Imagini ale paginilor
PDF
ePub

Then, bursting broad, the boundless shout to heaven, From many a thousand hearts ecstatic sprung. Thomson's Liberty.

ARMY.

All in a moment through the gloom were seen
Ten thousand banners rise into the air
With orient colours waving with them rose
A forest huge of spears, and thronging helms
Appear'd, and serried shields in thick array
Of depth immeasurable. Milton's Paradise Lost, b. 1.

Ten thousand thousand ensigns high advanc'd,
Standards and gonfalons 'twixt van and rear
Stream in the air, and for distinction serve
Of hierarchies, of orders, and degrees;
Or in their glittering tissues bear emblaz'd
Holy memorials, acts of zcal and love
Recorded eminent.

Ibid. b. 5.

ASTONISHMENT.

Adam, soon as he heard

The fatal trespass done by Eve, amaz'd,
Astonished stood and blank, while horror chill
Ran through his veins, and all his joints relax'd;
From his slack hand the garland wreath'd for Eve
Down dropt, and all the faded roses shed:

Speechless he stood and pale.

Hear it not, ye stars!

Ibid. b. 9.

And thou, pale moon! turn paler at the sound.

Young's Night Thoughts, n. 3.

With wild surprise,

As if to marble struck, devoid of sense,

A stupid moment motionless she stood.

Thomson's Seasons.-Summer.

20

ATHEIST-AUTHORS—AUTUMN.

ATHEIST.

Virtue in distress, and vice in triumph,

Make Atheists of mankind. Dryden's Cleomenes.

When prejudice and strong aversions work,
All whose opinions we dislike are Atheists.
Now 'tis a term of art, a bug-bear word,
The villain's engine, and the vulgar's terror.
The man who thinks and judges for himself,
Unsway'd by aged follies, reverend errors,
Grown holy by traditionary dulness
Of school authority, he is an Atheist.
The man who hating idle noise, preserves
A pure religion seated in his soul,
He is a silent dumb dissembling Atheist !

Sewell's Sir Walter Raleigh.

AUTHORS.

Some write a narrative of wars and feats
Of heroes little known, and call the rant
An history. Describe the man, of whom
His own coevals took but little note,

And paint his person, character and views,
As they had known him from his mother's womb.

AUTUMN.

Cowper's Task. b. 3.

Thrice happy time,

Best portion of the various year, in which

Nature rejoiceth, smiling on her works,

Lovely, to full perfection wrought.

Philips's Cider, b. 2.

But see the fading many-colour'd woods,
Shade deep'ning over shade, the country round
Imbrown; crowded umbrage, dusk, and dun,
Of every hue, from wan declining green
To sooty dark.

Thomson's Seasons.—Autumn.

The pale descending year, yet pleasing still,
A gentler mood inspires; for now the leaf
Incessant rustles from the mournful grove;
Oft starting such as studious, walk below,
And slowly circles thro' the waving air,

Thomson's Seasons.-Autumn.

Fled is the blasted verdure of the fields;
And, shrunk into their beds, the flowery race
Their sunny robes resign. Even what remain'd
Of stronger fruits falls from the naked tree;
And woods, fields, gardens, orchards, all around
The desolated prospect thrills the soul.

AVARICE.

That cos'ning vice, although it seems to keep
Our wealth, debars us from possessing it,

Ibid.

And makes us more than poor. May's Old Couple.

When all sins are old in us,

And go upon crutches, covetousness
Does but then lie in her cradle; Letchery
Loves to dwell in the fairest lodgings, and
Covetousness in the oldest buildings.

The lust of gold succeeds the lust of conquest :
The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless!
The last corruption of degenerate man.

Decker.

Dr. Johnson's Irene.

May his soul be plung'd

In ever-burning floods of liquid gold,

And be his avarice the fiend that damns him!

Murphy's Alzuma.

Some, o'er enamour'd of their bags, run mad,
Groan under gold, yet weep for want of bread.

Young's Night Thoughts, n. 5.

O cursed lust of gold; when for thy sake

The fool throws up his interest in both worlds,
First starv'd in this, then damn'd in that to come.
Blair's Grave.

B.

BATTLE.

When Greeks joined Greeks, then was the tug of war; The labour'd battle sweat, and conquest bled.

Lee's Alexander.

Hark-the death-denouncing trumpet sounds
The fatal charge, and shouts proclaim the onset
Destruction rushes dreadful to the field,
And bathes itself in blood: havock let loose,
Now undistinguish'd, rages all around;
While ruin, seated on her dreary throne,

Sees the plain strew'd with subjects truly her's,
Breathless and cold.

Havard's Scanderbeg.

I alone,

With bended bow, and quiver full of arrows,
Hover'd about the enemy, and mark'd
The road he took :

Home's Douglas.

Even like an arrow on the wind, he rode
His winged courser, and with noble daring
Swept with his chivalrous escort past our front,
Even at the stormy edge of chafing battle.

Sir A. Hunt's Julian.

Each at the head

Level'd his deadly aim; their fatal hands

No second stroke intend.

Milton's Paradise Lost, b. 2.

And now their mightiest quell'd, the battle swerv'd,
With many an inroad gor'd; deformed rout
Enter'd, and foul disorder; all the ground
With shiver'd armour strown, and on a heap
Chariot and charioteer lay overturn'd,

And fiery foaming steeds.

Milton's Paradise Lost, b. 6.

'Twixt host and host but narrow space was left,
A dreadful interval, and front to front
Presented stood in terrible array

Of hideous length; before the cloudy van
On the rough edge of battle ere it join'd,
Satan with vast and haughty strides advanc'd
Came tow'ring, arm'd in adamant and gold.

The shout

Ibid.

Of battle now began, and rushing sound
Of onset ended soon each milder thought.

Ibid.

Now night her course began, and over Heaven

Inducing darkness, grateful truce impos'd

Her silence on the odious din of war:

Under her cloudy covert both retir'd,

Victor and vanquish'd.

Here might you see

Barons and peasants on th' embattled field
Slain, or half-dead, in one huge, ghastly heap
Promiscuously amass'd. With dismal groans,
And ejaculation, in the pangs of death
Some call for aid, neglected; some o'erturn'd
In the fierce shock, lie gasping, and expire,
Trampled by fiery coursers; Horrour thus,
And wild Uproar, and Desolation, reign'd
Unrespited.

Ibid.

Philips's Cider, b. 2.

It was a goodly sight To see the embattled pomp, as with the step Of stateliness the barbed steeds came on,

« ÎnapoiContinuă »