A friendless slave, a child without a sire,
Whose mortal life and momentary fire
Lights to the grave his chance-created form,
As ocean wrecks illuminate the storm;
And, when the gun's tremendous flash is o'er
To night and silence sink forevermore !—
Are these the pompous tidings ye proclaim,
Lights of the world and demi-gods of Fame?
Is this your triumph, this your proud applause,
Children of Truth and champions of her cause?
Ah me! the laurelled wreath that murder rears,
Blood-nursed and watered by the widow's tears,
Seems not so foul, so tainted, and so dread,
As waves the night-shade round the sceptic head.
What is the bigot's torch, the tyrant's chain?
I smile on death if heavenward Hope remain!
But, if the warring winds of Nature's strife
Be all the faithless charter of my life;

If Chance awaked, inexorable power!

This frail and feverish being of an hour,

Doomed o'er the world's precarious scene to sweep,

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Swift as the tempest travels on the deep,

To know Delight but by her parting smile,
And toil, and wish, and weep a little while;
Then melt, ye elements, that formed in vain
This troubled pulse and visionary brain!
Fade, ye wild flowers, memorials of my doom!
And sink, ye stars, that light me to the tomb!

Cease, every joy, to glimmer on my mind,

But leave-oh! leave the light of Hope behind!
What though my winged hours of bliss have been,
Like angel-visits, few and far between,

Her musing mood shall every pang appease,

And charm—when pleasures lose the power to please!

1 Rule XIV., Rem. 2.

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Eternal Hope! when yonder spheres sublime

Peal'd their first notes to sound the march of Time,

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Thy joyous youth began-but not to fade.-
When all the sister planets have decayed;
When wrapt in fire the realms of ether glow,

And Heaven's last thunder shakes the world below;
Thou, undismay'd, shalt o'er the ruins smile,
And light thy torch at Nature's funeral pile!

COLLOQUIAL POWERS OF FRANKLIN.-[WIRT.]

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1. Never have I known such a fire-side companion as Dr. Franklin. Great as he was, both as a statesman1 and a philosopher, he never shone in a light more winning than when he was seen in a domestic circle.

2. It was once my good fortune to pass two or three weeks with him, at the house of a private gentleman, in the back part of Pennsylvania; and we were confined to the house, during the whole of that time, by the unintermitting constancy and depth of the snows.

3. But confinement could never be felt where Franklin was an inmate. His cheerfulness and his colloquial powers spread around him a perpetual spring. When I speak, however, of his colloquial powers, I do not mean to awaken any notion analogous to that which Boswell has given us, of the colloquial powers of Dr. Johnson.

4. The conversation of the latter reminds one of "the pomp and circumstance of glorious war". It was, indeed,2 a perpetual contest for victory, or an arbitrary and despotic exaction of homage to his superior talents. It was strong, acute, prompt, splendid, and vociferous; as loud, stormy and sublime as those winds which he represents as shaking the Hebrides, and rocking the old castle that frowned upon the dark rolling sea beneath.

5. But one gets tired of storms, however sublime they 2 Rule XXV., Rem. 2.

1 Rule I., Rem. 1.

may be, and longs for the more orderly current of nature. Of Franklin no one ever became tired. There was no ambition of eloquence, no effort to shine, in anything which came from him. There was nothing which made any demand either upon your allegiance or your admiration.

6. His manner was as unaffected as infancy. It was nature's self. He talked like an old patriarch; and his plainness and simplicity put you at once at your ease, and gave you the full and free possession and use of all your faculties.

7. His thoughts were of a character to shine by their own light, without any adventitious aid. They required only a medium of vision, like his pure and simple style, to exhibit to the highest advantage their native radiance and beauty. His cheerfulness was unintermitting. It seemed to be as much the effect of the systematic and salutary exercise of the mind as of its superior organization.

8. His wit was of the first order; it did not show itself merely in occasional coruscations; but, without any effort or force on his part, it shed a constant stream of the purest light over the whole of his discourses.

9. Whether in company of the common people or nobles, he was always the same plain man; always most perfectly at his ease, his faculties' in full play, and the full orbit of his genius forever clear and unclouded. And then the stores of his mind were inexhaustible.

10. He had commenced life with an attention so vigilant, that nothing had escaped his observation; and a judgment so solid, that every incident was turned to advantage. His youth had not been wasted in idleness, nor overcast by intemperance.

11. He had been, all his life, a close and deep reader,

1 Rule XIII., Rem. 2.

as well as thinker; and, by the force of his own powers, had wrought up the raw materials, which he had gathered from books, with such exquisite skill and felicity, that he had added a hundred-fold to their original value, and justly made them his own.

RIENZI'S ADDRESS TO THE ROMANS.-[MITFORD.]

I come not here to talk. Ye know too well
The story of our thraldom. We are slaves!
The bright sun rises to his course, and lights
A race of slaves! He sets, and his last beam
Falls on a slave; not such as, swept along
By the full tide of power, the conqueror led
To crimson glory and undying fame;
But base ignoble slaves 1-slaves to a horde
Of petty tyrants, feudal despots! lords1
Rich in some dozen paltry villages-

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Strong in some hundred spearmen-only great
In that strange spell-a name.

I that speak to ye2,

I had a brother once-a gracious boy,

Full of gentleness, of calmest hope,

Of sweet and quiet joy; there was the look
Of heaven upon his face, which limners give
To the beloved disciple. How I loved
That gracious boy, younger by fifteen years,
Brother, at once, and son ! He left my side,
A summer bloom3 on his fair cheeks, a smile
Parting his innocent lips. In one short hour,
The pretty, harmless boy was slain! I saw
The corse, the mangled corse! and then I cried
For vengeance.

Rouse, ye Romans! Rouse, ye slaves! brave sons? Look in the next fierce brawl

1 What words are to be supplied to complete the construction?
2 Ye is rarely used in the objective case. 3 Rule XIII., Rem. 2.

To see them die. Have ye fair daughters? Look
To see them live,' torn from your arms, distained,
Dishonored; and, if ye dare call1 for justice,
Be answered by the lash. Yet this is Rome,
That sat on seven hills, and, from her throne

Of beauty, ruled the world! Yet we are Romans!
Why, in that elder day, to be a Roman

2

Was greater than a king! And once again,—
Hear me, ye walls, that echoed to the tread
Of either Brutus !----once again, I swear,
The eternal city shall be free, her sons
Shall walk with princes.

THE MINSTREL.- -[BEATTIE.J

I.

Ah! who can tell how hard it is to climb

The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar ;
Ah! who can tell how many a soul sublime

Has felt the influence of malignant star,
And waged with Fortune an eternal war;
Checked by the scoff of Pride, by Envy's frown,
And Poverty's unconquerable bar,

In life's low vale remote has pined alone,

Then dropp'd into the grave, unpitied and unknown!

II.

And yet, the languor of inglorious days

Not equally oppressive is to all:

Him, who ne'er listened to the voice of praise,

The silence of neglect can ne'er appal.

There are," who deaf to mad Ambition's call

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Would shrink to hear the obstreperous trump of Fame; 15 Supremely blessed, if to their portion fall

Health, competence, and peace. Nor higher aim

Had he, whose simple tale these artless lines proclaim.

1 Rule XX. 2 Rule XXV., Rem. 2.

Those is understood.