Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

THE MOTHER OF THE MACHABEES.

Callanan was born in Ireland in 1795; died in 1829. During his life he was one of the popular contributors to Blackwood's Magazine."

[ocr errors]

THAT mother viewed the scene of blood;
Her six unconquer'd sons were gone;
Fearless she viewed; beside her stood
Her last, her youngest, dearest one;
He looked upon her and he smiled;
Oh! will she save that only child?

"By all my love, my son," she said,

"The breast that nursed, the womb that bore,
The unsleeping care that watch'd thee, fed,
Till manhood's years required no more;

By all I've wept and pray'd for thee,
Now, now, be firm and pity me.

"Look, I beseech thee, on yon heaven,
With its high field of azure light,
Look on this earth, to mankind given,
Array'd in beauty and in might,

And think, nor scorn thy mother's prayer,
On him who said it, and they were!

"So shalt thou not this tyrant fear,

Nor, recreant, shun the glorious strife:
Behold! thy battle-field is near;

Then go, my son, nor heed thy life;
Go, like thy faithful brothers die,
That I may meet you all on high."

Like arrow from the bended bow,

He sprang upon the bloody pile;
Like sunrise on the morning's snow,

Was that heroic mother's smile;
He died- nor fear'd the tyrant's nod-
For Judah's law and Judah's God.

COMPOSITION.

Give the mother's words to her youngest son.

expressions as forcible, yet as simple as hers.

Try to make your

Next describe the alacrity with which the noble youth went to court death. This is specially narrated in the last stanza.

viewed

array'd

recreant

THE TRUE USE OF HISTORY.

THAT the study of history, far from making us wiser and more useful citizens, as well as better men, may be of no advantage whatsoever; that it may serve to render us mere antiquaries and scholars, or that it may help to make us forward coxcombs and prating pedants, I have already allowed. But this is not the fault of history: and to convince us that it is not, we need only contrast the true use of history with the use that is made of it by such men as these. We ought always to keep in mind that history is philosophy, teaching by examples how to conduct ourselves in all the situations of private and public life; that therefore we must apply ourselves to it in a philosophical spirit and manner; that we must rise from particular to general knowledge, and that we must fit ourselves for the society and business of mankind by accustoming our minds to reflect and meditate on the characters we find described, and the course of events we find related there. Particular examples may be of use sometimes in particular cases; but the application of them is dangerous. It must be done with the utmost circumspection, or it will be seldom done with success. And yet one would think that this was the principle use of the study of history, by what has been written

on the subject. An applicable observation that Boileau makes, and a rule which he enunciates in speaking of translations, will properly find their place here, and serve to explain still better what I would establish. "To translate servilely into modern language an ancient author, phrase by phrase and word by word, is preposterous: nothing can be more unlike the original than such a copy. It is not to show, it is to disguise the author; and he who has known him only in this dress, would not know him in his own. A good writer, instead of taking this inglorious and unprofitable task upon him, will jouster contre l'original, rather imitate than translate, and rather emulate than imitate: he will transfuse the sense and spirit of the original into his own work, and will endeavor to write as the ancient author would have written, if he had written in the same language." Now, to improve by examples is to improve by imitation. We must catch the spirit, if we can, and conform ourselves to the reason of them; but we must not affect to translate servilely into our conduct, if your lordship will allow me the expression, the particular conduct of those good and great men, whose images history sets before us. Codrus and the Decii devoted themselves to death: one did so because an oracle had foretold that the army whose general was killed would be victorious; and the others in compliance with a superstition. These are examples of the greatest magnanimity, to be sure, and of magnanimity employed in the most worthy cause. But if a general should act the same part now, and, in order to secure his victory, get killed as fast as he possibly could, he might pass for a hero, but I am sure he would be considered a madman.

There are certain general principles and rules of life

and conduct which always must be true, because they are conformable to the invariable nature of things. He who studies history as he would study philosophy, will soon distinguish and collect them, and by doing so will soon form to himself a general system of ethics and politics on the surest foundations, on the trial of these principles and rules in all ages, and on the confirmation of them by universal experience. I said he will distinguish them; for once more I must say that, as to particular modes of actions and measures of conduct, which the customs of different countries, the manners of different ages, and the circumstances of different conjunctures, have appropriated, as it were, it is always ridiculous, or imprudent and dangerous, to employ them. But this is not all. By contemplating the vast variety both of particular characters and events; by examining the strange combinations of causes, different, remote, and seemingly opposite, that often concur in producing one effect; and the surprising fertility of one single and uniform cause in the producing of a multitude of effects as different, as remote, and seemingly as opposite; by tracing carefully, as carefully as if the subject he considers were of personal and immediate concern to him, all the minute and sometimes scarce perceivable circumstances, either in the characters of actors, or in the course of actions, that history enables him to trace, and according to which the success of affairs, even the greatest, is mostly determined; by these, and such methods as these, for I might descend into much greater detail, a man of parts may improve the study of history to its proper and principal use; he may sharpen the penetration, fix the attention of his mind, and strengthen his judgment; he may acquire the faculty

and the habit of discerning quicker, and looking farther; and of exerting that flexibility and steadiness which are necessary to be joined in the conduct of all affairs that depend on the concurrence or opposition of other men.

Mr. Locke, I think, recommends the study of geometry even to those who have no design of being geometricians; and he gives a reason for it that may be applied to the present case. Such persons may forget every problem that has been proposed, and every solution that they or others have given; but the habit of pursuing long trains of ideas will remain with them, and they will pierce through the mazes of sophism and discover a latent truth, where persons who have not this habit will never find it.

In this manner the study of history will prepare us for action and observation. History is the ancient author; experience is the modern language. We form our taste on the first; we translate the sense and reason, we transfuse the spirit and force; but we imitate only the particular graces of the original; we imitate them according to the idiom of our own tongue, that is, we substitute often equivalents in the lieu of them, and are far from affecting to copy them servilely. To conclude, as experience is conversant about the present, and the present enables us to guess at the future; so history is conversant about the past, and by knowing the things that have been, we become better able to judge of the things that are.

Questions: What good effect should history produce upon us as men and citizens? How does history teach us? What lesson do these examples furnish? May we deduce general laws from special or single incidents? How should translations be made, to prove effective? Why is the study of geometry recommended? What study

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »