SPECIMENS OF A FREE AND EASY TRANSLATION, In which HORACE is done (for) into English, and adapted to the Taste of the DEAR NORTH, Present Generation. I AM Sorry to learn, by your last, that you have had such a severe twitch this time; keep warm in Welch flannel, live soberly, and no more desperate at tempts with the Eau Medicinale d'Husson. It will be no farce, I assure you, if the gout fly bolt into your stomach, like a Congreve rocket into the ditto of a whale, and carry you off in the twinkling of a walking-stick. Then there would be wiping of eyes and blowing of noses; crape, weepers, and long cravats, throughout the land. Then there would be a breaking up of the glorious divan. Wastle would leave his High Street lodgings, and retire to his "airy citadel;" Morris would sell his shandrydan, and keep house at Aberystwith for life; Kempferhausen would pack up for Allemagne; Eremus would commence grinder to the embryo divines at Aberdeen; The Odontist would forswear poetry, take a large farm, and study Malthus on Population; Delta would take parson's orders; Faddy from Cork would fall into "a green and yellow melancholy," toss the remaining cantos of his epic to Beelzebub, and button his coat behind; Mullion would sell butter and eggs at his provision-warehouse, Grassmarket, and sedulously look forward to the provostship; while poor Odoherty (alas, poor Yorick !) would send his luggage to Dunleary harbour, and away to the fighting trade in South America. Then would there be a trumpeting and tantararaing among the Whigs,-" Quassha ma boo! our masters are no more!" would be echoed by every lip among them; and then, but not till then, with some shadow of hope might they look forward to their holding the reins of government, though, after all, most of them, if they did not hold well by the mane, would fall off the steed's back into the mire, they are such shocking bad riders; while the Radicals would press forward, and tread on their ribs in turn; Glasgow weavers would spin ropes to hang up whoever was obnoxious to them; Sheffield cutlers would grind razors to cut throats; and the Ribbonmen of Erin, and all the ragged, royal race of Tara," would look forward to seats in the Cabinet. Then, indeed, would there be a complete revolution in Church and State; churchmen would be cut shorter by the head, the national debt washed out with a dishclout, and taxes abolished; and then, instead of election being fettered, and parliaments septennial, there would be universal suffrage, and no parliaments at all. Then would the Saturnian age return to bless the world; then would Lucifer hawk about his golden pippins, and find abundant sale for them; then would all property be common, and pickpockets left without a trade; while no person would have any thing to do at least, any right to do any thing, except smoking his pipe, draining his mug, and snoring in his hammock. My dear North, take care of the damp weather, and I warrant, that for many a long year to come, you shall keep death and the doctor at complete defiance-behold the cause of true freedom and loyalty prospering around you-and, were it not that you are a bachelor, rejoice in the caresses of your children's children. From you, my revered friend, I shall descend to a humbler topic, 66 one on which," to use the words of Byron, "all are supposed to be fluent, and none agreeable-self." 1stly, With regard to health, I find myself as well as I wish all others to be. My sprained ancle is now quite convalescent, poor thing; and, by persevering in rubbing a tea-spoonful of opodeldoc upon it every morning, it will soon be as strong as a bedpost. I occasionally take a Seidlitz powder to keep my stomach in order; for, depend upon it, the stomach of a literary man is almost of as much consequence as his head. Talking of the top-piece, I have an occasional headach; that is to say, after being too late out at night; but which I effectually remove and rectify by a bottle of soda water-our friend Jennings' if possible; for it excels all others, as much as his poetry the common run of verses, and stands, in relaion to every other compound of the kind, in the same degree of excellence and superiority, as Day and Martin's patent blacking to that made with soot, saliva, and small beer. 2dly, With respect to my intellectual pursuits. Pray, what makes you so earnest to learn what a retired and obscure man like me is about, and whose poor contributions to literature are but a drop in the bucket, compared with what you every day receive from the bright luminaries of the age? But I value your partiality as I ought; and, though I am to these as a farthing candle to a six-in-the-pound, you generously dip my wick in your own turpentine, to make it blaze brighter. I blush scarlet, (God bless the army, and their coats of scarlet!) when I confess, on my knees (by the bye, there is no need of kneeling, when you cannot see me,) that I have been for some time notoriously idle. Salamanca is such a noble beast, that I could not resist taking him out to the hounds; (I have won the brush thrice) and then, partridges were so plenty, I said it would waste little powder and Ad Maecenatem. shot daily to fill and replenish my MORGAN ODOHERTY. Dublin, 2d Dec. 1821. HORACE, BOOK FIRST. To Christopher North, Esq. O et praesidium et dulce decus meum! HAIL! Christopher, my patron, dear, Some are, who all their hours consume Or, coming first, with lighten'd rein, Elate the honors of the day, And think themselves amid the spheres. Of those who will not hear Gale Jones: While Leigh Hunt, in the Examiner, About them tries to make a stir, And says, (who doubts him ?) men like these A third, like Sir John Sinclair, tries Attalicis conditionibus Nunquam dimoveas, ut trabe Cypria Except (as Mr Coke prefers,) To catch the sheep, and ply the shears: Luetantem Icariis fluctibus Africum In slippers red, before the fire, Mercator metuens, otium et oppidi With negus to his heart's desire, The merchant sits; he winks and snores, The north wind in the chimney roars ; Waking, he bawls aloud-" Öd rot 'em, "I fear my ships are at the bottom !