Why, Goddess, why, to us denied, ODE TO THE BRAVE. How sleep the brave, who sink to rest, By Fairy hands their knell is rung, ODE TO MERCY.1 STROPHE, O Thou, who sitt'st a smiling bride Gentlest of sky-born forms, and best adored: Who oft with songs, divine to hear, Win'st from his fatal grasp the spear, And hid'st in wreaths of flowers his bloodless sword! 1 The Ode to the Brave, written in 1746, and the Ode to Mercy, seem to have been written on the same occasion, namely, the Scotch Rebellion of 1746, when the young Pretender, Charles Edward Stuart, after landing in Scotland and routing the English forces, was utterly defeated at Culloden The subsequent devastations of the Highlands by the English were dreadful & nd bloody in the highest degree; and well might our gifted poet invoke the genius of Mercy. Thou who amidst the deathful field, Oft with thy bosom bare art found, Pleading for him the youth who sinks to ground: And decks thy altar still, though pierced with many a wound ANTISTROPHE. When he whom e'en our joys provoke, The fiend of Nature join'd his yoke, And rush'd in wrath to make our isle his prey; Thy form, from out thy sweet abode, O'ertook him on his blasted road, And stopp'd his wheels, and look'd his rage away. I see recoil his sable steeds, That bore him swift to savage deeds, To thee we build a roseate bower, Thou, thou shalt rule our queen, and share our monarch's throne! ON THE DEATH OF THE POET THOMSON.' I. In yonder grave a Druid lies Where slowly winds the stealing wave! II. In yon deep bed of whispering reeds III. Then maids and youths shall linger here, To hear the woodland pilgrim's knell. IV. Remembrance oft shall haunt the shore When Thames in summer wreaths is drest, And oft suspend the dashing oar To bid his gentle spirit rest! 1 This ode on the Death of Thomson seems to have been written during an excursion to Richmond on the Thames. "Collins had skill to complain." Of that mournful melody, and those tender images, which are the distinguishing excellencies of such pieces as bewail departed friendship or beauty, he was almost an unequalled master. 2 The harp of Æolus, of which see a description in Thomson's Castle of Indolence. SAMUEL RICHARDSON, who may be said to be the inventor of the modern English novel, was the son of a carpenter in Derbyshire, and was born in 1689. From the limited means of his father, he was restricted to a commonschool education, which is very apparent in the structure of his composition. He early exhibited, however, the most decisive marks of genius, and was re 1 Thomson was buried in Richmond church. 2 Thomson resided in the neighborhood of Richmond some time before his death. inarkably partial to letter-writing, and to the company of his young female friends, with whom he maintained a constant correspondence, and even ventured, though only in his eleventh year, to become their occasional monitor and adviser. "As a bashful and not forward boy," he relates, "I was an early favorite with all the young women of taste and reading in the neighborhood. Half a dozen of them, when met to work with their needles, used, when they got a book they liked, and thought I should, to borrow me to read to them; their mothers sometimes with them; and both mothers and daughters used to be pleased with the observations they put me upon making.” In this exercise, doubtless, we may see the germ of the future novelist. At the age of sixteen he was put to the printer's trade, which he chose be cause it would give him an opportunity for reading. At the termination of his apprenticeship, he became a compositor and corrector of the press, and continued in this office for nearly six years, when he entered into business for himself. By his industry, punctuality, and integrity, he became more and more known, and his business rapidly increased; so that in a few years he obtained the lucrative situation of printer to the House of Commons. He did not, however, neglect to use his pen, and frequently composed prefaces and dedications for the booksellers. He also published a volume of “Familiar Letters," which might serve as models for persons of limited education. In 1740 he published his first novel, "Pamela," which immediately attracted an extraordinary degree of attention. "It requires a reader," says Sir Walter Scott, "to be in some degree acquainted with the huge folios of inanity over which our ancestors yawned themselves to sleep, ere he can estimate the delight they must have experienced from this unexpected return to truth and nature." Truly original in its plan, it united the interest arising from well-combined incident with the moral purposes of a sermon. Pope praised it as likely to do more good than twenty volumes of sermons; and Dr. Sherlock recommended it from the pulpit. In 1749 appeared Richardson's second and greatest work, "The History of Clarissa Harlowe," which raised his reputation at once, as a master of fictitious narrative, to the highest point. Dr. Drake calls it "perhaps the most pathetic tale ever published." The admiration it excited was not confined to his own country. It was honored with two versions in French, and Rousseau declared that nothing ever equal, or approaching to it, had been produced in any country. As, in the character of Clarissa, Richardson had presented a picture of female virtue and honor nearly perfect, so in 1753, in the "History of Sir Charles Grandison," he designed to give a character which should combine the elegance of the gentleman with the faith and virtues of the Christian. "This, though not indeed so pathetic as his former work, discovers more knowledge of life and manners, and is perfectly free from that indelicacy and high coloring which occasionally render the scenery of Clarissa dangerous to young minds."1 In 1754 he was elected to the post of master to the Stationers' Company, a situation as lucrative as it was honorable. For some years previous to his death he had suffered much from nervous attacks, which at length terminated in an apoplectic stroke, which proved fatal on the 4th of July, 1761. No character could be freer from vice of every sort, or more perfectly irreproachable, than Richardson. In all the duties of morality and piety he was the most regular and exemplary of men. As a writer, he possessed original 1 Drake's Essays, vol. v. p. 53. genius, and an unlimited command over the tender passions; yet, owing to the prolixity of his productions and the poverty of his style, his works are continually decreasing in popularity. How few now read "Clarissa," or “Sir Charles Grandison!" How important, then, is style to the preservation of literary labor! In 1755 was published a curious volume with the following title:"A Collection of the Moral and Instructive Sentiments, Maxims, Cautions, and Reflections, contained in the Histories of Pamela, Clarissa, and Sir Charles Grandison." From it we make the following extracts :— : MORAL SENTIMENTS. BENEFICENCE. The power of doing good to worthy objects, is the only enviable circumstance in the lives of people of fortune, What joy it is in the power of the wealthy to give themselves, whenever they please, by comforting those who struggle with undeserved distress. Nothing in human nature is so God-like as the disposition to do good to our fellow-creatures. Such is the blessing of a benevolent heart, that, let the world frown as it will, it cannot possibly bereave-it of all happiness; since it can rejoice in the prosperity of others. CALUMNY, CENSURE. No one is exempt from calumny. Words said, the occasion of saying them not known, however justly reported, may bear a very different construction from what they would have done had the occasion been told. Were evil actions to pass uncensured, good ones would lose their reward; and vice, by being put on a foot with virtue in this life, would meet with general countenance. A good person will rather choose to be censured for doing his duty than for a defect in it. CHILDREN. There is such a natural connection and progression between the infantile and more adult state of children's minds, that those who would know how to account for their inclinations, should not be wholly inattentive to them in the former state. At two or three years old, or before the buds of children's minds will begin to open, a watchful parent will then be employed, like a skilful gardener, in defending the flower from blights, and assisting it through its several stages to perfection. EDUCATION. Tutors should treat their pupils, with regard to such of their faulty habits as cannot easily be eradicated, as prudent physicians do their patients in chronical cases; rather with gentle palliatives than harsh extirpatives; which, by means of the resistance given to them by the habit, may create such ferments as may utterly defeat their intention. Neither a learned nor a fine education is of any other value |