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the only reason was that she was crammed full of osta, You have nothing to fear, neighbor; the mare is in perfect trim; and she will skin you over the ground like a bird. I wish you a good journey and a profitable job.

THE BATTLE OF LIFE

LONGFELLOW.

LET our unceasing, earnest prayer
Be, too, for light,-for strength to bear
Our portion of the weight of care
That crushes into dumb despair
One half the human race.

O suffering, sad humanity!
O ye afflicted ones, who lie
Steeped to the lips in misery,
Longing, and yet afraid to die,
Patient, though sorely tried!

I pledge you in this cup of grief,
Where floats the fennel's bitter leaf!
The Battle of our Life is brief,
The alarm, the struggle,-the relief,
Then sleep we side by side.

VANOC AND VALENS, IN THE TRAGEDY OF THE BRITON.

Van. Now, tribune!

Philips.

Tal. Health to Vanoc.

Van. Speak your business.

Val. I come not as a herald, but a friend: And I rejoice that Didius chose out me

To greet a prince in my esteem the foremost.

Van. So much for words.-Now to your purpose, tribune.

Val. Sent by our new lieutenant, who in Rome
And since from me has heard of your renown,
I come to offer peace; to reconcile

Past enmities; to strike perpetual league

With Vanoc; whom our emperor invites

To terms of friendship; strictest bonds of union.

Van. We must not hold a friendship with the Romans. Val. Why must you not?

Van. Virtue forbids it.

Val. Once

You thought our friendship was your greatest glory.

Van. I thought you honest.-I have been deceived.Would you deceive me twice? No, tribune, no! You sought for war,-maintain it as you may.

l'al. Believe me, prince, your vehemence of spirit, Prone ever to extremes, betrays your judgment. Would you once coolly reason on our conduct

-

Van. Oh, I have scanned it thoroughly. Night and day I think it over, and I think it base;

Most infamous! let who will judge-but Romans.

Did not my wife, did not my menial servant,
Seducing each the other, both conspire
Against my crown, against my fame, my life?
Did they not levy war and wage rebellion?
And when I would assert my right and power
As king and husband, when I would chastise
Two most abandoned wretches-who but Romans
Opposed my justice and maintained their crimes {

Val. At first the Romans did not interpose,
But grieved to see their best allies at variance.
Indeed, when you turned justice into rigor,
And even that rigor was pursued with fury,
We undertook to mediate for the queen,
And hoped to moderate-

Van. To moderate !——

What would you moderate ?-my indignation,
The just resentment of a virtuous mind?
To mediate for the queen !-you undertook?
Wherein concerned it you, but as you love
To exercise your insolence? Are you
To arbitrate my wrongs? Must I ask leave
Must I be taught to govern my own household?
Am I then void of reason and of justice?

When in my family offences rise,

Shall strangers, saucy intermeddlers, say,
Thus far, and thus you are allowed to punish?
When I submit to such indignities—

When I am tamed to that degree of slavery-
Make me a citizen, a senator of. Rome,

To watch, to live upon the smile of Claudius;

To give my wife and children to his pleasures,
To sell my country with my voice for bread.

Val. Prince, you insult upon this day's success;
You may provoke too far-but I am cool-

I give your answer scope.

Van. Who shall confine it ?

The Romans?-Let them rule their slaves-I blush
That, dazzled in my youth with ostentation,
The trappings of the men seduced my virtue.

Val. Blush, rather, that you are a slave to passion; Subservient to the wildness of your will;

Which, like a whirlwind, tears up all
your virtues,
And gives you not the leisure to consider.

Did not the Romans civilize you?

Van. No. They brought new customs and new vices

over

Taught us more arts than honest men require,

And gave us wants that nature never knew.
Val. We found you naked-

Van. And you found us free.

Val. Would you be temperate once, and hear me outVan. Speak things that honest men may hear with temper,

Speak the plain truth, and varnish not your crimes.
Say, that you once were virtuous-long ago

A frugal, hardy people, like the Britons,
Before you grew thus elegant in vice,

And
gave your luxuries the name of virtues.
The civilizers!--the disturbers, say;-
The robbers, the corrupters of mankind,

Proud vagabonds !-who make the world your home,

And lord it where you have no right.
What virtue have you taught?
Val. Humanity.

Van. Oh! Patience!

Val. Can you disown a truth confessed by all?
A praise, a glory, known in barbarous climes?
Far as our legions march, they carry knowledge,
The arts, the laws, the discipline of life.

Our conquests are indulgences, and we
Not masters, but protectors of mankind.

Van. Prevaricating, false-most courteous tyrants; Romans! Rare patterns of humanity!

Came you then thus far through the waves to conquer, To waste, to plunder out of mere compassion?

Is it humanity that prompts you on

To ravage the whole earth, to burn, destroy?
To raise the cry of widows and of orphans?
To lead in bonds the generous free-born princes,
Who spurn, who fight against your tyranny?
Happy for us, and happy for you spoilers,
Had your humanity ne'er reached our world-
It is a virtue (so it seems you call it)

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A Roman virtue that has cost you dear:
And dearer shall it cost if Vanoc lives,-
Or if we die, we shall leave those behind us
Who know the worth of British liberty.

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