seems to me that the lăst did not appear to have had so powerful an effect upon the audience as former ones. Arch. How, Sir, has it met with any Aristarchus ?* Gil B. No, Sir, by no means, such works as yours are not to be criticised; every body is charmed with them. Nevertheless, since you have laid your injunctions upon me to be free and sincere, I will take the liberty to tell you that your last discourse, in my judgment, has not altogether the energy of your other performances. Did you not think so, Sir, yourself? Arch. So, then, Mr. Gil Blas, this piece is not to your taste? Gil B. I don't say so Sir, I think it excellent, although a little inferior to your other works. Arch. I understand you; you think I flag, don't you ? Come, be plain; you believe it is time for me to think of retiring. Gil B. I should not have been so bold as to speak so freely, if your grace had not commanded me; I do no more, therefore, than obey you; and I most humbly beg that you will not be offended at my freedom. Arch. God forbid! God forbid that I should find fault with it. I don't at all take it ill that you should speak your sentiments, it is your sentiment itself, only, that I find bad. I have been most egregiously deceived in your narrow understanding. Gil B. Your grace will pardon me for obeying Arch. Say no more, my child, you are yet too_raw to make proper distinctions. Be it known to you, I never composed a better homily, than that which you disapprove; for, my genius, thank_heaven, hath, as yet, lost nothing of its vigor henceforth I will make a better choice of a confidant. Go! go, Mr. Gil Blas, and tell my treasurer to give you a hundred ducats,† and may heaven conduct you with that sum. Adieu, Mr. Gil Blas! I wish you all manner of prosperity, with a little more taste. LESSON CXCII. Dialogue :-ALEXANDER the Great, and a ROBBER.-Dr. AIKIN Alexander. WHAT, art thou the Thracian robber, of whose exploits I have heard so much? Aristarchus was a celebrated grammarian of Samos. He was famous fo his critical powers; and he revised the poems of Homer with such seve'i' y, that, ever after, all severe critics were called Aristarchi. + Pron. dŭk'-its. Robber. I am a Thracian, and a soldier. Alex. A soldier!—a thief, a plunderer, an assassin! the pest of the country; I could honor thy courage, but I must detest and punish thy crimes. Robber. What have I done, of which you can complain? Alex. Hast thou not set at defiance my authority; violated the public peace, and passed thy life in injuring the persons and properties of thy fellow-subjects? Robber. Alexander! I am your captive-I must hear what you please to say, and endure what you please to inflict. But my soul is unconquered; and if I reply at all to your reproaches, I will reply like a free man. Alex. Speak freely. Far be it from me to take the advăntage of my power, to silence those with whom I deign to converse. Robber. I must then answer your question by another. How have you passed your life? Alex. Like a hero. Ask Fame, and she will tell you. Among the brave, I have been the bravest among sovereigns, the noblest: among conquerors, the mightiest. Robber. And does not Fame speak of me too? Was there ever a bolder captain of a more valiant band? Was there ever-but I scorn to boast. You yourself know that I have not been easily subdued. Alex. Still, what are you but a robber-a base, dishonest robber? Robber. And what is a conqueror? Have not you, too, gone about the earth like an evil genius, blăsting the fair fruits of peace and industry; plundering, ravaging, killing, without law, without justice, merely to gratify an insatiable lust for dominion? All that I have done to a single district with a hundred followers, you have done to whole nations with a hundred thousand. If I have stripped individuals, you have ruined kings and princes. If I have burned a few hamlets, you have desolated the most flourishing kingdoms and cities of the earth. What is, then, the difference, but that as you were born a king, and I a private man, you have been able to become a mightier robber than I? Alex. But if I have taken like a king, I have given like a king. If I have subverted empires, I have founded greater. I have cherished arts, commerce, and philosophy. Robber. I, too, have freely given to the poor what I took from the rich. I have established order and discipline among the most ferocious of mankind, and have stretched out my protecting arm over the oppressed. I know, indeed, little of the philosophy you talk of, but I believe neither you nor I shall ever atone to the world for half the mischief we have done it. Alex. Leave me. Take off his chains, and use him well. Are we then so much alike? Alexander like a robber? Let me reflect. LESSON CXCIII. Lines written in 1821; on hearing that the Austrians had entered Naples-with scarcely a show of resistance on the part of the Neapolitans, who had declared their independence, and pledged themselves to maintain it.-MOORE. Ay, down to the dust with them, slaves as they are! On-on, like a cloud, through their beautiful vales, From each slave-mart in Europe, and poison their shore. May their fate be a mock-word--may men of all lands And deep, and more deep, as the iron is driven, To think-as the damned haply think of the heaven They had once in their reach,-that they might have been free. Shame! shame! when there was not a bosom, whose heat Ever rose o'er the zero of Castlereagh's heart, That did not, like Echo, your war-hymn repeat, And send back its prayers with your Liberty's start! ... When the world stood in hope-when a spirit that breathed And the swords of all Italy, half-way unsheathed, When around you the shades of your mighty in fame, Over Freedom's apostles-fell kindling on you!... Between freemen and tyrants hath spread through the That then--O, disgrace upon manhood! e'en then 6 It is strange-it is dreadful! Shout, Tyranny, shout And return to your empire of darkness once more. LESSON CXCIV. Soliloquy of Macbeth, when going to murder Duncan, king of Scotland. SHAKSPEARE. Is this a dagger, which I see before me, The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee :- Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible To feeling, as to sight? or art thou but A dagger of the mind; a false creation, As this which now I draw. Thou marshall'st me the way that I was going; Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses, And on thy blade, and dudgeon,* goutst of blood, Thus to mine eyes.-Now o'er the one half world, Whose howl's his watch, thus, with his stealthy pace Which now suits with it.-Whiles I threat, he lives; I go, and it is done; the bell invites me. Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a knell LESSON CXCV. Dialogue from Macbeth.-SHAKSPEARE. SCENE.-MALCOLM and MACDUFF, in the king's palace in England.-Enter ROSSE from Scotland. Macduff. See, who comes here? Malcolm. My countryman; but yet I know him not. Mal. I know him now: Good God, betimes remove The means that make us strangers! Rosse. Sir, Amen. Macd. Stands Scotland where it did? Rosse. Alas, poor country; Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot Be called our mother, but our grave: where nothing, A modern ecstasy; the dead men's knell Is there scarce asked, for who; and good men's lives Dying, or ere they sicken. *Haft, handle. Drops. [gouttes, French.] "Gut for drop is still used in Scotland by physicians."-Johnson. The diphthong ou in gouts has the sound of oo, as in croup and group. |