But, lo! the warrior's eye grew dim, His arm was left alone; The still, bleak wilds which sheltered him, Time fled; and on the hallowed ground His highest pine lies low; And cities swell where forests frowned, Oh! stay not to recount the tale; The firmest cheek might well grow pale, The God of heaven, who prospers us, Could bid a nation grow, And shield us from the red man's curse, Come, then, great shades of glorious men, O bravest of the brave! We call you from each moldering tomb, To bless the world ye snatched from doom, FROM MELLEN. CLXI.-RICH AND POOR. I SEE, in those vehicles which carry to the people sentiments from high places, plain declarations that the present controversy is but a strife between one part of the community and another. I hear it boasted as the unfailing security, the solid ground, never to be shaken, on which recent measures rest, that the poor naturally hate the rich. I know that, under the shade of the roofs of the Capitol, within the last twenty-four hours, among men sent here to devise means for the public safety and the public good, it has been vaunted forth, as matter of boast and triumph, that one cause existed, powerful enough to sup port everything and to defend everything, and that was,the natural hatred of the poor to the rich. I pronounce the author of such sentiments to be guilty of attempting a detestable fraud on the community; a double fraud; a fraud which is to cheat men out of their understandings. "The natural hatred of the poor to the rich!" It shall not be till the last moment of my existence; it shall be only when I am drawn to the verge of oblivion, when I shall cease to have respect or affection for anything on earth, that I will believe the people of the United States capable of being effectually deluded, cajoled, and driven about in herds, by such abominable frauds as this. If they shall sink to that point, if they so far cease to be men, thinking men, intelligent men, as to yield to such pretenses and such clamor, they will be slaves already; slaves to their own passions, slaves to the fraud and knavery of pretended friends. They will deserve to be blotted out of all the records of freedom. They ought not to dishonor the cause of self-government, by attempting any longer to exercise it. They ought to keep their unworthy hands entirely off from the cause of republican liberty, if they are capable of being the victims of artifices so shallow; of tricks so stale, so threadbare, so often practiced, so much worn out, on serfs and slaves. "The “The natural hatred of the poor against the rich!" danger of a moneyed aristocracy! A power as great and dangerous as that resisted by the Revolution!" "A call to a new Declaration of Independence!" I admonish the people against the objects of outcries like these. I admonish every industrious laborer in the country to be on his guard against such delusions. I tell him the attempt is to play off his passions against his interests, and to prevail on him, in the name of liberty, to destroy all the fruits of liberty; in the name of patriotism, to injure and afflict his country; and in the name of his own independence, to destroy that very independence, and make him a beygar and a slave! FROM WEBSTER. CLXII.-NATURE AND ART. ALTHOUGH the rich deride, the proud disdain, But the long pomp, the midnight masquerade, Ye friends to truth, ye statesmen, who survey Not so the loss. The man of wealth and pride His seat, where solitary sports are seen, As some fair female, unadorned and plain, Slights every borrowed charm that dress supplies, Thus fares the land by luxury betrayed, FROM GOLDSMITH. CLXIII.-CRUELTY. I WOULD not enter on my list of friends, (Though graced with polished manners and fine sense, Yet wanting sensibility,) the man Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm. The creeping vermin, loathsome to the sight, Sacred to neatness and repose, the alcove, A necessary act incurs no blame. Not so, when held within their proper bounds, The sum is this. If man's convenience, health, Are paramount, and must extinguish theirs. As God was free to form them at the first, The spring time of our years Is soon dishonored and defiled, in most, By which Heaven moves in pard'ning guilty man; Shall seek it, and not find it in his turn. FROM COWPER. CLXIV. ROBIN ROUGHHEAD.-SCENE I. (Enter Snacks, with a letter in his hand.) Snacks. A letter for me by express! What can it be about? Let me see what it says. (Reads.) "Sir. This is to inform - - Lord Lackwit died-an heir to his estateson called Robin Roughhead-legal heir-put him in immediate possession." Here's a catastrophe! Robin Roughhead a lord! My stewardship has done pretty well for me, but I think I shall make it do better now. I know this Robin very well. He's over-cunning, I am afraid. But I'll tickle him. He shall marry my daughter. Then I can do as I please. I will go and tell him the news. How unfortunate that I Idid not make friends with him before. He has no great reason to like me. I never gave him any thing but hard words. (Exit.) |