See where ambition, borne on crimson wing,
With savage slaughter deluged all the plain;
Do not the vassal, warrior, and the king
Together lie, commingled with the slain?

Once great Napoleon rolled the tide of war,
And deluged Europe with a purple flood;
He, reckless tyrant, broke through every law,
Ambition glutting with a people's blood.

Then exiled far from home-from all held dear,
He pined despondent on a dreary isle,

No friendly voice was there his life to cheer,
Or soothe one sorrow, or one tear beguile.

Did hope but whisper to his ardent mind,

"The day may come when you'll again be free;" He'd start-conviction, like some hellish fiend, Mocked at his pangs, to crown his misery.

Say, mighty monarch, worlds could scarce confine!
What now thy trophies, and thy troops avail !
What more can'st thou, within thy narrow shrine,
"Than point a moral, or adorn a tale ?”

Vain are the monuments of human skill,
The mausoleum proud, the urn, the bust;

And man's weak pride that made them, vainer still—
Time will reduce them all to common dust.

Come hither ye, who've bathed in luxury's stream;
Ye who have fluttered on the wings of pride;
Ye who delighted in ambition's dream,

And passed with glory down life's troubled tide

Ye who have trod in pleasure's mazy round;

Ye who have waded through dark seas of blood; Ye who have traversed o'er forbidden ground;

Ye who've been tossed on passion's stormy flood;

Come-view these ruins mould'ring into dust,
And learn from them a moral truth sublime,
That nought, but what is virtuous, good and just,
Can 'scape the ravages of conquering Time.

A THEME.

BY CAZNEAU PALFREY.

Coepisti melius quam desinis: ultima primis
Cedunt: dissimiles hic vir et ille puer.

Ovid.

WHEN we take a survey of mankind, and observe their different persuits, we find that perseverance and industry are necessary to success in them all. No object is so easily attained, as to preclude the necessity of these virtues; and scarcely any, however difficult, is placed beyond their reach. Peseverance overcomes the greatest difficulties; nature itself bends to its power; and the very elements own its sway.

By perseverance, the highest mountains have been levelled, the deepest seas drained, the mightiest rivers turned from their course. All the great men, whose actions have been handed down to us in history, owe their fame to perseverance. Nature, it is true, planted in them the seeds of greatness, but it required long pains and labour, diligent and persevering study to cause them to spring up, grow, and come to perfection. Nature never bestows her gifts so plenteously as to render exertion unnecessary, on the part of those on whom they are bestowed. Had Demosthenes yielded to the almost insurmountable obstacles, that nature placed in his way; had Alexander and Cæsar turned back at the first difficulty they encountered on their road to fame; had Socrates and Plato been discouraged at the difficulties that opposed them in the pursuit of philosophy; these great men would now be un

known, and their names undistinguished from those of thousands of their contemporaries. But generals, orators, and philosophers form but a small portion of mankind; and the advantages of perseverance are not confined to these alone; every member of society, of whatever station, enjoys them also. There is not a situation in life which has not its obstacles to remove, its difficulties to overcome. The merchant, the mechanick, the labourer, must each persevere in his respective profession. If their exertions are relaxed, poverty is the consequence. Whatever pursuit we make choice of, whatever station in society we assume, whether we aim at the acquisition of learning, wealth, or fame, all our attempts will be in vain, every effort will prove abortive, without steady, unyielding, resolute perseverance. But besides the assistance perseverance lends in acquiring these goods, there is a still more important point where its support is particularly needed in the acquisition of virtue. In this pursuit it becomes doubly necessary; in setting out in this path many obstacles are to be encountered, many privations must be submitted to, many sacrifices are be made, which none but the resolute, none but those determined to persevere to the end, will be able to make. The passions will rise up and solicit their accustomed indulgence; the appetites will demand their former gratification; pride will be ready to rise at every slight; selfishness will struggle to arrest the hand of benevolence; envy will pine and sicken at another's good; and anger, that whirlwind of the soul," that scattereth fire-brands, arrows, and death," will be ready to kindle at every offence. All these, and numerous other difficulties, has he to encounter, who makes virtue the object of pursuit. But the man of perseverance,

who is in earnest in the cause, tramples them under his feet, and resolutely refuses indulgence to every unworthy passion, and every disorderly appetite. Interest cannot tempt, pleas ure cannot allure, nor fear deter him from the path. Though friends forsake, and enemies assail, though persecution rises in her most hideous form, to shake his purpose, yet self-collected, and depending on himself alone, he steadily pursues his course; and finally attains the reward of his perseverance. In short, what idleness is to the vices, perseverance is to the virtues; the grand cause and agent that sets them all in motion. As long as man is an imperfect being, perseverance will be necessary, and as long as perseverance continues, his state can never be hopeless.

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