Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

VIII.

Ah! few shall part where many meet,
The snow shall be their winding sheet
And every turf beneath their feet,
Shall be a soldier's sepulchre.

WHEN Music, heavenly maid! was young,

While yet in early Greece she sung,
The Passions oft, to hear her shell,
Throng'd around her magic cell;
Exulting, trembling, raging, fainting,
Possess'd beyond the Muse's painting.
By turns, they felt the glowing mind
Disturb'd, delighted, rais'd, refined:
Till once, 'tis said, when all were fir'd,
Fill'd with fury, rapt inspir'd,

From the supporting myrtles round,
They snatched her instruments of sound;
And, as they oft had heard apart,
Sweet lessons of her forceful art,
Each, for madness rul'd the hour,

Would prove his own expressive power.
First, Fear, his hand, its skill to try,
Amid the chords bewilder'd laid;
And back recoil'd, he knew not why,
E'en at the sound himself had made.
Next Anger rush'd, his eyes on fire,

In lightnings own'd his secret stings,
With one rude clash he struck the lyre,
And swept with hurried hand the strings.
With woful measures, wan Despair-
Low sullen sounds his grief beguil'd:
A solemn, strange, and mingled air:
'Twas sad by fits, by starts 'twas wild.
But thou, O Hope! with eyes so fair,
What was thy delighted measure?
Still it whisper'd promis'd pleasure,

And bade the lovely scenes at distance hail.
Still would her touch the strain prolong:

And from the rocks, the woods, the vale,
She call'd on Echo still through all her song:
And where her sweetest theme she chose,

CAMPBELL.

A soft responsive voice was heard at every close;

And hope, enchanted, smil'd and waved her golden hair;
And longer had she sung-but, with a frown,

Revenge impatient rose.

He threw his blood-stain'd sword in thunder down;
And with a withering look,

The war-denouncing trumpet took,

And blew a blast so loud and dread,

Were ne'er prophetic sounds so full of wo;
And, ever, and anon, he beat

The doubling drum with furious heat:

And though, sometimes, each dreary pause between
Dejected Pity at his side,

Her soul-subduing voice applied,

Yet still he kept his wild unalter'd mien,

[head.

While each strain'd ball of sight-seemed bursting from his

Thy numbers, Jealousy, to nought were fix'd;

Sad proof of thy distressful state;

Of differing themes the veering song was mix'd:

And, now it courted Love; now, raving, call'd on Hate.

With eyes uprais'd, as one inspired,

Pale Melancholy sat retir'd;

And, from her wild sequester'd seat,

In notes, by distance made more sweet,

Pour'd through the mellow horn her pensive soul,
And, dashing soft from rocks around,
Bubbling, runnels join'd the sound:

Through glades and glooms, the mingled measure stole,
Or o'er some haunted stream with fond delay,
Round a holy calm diffusing,

Love of peace, and lonely musing,

In hollow murmurs died away.

But, Oh, how alter'd was its sprightlier tone!
When Cheerfulness, a nymph of healthiest hue,
Her bow across her shoulder flung,

Her buskins gemm'd with morning dew,
Blew an inspiring air, that dale and thicket rung,
The hunter's call, to Faun and Dryad known;
The oak crown'd Sisters, and their chaste ey'd Queen,
Satyrs and sylvan Boys were seen,

Peeping from forth their alleys green,

Brown Exercise rejoic'd to hear;

And Sport leap'd up and seiz'd his beechen spear.
Last came Joy's estactic trial,

He with with viny crown advancing,
First to the lively pipe his hand address'd-
But soon he saw the brisk awakening viol;
Whose sweet entrancing voice he lov'd the best.
They would have thought who heard the strain,
They saw in Tempe's vale, her native maids,
Amidst the festal sounding shades,

To some unwearied minstrel dancing:
While, as his flying fingers kiss'd the strings,

Love fram'd with Mirth a gay fantastic round,
Tose were her tresses seen, her zone unbound,

And he, amidst the frolic play,

As if he would the charming air repay
Shook thousand odours from his dewy wings.
O Music, sphere-descended maid,
Friend of Pleasure, Wisdom's aid,
Why, goddess, why, to us denied,
Lay'st thou thy ancient lyre aside?
As in that lov'd Athenian bower
You learn'd in all commanding power,
Thy mimic soul, O nymph endear'd,
Can well recall what then it heard.
Where is thy native simple heart,
Devote to Virtue, Fancy, Art?
Arise, as in the elder time,
Warm, energic, chaste, sublime!
Thy wonders, in that golike age,
Fill thy recording sister's page-
'Tis said, and I believe the tale,
Thy humblest reed could more prevail,
Had more of strength, diviner rage,
Than all which charms this laggard age,
Ev'n all at once together found,
Cecilia's mingled world of sound-
O, bid our vain endeavours cease,
Revive the just designs of Greece;
Return in all thy simple state;
Confirm the tales her sons relate!

