Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

15. The infuriate Gesler immediately ordered his soldiers to seize him, but the populace interfered, and a tumult ensued, during which a well directed arrow from the bow of Tell struck the tyrant to the heart, and obtained for the patriotic hero the honorable appellation of Deliverer of his Country.

THE FIELD OF BATTLE.

THE sun had disappeared beneath the flood,
The watchful sentinels, with weary tread,
Measured the waning of the day of blood,
And careless trod among the unburied dead.

2. The grass is wet, but not with wholesome dew,
Its verdure blushes deep with human gore;
And friends and foes promiscuously strew,
This silent bed, at enmity no more.

3. How few of all who met with deadly zeal,
Knew well the causes of conflicting pride;
How fewer still could personally feel
The hatred which has lain them side by side!
4. I pity such by hard condition led
To be the passive instruments of power;
Who sell their lives and liberty for bread
To satisfy the cravings of an hour.

5. No one so mean of all the brave who die,
But calls some sympathizing sorrow forth;
Small is the share of grief that meets the eye,
Unnotic'd falls the tear for humble worth.

6. Few see the father bending o'er the son,
The sole sad prop on which his age depended;
The helpless widow wandering alone,
And thousand houseless orphans unbefriended.
7. O could the wail of orphans reach his ear,
Or could he feel a parent's agony,

And see the widow'd mother's hopeless tear,
The sure and dreadful price of victory;

8. O could the ambitious once approach, and view The desolation his ambition made,

Methinks some milder method he'd pursue,
And quit forever war's unhallow'd trade.

9. O when will justice guide, and wisdom light,
And mercy to the great her rays impart!
A splendid victory proves no conqueror right,
And worlds could never heal one broken heart.
10. What is a nation's honour, if the price
Is individual peace, and happiness?
And what is glory, if her temple rise
Upon the base of national distress?

11. Then if the certain fruits of war are woe,
And the destruction of domestic bliss,
Ungather'd let the warrior's laurels grow,
They must be poisonous in a soil like this.

INSINCERITY IN CONVERSATION.

MUCH has been written on the art of translating from foreign languages, both dead and living, but I do not recollect that any one has expressly written on the subject of translations from our own language, and the common conversation of life.

2. I have often remarked how useful it would be in our intercourse with men, if we could discover the real meaning of those who speak or write to us; not that people do not know how to express their sentiments, but because they wish to be unintelligible.

3. To prevent being deceived in this manner, it is very necessary to trauslate what men say into what they think. I do not profess however to be skilled in this science, aud shall therefore, only point out a few general precepts, and explain them,by examples.

4. Thus, whenever a man speaks against his own interest, and, with affected modesty, accuses himself of some defect, be on your guard against him; for you may depend upon it there is something in his conversation to be translated.

5. Great compliments, protestations of esteem, and eulogiums upon your merit, mean in other words that you are

necessary to him who flatters you, and that he is about to ask some favour of you.

6. In general, the good which is said of others stands in need of some explanation or commentary; but it is not so with the good a man says of himself; his only fear is that he may not be sufficiently explicit. The majority of females would be indignant at the flattery which is lavished upon them, if they had been accustomed from their youth to translate it into its true meaning.

7. One man is nominated to some public office to which another is aspiring, who accuses him incapability and dishonesty, but should he talk whole hours in this strain, his conversation may be translated by one word, envy.

8. In fine, I would recommend to all persons who wish to know the truth, not to rest satisfied with the literal expression, but translate, translate, and recollect, that the obvious sense is not always the true one. Happy indeed are those friends, who can converse intelligibly together, and stand in no need of a translation.

[ocr errors]

THE YANKEE IN ENGLAND.

SELECTED BY PERMISSION FROM SCENES IN THE DRAMA OF GENERAL HUMPHREYS.

Enter Doolittle alone.

