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views; 'lead him to aspire after the perfection of his nature, and the true end of his being. He will fee that This connexion with Ged, the fource of all perfection and felicity, is the only fource of his happinefs in time and throughout eternity. Although we are all the children of the Univerfal Parent by creation, there is a nearer relation in which we ftand to him ;-a relation indiffoluble in its nature! We are emanations (if I may be allowed the term) of that celeftial effence which can never be annihilated. This infinitely furpafes every other connexion in its glorious confequences, and will remain a fource of undecaying felicity when they fhall be diffolved forever.

Hence the man who knows, will, from a juft fenfe of his dignity, reerence himself. Although fenfible of human weaknefs, he will fee his confequence, and feel his intellectual Strength; and be confcious whence he derived it. He will not content himself with the amufements and acquifitions which terminate with time, and fenfe, and mortal life, but afpire

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after higher and higher degrees of refinement and perfection.

In proportion as he acquires the knowledge of himself, he will fee the neceffity of a ftill more excellent attainment, even the true knowledge of God;-a knowledge which is of all the most interesting and glorious.

We indeed behold the Deity in that beautiful difplay of his works which nature exhibits. The whole earth is full of his wonders. All things declare his praife. But the knowledge of him, as our preferver, our ftrength, and refuge in this world, and the fource of eternal bleffedness in the world and life that is to come, can only be attained by an humble, reverent attention to the dictates of his Spirit of grace, manifefted in the confciences of all men as their only fure guide and director in the way to his kingdom.

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Whofoever follows this divine guide, this "word nigh in the heart," will, at the clofe of his race here, be qualified to become a member of the church triumphant, and join his elder brethren in glory.

For the COLUMBIAN PHENIX.

Mers. HAWKINS & TILLOTSON,
If you think the following worthy your pages, it is yours.
+ A LESSON FOR JUDGES.

THE fon of a rich Italian merchant

had been travelling for a year in the fouth of that kingdom, and was to have embarked at Marseilles to vifit Spain, and thence to pafs into England. At Nifmes he fell in love with a young lady, who promifed to marry him at his return. The unhappy young man, on quitting his miftrefs, propofcs to himfelf the pleasure of. Vauclus, where the

immortal petrarch receives the paffing tribute of a figh from every trayeller as he vifits chafte Laura's tomb. As he was going through the Popish territory of Avignon, a murder was committed by a man dreffed in a green frock. The young Italian had likewife a green frock; and the guards who were in fearch of the murderer, guided by falfe appearances, feized on him, and two other men not far

off;

off; they were all three loaded with irons and thrown into a gaol. The man in green, who was fuppofed to have committed the murder, being brought before the awful magiftrate, and interrogated, denies, with a proper and manly affurance, the fact, and perfifts in being innocent. The imperious Judge, unaccustomed to receive fuch bold answers, after loading him with the most execrable expreffions, ordered him to be put to the torture. He fuffered all thofe ⚫torments invented by the most barbarous and refined cruelty, with a furprising fortitude; they could not make him own a crime he had never perpetrated, and the only words that he uttered were, I am innocent-forgive them, Lord, for they know not what they are doing.

The proofs not being quite fatisfactory they did not dare to condemn him to death; but upon these semi proofs, they fent him to the gallies for five years, at Touion.

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The young man wrote the whole of this unlucky affair to his banker at Paris, begging him not to let his father in Italy know what had happened, for fear of haftening his death, if he thought him culpable; or of involving him in endless trouble by attempting to annul the fatal fentence of Avignon; befides, he hoped that his innocence might be clearly proved, as it happened foon after. The money his father allowed him for travelling was punctually remitted to the gallies by the Paris banker, who received the customary receipts with a falfe date from Madrid, London or Paris.

By the will of Providence that will never permit the innocent to fuffer, the real murderer was condemned to the gallies for another crime, and as chance would have it,

was chained to the fame oar with the innocent young Italian. The villain behaved in fuch a fhocking manner that he was hated by all the flaves, and at length he completed the fcore of his crimes by killing the ferjeant of the guards. Before his execution he declared before M. de Jean, grand provoft of Toulon harbour, that he had committed the murder near Avignon, for which another man was fent to the gallies. His teftimony confirmed the whole of the depofition, and M. de Jean, in order to deliver the unhappy young man from a punishment he did not deferve, began to act fo vigorously, and fo earnestly, that the King of France ordered the young Italian to be discharged; and declared by his letters that he was wrongfully condemned for a crime he had not committed.