COLLINS.

XII. ENUMERATION, OR AMPLIFICATION. Enumeration, is that figure which numbers up the perfections or defects of persons or things, or which brings under one head the several parts of an argument, and, like the concentration of artillery in battle, when brought to act upon any given point, bears down all before it. This figure admits of various modes of delivery, agreeably to the nature of the subjects which may be enumerated, but monotone is recurred to oftener than any other mode.

Examples.

"Heavens! what a goodly prospect spreads around
Of hills and dales, of woods, and lawns, and spires,
And glittering towns, and gilded streams, till all
The stretching landscape into smoke decays."

THOMPSON'S SEASONS.

"O now forever,

Farewell the tranquil mind! farewell content!
Farewell the plumed troops and the big war
That make ambition virtue! O farewell!
Farewell the neighing steed, and the shrill trump
The spirit-stirring drum, the ear piercing fife,
The royal banner; and all quality,

Pride, pomp, and circumstance of glorious war!
And O you mortal engines, whose rude throats
The inimortal Jove's dread clamors counterfeit.
Farewell! Othello's occupation's gone."

TRAGEDY OF OTHELLO.

"Is it come to this? shall an inferior magistrate, a governor, who holds his whole power of the Roman people, in a Roman province, within sight of Italy, bind, scourge, torture with fire and red hot plates of iron, and at last, put to the infamous death of the cross, a Roman citizen? Shall neither the cries of innocence expiring in ago ny, nor the tears of pitying spectators, nor the majesty of the Roman Commonwealth, nor the fear of the justice of his country, restrain the licentious and wanton cruelty of a monster, who, in confidence of his riches, strikes at the root of liberty and sets mankind at defiance ?" CICERO AGAINST VERRES.

66

I cannot name this gentleman, without remarking, that his labors, and writings, have done much to open the eyes and the hearts of mankind. He has visited all Europe-not to survey the sumptuousness of palaces, or the stateliness of temples; not to make accurate measurements of the remains of ancient grandeur, nor to form a scale of the curiosities of modern art; not to collect medals, or collate manuscripts; but to dive into the depths of dungeons; to plunge into the infection of hospitals; to survey the mansions of sorrow and of pain, and to take the guage and dimensions of misery, depression, and contempt; to remember the forgotten; to attend to the neglected; to visit the forsaken; and to compare, and collate, the distresses of all men in all countries."

BURKE'S EULOGIUM ON HOWARD.

Extract from a Sermon of the Rev. Thomas Gisborne, M. A. on the happiness attendant on the paths of religion. "Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace." PROV. iii. 17.

"Among the internal demonstrations of the truth of christianity, the excellence of the appropriate lessons respectively addressed in the sacred writings to different description of men, holds a distinguished place. To the wicked the scripture speaks the language of indig nation, tempered with offers of mercy. To the penitent it promises

forgiveness. The righteous it animates with triumphant hope. To the ignorant it holds forth instruction; to the unwary, caution; to the presumptuous, humility; to the feeble-minded, support; to the wavering, perseverance; to the dispirited, encouragement; to the afflicted, consolation. Who but that power who discerns every va riety of the human disposition; every winding of the human heart; could have been the author of a religion thus provided with a remedy for every corruption; a defence under every weakness ?"

Extract from pleadings of Sir George McKenzie against a woman accused of the murder of her child,

"Gentlemen, if one man had any how slain another, if an adver. sary had killed his opposer, or a woman occasioned the death of her enemy, even these criminals would have been capitally punished by the Cornelian law; but, if this guiltless infant, who could make no enemy, had been murdered by its own nurse, what punishment would not then the mother have demanded? with what cries and exclamations would she have stunned our ears? What shall we say then, when a woman, guilty of homicide, a mother, of the murder of her innocent child, hath comprised all those misdeeds in one single crime; a crime, in its own nature detestable; in a woman prodigious; in a mother, incredible; and perpetrated against one whose age called for compassion, whose near relation claimed affection, and whose innocence deserved the highest favour?"

XIII. PAUSES.

The number, names, and utility of the pauses used in reading and speaking, must be too well known to need description here. Perhaps it may not be superfluous to make two or three remarks; first, that the interrogatory point has two inflections, the rising and the falling The rising, when the question is formed without an interrogative word at its commencement, the falling, when an interrogative word commences it. Example the first.

one.

66

Suppose a person generally well informed, can he say that his education is perfect, if, when asked to read or recite, he feel inade. quate?"

Of the last.

"Who is here so base, that would be a bondman? Who is here so rude, that would not be a Roman? Who is here so vile, that would not love his country?"

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »