ページの画像
PDF
ePub

by the venal apologists of time-honoured abuses,—let it be sneered at by national prejudice and party detraction; let it be denied by the admirers of war and conques.;-by the idolaters of success,-but let it be gratefully acknowledged by good men; by Americans,-by every man, who has sense to distinguish character from events; who has a heart to beat in concert with the pure enthusiasm of virtue.

But it is more than time, fellow citizens, that I commit tnis great and good man to your unprompted contemplation. On his arrival among you, ten years ago,—when your civil fathers, your military, your children, your whole population poured itself out, as one throng, to salute him, -when your cannons proclaimed his advent with joyous salvos, and your acclamations were responded from steeple to steeple, by the voice of festal bells, with what delight did you not listen to his cordial and affectionate words;-'I beg of you all, beloved citizens of Boston, to accept the respectful and warm thanks of a heart, which has for nearly half a century been devoted to your illustrious city!' That noble heart,-to which, if any object on earth was dear, that object was the country of his early choice,—of his adoption, and his more than regal triumph, -that noble heart will beat no more for your welfare. Cold and motionless, it is already mingling with the dust. While he lived, you thronged with delight to his presence, -you gazed with admiration on his placid features and venerable form, not wholly unshaken by the rude storms of his career; and now that he is departed, you have assembled in this cradle of the liberties, for which, with your fathers, he risked his life, to pay the last honours to his memory. You have thrown open these consecrated portals to admit the lengthened train which has come to discharge the last public offices of respect to his name. You have hung these venerable arches, for the second time since their erection, with the sable badges of sorrow. You have thus associated the memory of La Fayette in those distinguished honours, which but a few years since you paid to your Adams and Jefferson; and could your wishes and mine have prevailed, my lips would this day have been mute, and the same illustrious voice, which gave utterance to your filial emotions over their honoured graves.

would have spoken also, for you, over him who shared their earthly labours,-enjoyed their friendship,-and has now gone to share their last repose, and their imperishable remembrance.

There is not, throughout the world, a friend of liberty, who has not dropped his head when he has heard that La Fayette is no more. Poland, Italy, Greece, Spain, Ireland, the South American republics,-every country where man is struggling to recover his birthright,—has lost a benefactor, a patron in La Fayette. But you, young men, at whose command I speak, for you a bright and particular loadstar is henceforward fixed in the front of heaven. What young man that reflects on the history of La Fayette, that sees him in the morning of his days the associate of sages,-the friend of Washington,-but will start with new vigour on the path of duty and renown?

And what was it, fellow citizens, which gave to our La Fayette his spotless fame? The love of liberty. What has consecrated his memory in hearts of good men? The love of liberty. What nerved his youthful arm with strength, and inspired him in the morning of his days with sagacity and counsel? The living love of liberty. To what did he sacrifice power, and rank, and country, and freedom itself? To the horror of licentiousness;-to the sanctity of plighted faith, to the love of liberty protected by law. Thus the great principle of your revolutionary fathers, of your pilgrim sires, the great principle of the age, was the rule of his life: The love of liberty protected by law.

You have now assembled within these renowned walls, to perform the last duties of respect and love,—on the birth-day of your benefactor, beneath that roof which has resounded of old with the master voices of American renown. The spirit of the departed is in high communion with the spirit of the place ;-the temple worthy of the new name, which we now behold inscribed on its walls. Listen, Americans, to the lesson, which seems borne to us on the very air we breathe, while we perform these dutiful rites. Ye winds, that wafted the pilgrims to the land of promise, fan, in their children's hearts, the love of freedom;

Blood, which our fathers shed, cry from the ground;Echoing arches of this renowned hall, whisper back the

voices of other days;-Glorious Washington, break the long silence of that votive canvass ;-Speak, speak, marble lips, teach us THE LOVE OF LIBERTY PROTECTED BY LAW! EVERETT

166.-MISCONCEPTION

ERE night her sable curtains spread;
Ere Phoebus had retired to bed
In Thetis's lap ;

Ere drowsy watchmen yet had ta'en
Their early nap,

A wight, by hungry fiend made bold,
To farmer Fiz Maurice's fold,
Did slyly creep,

Where numerous flocks were quiet laid
In the arms of sleep.

