39

TALE XI.

EDWARD SHORE.

GENIUS! thou gift of Heav'n! thou light divine!
Amid what dangers art thou doom'd to shine!
Oft will the body's weakness check thy force,
Oft damp thy vigour, and impede thy course;
And trembling nerves compel thee to restrain
Thy nobler efforts, to contend with pain;

Or Want (sad guest!) will in thy presence come,
And breathe around her melancholy gloom:
To life's low cares will thy proud thought confine,
And make her sufferings, her impatience, thine. (1)

Evil and strong, seducing passions prey On soaring minds, and win them from their way,

(1) [What Shakspeare says of the course of true love, may be applied to the course of genius. How seldom it runs smooth, how seldom it finds a free channel! and what obstacles are to be overcome before it can make one, even if it have strength and fortune finally to force its way! To say nothing of the "mute inglorious Miltons," who lie in many a church-yard; the mighty spirits which have never found opportunities to unfold themselves; it is but too true that the greatest efforts of learn.. ing and industry and intellect have been produced by men who were struggling with difficulties of every kind; - such is the melancholy sum of what the biography of men of genius almost uniformly presents. SOUTHEY.]

Who then to Vice the subject spirits give,
And in the service of the conqu'ror live;
Like captive Samson making sport for all,
Who fear'd their strength, and glory in their fall.

Genius, with virtue, still may lack the aid
Implored by humble minds, and hearts afraid:
May leave to timid souls the shield and sword
Of the tried Faith, and the resistless Word;
Amid a world of dangers venturing forth,
Frail, but yet fearless, proud in conscious worth,
Till strong temptation, in some fatal time,
Assails the heart, and wins the soul to crime
When left by honour, and by sorrow spent,
Unused to pray, unable to repent,

The nobler powers that once exalted high
Th' aspiring man, shall then degraded lie:
Reason, through anguish, shall her throne forsake,
And strength of mind but stronger madness make.

When Edward Shore had reached his twentieth

year,

He felt his bosom light, his conscience clear;
Applause at school the youthful hero gain'd,
And trials there with manly strength sustain'd:
With prospects bright upon the world he came,
Pure love of virtue, strong desire of fame:
Men watch'd the way his lofty mind would take,
And all foretold the progress he would make.

Boast of these friends, to older men a guide, Proud of his parts, but gracious in his pride;

He bore a gay good-nature in his face,
And in his air were dignity and grace;
Dress that became his state and years he wore,
And sense and spirit shone in Edward Shore.

Thus, while admiring friends the Youth beheld, His own disgust their forward hopes repell'd; For he unfix'd, unfixing, look'd around, And no employment but in seeking found; He gave his restless thoughts to views refined, And shrank from worldly cares with wounded mind.

Rejecting trade, awhile he dwelt on laws, "But who could plead, if unapproved the cause?"(1) A doubting, dismal tribe physicians seem'd; Divines o'er texts and disputations dream'd; War and its glory he perhaps could love, But there again he must the cause approve.

Our hero thought no deed should gain applause Where timid virtue found support in laws; He to all good would soar, would fly all sin, By the pure prompting of the will within;

"Who needs a law that binds him not to steal?" Ask'd the

teacher; young

66

can he rightly feel? "To curb the will, or arm in honour's cause, "Or aid the weak

are these enforced by laws? "Should we a foul, ungenerous action dread, "Because a law condemns th' adulterous bed? "Or fly pollution, not for fear of stain, "But that some statute tells us to refrain?

"The grosser herd in ties like these we bind, "In virtue's freedom moves th' enlighten'd mind."

"Man's heart deceives him," said a friend.

course,"

Replied the Youth; "but has it power to force? "Unless it forces, call it as you will,

"It is but wish, and proneness to the ill."

"Art thou not tempted? "Do I fall?" said

Shore..

"The pure have fallen." "Then are pure no more "While Reason guides me, I shall walk aright, "Nor need a steadier hand, or stronger light; "Nor this in dread of awful threats, design'd "For the weak spirit and the grov'ling mind; "But that, engaged by thoughts and views sublime, "I wage free war with grossness and with crime." Thus look'd he proudly on the vulgar crew, Whom statutes govern, and whom fears subdue.

Faith, with his virtue, he indeed profess'd,
But doubts deprived his ardent mind of rest;
Reason, his sovereign mistress, fail'd to show,
Light through the mazes of the world below:
(1)
Questions arose, and they surpass'd the skill
Of his sole aid, and would be dubious still;
These to discuss he sought no common guide,
But to the doubters in his doubts applied;

(1) [
"Reason, the power
To guess at right and wrong, the twinkling lamp
Of wand'ring life, that winks and wakes by turns,
Fooling the follower betwixt shade and shining."—

-CONGREVE.]

1

When all together might in freedom speak,

And their loved truth with mutual ardour seek.
Alas! though men who feel their eyes decay
Take more than common pains to find their way,
Yet, when for this they ask each other's aid,
Their mutual purpose is the more delay'd:

Of all their doubts, their reasoning clear'd not one,
Still the same spots were present in the sun;
Still the same scruples haunted Edward's mind,
Who found no rest, nor took the means to find.

But though with shaken faith, and slave to fame, Vain and aspiring on the world he came ; Yet was he studious, serious, moral, grave, No passion's victim, and no system's slave: Vice he opposed, indulgence he disdain'd, And o'er each sense in conscious triumph reign'd.

Who often reads, will sometimes wish to write, And Shore would yield instruction and delight: A serious drama he design'd, but found 'T was tedious travelling in that gloomy ground; A deep and solemn story he would try, But grew ashamed of ghosts, and laid it by; Sermons he wrote, but they who knew his creed, Or knew it not, were ill disposed to read; And he would lastly be the nation's guide, But, studying, fail'd to fix upon a side; Fame he desired, and talents he possess'd, But loved not labour, though he could not rest, Nor firmly fix the vacillating mind,