Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

It is r lated of Dangeau, that he was such an enthusiast in the study of Grammar, on which subject he composed several treatises, that once being told some interesting political new, he replied, between jest and earnest, "Happen what will, I have in my port folio, two thousand French verbs, well conjugated.”

PRONENESS TO SUPERSTITION.

Mons. de Fontenelle, a writer justly celebrated for his admirable parts and learning, speaking of the origin and progress of popular superstitions, says, "Give me but half a dozen persons, whom I can persuade, that it is not the sun which makes our day light, and I should not despair of drawing whole nations to embrace the same belief. For how ridiculous soever the opinion be, let it be supported only for a certain time, and the business is done: for when it once becomes ancient, it is sufficiently proved."

What would Fontenelle have said to the following note in the sermon of the venerable and learned Bishop Jewel, preached before Queen Elizabeth? "It may please your Grace to understand, that this kind of people, I mean witches, and sorcerers, within these few years are marvellously increased, within your Grace's realm. These eyes have seen most manifest marks of their wickedness.

"Your Grace's subjects pine away,

even unto death; heir colour fadeth their flesh rotteth; their speech is benumbed; their senses bereft. Wherefore your poor subject's humble petition to your Highness is, that the laws touching such malefactors, may be put in due execution shoal of them is great, their doings For the examples most miserable: and I pray horrible, their malice intolerable, their God they never practice farther than upon the subject."

GEOGRAPHY TAUGHT IN HALF AN

HOUR.

No part of education, excepting that of natural philosophy, is more important in the point of instruction, than geography. ask me, when should we begin it. I They sometimes have given my answer, in a little almanack, the first lesson of a course of geography. Complain as you will of abridgments, they are necessary. This is the reason I begin with the shortest of all abridgments-The whole of geography taught in half an hour.

I take a globe of the earth, and I say to my pupil, Let us make the tour of the world with General Bougainville, or Captain Cook. Let us set sail from Brest. We will shortly on our voyage meet with Madeira, a place famous for its wines, Then we will gain the coasts of South A ..erica, which furnishes gold, and silver, and chocolate, and Peruvian-bark. And then we will take a peep at the great Patagonians. We then enter into a great sea of 2000 leagues in extent. There we will find Robinson Crusoe's Island, Otaheitte, New-Zea land, where Captain Martin was devoured by the Savages, with all his officers Beyond this, the Moluccas, where they get the mercede. China, which furnishes us with porcelain. India, which gives muslin, canella, pearls and diamonds. We will return by the coast of Africa, from whence we

[blocks in formation]

skies,

From root plebeian, its first glories rise; What then avails, when rightly understood, The boast of ancestry, the pride of blood? Through the long gall'ries pictur'd walk to tread,

And, pompous, ponder on the mighty dead, Where greatness rattles in some rotten frame,

And the moth feeds on beauty's fading flame,

O'er the pale portrait, and the noseless bust, Oblivion strews a soft, sepulchral dust; The line illustrious seems to stain the wall, And one sublime of soot envelopes all. What could the trophy'd lie to Howe atone For British honour mortgag'd with his own?

His nightly cares and watchings to sustain A bank at Pharo, and a chess-campaign? While Wolfe, on high, in pictur'd glory, lies, The cry of vict'ry hails, and, smiling, dies. Dare Courtenay claim the honours of his kind?

The pompous lineage shames the pigmy

mind.

[blocks in formation]

May boast himself of the Milesian line.
Let plain humility precede his grace,
Let modest merit walk before the mace:
Office and rank are duties of the mind,
The rights they claim, are debts they owe

mankind;

And not a voice among the nameless croud, That may not cry-'Tis I who make them proud.

To rule strong passions with a calm con<< troul,

To spread around a sanctity of soul,
That meets, serene, the foam of public
strife,

And perfumes every act of lesser life,
Virtue to feel, and virtue to impart,
That household God which consecrates the
heart,

Flies from the fretted roof, the gilded

dome

To rest within an humbler, happier home; Behold the GENTLEMAN-Cconfess'd and clear,

For nature's patent never made a peer,
The mean ennobled, nor adorn'd the base
Merit alone, with her, creates a race.

Conspicuous stars, in chart of his'try
plac'd,

To chear the dreary, biographic waste, In their own right, they take their seats sublime,

And break illustrious through the cloud of time.

