FIELD OF WATERLOO. And there was mounting in hot haste: the steed, 49 Or whispering, with white lips—“The foe! they come, they come!" And wild and high the "Cameron's gathering" rose! And Evan's, Donald's fame rings in each clansman's ears! And Ardennes waves above them her green leaves, Over the unreturning brave,-alas! Ere evening to be trodden like the grass Which now beneath them, 10 but above shall grow In its next verdure; when this fiery mass Of living valour, rolling on the foe And burning with high hope, shall moulder cold and low! Last noon beheld them full of lusty life, Last eve in Beauty's circle proudly gay; The midnight brought the signal-sound of strife, The thunder-clouds close o'er it, which when rent 11 Which her own clay shall cover-heap'd and pent, Rider and horse,-friend, foe,-in one red burial blent !12 BYRON. 5. "This stanza is very grand, even from its total unadornment. It is only a versification of the common narratives; but here may well be applied a position E of Johnson, that When truth is sufficient to fill the mind, fiction is worse than useless.'"-Brydges. 6. Albyn is the Celtic name of Scotland. 7. Who are meant by her Saxon foes? 8. Explain the phrase noon of night. 9. The verb fill is used here in two different verses; explain them. 10. The ellipsis here? 12. Sir Walter Scott, no incompetent judge, has said of this description of the Field of Waterloo, "I am not sure that any verses in our language surpass, in vigour and in feeling, this most beautiful description." XXVIII. ANCIENT GREECE. "SEPARATED from Asia by the Hellespont and the long defiles of Thrace, shielded on the North by the lofty chain of mountains which divides it, with Italy, from the open plains of Northern Europe, surrounded on every other side by water, Greece, combines with all these external fortifications, the advantage of an internal construction, resembling a castle of the Middle Ages. Wall is added to wall, portal to portal, forming an inextricable labyrinth, which always affords a retreat and an asylum for its defenders after every defeat, and presents snares and perils to its enemies after every victory. Upon this soil, shone upon by a glorious sun, bathed by romantic seas, adorned to profusion by the wild and picturesque beauties of a luxuriant vegetation, a race of men no less admirably organized was cast by Providence, to be trained and educated for the benefit of humanity; a race endowed with activity and courage, possessing a bold and poetical imagination, loving the mountain and the sea, and, consequently, independence and danger; fitted for every thing,-for philosophy no less than for business; for the arts no less than for virtue; for the labours of war no less than for those of peace: a race gifted with an extraordinary and unrivalled genius, and the unhappy remains of which we shamefully permit to perish before our eyes. If a people were ever predestined by Heaven to a high and peculiar destiny and were entitled to the name of the People of God, this certainly was the people. It sustained this rank during ten centuries; for during ten centuries, it marched at the head of humanity, opening an immortal path before it; it was pre-eminent over all who had been chosen before, or who have been since; for it was by it, and in it, that the root was firmly planted, in the bosom of humanity, of that tree of civilization which is destined at length to cover the earth with its branches." -Jouffroy on the "Influence of Greece in the Development of Humanity." ANCIENT GREECE. Approach, thou craven crouching slave These scenes, their story not unknown, 1. Clime, a contraction for what? 2. What is the noun to remains? 3. What is meant by a name of fear? 4. What living page? 5. How is age governed? 6. What general doom? BYRON. 51 XXIX. THE PLAIN OF MARATHON. "WHAT days were those of Marathon, of Salamis, of Platæa, in the history of the human race! Hitherto, civilization had yielded in its infancy to the power of the barbarians. On the shores of the Eu phrates and the Tigris, in Syria, in Egypt, on the favoured coasts of The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon : The sun, the soil, but not the slave, the same; The camp, the host, the fight, the conqueror's career, The flying Mede, his shaftless broken bow; The dust thy courser's hoof, rude stranger! spurns around. BYRON. XXX. AMERICA TO GREAT BRITAIN. "ENGLAND before long, this island of ours, will hold but a smali fraction of the English; in America, in New Holland, east and west to the very Antipodes, there will be a Saxondom covering great spaces of the globe. And now, what is it that can keep all these together into virtually one nation, so that they do not fall out and fight, but AMERICA TO GREAT BRITAIN. 53 live at peace in brotherlike intercourse, helping one another? This is justly regarded as the greatest practical problem, the thing all manner of sovereignties and governments are held to accomplish: what is it that will accomplish this? Acts of Parliament, administrative prime ministers cannot. America is parted from us, so far as Parliament could part it. Call it not fantastic, for there is much reality in it. Here, I say, is an English king, whom no time or chance, Parliament or combination of Parliaments, can dethrone! This King Shakspeare, does not he shine in crowned sovereignty over us all, as the noblest, gentlest, yet strongest of rallying signs; indestructible; really more valuable in that point of view, than any other means or appliance whatsoever? We can fancy him as radiant aloft over all the nations of Englishmen; a thousand years hence. From Paramatta, from New York, wheresoever, under what sort of parish constable soever, English men and women are, they will say to one another: Yes, this Shakspeare is ours; we produced him; we speak and think by him; we are of one blood and kind with him.' The most common-sense politician too, may, if he pleases, think of that."- Carlyle. ALL hail! thou noble land, Gigantic grown by toil, O'er the vast Atlantic wave to our shore; For thou, with magic might, Canst reach to where the light Of Phoebus travels bright The world o'er? The genius of our clime, From his pine-embattled steep, Shall hail the great sublime ; While the Tritons of the deep With their conch the kindred league shall proclaim Then let the world combine O'er the main our naval line, Like the milky-way, shall shine Bright in fame! Though ages long have passed Since our fathers left their home, Their pilot in the blast, O'er untravell'd seas to roam, Yet lives the blood of England in our veins ! And shall we not proclaim That blood of honest fame, |