The priest-like father reads the sacred page, With Amalek's ungracious progeny; Or, how the Royal Bard' did groaning lie Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre. Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme, How guiltless blood for guilty man was shed; The precepts sage they wrote to many a land: How he, who lone in Patmos3 banished, Saw in the sun a mighty angel stand, And heard great Babylon's doom pronounced by Heaven's command. Then kneeling down to Heaven's Eternal King, No more to sigh, or shed the bitter tear, While circling time moves round in an eternal sphere. Devotion's every grace, except the heart! May hear, well-pleased, the language of the soul; And in His book of life the inmates poor enrol. Then homeward all take off their several way; The parent-pair their secret homage pay, For them and for their little ones provide; 1 David. From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, 2 Saint John. 3 An island in the Archipelago, where John is supposed to have written the book of Revelation. Priestly vestment. And certes,' in fair virtue's heavenly road, The cottage leaves the palace far behind: What is a lordling's pomp? a cumbrous load, Disguising oft the wretch of human-kind, Studied in arts of hell, in wickedness refined! O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent! Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content! A virtuous populace may rise the while, And stand, a wall of fire, around their much-loved isle. O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide That stream'd through Wallace's undaunted heart But still the patriot, and the patriot bard, In bright succession raise, her ornament and guard! 1 Certainly. MAN WAS MADE TO MOURN. When chill November's surly blast I spied a man, whose aged step Young stranger, whither wanderest thou? Does thirst of wealth thy step constrain, Or haply, prest with cares and woes, To wander forth, with me, to mourn The sun that overhangs yon moors, Sir William Wallace, the celebrated Scottish patriot. O man! while in thy early years, Which tenfold force give Nature's law, Look not alone on youthful prime, Supported is his right. But see him on the edge of life, With cares and sorrows worn, Then age and want, oh! ill-matched pair Show man was made to mourn. A few seem favorites of fate, In pleasure's lap carest; Yet, think not all the rich and great But, oh! what crowds, in every land, Many and sharp the numerous ills More pointed still we make ourselves, And man, whose heaven-erected face Makes countless thousands mourn! See yonder poor, o'erlabor'd wight, If I'm design'd yon lordling's slave- If not, why am I subject to His cruelty or scorn? Or why has man the will and power Yet, let not this too much, my son, This partial view of human-kind THIS most distinguished writer and statesman was born at Dublin on the 1st of January, 1730. On his mother's side he was connected with the poet Spenser, from whom, it is said, he received his Christian name. He was educated at Ballitore in the county of Kildare, at a classical academy under the management of Abraham Shackleton, a Quaker of superior talents and learning. Here, according to his own testimony, Burke acquired the most valuable of his mental habits; he ever felt the deepest gratitude for his early instructor, and with his only son, Richard, the successor in the school, he preserved an intimate friendship to the end of his life. In 1744 he entered Trinity College, Dublin, and in 1750 he was entered as a law-student at the Middle Temple, London: but his thoughts were soon entirely turned to literature and politics, to which, henceforth, all his time, and talents, and energies were devoted. His first publication was anonymous, entitled, "A Vindication of Natural Society, in a Letter to Lord -, by a Noble Lord." It was such an admirable imitation of the style of Lord Bolingbroke, that many were deceived by it, and deemed it a posthumous publication of that nobleman, who had been dead but five years. It was ironical throughout, endeavoring to prove that the same arguments with which that nobleman had attacked revealed religion, might be applied with equal force against all civil and political institutions whatever. In the next year, Burke published his "Essay on the Sublime and Beautiful," which, by the elegance of its language, and the spirit of philosophical investigation displayed in it, placed him at once in the very first class of writers on taste and criticism. His object is to show that terror is the prin cipal source of the sublime, and that beauty is the quality in objects which excites love or affection. The fame acquired by this work introduced the author to the best literary acquaintances, among whom were Sir Joshua Rey. nolds and Dr. Johnson. In 1758 he suggested to Dodsley the plan of the Annual Register, and engaged, himself, to furnish the chief historical matter, which he continued to do for very many years, and which has made that work the most valuable repository of historical knowledge of the times. In 1765, on the accession to power of the Marquis of Rockingham, he was appointed by that minister his private secretary, and was brought into parlia ment for the borough of Wendover. It would be impossible, in the limited space assigned to these biographical sketches, to give an outline of his subse quent parliamentary and political career, or to enumerate all his various publications. His life is a history of those eventful times,-for in them he acted a part more conspicuous than any other man. His able and eloquent opposition to those infatuated measures of the ministry which led to and prolonged the contest between England and our own country-his advocacy of the freedom of the press-of an improved libel law-of Catholic emancipation-of economical reform-of the abolition of the slave-trade-his giant efforts in the impeachment of Warren Hastings-and his most eloquent and uncompromising hostility to the French Revolution, in his speeches in parliament and in his well-known "Reflections on the Revolution in France," all these will ever cause him to be viewed as one of the warmest and ablest friends of man. In 1794, his son, who had just been elected to parliament, took ill and died; a blow so severe to the father, that he never recovered from it; and it doubtless hastened his own end, which took place on the 9th of July, 1797. As an eloquent and philosophic political character, Burke stands alone.2 His intellect was at once exact, minute, and comprehensive, and his imagination rich and vigorous. As to his style, he is remarkable for the copiousness and freedom of his diction, the splendor and great variety of his imagery, his astonishing command of general truths, and the ease with which he seems to wield those fine weapons of language, which most writers are able to manage only by the most anxious care. The following remarks of an able critics are as beautiful as they are just: "There can be no hesitation in according to Mr. Burke a station among the most extraordinary men that have ever appeared; and we think there is now but little diversity of opinion as to the kind of place which it is fit to assign him. He was a writer of the first class, and excelled in almost every kind of prose composition. Possessed of most extensive knowledge, and of the most various description; acquainted alike with what different classes of men knew, each in his own province, and with much that hardly any one ever thought of learning; he could either bring his masses of information to bear directly upon the subjects to which they severally belonged-or he could avail himself of them generally to strengthen his faculties and enlarge his views or he could turn any portion of them to account for the purpose of illustrating his theme, or enriching his diction. Hence, when he is handling any one matter, we perceive that we are conversing with a reasoner or a teacher, to whom almost every other branch of knowledge is familiar: his 1 Those who are not well read in the history of those times can hardly have an idea of the deep, bitter, malignant hostility, which the early English abolitionists, Sharp, Clarkson, Wilberforce, and others, had to encounter. Even Lord Chancellor Thurlow said, in his place in the Honse of Lords, on the 18th of June, 1788, that "it was unjust that this sudden fit of philanthropy, which was but a few days old, should be allowed to disturb the public mind, and to become the occasion of bringing men to the metropolis, who were engaged in the trade, with tears in their eyes and horror in their countenances, to deprecate the ruin of their property, which they had embarked on the faith of parliament;" and the Earl of Westmoreland considered that "as much attention was due to our property and manufactures as to a false humanity." The devotion of Burke to the best interests of man caused Abraham Shackleton to write of him thus: "The memory of Edmund Burke's philanthropic virtues will outlive the period when his shining political talents will cease to act. New fashions of political sentiment will exist: but Philanthropy-IMMORTALE MANET." 2 "The immortality of Burke," says Grattan, "Is that which is common to Cicero or to Bacon,that which can never be interrupted while there exists the beauty of order or the love of virtue, and which can fear no death except what barbarity may impose on the globe." * Read the article in vol. xlvi. of the Edinburgh Review: also, his Life by James Prior. |