When the young man had received the moft flattering hopes of M. de Jean, of his delivery, he wrote to his mistrefs the whole of his fad hiftory, and fhe, thoroughly convinced of the truth of his doleful tale, aċquainted him immediately that his father and mother were dead, and that the fhould come to Toulon to fee him. True love never harbours fufpicions; fhe was fure her lover could not deceive her, and repaired immediately to Toulon-to the very galley, among the flaves. I leave to the reader to paint to his mind the tender interview. The scene affected all the beholders; and it was with difficulty the two lovers were recovered to life after the mu tual fhock they were feized with at their first meeting. Two days after, his Majefty's orders were obeyed, and the marriage was celebrated. The young couple were happy in each other, but the young man wish

ed

ed to have his character re-established in the eyes of the world. The unhappy young Italian, delivered from flavery through his Majefty's

Mers. HAWKINS & TILLOTSON,

orders, went poft to Rome, and with the king's letters; his fuit was received, and his innocence proclaimed in all parts of France and Italy.

IT has long been a queftion among Critics, whether Rhyme is on ornament, or defect, in writing. The following Extract from a late periodical publication, on that fubject, I think fully decides it.

Tours,

ON ENGLISH RHYME.

WHILE the fentimental reader values himfelf upon "being pleafed, he knows not why, and cares not wherefore," the philofophical critic will not think it quite abfurd, to investigate the fources of the pleasures we derive from literary productions; and to diftinguish fuch as are the genuine offspring of truth and nature, from thofe which owe their existence to falfe opinion or depraved taste, and are preferved by the mere force of habit and cuftom. That we are often pleased with things which ought not to pleafe us, is as true in matters of taste, as in morals; and, in both cafes, it is only by bringing our feelings to the standard of reafon, that we can determine whether they ought to be indulged. If, as we daily fee, it is in the power of fashion, by the capricious trokes of his harlequin-wand, to vary, at pleasure, the forms of beauty; and, in endless freaks, to make that which to-day is enchanting, to-morrow odious and shocking; why may not time and habit be able, by a contrary process, to reconcile us to abfurdities; and to make us fancy beauty and excellence, where there is, in reality, nothing but whim and conceit? Will it, then, in this age of innovation, be thought too daring an intrufion into the myfteries of fa

PROSE

cred poefy, if we venture to inquire, whether the modern practice of writing verfe in rhyme, be founded in nature and reafon, and confonant to the genuine principles of taste ?——or, whether the pleafure derived from it, be not the mere effect of arbitrary affociation?-whether, if the origin, nature, and effects, of this practice be fairly examined, it will not be found, that ryhme, instead of being an ornament, is a defect, in verse?

If we were inclined to refer the question to the decifion of authority, fuch an appeal would be ineffectual. Against the oracular decifion of Dr. Johnfon, though fupported by the voice of other critics of no mean name, it might be fufficient to caft into the opposite scale the weighty judgment of Milton, who has faid, that "ryhme is no neceffary adjunct, or true ornament, of poem or good verfe; but the invention of a barbarous age, to fet off wretched matter and lame metre, graced, indeed, fince, by the use of fome famous modern poets, carried away by cuf tom, but much to their own vexation, hindrance, and constraint, to exprefs many things otherwife, and for the moft part worse, than they would have expreffed them." If the fuccefs of many modern poets, in rhyme, be urged, as a proof, in fact, of the excellence

Even the witty Butler, who has, perhaps, ufed rhyme to better purpofe than any other poet, has em ployed his playful fancy in ridiculing it; and has acknowledged, that in rhyming couplcts, one verfe is made for the other; and that With which, like fhips, they feer their "Rhyme the rudder is of verses,

excellence of this mode of verfifying, it will remain to be asked, whether the fame genius, and the fame tafte, exercifed without "the troublesome bondage of rhyming," might not have produced performances of ftill higher merit. If a numerous band of great poets fhould be thought to have given this practice the fanction of their approbation, by writing, for the moft part, in thyme, it fhould be recollected, that feveral of the more eminent of our Englifhed by its parentage, little can be faid poets have expreffed their reftiefiaefs under this grievous yoke. Dryden, of whom Johafon has faid, perhaps with exaggerated praife, that "to him we owe the improvement, perhaps, the completion, of our metre," calls ryhme

"At best, a pleasing found, and fair bar

barity."

Rofcommon confeffes, that rhyme is the cause of many faults; and that,

"Too ftrict to rhyme, we flight more ufe

ful laws."

Prior, in fober profe, complains, that rhyme "is too confined;" and that it cuts off the fenfe at the

end of every first line, which must always rhyme to the next following, and confequently produces too frequently an identity in found, and brings every couplet to the point of an epigram:"- "He that writes in rhymes," fays this kilful rhymer,

dances in fetters." The ingeni-
ous author of Phædra and Hippoly-
tus laments that "tyrannic rhyme
ties the poet in needlefs bonds."
"Procruftes like, the axe or wheel applies,
To lop the mangl'd fenfe, or stretch it in-
to fize;

At best a crutch, that lifts the weak along,
Supports the feeble, but retards the ftrong
And the chance thoughts, when govern'd
by the clofe,

Oft rife to fuftian, or descend te pròfe."

courfes."

