Imatges de pàgina
PDF
EPUB

By doctrines fashion'd to the varying hour;
Far other aims his heart had learn'd to prize,
More skill'd to raise the wretched than to rise.
His house was known to all the vagrant train,
He chid their wanderings, but reliev'd their pain,
The long remember'd beggar was his guest,
Whose beard descending swept his aged breast;
The ruin'd spendthrift, now no longer proud,
Claim'd kindred there, and had his claims allow'd';
The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay;
Sat by his fire, and talk'd the night away;
Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done,

Shoulder'd his crutch, and show'd how fields were won.

Pleas'd with his guests, the good man learn'd to glow,
And quite forgot their vices in their woe;
Careless their merits, or their faults to scan,

His pity gave ere charity began.

Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride,
And even his failings lean'd to Virtue's side:
But in his duty prompt at every call,

He watch'd and wept, he pray'd and felt for all.
And, as a bird each fond endearment trys,
To tempt its new-fledg'd offspring to the skies;
He try'd each art, reprov'd each dull delay,
Allur'd to brighter worlds, and led the way.

Beside the bed, where parting life was laid,
And sorrow, guilt, and pain, by turns dismay'd,
The reveren'd champion stood. At his controul,
Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul;
Comfort came down, the trembling wretch to raise,
And his last falt'ring accents whisper'd praise.

At church, with meek and unaffected grace,
His looks adorn,d the venerable place;
Truth from his lips prevail'd with double sway,
And fools who came to scot, remain'd to pray.
The service past, around the pieus man,
With ready zeal, each honest rustic ran;
E'en children follow'd with endearing wile,
And pluck'd his gown, to share the good man's smile
His ready smile a parent's warmth exprest,
Their welfare pleas'd him, and their cares distrest
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were giv❜n,
But all his serious thoughts had rest is. Heav'.
As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the storm,
Tho' round its breast the rolling clouds are spread,
Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

GOLDSMITH

THE BEGGAR's PETITION.

PITY the sorrows of a poor old man,

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door.
Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span.
Oh! give relief, and Heaven will bless your store.

These tatter'd cloths my poverty bespeak,
These hoary locks proclaim my lengthen'd years
And many a furrow in my grief-worn cheek
Has been the channel to a flood of tears.

Yon house, erected on the rising ground,
With tempting aspect drew me from my road;
For Plenty there a residence has found,
And Grandeur a magnificent abode.

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

Oh! take me to your hospitable dome;
Keen blows the wind, and piercing is the cold!
Short is my passage to the friendly tomb,
For I am poor and miserably old.

Should I reveal the sources of my grief,

If soft humanity e'er touch'd your breast,

Your hands would not withhold the kind relief,
And tears of Pity would not be represt.

Heaven sends misfortunes: why should we repine?
'Tis Heaven has brought me to the state you see;
And your condition may be soon like mine,
The child of Sorrow and of Misery.

*།།ཨ

A little farm was my paternal fot,

Then like the lark I sprightly hail'd the morn;

But ah! oppression forc'd me from my cot,

My cattle dy'd and blighted was my corn.

My daughter, once the comfort of my age,
Lur'd by a villian from her native home,
Is cast abandon'd on the world's wide stage,
And doom'd in scanty poverty to roam,

My tender wife, sweet soother of my care
Struck with sad anguish at the stern decree,
Fell, ling'ring fell, a victim to despair,
And left the world to wretchedness and me.

Pity the sorrows of a poor old man,

Whose trembling limbs have borne him to your door,

N

Whose days are dwindled to the shortest span,
Oh! give relief, and Heaven will bless your store.

ANTHONY's FUNERAL ORATION OVER CÆSAR'S BODY

Friends, Romans Countrymen, lend me your ears,

I come to bury Cæsar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do, lives after them;
The good is often interred with their bones;
So let it be with Cæsar! Noble Brutús
Hath told you, Cæsar was ambitious;
If it were so, it was a grievous fault;
And grievously hath Cesar answer'd it.
Here under leave of Brutus, and the rest,
(For Brutus is an honorable man,
So are they all, all honorable men)
Come I to speak in Cæsar's funeral.

He was my friend, faithful and just to me
But Brutus says, he was ambitious;

And Brutus is an honorable man.

He hath brought many captives home to Rome,
Whose Ransoms did the general coffers fill;

Did this in Cæsar seem ambitious?

When that the poor have cry'd, Cæsar hath wept;
Ambition, should be made of sterner stuff

Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious ;

And Brutus is an honorable man.

You all did see, that on the Lupercal,

I thrice presented him a kingly crown;

Which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet Brutus says, he was ambitious;

And, sure, he is an honorable man.