Doolittle. OH, Doolittle! Doolittle! you have brought your pigs to a fine market. Now I guess you'd better staid at hum with mother. She tell'd you all about the perils of the salt sea, but you would'nt believe her. No, no, you were too plaguy knowing for poor mother; and you e'ena-most broke her heart, you know you did: (Sobbing) yes; yes; you were a nation deal wiser than brother Jonathan and all the rest on'em. Oh, Doolittle! Dolittle! what will become of you next? In strange parts; all in tatters; without a copper, or a cent. Where to git a day's work or a meal's vittles is more than I know. But there's no use in being dumpish and downish. I'll boost my sperits up a Jeetle higher, as the boys do when they go through the ber

rying yard alone in a dark night. (Whistles the tune of Yankee doodle.)

[ocr errors]

Enter General Stuart.

Gen. You belong to this house, young man don't you? Doo. No: I guess, I belong to America, when I'm at hum.

Gen. You did'nt exactly comprehend my meaning, but it is of no consequence. But as you belong to America, and I am acquainted there, I make free to enquire in what part you were born?

Doo. Do you know where New-Haven is?
Gen. Yes.

Loo. Well, I was not born there.

Gen. Why did you ask the question then?

Doo. Becaise my daddy was; but afore I was born, he moved up country.

Gen. But what town gave you birth?

Doo. Nun, I vum, I was born in the woods as they tell me; for I dont remember nothing about it myself.

Gen. But where do they say you was born?

Doo. Sumwheres in Varmount, between Brattleboro and Bennington; as the Indian said he was born at Nantucket, Cape Cod, and all along shore.

Gen. Why, young man, you seem to have some mother

wit.

Doo. I count, if I had enny of my own, I shouldn't have been ketch'd here.

Gen. What! not homesick are you?

Doo. I guess I be, for I feel pretty slim. (Sobbing.) But how to git hum is the divil on't.

Gen. Why, how did you get here?

Doo. By water. Did you think I cum to an island by land?

Gen. I mean what brought you ?

Doo. A vessel, I vum. It would have been a tuff pull to swim three thousand miles.

Gen. But what kind of a vessel ?

Doo. A man of war I spose.

Gen. You have not the air of a mariner; were you bred to the sea? I wish to know your adventures, and how you calculated to get a living?

Doo. Why, I had some leetle sort of a knack at the Cooppering business. So i heerd them folks who carry it on in the West Indies, died so fast, it was a good trade to live by. And so I counted I should stand as good a chance as others.

Gen. And did you turn sailor to get there?

Doo. Not at first, for I know'd I could not climb up to the tip top of the mast, without being boosted over the lubber hole, as they tarm it; so I agreed to work my passage by cooking for the crew, and taking care of the dumb crit

ters.

Gen. Dumb creatures! of what articles was your lading composed? live stock ? lumber ?

Doo. Yes! horses, hogs, staves and hoop-poles, with divers bail goods, sich as buckets, pails, and sugar boxes. Moreover long sairse, and short sairse, consisting of a variety of leetle notions, sich as ingyons, parsnips, butter, candles, soap and ile.

Gen. A singularly well-assorted cargo! Did you arrive there safe.

Doo. No; I guess we didn't.

Gen. Why not.

Doo. Why, when we had got near our journey's eend, (to which by the way, I never did get) first cum the Mounsheers, and began to pillage our necessarys, sich as gin and gingerbread, hang'em.

Gen. And what came next?

Doo. Next? A British midsheepman, so tarmed. And so, says he to me, says he, seeing your name is not on the list, among the clean or unclean beasts, I shall make bold to take you for his majesty's sarvice.

Gen. Did your captain make no opposition to their taking his people away?

Doo. Opposition! What could the captain deu, when they turned right at us their great black guns? Says they; cum teu, or we'll sheute. Sheute and be darned, if you dare, says the captain, but if you spill the deacon's ile, I'll make you reu it. And when they gct abord, says they, we want none of your pork and lasses, but we will have that likely British boy, meaning me, whose name is not on your shipping papers, and who has no legal pertection. Says I

« AnteriorContinua »