XV. Serene, accomplish'd, cheerful but not loud; Yet ne'er betraying this in conversation; So as to make them feel he knew his station And theirs without a struggle for priority, He neither brook'd nor claim'd superiority. XVI. That is, with men: with women he was what So that the outline's tolerably fair, They fill the canvass up-and "verbum sat." XVII. Adeline, no deep judge of character, Was apt to add a colouring from her own: 'Tis thus the good will amiably err, And eke the wise, as has been often shown. But saddest when his science is well known: (1) [Raphael's masterpiece is called the Transfiguration.] XVIII. Was it not so, great Locke? and greater Bacon? Great Socrates? And thou, Diviner still, (1) Whose lot it is by man to be mistaken, And thy pure creed made sanction of all ill? Redeeming worlds to be by bigots shaken, How was thy toil rewarded? We might fill Volumes with similar sad illustrations, But leave them to the conscience of the nations. XIX. I perch upon an humbler promontory, Amidst life's infinite variety: With no great care for what is nicknamed glory, On what may suit or may not suit my story, I rattle on exactly as I'd talk With any body in a ride or walk. XX. I don't know that there may be much ability But there's a conversational facility, Which may round off an hour upon a time. (1) As it is necessary in these times to avoid ambiguity, I say that I mean, by " Diviner still," CHRIST. If ever God was man—or man Godhe was both. I never arraigned his creed, but the use- or abuse-made of it. Mr. Canning one day quoted Christianity to sanction negro slavery, and Mr. Wilberforce had little to say in reply. And was Christ crucified, that black men might be scourged? If so, he had better been born a Mulatto, to give both colours an equal chance of freedom, or at least salvation. Of this I'm sure at least, there's no servility Which rings what's uppermost of new or hoary, XXI. "Omnia vult belle Matho dicere-dic aliquando The fourth we hear, and see, and say too, daily: XXII. A modest hope-but modesty's my forte, But now I can't tell where it may not run. XXIII. But then 'tis mostly on the weaker side; Who now are basking in their full-blown pride (1) [“ Thou finely wouldst say all? Say something well: Say something ill, if thou wouldst bear the bell."- ELPHINSTON.] (2) "The cat will mew; the dog will have his day."— Hamlet.] Though at the first I might perchance deride XXIV. I think I should have made a decent spouse, 'Gainst rhyme I never should have knock'd my brows, Nor broken my own head, nor that of Priscian, Nor worn the motley mantle of a poet, If some one had not told me to forego it. (1) XXV. But" laissez aller"-knights and dames I sing, (1) [The reader has already seen in what style the Edinburgh Reviewers dealt with Lord Byron's early performance (antè, Vol. VII. p. 191.) — the effect which that criticism produced on him at the time (Ibid. p. 223.) — and how he felt the more favourable treatment which he received from the Monthly Review (Ibid. p. 192.). We should not, however, in the page last referred to, have forgotten to observe, that the young poet was not less courteously and encouragingly welcomed in another publication. We allude to an article on the " Hours of Idleness," by J. H. Markland, Esq., the learned Editor of the Chester Mysteries, which concluded in these terms: "We heartily hope, that the illness and depression of spirits, which evidently pervade the greater part of these effusions, are entirely dispelled; and are confident that George-Gordon Lord Byron' will have a conspicuous niche in every future edition of Royal and Noble Authors.'"-See Gentleman's Mag. vol. lxxvi. p. 1217.] The difficulty lies in colouring (Keeping the due proportions still in sight) With nature manners which are artificial, And rend'ring general that which is especial. XXVI. The difference is, that in the days of old Men made the manners; manners now make men Pinn'd like a flock, and fleeced too in their fold, Your writers, who must either draw again XXVII. We'll do our best to make the best on't:- March! Or starch, as are the edicts statesmen utter. (1) [Three small vessels were apparently all that Columbus had required. Two of them were light barques, called caravels, not superior to river and coasting craft of more modern days. That such long and perilous expe ditions into unknown seas, should be undertaken in vessels without decks, and that they should live through the violent tempests by which they were frequently assailed, remain among the singular circumstances of those daring voyages. WASHINGTON IRVING.] |