All as my chrysom, so my winding sheet; None joy'd my birth, none mourn'd my death to see ; The short parenthesis of life was sweet, But short-what was before, unknown to me, Let me insert here a beautiful passage from this forgotten poet, whose work has been retrieved from oblivion in the Heliconia. Wolsey is speaking. More fit the dirige of a mournful quire I am the tomb where that affection lies, O could it die,-that were a restful state! Note 2, page 515, col. 1. Daughter of Calia and Speranza hight. 4. Dame Cœlia men did her call as thought Note 5, page 515, col. 2. Earth's melancholy map. A part how small of the terraqueous globe Is tenanted by man! the rest a waste; Rocks, deserts, frozen seas, and burning sands, More sad! this earth is a true map of man. It is the moral rather than the physical map which cught to excite this mournful feeling,-but such contemplations ought to excite our hope and our zeal also, for how large a part of all existing evil, physical as well as moral, is remediable by human means! The Poet's Pilgrimage to Waterloo. Εὐανθεα δ' ἀναβάσομαι Στόλον ἀμφ' ἀρετα Κελαδέων. PIND. Pyth. 11. TO JOHN MAY, AFTER A FRIENDSHIP OF TWENTY YEARS, This Poem is Inscribed, IN TESTIMONY OF THE HIGHEST ESTEEM AND AFFECTION, BY ROBERT SOUTHEY. ARGUMENT. THE first part of this Poem describes a journey to the scene of war. The second is in an allegorical form; it exposes the gross material philosophy which has been the guiding principle of the French politicians, from Mirabeau to Buonaparte; and it states the opinions of those persons who lament the restoration of the Bourbons, because the hopes which they entertained from the French Revolution have not been realized; and of those who see only evil, or blind chance, in the course of human events. To the Christian philosopher all things are consistent and clear. Our first parents brought with them the light of natural religion and the moral law: as men departed from these, they tended toward barbarous and savage life; large portions of the world are in this degenerated state; still, upon the great scale, the human race, from the beginning, has been progressive. But the direct object of Buonaparte was to establish a military despotism wherever his power extended; and the immediate and inevitable consequence of such a system is to brutalize and degrade mankind. The contest in which this country was engaged against that Tyrant, was a struggle between good and evil principles, and never was there a victory so important to the best hopes of human nature as that which was won by British valour at Waterloo,-its effects extending over the whole civilized world, and involving the vital interests of all mankind. PROEM. ONCE more I see thee, Skiddaw! once again Alone thou standest, monarch of the scene— Once more, O Derwent, to thy awful shores Drink in with eye and ear a fresh delight: III. Twelve years, (how large a part of man's brief day!) Of evil and of good have held their way, Since first upon thy banks I pitched my tent. IV. Heaven hath with goodly increase blest me here, Let me the blessings which are mine proclaim: V. O joyful hour, when to our longing home The long-expected wheels at length drew nigh! When the first sound went forth, they come! they " That victory leaves England in security and peace. In no age and in no country has man ever existed under circumstances so favourable to the full development of his moral and intellectual faculties, as in England at this time. The peace which she has won by the battle of Waterloo, leaves her at leisure to pursue the great objects and duties of bettering her own condition, and « Never had man whom Heaven would heap with bliss diffusing the blessings of civilization and Christianity. come !» And hope's impatience quickened every eye! More glad return, more happy hour than this.»> |