The priest-like father reads the sacred page, With Amalek's ungracious progeny; Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre. 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. 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, From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs. An island in the Archipelago, where John is supposed to have written the book of Revelation 4 Priestly vestment. 1 And certes,' in fair virtue's heavenly road, The cottage leaves the palace far behind: O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent! Be blest with health, and peace, and sweet content! 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 2 undaunted heart Or nobly die, the second glorious part, But still the patriot, and the patriot bard, 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, Mis-spending all thy precious hours, Which tenfold force give Nature's law, Look not alone on youthful prime, 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 Are likewise truly blest. 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- Why was an independent wish If not, why am I subject to Or why has man the will and power Yet, let not this too much, my son, This partial view of human-kind The poor, oppressed, honest man, O Death! the poor man's dearest friend, Are laid with thee at rest! The great, the wealthy, fear thy blow, EDMUND BURKE. 1730-1797. 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 poli tical institutions whatever. In the next year, Burke published his "Essay on the Sublime and Beauti ful," 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 Reynolds 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 pub- In 1794, his son, who had just been elected to parliament, took ill and "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 House 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." Bead the article in vol. xlvi. of the Edinburgh Review: also, his Life by James Prior. |