I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke,
But here I am to speak what I do know.
You all did love him once, not without cause.

What cause with-holds you then to mourn for him!
O judgment! thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.-Bear with me.-
My heart is in the coffin there with Cesar,
And I must pause till it coms back to me.

If you have tears, prepare to shed them now.
You all do know this mantle: I remember
'The first time ever Cæsar put it on,

"Twas on a summers evening in his tent,
That day he overcame the Nervii-

Look! In this place ran Cassius' dagger through ;-
See what a rent the envious Casca made.-

Through this the well-beloved Brutus stab'd ;
And as he pluck'd his cursed steel away,
Mark how the blood of Cæsar follow'd it!
As rushing out of doors to be resolved

[ocr errors]

If Brutus so unkindly knock'd, or no:
For Brutus, as you know, was Cæsar's angel.
Judge, oh ye gods! how dearly Cæsar lov'd him
This, this was the unkindest cut of all;
For when the noble Cæsar saw him stab
Ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms,
Quite vanquish'd him; then burst his mighty heart
And, in his mantle muffling up his face,
Even at the base of Pompy's statue,

Which all the while ran blood, great Cæsar fell,
Oh! what a fall was there, my countrymen!
Then I and you, and all of us fell down.
Whilst bloody treason flourish'd over us.
O, now you weep; and I perceive you feel -
The dint of pity; these are gracious drops.
Kind souls; what, weep you when you but behold
Our Cæsar's vesture wounded? look your here !
Here is himself, marrd, as you see, by traitors.-

Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up
To any sudden flood of mutiny.

They that have done this deed are honorable.
What private griefs they have, alas, I know not,
That made them do it; they are wise and honorable

And will, no doubt, with reason answer you.

1 come not, friends, to steal away your hearts;

I am no. orator, as Brutus is:

But, as you know me all, a plain blunt man,

[ocr errors]

That loves my friend; and that they know full well
That gave me public leave to speak of him:
*For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth,
Action nor utt rance, nor the power of speech.
To stir men's blood; I only speak right on :-
I tell you that which you yourselves do know ;

Show you sweet Cæsar's wounds, poor, poor dumb mouths
And bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus,
And Brutus Anthony, there were an Anthony
Would ruffle up your spirits, and put a tongue
In every wound of Cæsar, that should move
The stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

SHAKSPEARE'

CHAP. XI.

FILIAL PIETY.

It is to this country a glorious and dignifying observation (whatever the cause may be) that paternal affection and filial piety abo und more in the United States, than in any other part of the glo be it is further observed, that the happy effects of these vire

*

tues, are not confined to the private walks of domestick life; but that, after performing all the duties of parents and children, they extend their kind influence almost through all the circles of refined society and friendly intercourse with mankind..

The happy consequence of this filial duty naturally leads our youth to love honour and obey their instructers; to esteem them as the tender fosterers of their mind, which is by far, the most noble part; to look upon them as the sources, from which they derive the sentiments of honour and probity towards mankind and piety owards their Creator-The gentlemanly conduct and pleasing address, the profundity of learning, which our youth possess over those of other nations, may weil be attributed to their love and respect for their tutors. Their prudent parents and guardians are right y persuaded indeed, that esteem and love for their teachers is, by far a greater incitement to learn, than all the severity, which can be made use of This we daily see exemplyfied by several excellent European teachers, who had been, themselves compelled to learn by the very ungentle fluence of stripes, and who here (ndeavour to make the same means effectual with their own pupils; but experience soon convinces them, that there is an incomparable difference between the delicate feelings of the free-born children of American citizens and those of European slaves; and that the noble spirit of the former will not bear the lash, while the latter will not learn without the timely aid of wholesome flagellation. Indeed there, is a maxim which will hold good in every country, that the children of proper parents seldom require correction at school; and when it happens otherwise, it is a shure indication of a perverse disposition. The American people, with good reason, look upon it, as a severe rebuke to the propriety of their own conduct, to have their children corrected at school; and we should look upon her, as an unfeeling mother, who would not sympathize in the day's disasters of her promising child; all this must add xtremely to the delicate feelings of our children. But among a people so diversified, as we the citizens of the United States are, there must needs be many among us, who will not use the same propriety in the government of their children; and such children often become extremely troublesome and perplexing to the conscientious teacher, and destructive to the improvement of their schoolfellows. When this is the case, some remedy must be made use of to redress the evil--but with such persons, words re of no weight, and the lash cannot be applied-this is (argumentum cornutum) cornutum) a melancholy predicament indeed! In which it would be extremely affecting to see any gentleman who piously devotes his time and health for the general good of rising generations.

« AnteriorContinua »