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LESSON XLIX.

Mr. Fox's Eulogium on General Washington, in the British Parliament.

1. How infinitely superior must appear the spirit and principles of General Washington, in his late address to Congress, compared with the policy of modern European courts! Illustrious man! deriving honour less from the splendour of his situation than from the dignity of his mind; before whom all borrowed greatness sinks into insignificance, and all the princes and potentates of Europe (excepting the members of our own family) become little and contemptible!

2. He has had no occasion to have recourse to any tricks of policy or arts of alarm; his authority has been sufficiently supported by the same means by which it was acquired, and his conduct has uniformly been characterised by wisdom, moderation, and firmness. He, feeling gratitude to France for the assistance received from her in that great contest which secured the independence of America, did not choose to give up the system of neutrality in favour of this country. Entrusted with the care of the welfare of a great people, he did not allow the misconduct of another, with respect to himself, for one moment to interrupt the duty which he owed to them, or withdraw his attention from their interests.

3. The people over whom he presided, he knew to be acquainted with their rights and their duties. He trusted to their own good sense to defeat the effect of those arts which might be employed to inflame or mislead their minds; and was sensible that a government could be in no danger, while it retained the attachment and confidence of its subjects-attachment, in this instance, not blindly adopted, confidence not implicitly given, but arising from the conviction of its excellence, and the experience of its blessings.

4. I cannot, indeed, help admiring the wisdom and the fortune of this great man! not that by the phrase fortune I mean in the smallest degree to derogate from his merit. But, notwithstanding his extraordinary talents and exalted integrity, it must be considered as singularly fortunate, that he should have experienced a lot, which so seldom

falls to the portion of humanity, and have passed through such a variety of scenes, without stain and without reproach

5. It must, indeed, create astonishment, that, placed in circumstances so critical, and filling, for a series of time, a station so conspicuous, his character should never once have been called in question; that he should, in no one instance, have been accused either of improper insolence, or of mean submission, in his transactions with foreign nations. It has been reserved for him to run the race of glory, without experiencing the smallest interruption to the brilliancy of his career.

6. The breath of censure has not dared to impeach the purity of his conduct, nor the eye of envy to raise its malignant glance to the elevation of his virtues. Such has been the transcendent merit and the unparalleled fate of this illustrious man! But if the maxims now held forth were adopted, he who now ranks as the asserter of his country's freedom, and the guardian of its interests and honour, would be deemed to have disregarded and betrayed that country, and to have entailed upon himself indelible reproach.

7. Happy Americans! while the whirlwind flies over one quarter of the globe, and spreads every where desolation, you remain protected from its baneful effects, by your own virtues and the wisdom of your government. Separated from Europe by an immense ocean, you feel not the effects of those prejudices and passions which convert the boasted seats of civilization into scenes of horror and bloodshed. You profit by the folly and madness of the contending nations, and afford in your more congenial clime, an asylum to those blessings and virtues which they wantonly contemn, or wickedly exclude from their bosom!

8. Cultivating the arts of peace, under the influence of freedom, you advance by rapid strides, to opulence and distinction; and if, by any accident, you should be compelled to take part in the present unhappy contest; if you should find it necessary to avenge insult, or repel injury, the world will bear witness to the equity of your sentiments, and the moderation of your views; and the success of your arms will, no doubt, be proportioned to the justice of your cause!

1.

LESSON L.

The Grave.

Invidious grave!-how dost thou rend in sunder
Whom love has knit and sympathy made one!
A tie more stubborn far than nature's band.
Friendship! mysterious cement of the soul;
Sweet'ner of life, and solder of society,
I owe thee much. Thou hast deserv'd from me,
Far, far beyond what I can never pay.
2. Oft have I prov'd the labours of thy love,
And the warm efforts of the gentle heart,
Anxious to please.-O! when my friend and I
In some thick wood have wander'd heedless on,
Hid from the vulgar eye, and sat us down
Upon the sloping cowslip-cover'd bank,
Where the pure limpid stream has slid along
In grateful errors through the underwood,

Sweet murmuring: methought the shrill-tongu'd thrush
Mended his song of love; the sooty blackbird
Mellow'd his pipe, and soften'd every note:

3. The eglantine smell'd sweeter, and the rose Assumed a die more deep; whilst every flower Vied with its fellow plant in luxury

4.

