Said the quaint old Bishop Fuller, " I have read of a bird which hath a face like, and yet will prey upon a man : who, coming to the water to drink, and finding there by reflection, that he had killed one like himself, pineth away by degrees, and never afterwards enjoyeth itself." How inapplicable to the creature of the present day, who, preying upon his fellow-man, reaps not only enjoyment, but profit, and perhaps a renown — of infamy. ' .

Bom in a fable — a myth of the sunny climes of India, — it is yet in civilized Europe and America, a fact as palpable as the instability of a politician, or the falsity of friendship. It grows by what it feeds on, thriving most luxuriantly on the most dainty delicates of society — the pure and noble-minded heart ; the reputation, that, knowing no wrong, fears no stain, and recks not of the secret foe, until the Parthian shaft strikes home.

There is a social, as well as a political Vampyre ; the former is more secret in its operations — ^it hails you with the kiss of peace — even with the taint of the thirty pieces of silver upon its lips, and giving you the embrace of friendship, daily inflicts the secret stab upon your honor and your reputation, tainting the life's blood, and withering the heart of the unconscious victim. The grasp of Caesar Borgia was not more sure; the poison which his envenomed ring gave forth was not more deadly, than is the tongue of the social Vam- pyre of the civilized world.

Yea, we have known it to invade the Sanctuary ; to take the shape even of those who turn up their hypocritical eyes to heaven, and daily smiting their breasts, thank God they " are not as the pub- lican."

Filled with a fervor, which in their blasphemous idea is akin to the Godhead, they ofier up solemn prayers with the lips, while in their hearts they are devising some smooth and specious tale of vil- lainy, which, in the eye of the truly righteous, would be deemed a foul lie, but which the sensitive minions of society soften into the inofien- sive term of " a little scandal." Mark then how eagerly, ere the dying tones of the last prayer have ceased to fall upon the ear, they seize some spirit like unto themselves, and into their ear *' pour the leprous distilment," the slander and the shame destined to murder some inoffending one by inches; with a refinement of torture draw- ing drop by drop the heart's blood of the guileless and the innocent being, whose crime it is to be purer than themselves.

It has not the boldness and courage of the desperado, who meets you with the knife and the pistol, and at least gives you a chance for life in the deadly struggle. It lurks in the darkness ; it strikes in whispers ; it sends forth its venom in anonymous letters ; it fattens and revels on the good and noble heart in silence. Then, when bleeding at every pore from the foul slanders that meet it at every turning in the social world, the victim seeks for pity, and finds none : then comes the holiday of this fiend of hell, clothed in the garb of angels ! Then is this Yampyre of the human heart happy in the paradise it has created for itself, amid the ruined temples of humanity.

The best specimens of a political Vampyre, are generally to be found at the head of some ostensible moral, and high-toned journal. All is fish that comes to their net; under the assumption of a political morality, they can indulge in the censure, the sneer and the lie ; true it is, avowing great candor, and " feeling the necessity of speaking boldly the truth," they sometimes "o'erstep the modesty of nature;'' and finding that the pulse of the community does not beat responsive to their own, cheerfully (as they say) make the correction, and are extremely gratified to be enabled so to do. But, "swifter than arrow from Tartar's bow," the poisoned shaft has fled with electric speed, throughout the length and breadth of the land ; and the correction, if made, may seek to overtake the lie, and seek in vain. It is Godwin, who says, we believe, in his novel of Mandeville, " They disseminate the lie, and send after it the acknowledgment of their error : but the lie flies fast, and the vindication never can overtake it."

Now, your mere politician, is perhaps no better than he should be, and such is the opinion of the mass of the community. Your legis- lator and your statesman may occasionally expose their weakest spot ; the vulnerable part of Achilles was the heel, and the shaft of Paris found it ; so be assured, if the seeker after fame and power, however pure he may be now, has ever faltered, or fallen into a venial sin, the shaft of the political Yampyre will be sure to reach it, even through the dim distance of a score of years. As to the Yampyre himself, he is invulnerable to aught but " Black mail," judiciously administered. If there is a vulnerable spot about him, you may rest assured it is not the heart.

Again, let the artist, filled with a high and noble appreciation of the beauty of her art, appear among us from a distant land; in her moral worth, sublime; in her artistical excellence, rare; a very woman, yet a true and honest one. You may hear afar, the flutter of the Vampyre's wings, as he circles round her, glaring upon her with a sinister eye. " The pound of flesh, but not one drop of blood," said Portia to the Jew. " The pound of flesh, aye, and the drop of blood," says your moral journalist, " or we will fasten on you, and day by day draw from your sensitive heart, by slander and defamation, by ridicule and bravado, the daily pang to darken your pathway through the world forever." K she resists, though she may sufier, good men will applaud ; if she succumbs, and feeds the ponderous maw of tlie vile thing, through fear, she will find as others have found, that the praise of the corrupt is more to be dreaded than their censure ; and that the surest way to meet and overcome such a foe, is to spurn with contempt the snake, whose touch is loathsome, and whose daily path is known by the slimy track he leaves behind.

Yea, the Yampyre revels everywhere : in the Sanctuary, in the crowded mart, by the domestic hearth ; everywhere he is to be found. Strip off" the mask of hypocrisy which he wears abroad, and you will find the face of a fiend; beware, lest in doing so, you strike at the foundation of your worldly happiness, in thus betraying to your eyes the false face and false heart which you have daily taught yourself to love ; better, perhaps, to live on in ignorance of the wrong and deceit practised upon you, than to have your faith and hope in human love shattered forever. .

W. A. S.