From nicknam'd curs these titles first.

[blocks in formation]

Still as the name grow's son'd, and gathers dirt,

They shift their title, as they change their shirt,

Some newer honour makes them white and fair,

Sidney soaps Tom, and Jack is cleans'd by Clare.

But how could wash of heraldry efface The name of Burke, and dignify disgrace! Could peerage blazon o'er the pension'd page,

Or give a gloss to ignominious age? Himself, the prime corrupter of his laws, Himself, the grievance which incens'd he draws;

Not to be blam'd, but in a tender tone, Not to be prais'd, but with a heart-felt groan,

He lives, a lesson for all future time, Pathetically great, and painfully sublime.

O why is genius curs'd with length of days?

The head still flourishing, the heart decays; Protracted life makes virtue less secure, The death of wits is seldom premature.

Quench'd too by years, gigantic John

son's zeal,

[merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

Sink down, ye dregs-I float at top-the

scum.

Yet grant that some, the lowest of the throng,

Have known the right, as well as felt the wrong,

That he who rul'd with iron rod, the skies; And at whose feet the broken sceptre lies, He too, whose daring democratic pen Gives common-sense once more to common

men,

Who smiles at génius in confusion hurl'd, And, with light lever, elevates the world; Grant, that such men, the Adams of their line

Spring from the earth, but own a sire divine; While you, with ancestry around you plac'd,

In bronze or marble, porcelain or paste;
May rise at death, to alabaster fame,
And gain the smoke of honour, not the
flame.

Thus far for him, the proud inflated lord, With father concubin'd,and mother whor'è! In all so high in rank, or man, or woman; No sense so rare, as what we call the com

mon.

Scorning that level, they ascend the skies Like the puff'd bag, whose lightness makes it rise

Titles and arms the varnish'd silk may bear, Within-'tis nought but pestilential air.

What's honour ?-virtue to its height refin'd,

The felt aroma of the unseen mind, That cheers the senses, tho' it cheats the sight,

And spreads abroad, its elegant delight.

Turn from the past, and bring thy honours home

Thyself the ancestor, for times to come. Not the low parasite who prowls for

bread,

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

gone,

The flow'r faded, and its essence flown. What precious balm, what aromatic art, Can cleanse pollution from the public heart?

Better to make the farthest earth our home,

With nature's commoner's at large to roam, Than join this social war of clan to clan, Where civil life has barbariz'd the man.

Behold you ISLE-the glory of the west, By nature's hand, in lively verdure drest, How to the world, it spreads its harbour'd side,

And proudly swells above th' Atlantic tide, Where to the ocean, Shannon yields his store,

And scorns the channel of a subject shore. Green meadows spread-resplendent rivers

run

A healthy climate, and a temperate sun.
There-misery sits, and eats her lazy root,
There-man is proud to dog his brother
brute-

In sloth, the genius of the Isle decays,
Lost in his own, reverts to former days,
Yet still, like Lear, would in his hovel rule,
Mock'd by the madman, jested by the fool.

There meet th' extremes of rank, there

social art,

In savage times, the seat of learning known In times refin'd, itself the savage grown; Left to herself, she of herself had join'd Surrounding nations, in the race of mind. With them, work'd off the rough barbarian soul,

With them progressive to a common goal. Her petty chieftains, conquer'd by the throne,

For common interest, while it meant its

own;

By law, at length, the King to people chain'd,

His duties modell'd, and their rights maintain'd,

From strong collision of internal strife, Had sprung an energy of public life, (For pain and travail that precede the birth,

Endear sweet freedom to the mother earth,) Then, man had rais'd his spacious fore-head high,

Lord, of himself, the sea, the soil, the sky, Twin'd round his sword, the wreath of civic art,

And prov'd the wisdom of a fearless heart: No penal code had then impal'd the land

[blocks in formation]

Has levell'd mankind by the selfish heart. UNAW'D by threats, unmoved by force,

There no contented middle rank we trace,
The sole ambition to be rich and base.
Some, o'er their native element, elate,
Like ice-form'd islands, tow'r in frozen
state,

Repel all nature, with their gelid breath, And what seems harbour, is the jaw of death;

The wretched mass beat down the strug gling mind,

Nor see, nor feel their country, nor their

kind;

But bow the back, and bend the eye to earth,

And strangle feeling, in its infant birth; Through all, extends one sterile swamp of soul,

And fogs of apathy invest the whole.

