Obrázky na stránke
PDF
ePub

during which public declarations have been constantly called forth on every point and phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be presented.

2. The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends, is as well known to the public as to myself; and it is I trust, reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured.

3. On the occasion corresponding to this, four years ago, all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it; all sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in this city seeking to destroy it without war-seeking to dissolve the Union and divide its effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish; and the war came.

4. One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localized in the southern part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of the war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend the interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war, while the government claimed no right to do more than restrict the territorial enlargement of it.

5. Neither party expected for the war the magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause might cease with or even before the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding.

6. Both read the same Bible and prayed to the same God, and each invoked His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God's assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men's faces; but let us judge not, that we be not judged. The prayers of both could not be answered-that of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purpose Woe unto the world because of offenses, for it must needs be that offenses come; but woe to that man by whom the offense If we shall suppose that American slavery is one of these offenses which in the providence of God must needs come, but which having continued through His appointed time He now wills to remove, and that He gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due to those by whom the offense came, shall we discern therein any departure from those Divine attributes which the believers in a living God always ascribe to him?

cometh.

7. Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still must it be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether

8. With malice toward none,. with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us · strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphans-to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

XLIII. THE INCHCAPE ROCK.

ROBERT SOUTHEY.

1. No stir in the air, no stir in the sea, The ship was still as she could be;

Her sails from heaven received no motion;
Her keel was steady in the ocean.

2. Without either sign or sound of their shock, The waves flowed over the Inchcape Rock; So little they rose, so little they fell, They did not move the Inchcape Bell.

3. The Abbot of Aberbrothock

Had placed that bell on the Inchcape Rock;
On a buoy in the storm it floated and swung,
And over the waves its warning rung.

4. When the rock was hid by the surge's swell The mariners heard the warning bell; And then they knew the perilous rock, And blessed the Abbot of Aberbrothock.

5. The sun in heaven was shining gay ; All things were joyful on that day; The sea-birds screamed as they wheelèd round, And there was joyance in their sound.

6. The buoy of the Inchcape Bell was seen, A darker speck on the ocean green; Sir Ralph the Rover walked his deck,

And he fixed his eye on the darker speck.

7. He felt the cheering power of spring; It made him whistle, it made him sing; His heart was mirthful to excess,

But the Rover's mirth was wickedness.

8. His eye was on the Inchcape float;
Quoth he, "My men, put out the boat,
And row me to the Inchcape Rock,
And I'll plague the Abbot of Aberbrothock."

9. The boat is lowered, the boatmen row, And to the Inchcape Rock they go; Sir Ralph bent over from the boat,

And he cut the bell from the Inchcape float.

10. Down sunk the bell with a gurgling sound; The bubbles rose and burst around;

Quoth Sir Ralph, "The next who comes to the rock Won't bless the Abbot of Aberbrothock."

11. Sir Ralph the Rover sailed away;
He scoured the seas for many a day;
And now, grown rich with plundered store,
He steers his course for Scotland's shore.

12. So thick a haze o'erspreads the sky,
They cannot see the sun on high;
The wind hath blown a gale all day;
At evening it hath died away.

13. On the deck the Rover takes his stand; So dark it is they see no land.

Quoth Sir Ralph, "It will be lighter soon,
For there is the dawn of the rising moon."

14. "Canst hear," said one, "the breaker's roar? For methinks we should be near the shore." "Now where we are I cannot tell,

But I wish I could hear the Inchcape Bell."

15. They hear no sound; the swell is strong; Though the wind hath fallen, they drift along Till the vessel strikes with a shivering shock,"Oh God! it is the Inchcape Rock!"

16. Sir Ralph the Rover tore his hair; He cursed himself in his despair;

The waves rush in on every side;

The ship is sinking beneath the tide.

17. But even in his dying fear,
One dreadful sound could the Rover hear,-
A sound, as if, with the Inchcape Bell,
The fiend below was ringing his knell.

XLIV." DOLEFUL EVILS" OF THE PRESS.

ANDREW MARVELL.

and

1. For the press hath owed him* a shame a long time, is but now beginning to pay off the debt, the press (that villainous engine), invented about the same time with the Reformation, that hath done more mischief to the discipline of our church than all the doctrine can make amends for. 'Twas a happy time when all learning was in manuscript, and some little officer, like our author, did keep the keys of the library; when the clergy needed no more knowledge than to read the liturgy, and the laity no more clerkship than to save them from hanging.

*Bishop Parker, who was regarded as having changed his views for the sake of office.

« PredošláPokračovať »