No! even a William Cobbett must confess That Heaven, for which they dared a tyrant's flames, of hostilities! Thus, in either case, the crafty Cyrenæans had protected themselves from danger, and their country from any loss of territory, unless the Philæni should consent, contrary to all probability, to preserve the advantage they had gained for their countrymen and save them from a war, by agreeing to be buried alive where they stood! The two magnanimous brothers, however, assented to this dreadful alternative, and the Carthaginians evinced their gratitude to them by decreeing several honors to their memory at home, besides erecting altars over the spot where they were buried, which continued, for many ages, to be the eastern boundary of the Carthaginian dominions in Africa. Of these altars, entitled Aræ Philanorum, some remains, in the shape of sand-stone pillars, with inscriptions nearly obliterated, are supposed to exist to the present day.-(Della Cella, in Heeren's African Researches, vol. i. chap. 1. p. 55.) Such is, in substance, the account given by Sallust of this transaction; an account derived, no doubt, from those Carthaginian books stated to have belonged to the library of Hiempsal, king of Numidia, which the Roman historian tells us, he had caused to be interpreted for him, and followed as the best sources of information in African affairs, and which were, most probably, a portion of the literary pillage of Carthage, that Scipio is mentioned to have bestowed upon the princes of Africa. (SALLUST, Bel. Jug. 17 and 79. PLIN. Hist. Nat. XVIII. 5.) Valerius Maximus, who, in his account of this act of Carthaginian patriotism, seems to have followed some Greek or Cyrenæan historian, as he accuses the Philæni of an act of injustice in leaving home too soon, which both from the authority of Sallust and the virtue naturally to be expected from their magnanimity, seems improbable, pays, however, this animated tribute to their noble self-devotion :- Ubi sunt superbæ Carthaginis alta mænia? ubi maritima gloria inclyti portus? ubi cunctis littoribus terribilis classis? ubi tot exercitus? ubi tantus equitatus? ubi immenso Africa spatio non contenti spiritus? Omnia ista duobus Scipionibus Fortuna partita est. At Philonorum egregii facti memoriam ne patriæ quidem interitus extinxit. Nihil est igitur, excepta virtute, quod mortali animo ac manu immortale quæri posset." (VAL. MAX. v. 6.) If the sandstone pillars, above mentioned, could be proved to be the real remains of the Are Philanorum, a better Then, seek no more with satire to destroy, She surely may despise their impious laughter, February, 1831. inscription to the memory of the Carthaginian patriots, than these words of the Roman author, could scarcely be engraved upon their monument. What a pity it is, that every ancient work on Carthaginian history has perished. If we had even the Kagxndoviaxav of the Emperor Claudius, in eight volumes, which, from the original materials extant in his time, would be comparatively valuable,and for which, with his Tuggnav, or history of Etrurian affairs, an almost equally interesting though now obscure subject, he erected a new Museum at Alexandria, that the two publications might be alternately read there to the public, our loss would be partially compensated for.-(SUETON. in Claud. cap. 42.) But Time has been almost as unsparing an adversary to the historical, as Cato to the political, existence of Carthage.-MS. Observations and Collections for a History of Carthage. 4 This epistle, originally written for a little publication of the "Comet Club," was meant to be nothing more, in point of style, than a specimen of the "musa pedestris," or that unassuming class of composition in verse, as contrasted with poetry, from the connexion of which with topics of a common or familiar, as distinguished from those of an elevated or sentimental nature, merely that mode of expression is to be expected which may be defined as prose in metre. This will consequently be a sufficient excuse for the roughness of some lines, which, even independent of the difficulty of giving passages of Scripture in a sufficiently clear or literal manner in smoother verses, would, were the lines more polished, have only served to render the entire composition less easy and natural. IMPROMPTU, Written, at the time of Anglesey Proclamations, in the leaf Scrap-Book, containing a portrait of the Marquis, next to following well-known verses :— God takes the good, too good on earth to stay, This couplet's truth, in PAGET's case, we find- LET FANATICS MURMUR AT LIFE. AIR-Unknown. I. LET fanatics murmur at life, But drown all contention in wine: Then, let each fill, and pass on the wine to the next There's no Lethe like this, when our hearts are per plexed; And let music and joy Ev'ry moment employ, For "eat, drink, and be merry," to-night is our text II. They tell us, that sages agree, But here ev'ry heart is revealed— For, "when the wine's in, the man's out." So, let each fill, and pass on the wine to the next; There's no Lethe like this, when our hearts are perplexed; And let music and joy Ev'ry moment employ, For "eat, drink, and be merry," to-night is our text. III. Divines, if they choose it, may think, They know more than we do of Heaven; And say, if so deeply we drink, We'll lose every one of the "seven;" But we, in our bumpers, have found For, oft as the bottle goes round, A Paradise beams in each glass. Then, let each fill, and pass on the wine to the next; There's no Lethe like this, when our hearts are per plexed; 2 "The proper study of mankind is man."-POPE And let music and joy Ev'ry moment employ, For "eat, drink, and be merry," to-night is text. May 5th, 1830 A CHARACTER. Mes traits sont ceux de la satire : IN manners vulgar, cold and sour in mind— In speech, one libel upon human kind— A gloomy croaker both at friends and foesA dreary cloud to mirth where'er she goesSave when her hen-pecked spouse-now, like herself With scandal only pleased or sordid pelf-Conveys some lie, with which, at others' fame, Detraction's imps, her dearest kindred, aim, Or counts some petty saving, ever sure A ghastly leer of welcome to procure. In looks, afraid the gazer's glance to meetA conscious mass of envy and deceit, Of black ill-nature, and malignant art, To gash the feelings and to stab the heart. A ready firebrand in domestic strife, A forward old maid, yet a childless wife; Childless, since favouring nature hath decreed, That vipers in our isle should never breed. |