Thrice blest in fate, had Strongbow never bore,

His band of robbers to green Erin's shore !

My steady soul pursues her course,
Collected, calm, resigned;

Say, you who search with curious eyes,
The source whence human actions rise,

Say, whence this turn of mind;
"Tis patience....Lenient goddess, hail 1
Oh! let thy votary's vow prevail,

Long hast thou been a welcome guest,
Thy threaten'd flight to stay;
Long reign'd an inmate in this breast,
And rul'd with gentle sway.

Thro' all the various turns of fate,
Ordain'd me in each several state,

My wayward lot has known;
What taught me silently to bear,
To curb the sigh, to check the tear,

When sorrow weigh'd me down? 'Twas patience.....Temperate goddess, stay! For still thy dictates I obey,

Nor yield to passion's power;

Tho' by injurious foes borne down,
My fame, my toil, my hopes o'erthrown,
In one ill-fated hour.

When robb'd of what I held most dear,
My hands adorn'd the mournful bier,
Of her I lov'd so well;
What, when mute sorrow chain'd my
tongue,

As o'er the sable hearse I hung,

Forbade the tide to swell?
'Twas Patience.....Goddess ever calm!
Oh! pour into my breast thy balın,
That antidote to pain;
Which flowing from thy nectar'd urn,
By chemistry divine can turn,
Our losses into gain.

When sick, and languishing in bed,
Sleep from my restless couch had fled,
(Sleep which e'en pain beguiles)
What taught me calmly to sustain,
A feverish being rack'd with pain,

And dress'd my looks in smiles?
'Twas Patience.... Heaven descended maid!
Implor'd, flew swiftly to my aid,

And lent her fostering breast;
Watch'd my sad hours with parent care,
Repell'd the approaches of despair,

And sooth'd my soul to rest.
Say, when dissever'd from his side,
My friend, protector, and my guide,
When my prophetic soul,
Anticipating all the storm,
Saw danger in its direst form,

What could my fear controul?

'Twas Patience..... Gentle goddess, hear !
Be ever to thy suppliant near,

Nor let one murmur rise;
Since still some mighty joys are given,
Dear to my soul the gifts of heaven,
The sweet domestic ties.

THE WEDDING-RING.

ANNETTE was milder than the dew,
That spangles Arno's scented grove,
And Lubin, constant, fond, and true,
As ever told the tale of love,

One eve, with chaste, yet mantling smile,
He bade her guess what he could bring,
Then, from a bosom void of guile,

He blush'd, and trembling took a ring.
The maiden fluttered, sidled, sɛigh'd,

Oh, Cupid, 'twas a charming scene, And with affected coyness, cry'd,

Dear, what can such a trinket mean?
"Mean! cry'd the youth, with glowing
cheek,

And flurried that she so mistook;
A ring-dove dropt it from his beak,
I pick'd it up in yonder brook.
And much we owe, my lovely fair,
To this kind token of the dove,
Who dropt it for the purpose there,
A faithful emblem of our love.
It is of clearest gold refin'd,

Affection's chastest sigh, be sure,
And polish'd, like my Annette's mind,
As simple, elegant, and pure.

Its round too-what is that to prove,

To what can such an emblem tend?
What but th' eternity of love,

A love, like mine, that knows no end.
Annette, they say-nay in this curve

No sorcery lurks, nor lawless art,
That in this finger there's a nerve
Which leads directly to the heart.
Touch'd by this gold, for raptur'd there
Love's charming witcheries are such,
Fancy would falter to declare

The thrilling pleasure-Shall I touch?
It struck her finger-raptur'd quite

She cry'd-You're foolish, get you gone-s Yet, if the touch be such delight,

What happiness to put it on?

He seized the hint the willing maid
Scarce knew what she had said or done,
But love's sweet influence obey'd,

And kiss'd the ring that made them osz.
And now when rude or playful jest,

At happy wedlock had its fling,
She clasps her Lubin to her breast,
And smiling shews-her wedding-ring.

FOREIGN LITERATURE.

(Continuation of the Report of Mathematical

Class of Institute.)
MR.
R. SAGE has also wirtten a pa-
per, and Messrs. Guyton and

Vauquelin presented a report on the advantages and inconveniences of employing zinc in covering houses. The

« PreviousContinue »