Where wild Altama murmurs to their woe. 345 Far different there from all that charm'd before, Those blazing suns that dart a downward ray, Those matted woods where birds forget to sing, 350 But silent bats in drowsy clusters cling; Those pois'nous fields with rank luxuriance crown'd, Where the dark scorpion gathers death around; Where at each step the stranger fears to wake The rattling terrors of the vengeful snake; 355 Where crouching tigers wait their hapless prey And savage men more murderous still than they; While oft in whirls the mad tornado flies, Mingling the ravag'd landscape with the skies. Far different these from every former scene, 360 The cooling brook, the grassy-vested green, The breezy covert of the warbling grove, That only shelter'd thefts of harmless love. Good Heaven! what sorrows gloom'd that parting day That call'd them from their native walks away; 365 When the poor exiles, every pleasure past, Hung round the bowers, and fondly look'd their last, And took a long farewell, and wish'd in vain For seats like these beyond the western main; And, shuddering still to face the distant deep, 370 Return'd and wept, and still return'd to weep! The good old sire the first prepar'd to go 368. It was a common phrase in the earlier colonial days to say of colonists that they "sate" in a particular region. 375 To new-found worlds, and wept for others' woe; His lovely daughter, lovelier in her tears, The fond companion of his helpless years, Silent went next, neglectful of her charms, And left a lover's for a father's arms. With louder plaints the mother spoke her woes, 380 And bless'd the cot where every pleasure rose ; And kiss'd her thoughtless babes with many a tear And clasp'd them close, in sorrow doubly dear; 385 O Luxury! thou curst by Heaven's decree, How ill exchang'd are things like these for thee! How do thy potions, with insidious joy, Diffuse their pleasures only to destroy! Kingdoms by thee, to sickly greatness grown, 390 Boast of a florid vigor not their own. 395 At every draught more large and large they grow, A bloated mass of rank, unwieldy woe; Till sapp'd their strength, and every part unsound, Down, down they sink, and spread a ruin round. Even now the devastation is begun, And half the business of destruction done; Even now, methinks, as pondering here I stand, 398. Here begins a sort of vision in which Goldsmith pictures such an emigrant band leaving England for America. Down where yon anchoring vessel spreads the sail, 400 That idly waiting flaps with every gale, Downward they move, a melancholy band, Pass from the shore, and darken all the strand. And kind connubial Tenderness, are there; my That found'st me poor at first, and keep'st me so; 415 Thou guide, by which the nobler arts excel, Thou nurse of every virtue, fare thee well! Farewell! and oh! where'er thy voice be tried, On Torno's cliffs, or Pambamarca's side, Whether where equinoctial fervors glow, 420 Or winter wraps the polar world in snow, Still let thy voice, prevailing over time, Redress the rigors of the inclement clime; Aid slighted truth with thy persuasive strain; Teach erring man to spurn the rage of gain; 425 Teach him, that states of native strength possest, 407. One is reminded of Bishop Berkeley's lines, "Religion stands a-tiptoe on the strand Waiting to pass to the American land." 409. Unfit, unsuited. 418. The river Tornea or Torneo falls into the Gulf of Bothnia. Pambamarca is given by Peter Cunningham as a mountain near Quito. Though very poor, may still be very blest; That trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay, 427-430. "Dr. Johnson favored me at the same time by marking the lines which he furnished to Goldsmith's Deserted Village, which are only the last four."-BOSWELL. SIR ROGER DE COVERLEY PAPERS. INTRODUCTION. The Spectator was a folio sheet which appeared in London on the first day of March, 1710-11,1 was issued daily until December 6, 1712, when it was discontinued for a year and a half, resumed June 18, 1714, and then issued three times a week until December 20 of the same year, when it ceased altogether. A daily paper, it resembled the modern daily paper only in having advertisements on the same sheet, but these were few and unobtrusive. It was in effect far more comparable with the modern magazine, for it left news and politics and trade to the general newspaper, which was then beginning to assert itself, and occupied itself with criticism on books, comments on fashions and manners, and, what interests us most, attempts at character drawing and portraits of typical personages. The Spectator is chief among the papers of its class which occupied the central position in literature in the eighteenth century, and it holds its high place because it was almost wholly the work of the two best writers of English at that time, Joseph Addison and Sir Richard Steele. Both of these men were artists in letters, but they had also that wholesome view of life which forbade them to treat men and manners merely as playthings for the 1 In the former half of the eighteenth century it was still common to treat the 25th of March as New Year's Day. In order, therefore, to indicate the precise year of the days between January 1 and March 25, it was customary to write the double year date as 1710–11, or 1711, meaning 1710, if the reader observed March 25 as New Year's Day; 1711 if he observed January 1. |