into an imitation of foreign absurdities, and for bringing envy upon him by such unmanly flattery. As he is absent, I take upon me to tell you, in his name, that no praise is lasting, but what is rational; and that 5 you do what you can to lessen his glory, instead of adding to it. Heroes have never among us been deified, till after their death; and whatever may be your way of thinking, Cleon, for my part, I wish the king may not, for many years to come, obtain that honor. 10 15 You have mentioned, as precedents of what you propose, Hercules and Bacchus. Do you imagine, Cleon, that they were deified over a cup of wine? and are you and I qualified to make gods? Is the king, our sovereign, to receive his divinity from you and me, who are his subjects? First try your power, whether you can make a king. It is surely easier to make a king than a god; to give an earthly dominion, than a throne in heaven. I only wish that the gods may have heard without offence the arrogant proposal you have made of adding one to their num20 ber; and that they may still be so propitious to us as to grant the continuance of that success to our affairs with which they have hitherto favored us. For my part, I am not ashamed of my country; nor do I approve of our adopting the rites of foreign nations, or 25 learning from them how we ought to reverence our kings. To receive laws or rules of conduct from them, what is it but to confess ourselves inferior to them? EXERCISE LX. Rural Felicity. O, KNEW he but his happiness, of men The happiest he, who, far from public rage, 30 Deep in the vale, with a choice few retired, Drinks the pure pleasures of the rural life. What though the dome be wanting, whose proud gate, Each morning, vomits out the sneaking crowd Of flatterers false, and in their turn abused? 35 Vile intercourse! what though the glittering robe Or floating loose, or stiff with mazy gold, What though, from utmost land and sea purveyed, For him each rarer tributary life Bleeds not, and his insatiate table heaps With luxury and death? What though his bowl 5 Flames not with costly juice; nor sunk in beds, Oft of gay care, he tosses out the night, 10 Or melts the thoughtless hours in idle state? Whatever greens the Spring, 20 Concealed, and fattens with the richest sap: Nor bleating mountains; nor the chide of streams, Health ever blooming; unambitious Toil, Let others brave the flood in quest of gain, 35 And beat, for joyless months, the gloomy wave. Rush into blood, the sack of cities seek; 40 Let some, far distant from their native soil Let this through cities work his eager way, By legal outrage and established guile, The social sense extinct; and that ferment Or melt them down to slavery. Let these Delusive pomp and dark cabals, delight; Wreathe the deep bow, diffuse the lying smile, 10 And tread the weary labyrinth of state. While he, from all the stormy passions free Wrapped close in conscious peace. The fall of kings, 15 The rage of nations, and the crush of states, Move not the man who, from the world escaped, To Nature's voice attends, from month to month 20 Admiring, sees her in her every shape: Thomson. EXERCISE LXI. Rolla's Address to the Peruvians. My brave associates! partners of my toils, my feelings and my fame! Can Rolla's words add vigor to the virtu25 ous energies which inspire your hearts? No, you have judged as I have the foulness of the crafty plea by which these bold invaders would delude ye. Your generous spirit has compared, as mine has, the motives which in a war like this can animate their minds and ours. 30 35 They, by a strange frenzy driven, fight for power, for plunder and extended rule; we- for our country, our altars and our homes! They follow an adventurer whom they fear, and obey a power which they hate; a country which we love, a God whom we adore. we serve Where'er they move in anger, desolation tracks their progress; where'er they pause in amity, affliction mourns their friendship. They boast they come but to improve our state, enlarge our thoughts, and free us from the yoke of error. Yes, they will give enlightened freedom to our minds, who are themselves the slaves of passion, avarice and pride! They offer us their protection; - yes, such protection 5 as vultures give to lambs, covering and devouring them! They call on us to barter all of good we have inherited and proved, for the desperate chance of something better which they promise. Be our plain answer this: The throne we honor is the 10 people's choice; the laws we reverence are our brave fathers' legacy; the faith we follow teaches us to live in bonds of charity with all mankind, and die- with hope of bliss beyond the grave. Tell your invaders this; and tell them, too, we seek no change, and least of all such 15 change as they would bring us!— Sheridan. 20 25 30 EXERCISE LXII. Oft in the Stilly Night. OFT in the stilly night, Ere slumber's chain has bound me, Fond memory brings the light Of other days around me; The smiles, the tears, of boyhood's years, The words of love then spoken, The eyes that shone, now dimmed and gone, Thus in the stilly night, &c. When I remember all The friends so linked together, Whose lights are fled, whose garlands dead, Thus in the stilly night, &c. T. Moore. 5 EXERCISE LXIII. Extract from a Speech of Lord Mansfield, in the British Parliament, in the year 1770. MY LORDS,I come now to speak upon what, indeed, I would have gladly avoided, had I not been particularly pointed at for the part I have taken in this bill. It has been said by a noble lord on my left hand, that I likewise am running the race of popularity. If the noble lord means by popularity that applause bestowed by after ages on good and virtuous actions, I have long been struggling in that race; to what purpose all-trying time can alone determine: but if the noble lord means that mushroom popularity that is raised with10 out merit and lost without crime, he is much mistaken in his opinion. I defy the noble lord to point out a single action of my life, where the popularity of the times ever had the smallest influence on my determinations. I thank God I have a more permanent and steady rule 15 for my conduct, — the dictates of my own breast. Those that have foregone that pleasing adviser, and given up their mind to be the slave of every popular impulse, I sincerely pity; I pity them still more, if their vanity leads them to mistake the shouts of a mob for the trumpet of 20 fame. Experience might inform them, that many who have been saluted with the huzzas of a crowd one day have received their execrations the next; and many, who, by the popularity of their times, have been held up as spotless patriots, have, nevertheless, appeared upon the 25 historian's page, when truth has triumphed over delusion, the assassins of liberty. 30 Why, then, the noble lord can think I am ambitious of present popularity, that echo of folly and shadow of renown, I am at a loss to determine. Besides, I do not know that the bill now before your lordships will be popular: it depends much upon the caprice of the day. It may not be popular to compel people to pay their debts; and in that case, the present must be a very unpopular bill. It may not be popular neither 35 to take away any of the privileges of Parliament; for I very well remember, and many of your lordships may remember, that not long ago the popular cry was for the extension of privilege; and so far did they carry it at that time, that it was said that the privilege protected |