5.

Of dress.-O! then the longest summer's day
Seem'd too, too much in haste; still the full heart
Had not imparted half; 'twas happiness

Too exquisite to last. Of joys departed,
Not to return; how painful the remembrance!

Dull grave! thou spoil'st the dance of youthful blood,
Strik'st out the dimple from the cheek of mirth,
And ev'ry smirking feature from the face;
Branding our laughter with the name of madness.
Where are the jesters now? the men of health,
Complexionally pleasant?

Where the droll,

Whose ev'ry look and gesture was a joke
To clapping theatres, and shouting crowds,
And made ev'n thick-lipp'd musing melancholy
To gather up her face into a smile,

Before she was aware? Ah! sulien now,
And dumb as the green turf that covers them.

6.

Where are the mighty thunderbolts of war.
The Roman Cæsars and the Grecian chiefs,
The boast of story? Where the hot-brain'd youth,
Who the Tiara at his pleasure tore

From kings of all the then discover'd globe;
And cried, forsooth, because his arm was hamper'd,
And had not room enough to do its work?
7. Proud Royalty! how alter'd in thy looks!
How blank thy features, and how wan thy hue!
Son of the morning! whither art thou gone!
Where hast thou hid thy many-spangled head,
And the majestic menace of thine eyes
Felt from afar? Pliant and powerless now.
8. Arabia's gums and odoriferous drugs,
And honours by the heralds duly paid
In mode and form, ev'n to a very scruple;
O cruel irony! these come too late;

And only mock whom they were meant to honour.
Surely there's not a dungeon-slave that's buried
In the high-way, unshrouded and uncoffined,
But lies as soft, and sleeps as sound as he.
Sorry pre-eminence of high descent,
Above the vulgar, born to rot in state.

LESSON LI.

The same continued.

1. How shocking must thy summons be, O death!
To him that is at ease in his possessions:
Who, counting on long years of pleasure here,
Is quite unfurnish'd for that world to come?
In that dread moment, how the frantic soul
Raves round the walls of her clay tenement,
Runs to each avenue, and shrieks for help,
But shrieks in vain!-How wishfully she looks
On all she's leaving, now no longer her's!
A little longer, yet a little longer,

2.

O! might she stay, to wash away her stains,
And fit her for her passage.

Mournful sight!
Her very eyes weep blood; and every groan
She heaves is big with horror.--But the foe,

3.

Like a staunch murd'rer, steady to his
purpose,
Pursues her close through every lane of life,
Nor misses once the track, but presses on;
"Till forc'd at last to the tremendous verge,
At once she sinks to everlasting ruin.

Sure 'tis a serious thing to die! My soul,
What a strange moment must it be, when near
Thy journey's end, thou hast the gulf in view!
That awful gulf no mortal e'er repass'd
To tell what's doing on the other side!

4. Nature runs back, and shudders at the sight,
And every life-string bleeds at thoughts of parting;
For part they must, body and soul must part;
Fond couple; link'd more close than wedded pair.
This wings its way to its Almighty Source,
The witness of its actions, now its judge;
That drops into the dark and noisome grave,
Like a disabled pitcher of no use.

1.

LESSON LII.

The same continued,

On this side, and on that, men see their friends
Drop off, like leaves in autumn; yet launch out
Into fantastic schemes, which the long-livers
In the world's hale and undegen'rate days
Could scarce have leisure for.-Fools that we are,
Never to think of death and of ourselves
At the same time: as if to learn to die

Were no concern of ours.-O! more than sottish,
For creatures of a day, in gamesome mood,
To frolic on eternity's dread brink,

Unapprehensive; when, for aught we know,
The very first swoln surge shall sweep us in.
2. Think we, or think we not, time hurries on
With a resistless, unremitting stream;

Yet treads more soft than e'er did midnight thief,
That slides his hand under the miser's pillow,
And carries off his prize.-What is this world?
What but a spacious burial field unwall'd,
Strew'd with death's spoils, the spoils of animals,
Savage and tame, and full of dead men's bones?

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