— "The crews are trifles to be sure, "But then the cargos a'n't secure : "'Change will be changed for me tomorrow,— "Alack! for poverty and sorrow!" Men are-l know them-let that pass, (Who crack a joke, and love a glass) Whether, like Falstaff, it be sack, Champaigne, Old Hock, or Frontiniac, Or Whisky-punch, which, jovial dog, Is true heart's-balsam to James Hogg ;Like Wordsworth, under pleasant trees, Stratus, nunc ad aquae lene caput sa- Some take delight to catch the breeze; Or lie amid the pastoral mountains, And listen to the bubbling fountains. Est, qui nec veteris pocula Massici, nunc viridi membra subarbuto crae. Multos castra juvant, et lituo tubae Many in camps delight to hear Permixtus sonitus, Detestata. Manet sub Jove frigido Venator, tenerae conjugis immemor; Seu visa est catulis cerva fidelibus, The fife and bugle's music clear, While hautboy sweet, and kettle-drum, bellaque, matribus Though youngsters love a battle hot, Seu rupit teretes Marsus aper plagas. Me doctarum hederae praemia fron--For me a laurel crown, like that tium Dis miscent superis; me gelidum nemus, Nympharumque leves cum Satyris chori Secernunt populo: si neque tibias Euterpe cohibet, nec Polyhymnia Lesboum refugit tendere barbiton. Used for a band to Southey's hat, Oh! that James Hogg, my chosen friend, ON THE PROBABLE INFLUENCE OF MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION ON THE CHARACTER AND SITUATION OF SEAMEN. No. IV. IN tracing the consequences of that current of improvement which we noticed in our last Number, as at present fast setting the Navy to windward of its old habits and maxims, it is proper to observe, that most of them are already in progress, got under way, as by common signal, by the spirit of the times. We shall notice, therefore, under each head, both what is already done, and what we think likely to be yet achieved, by the springs actually now at work; but as, in arranging the subject, there is, properly speaking, no first or last point, we shall be guided in the classification chiefly by the relative importance of the parts, and their dependence on each other. Thus determined, the first place is unquestionably due to the improved moral and religious education now in course of dissemination among all ranks in the navy, officers as well as men; and the progress of which is exemplified in a great many ways. In the years 1802-3, some little improvement in morals, or rather, perhaps, in manners, had already commenced; but as yet religion was unthought of, only a few line-of-battle ships being supplied with chaplains, such chiefly as had admirals' flags on board, or were commanded by pacing old captains, who loved the parade of a Sunday sermon. Their duty, when they were on board, was exclusively this sermon," * with perhaps an occasional visit to a sick or dying man in his birth; and any interference on their part beyond this, would have been taken very ill, if attempted. Nothing like schooling at the same time went on in the navy, except a few lessons in navigation given the young midshipmen, by a schoolmaster who messed with them, and whose appointments were so small, the place was scarcely ever filled by a man of real talent or education, or even by one whose habits were respectable when off duty. Sunday was either familiarly said to keep the excise limits, and never come over five fathoms water,'- —or if noticed at all, was honoured by being exclusively devoted,—in the morning to a muster of the men in clean clothes, and reading the Articles of War,-in the afternoon to idleness, and, in some sort, dissipation. What became of the Bible Society's Bibles at this time, we do not profess to know; but even down to a very much later period, we never saw them in circulation. The scene is now different in a great many particulars,-not very much, it is true, as yet in morals, which always mend more slowly than opinions, but in those things which will improve them also, in their turn. Even during the war, almost every line-of-battle ship was supplied with a chaplain, and now even some frigates have them; they have been encouraged, besides, to qualify themselves to do the duty also of schoolmasters, by which means the young midshipmen have come to be considered, as in some degree under their care in every thing; and their sphere of general duty has been equally extended. The ship's boys are in almost all cases formally instructed by them; their presence is beginning to be felt as a restraint on swearing, and other immoralities of a grosser and more seducing kind, which it was once *The ringing-in bell to this was also a picture worth preserving." Aft to church there, away aft to church," shouted out a boatswain's mate, " d'ye hear there, on both sides the deck, away aft to church. I'm sure you have all special need to say your prayers, you need not be so slow about it." "And if they want it so much," might perhaps insinuate a privileged quarter-master, favourite messmate, or the poor fellow's own thoughts," how do you stand yourself, Jack?"-"Me! God help me, I'm bad enough, that's certain; but it's my business to swear at these fellows, and they're enough sometimes to make me forswear father and mother, and turn Turk at once," &c. This last is a common phrase among seamen; and although we willingly spare our readers the expletives with which, on these and other similar occasions, whether as dialogue or soliloquy, it was doubtless garnished, we could not spare them the distinct perception of the objects contemplated in Divine service, and the vein of reverence for religion, and specially for Christianity, which a minute and indulgent, not precise, observer could always detect, at their worst, in sailors' conversation, and even jests. |