahasuerus. The favourite made such representations to the king concerning them, that a proclamation for their entire destruction was promulgated.
The result is known to all who have read the "Book of Esther;" how this pious and beautiful woman, trusting in heaven and ear-
