imperfect. Yet, some
undulating lines on the puffed-out cheeks, displayed signs of timid,
servile good nature; and the skin of the forehead had been so often drawn
up by wonder, that the few hairs of the eyebrows were fixed in a sharp
arch, whilst an ample chin rested in lobes of flesh on his protuberant
breast.

By his side was a body that had scarcely ever much life in it--sympathy
seemed to have drawn them together--every feature and limb was round and
fleshy, and, if a kind of brutal cunning had not marked the face, it
might have been mistaken for an automaton, so unmixed was the phlegmatic
fluid. The vital spark was buried deep in a soft mass of matter,
resembling the pith in young elder, which, when found, is so equivocal,
that it only appears a moister part of the same body.

Another part of the beach was covered with sailors, whose bodies
exhibited marks of strength and brutal courage.--Their characters were
all different, though of the same class; Sagestus did not stay to
discriminate them, satisfied with a rough sketch. He saw indolence roused
by a love of humour, or rather bodily fun; sensuality and prodigality
with a vein of generosity running through it; a contempt of danger with
gross superstition; supine senses, only to be kept alive by noisy,
tumultuous pleasures, or that kind of novelty which borders on absurdity:
this formed the common outline, and the rest were rather dabs than
shades.

Sagestus paused, and remembered it had been said by an earthly wit, that
"many a flower is born to blush unseen, and waste its sweetness on the
desart air." How little, he exclaimed, did that poet know of the ways of
heaven! And yet, in this respect, they are direct; the hands before me,
were designed to pull a rope, knock down a sheep, or perform the servile
offices of life; no "mute, inglorious poet" rests amongst them, and he
who is superior to his fellow, does not rise above mediocrity. The genius
that sprouts from a dunghil soon shakes off the heterogenous mass; those
only grovel, who have not power to fly.

He turned his step towards the mother of the orphan: another female was
at some distance; and a man who, by his garb, might have been the
husband, or brother, of the former, was not far off.

Him the sage surveyed with an attentive eye, and bowed with respect to
the inanimate clay, that lately had been the dwelling of a most
benevolent spirit. The head was square, though the features were not very
promi