plains of Boston. The war is inevitable and let it come! I repeat it, Sir, let it come! It is in vain Sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry peace, peace! but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty; or give me death!
O Thou, that with surpassing glory crown'd,
Look'st from thy sole dominion, like the God
Of this new world; at whose sight all the stars
Hide their diminish'd heads; to thee I call,
But with no friendly voice, and add thy name,
O Sun, to tell thee how I hate thy beams,
That bring to my remembrance from what state
I fell, how glorious once above thy sphere;
Till pride and worse ambition threw me down,
Warring in Heaven against Heaven's matchless King:
Ah, wherefore! he deserv'd no such return
From me, whom he created what I was
In that bright eminence; and with his good
Upbraided none; nor was his service hard.
What could be less than to afford him praise,
The easiest recompense, and pay him thanks,
How due! Yet all his good prov'd ill in me,
And wrought but malice; lifted up so high,
I disdain'd subjection, and thought one step higher
Would set me highest, and in a moment quit
The debt immense of endless gratitude,
So burdensome; still paying, still to owe,
Forgetful what from him I still received,
And understood not that a grateful mind
By owing, owes not, but still pays, at once
Indebted and discharg'd; what burden then?
O had his powerful destiny ordain'd
Me some inferior angel, I had stood
Then happy; no unbounded hope had rais'd
Ambition. Yet why not? Some other power
As great might have aspir'd, and me, though mean,
Drawn to his part; but other powers as great
Fell not, but stand unshaken, from within
Or from without, to all temptations arm'd.
Hadst thou the same free will, and power to stand?
Thou hadst: whom hadst thou then, or what t'accuse,
But Heaven's free love dealt equally to all?
Be then his love accurs'd, since love or hate,
To me alike, it deals eternal woe.
Nay, curs'd be thou; since against his thy will
Chose freely what it now so justly rues.
Me miserable! which way shall I fly,
Infinite wrath and infinite despair?
Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell;
And in the lowest deep a lower deep
Still threatening to devour me, opens wide,
To which the hell I suffer seems a heaven.
O then at last relent: is there no place
Left for repentance, none for pardon left?
None left but by submission; and that word
Disdain forbids me, and my dread of shame
Among the spirits beneath, whom I seduc'd
With other promises and other vaunts
Than to submit, boasting I could subdue
The Omnipotent. Ah! me! they little know
How dearly I abide that boast so vain,
Under what torments inwardly, I groan,
While they adore me on the throne of hell.
With diadem and sceptre high advanc'd
The lower still I fall, only supreme
In misery; such joy ambition finds!
But say I could repent; and could obtain
By act of grace my former state; how soon
Would height recal high thoughts, how soon unsay
What feign'd submission swore? Ease would recant
Vows made in pain, as violent and void :
For never can true reconcilement grow
Where wounds of deadly hate have pierc'd so deep;
Which would but lead me to a worse relapse
And heavier fall: so should I purchase dear
Short intermission bought with double smart.
This knows my punisher; therefore as far
From granting he, as I from begging peace.
All hope excluded thus, behold instead
Of us outcast exiled, his new delight
Mankind created, and for him this world.
So farewell hope, and with hope farewell fear;
Farewell remorse! all good to me, is lost ;
Evil, be thou my good; by thee at least
Divided empire with Heav'n's King, I hold,
By thee, and more than half perhaps, will reign;
As Man ere long, and this new world shall know.
CASSIUS INSTIGATING BRUTUS TO JOIN THE CONSPIRACY AGAINST CÆSAR.
Well, Honour is the subject of my story.
I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life; but for my single self;
I had as lief not be, as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.
I was born free as Cæsar; so were you :
We both have fed as well; and we can both
Endure the winter's cold, as well as he,
For once upon a raw and gusty day,
The troubled Tiber chafing with his shores,
Cæsar says to me, "Dars't thou, Cassius, now
Leap in with me into this angry flood,
And swim to yonder point?" Upon the word,
Accoutred as I was, I plunged in,
And bade him follow: so indeed he did.
The torrent roar'd, and we did buffet it
With lusty sinews; throwing it aside,
And stemming it with hearts of controversy.
But ere we could arrive the point proposed,
Cæsar cry'd "Help me, Cassius, or I sink."
I, as Æneas, our great ancestor,
Did from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulders
The old Anchises bear; so from the waves of Tiber,
Did I the tired Cæsar; and this man
Is now become a God; and Cassius is
A wretched creature, and must bend his body,
If Cæsar carelessly but nod on him.
He had a fever when he was in Spain,
And when the fit was on him I did mark
How he did shake; 'tis true; this God did shake;
His coward lips did from their colour fly;
And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world,
Did lose its lustre; I did hear him groan:
Aye, and that tougue of his that bade the Romans
Mark him, and write his speeches in their books,
Alas! it cried: "Give me some drink, Titinius!"
As a sick girl. Ye Gods, it doth amaze me,
A man of such a feeble temper, should
So get the start of the majestic world,
Brutus and Cæsar. What should be in that Cæsar?
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