No doubt the sheep he meant to steal,
But, hapless, close behind his heel,
Was ploughman Joe,

Who just arrived in time to stop
The murderer's blow.

May ill luck on ill actions wait!
The felon must to justice straight
Be dragg'd by force;

Where persecutors urge his guilt,
Without remorse.

With fear o'erwhelm'd, the victim stands,
Anticipates the dread commands
From the elbow chair,

Where justice sits in solemn state,
With brow austere.

"Rogue! what excuse hast thou for this
For to old Gilbert Fitz Maurice,
Thou knew'st full well,

The sheep within that fold belong'd-
Come, quickly tell.

"Confess thy crime; 'twill naught avail
To say the mark above the tail

T'hou didst not heed:
For G. F. M., in letters large,

Thou plain mightst read.'

""Tis true, I did," the thief replies,
"But man is not at all times wise;
As I'm a glutton,

I really thought that G. F. M.

Meant-Good, Fat Mutton!"

ANONYMOUS

167.-CHARACTER OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.

He is fallen! We may now pause before that splendid prodigy, which towered amongst us like some ancient ruin, whose frown terrified the glance its magnificence attracted. Grand, gloomy, and peculiar, he sat upon the throne a sceptred hermit, wrapt in the solitude of his own originality. A mind bold, independent, and decisive-a will despotic in its dictates-an energy that distanced expedition, and a conscience pliable to every touch of interest, marked the outline of this extraordinary character-the most extraordinary, perhaps that in the annals of this world ever rose, or reigned, or fell. Flung into life, in the midst of a revolution that quickened every energy of a people who acknowledge no superior, he commenced his course, a stranger by birth, and a scholar by charity! With no friend but his sword, and no fortune but his talents, he rushed in the list where rank, and wealth, and genius had arrayed themselves, and competition fled from him as from the glance of destiny.-He knew no motive but interest-he acknowledged no criterion but successhe worshipped no god but ambition, and with an eastern devotion he knelt at the shrine of his idolatry. Subsidiary to this, there was no creed that he did not profess, there was no opinion that he did not promulgate: in the hope of a dynasty, he upheld the crescent; for the sake of a divorce, he bowed before the cross: the orphan of St. Louis, he became the adopted child of the republic: and with a parricidal ingratitude, on the ruins both of the throne and tribune, he reared the throne of his despotism. A professed Catholic, he imprisoned the pope; a pretended

patriot, he impoverished the country; and, in the name of Brutus, he grasped without remorse, and wore without shame, the diadem of the Cæsars! Through this pantomime of policy, fortune played the clown to his caprices. At his touch, crowns crumbled, beggars reigned, systems vanished, the wildest theories took the colour of his whim, and all that was venerable, and all that was novel, changed places with the rapidity of a drama. Even apparent defeat assumed the appearance of victory-his flight from Egypt confirmed his destiny-ruin itself only elevated him to empire. But if his fortune was great, his genius was transcendent; decision flashed upon his councils; and it was the same to decide and to perform. To inferior intellects his combinations appeared perfectly impossible, his plans perfectly impracticable; but, in his hands, simplicity marked their development, and success vindicated their adoption. His person partook the character of his mind-if the one never yielded in the cabinet, the other never bent in the field.-Nature had no obstacle that he did not surmount-space no opposition that he did not spurn; and whether amid Alpine rocks, Arabian sands, or Polar snows, he seemed proof against peril, and empowered with ubiquity! The whole continent trembled at beholding the audacity of his designs, and the miracle of their execution. Skepticism bowed to the prodigies of his performance; romance assumed the air of history; nor was there aught too incredible for belief, or too fanciful for expectation, when the world saw a subaltern of Corsica waving his imperial flag over her most ancient capitals. All the visions of antiquity became commonplaces in his contemplation; kings were his people-nations were his outposts; and he disposed of courts, and crowns, and camps, and churches, and cabinets, as if they were titular dignitaries of the chess-board!-Amid all these changes he stood immutable as adamant.

It mattered little whether in the field or in the drawing. room-with the mob oi the levee-wearing the Jacobip bonnet or the iron crown- - banishing a Braganza, o espousing a Hapsburg-dictating peace on a raft to the Czar of Russia, or contemplating defeat at the gallows of Leipsig-he was still the same military despot!

In this wonderful combination, his affectations of litera

« 前へ次へ »