If the merit of rhyme be estimat

in its favour. It can boaft no alliance with thofe great masters of fine writing, the Greeks and Romans. Homer and Virgil knew nothing of rhyme; and had they known it, there can be little doubt that they would have defpifed it. If modern research has difcovered fome traces of this ingenious device in the Eaftern nations, it is certain, that with refpect to us, the practice has originated from bards, or monks. Among the latter, the idle hours of monaftic life were often worn away in writing of Chrift, the Virgin Mary, or fome wretched Latin rhymes, in honour newly-created faint. About the time that we find an acroftic, with lines, we meet with the following the name Jefus at each end of the tender rhymes:

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"Jefus decus angelicum,
In aure dulce canticum,
In ore mel miricificum,
In corde nectar Calicum !
Quocunque loco fuero,
Mecum Jefum defidero,
Quam latus cum invenero !
Quam falix cum tenuerò !”

Jefus, my glory, name angelic!
"Tis in the ear, the sweetest music ;
'Tis in the mouth, honey delicious;
'Tis in the heart, nectar most precious;
Whatever place to me fhall be given,
Jefus ftill with me, 't will be my heaven;
Wrapt in delight, wherever I find him,
While in my arms I joyfully bind him.”

The

The reft must not be copied. This kind of rhymes continued to be the amufement of the monks, till the reformation. Harrington, in his Nuge Antique, has preferved a hymn, with the notes, which was fung in their cells, till, he fays, "goodlie king Henry spoiled their fynging." The hymn was called "Black Saunte," or, "Hymn to Saunte Satan." From the authors of fuch enchanting strains, was it too much to expect improvements upon the Pindaric or Horatian lyre?

In order to eftimate, correctly, the value of this improvement, let us endeavour to analyse the nature, and investigate the operation of rhyme. Rhyme is the repetition of the fame found, or founds, at intervals, either regular, or irregular. Sometimes the rhyming fyllables are fingle, fometimes double; fometimes the rhymes occur uniformly in couplets; fometimes they are placed alternately, or in forms ftill more complex. In all these varieties, it is very evident, that the pleasure which rhymes afford, does not altogether arife from the repetition of fimilar founds. No ear would be gratified with the recital of a column of rhyming words, from a fpelling-book, or a rhyming dictionary. In lines of acqual length, written without any regard to numbers, the effect of the rhymes is loft; as will be eafily perceived, in the following lines, from Dean Swift's Mrs. Harris's Petition :

"I was never taken for a conjurer before,

I'd have you to know:

Lord, faid I, don't be angry, I'm fure, I

never thought you so;

You know, I honour the cloth; I defign to

be a parfon's wife;

I never took one in your coat for a conjurer in all my life."

As far, however, as the pleafure of rhyme is to be referred fimply to the

frequent recurrence of fimilar founds, it perhaps arifes chiefly, if not entirely, from the furprife excited by unexpected combinations, and is to be confidered as belonging to the lower fpecies of wit. In converfation, fuch combinations of fimilar founds feldom occur; and therefore, when they happen, we ufually notice them with fome degree of furprise. It is the continuation of the fame percep tion which we experience, when we hear the frequent return of rhymes in ftudied verfe; and hence it is, that in reading long works, written in rhyme, the pleafure, as far as de.pends upon the rhyming words alone, gradually decreases, till, at length, the furprise ceafing, the repetition becomes tirefome. Rhyme (fays lord Kaimes) roufes the attention, and produces an emotion moderately gay, without dignity or elevation."

If this be the true explanation of the pleasure arifing from rhyming words, it is evident, that the ufe of this ornament, if it must be called fuch, is a kind of low wit; and that the car is gratified by it, for the fame reason that the eye is amufed by anagrams and acroftics. It may then be fairly asked, what alliance is there between the puerile amufement of jingling fyllables, and the fublime and elegant pleafures of genuine poetry? We are difpleafed, when Shakespeare intrudes the midft of his noble flights of fancy, or tender ftrokes of paffion: what, but custom, could enable us to endure, in the more elevated kinds of verfe, the perpetual intrufion of a ftill lower fpecies of wit, in the unThe noble exertions of creative geufual combinations of fimilar founds? nius are degraded, and great things are confounded with fmall, when the poet clothes his grand conceptions in the fantastic drefs of rhym

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