If thou should'st crown my aims with good success, Ne'er let my steps digress from virtue's track; Who e'en for chief of sinners fully paid A just atonement on the fatal tree, And died-to ransom 'mongst those sinners, me! And raise me, after death, to heav'n's immortal climes! " ARCHIBALD MYTTON. ON PATRIOTISM. Leonidas having dismissed all but his three hundred Spartans, with some Thespians and Thebans, in all not a thousand men, he exhorted his followers, in the most cheerful manner, to prepare for death: Come, my fallow soldiers," says he, let us dine cheerfully here, for to-night we shall sup with Pluto." 66 GOLDSMITH. Can there exist a claimant to the glorious appellation of Man, who has not, on the perusal of these affecting lines, felt his bosom glow, as it were, with the most fer vent admiration, for that magnanimous hero, who could, at his country's call, thus cheerfully surrender the choicest boon of Heaven? Does not his noble contempt of death his elevated courage; and his truly patriotic devotion, kindle within our minds sentiments of the highest esteem and wonder? Do we not feel eager to pour forth our humble, though unqualified, tribute of applause; and to exclaim, with millions who have read and admired, long before we drew the breath of life," Justly, most justly, has mankind enwreathed his brows with the laurels of immortality." Are we not hurried beyond ourselves by the excitation of our feelings; and fired with a noble and praiseworthy emulation, tempted to cry out in the words of the melodious Horace Dulce, et decorum est pro patriâ mori. In a reflecting mind, will naturally arise the question,What could be that principle so powerful in its operation which enabled Leonidas, not only without reluctance, but even with cheerfulness, to undergo the dreaded consummation of all human ills, which mortals in general loathe, and avoid as the greatest of sublunary calamities? To this may be readily replied, a true and fervent love of his country, which, implanted in the early period of childhood, and carefully cherished in the glowing season of youth, at length, in manhood, ripened into that glorious fruit, which has crowned his name with honor and never-dying fame. It is patriotism, subject alike of the sage's praise and poet's song, that presents to our admiring view, those illustrious characters which history has embalmed in her imperishable records. It was patriotism which raised those renowned republics of Athens and Sparta, to that pre-eminent, nay, unrivalled rank, they hold in the annals of antiquity; as the most elegant and most accurate of ancient historians expressly declares, when, in his inimitable description of the Athenian character, he says, Ετι δε τοις μεν σομασιν αλλοτριωτατοις υπερ της πόλεως χρωνται, than which no language can be more explicit. The exalted opinion which he (and we may fairly presume the ancients in general,) had formed of this noble virtue, may be easily obtained from the concluding words of this sentence; few, indeed, but equal to volumes, when we consider their judicious and philosophical writer—τη γνώμη δε οικειοτάτη ες τὸ πράσσειν Tì vπip airñs. A deeply-rooted love of our country we may hence reasonably infer, is a virtue of the most exalted and glorious description; it purifies our minds from selfish and debasing considerations; inspires us with that elevated courage and contempt of death, which distinguish all truly good and virtuous men; and last, though not least, renders that country where it flourishes, alike impervious to the open violence of war, and the insidious undermining of treachery. How important is the duty then devolving on the instructors of youth, to instil and nourish in the rising generation that ardent patriotism which will instruct them to consider the honor and welfare of their country, as the dearest and most glorious object of their earthly solicitude !That ardent patriotism, which will teach them to revere, and guard from all ills, the sacred person of their monarch; to count their lives as nothing, when compared to his safety and preservation; and which, "iftreason lurk'd around the throne," would enable them to stand "Foremost in his defence, as in their own." This would implant in their breasts so true and devoted an attachment to that glorious fabric, the British Constitution, as would enable them to consider death, in defending it from infringement, the most honorable termination of their mortal career, "And bid admiring worlds in wonder see, G. S. LIFE. Life, in its general acceptation, means the animal being of any thing. In irrational brutes, consisting of a dull routine of a few functions peculiar to existence, as eating, drinking, and the like. But the life of man varies as much as the dispositions of those who enjoy that blessing. It glides away from us as a stream, with a silent, yet unceasing progress, and so unruffled is its course, that we are scarcely conscious of its departure. It is also irrevocable, and its possessor is soon lost among the changes of time. The principal end, therefore, to be attained, is the possibility of passing this life so as to confer the greatest benefits upon others, and to afford, at the same time, pleasure to ourselves. The question, then, seems to be, where and how this acme of human happiness is to be acquired? Is it to be found among the votaries of fashion and high life, who are engaged in a succession of dazzling entertainments? These intoxicate the senses, and, in the end, make them, when surfeited with the repetition of the fatiguing amusements of town, unfit to enjoy the (to them) dull pleasures of the country. Do we look for it in the horrid purlieus of the metropolis? where we see low life maintaining her destructive sway over the wretched mortals doomed to be actors in those scenes of depravity and wretched'ness, (for they are there always to be met with,) until at last they too often become victims to the offended laws of their country, or absolutely perish, overwhelmed by their own poverty and filth. To complete this trio, picture to yourself a fox-hunting country 'squire,-a man who will ride up to his hounds, is very skilful in making a judicious cast when come to a check, and will, in the true spirit of conviviality, drink his bottle of wine, but who has no knowledge of the manners and the customs of the world, and is voted a nuisance by the first decent society into which he may be thrown. This latter description of life, however, is now seldom to be met with. An old-fashioned fox-hunter is, in these times, a very rare sight, and hunting may be well considered the amusement of a gentleman. Persons of this description, though they have the breath of life in them, yet can hardly be said to live, so thoroughly debased and unprofitable is their life. Man was endowed with powers of mind sufficient to enjoy the pleasures of life,-a desideratum which those who turn night into day by their revelings, and who hold horses in the same estimation as human beings, never can attain. G. W. FAREWELL LINES ADDRESSED TO A No fall from bliss, no blasted hope, How often does the silent gloom Bring to my care-worn pensive mind, No distant time, no change of place, Dear friend, where'er my fortune leads, My memory will recall the pang O could I paint, in glowing strains, How much my tortur'd bosom heav'd |