Perhaps 't was hardly quite assured enough, Serene, accomplish'd, cheerful but not loud; Yet ne'er betraying this in conversation; XVI. That is, with men: with women he was what So that the outline 's tolerably fair, They fill the canvass up-and "verbum sat. Adeline, no deep judge of character, Was apt to add a colouring from her own: "T is thus the good will amiably err, And cke the wise, as has been often shown. Experience is the chief philosopher, But saddest when his science is well known: And persecuted sages teach the schools Their folly in forgetting there are fools. XVIII. Was it not so, great Locke? and greater Bacon ? Great Socrates ? And thou, Diviner still,+ Whose lot it is by man to be mistaken, And thy pure creed made sanction of all ill ? Redeeming worlds to be by bigots shaken, How was thy toil rewarded? We might fill Volumes with similar sad illustrations, But leave them to the conscience of the nations. XIX. I perch upon an humbler promontory, With no great care for what is nicknamed glory, On what may suit or may not suit my story, I rattle on exactly as I'd talk With any body in a ride or walk. XX. I don't know that there may be much ability Which may round off an hour upon a time. creed, but the use or abuse-made of it. Mr. Canning one day quoted Christianity to sanction Degro slavery, and Mr. Wilberforce had little to say in reply. And was Christ erucified, that black men might be scourged? If so, he had better been born a Mulatto, to give both colours an equal chance of freedom, or at least salvation. But "laissez aller" - knights and dames I sing, (Keeping the due proportions still in sight) The difference is, that in the days of old Men made the manners; manners now make menPinn'd like a flock, and fleeced too in their fold, At least nine, and a ninth beside of ten. Now this at all events must render cold Your writers, who must either draw again Days better drawn before, or else assume The present, with their common-place costume. 3 [The reader has already seen in what style the Edinburgh Reviewers dealt with Lord Byron's early performance (antè, p. 419.) the effect which that criticism produced on him at the time and how he felt the more favourable treatment which he received from the Monthly Review (p. 420.). We should not, however, in the page last referred to, have forgotten to observe, that the young poet was not less courteously and encouragingly welcomed in another publication. We allude to an article on the "Hours of Idleness,' by J. H. Markland, Esq., the learned Editor of the Chester March, my Muse! If you cannot fly, yet flutter; When Adeline, in all her growing sense Partly perhaps because a fresh sensation, Which is for innocence a sad temptation, — As women hate half measures, on the whole, She 'gan to ponder how to save his soul. XXIX. She had a good opinion of advice, Like all who give and eke receive it gratis, Juan replied, with all becoming deference, Or that of her to whom he might apply: Next to the making matches for herself, And daughters, brothers, sisters, kith or kin, But never yet (except of course a miss Or wed already, who object to this) Was there chaste dame who had not in her head Some drama of the marriage unities, Observed as strictly both at board and bed, Mysteries, which concluded in these terms:-"We heartily hope that the illness and depression of spirits, which evidently pervade the greater part of these effusions, are entirely dispelled; and are confident that George-Gordon Lord Byron' will have a conspicuous niche in every future edition of Royal and Noble Authors.'"- See Gentleman's Mag. vol. lxxvi. p. 1217.] 4 [Three small vessels were apparently all that Columbus had required. Two of them were light barques, called caravels, not superior to river and coasting craft of more modern days. That such long and perilous expeditions into unknown seas, should be undertaken in vessels without decks, and that they should live through the violent tempests by which they were frequently assailed, remain among the singular circumstances of those daring voyages. — WASHINGTON IRVING.] This extraordinary and flourishing German colony in America does not entirely exclude matrimony, as the "Shakers" do; but lays such restrictions upon it as prevents more than a certain quantum of births within a certain number of years; which births (as Mr. Hulme observes) generally arrive in a little flock like those of a farmer's lambs, all within the same month perhaps." These Harmonists (so called from the name of their settlement) are represented as a remarkably flourishing, pious, and quiet people. See the various recent writers on America. And then there was the Miss Audacia Shoestring, And then there was- but why should I go on, Of the best class, and better than her class, Aurora Raby, a young star who shone O'er life, too sweet an image for such glass, XLIV. Rich, noble, but an orphan; left an only Blood is not water; and where shall we find Is wanting, and our best ties in the tomb ? 2 Jacob Tonson, according to Mr. Pope, was accustomed to call his writers "able pens, ""persons of honour," and especially" eminent hands." Vide Correspondence, &c. &c.— "Perhaps I should myself be much better pleased, if I were told you called me your little friend, than if you complimented me with the title of a great genius,' or an eminent hand,' as Jacob does all his authors."-Pope to Steele.] 3 [See D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature, New Series, vol. ii. p. 308., and the Dissertation prefixed to Mr. Douce's valuable edition of Hollar's Dance of Death.] XLV. Early in years, and yet more infantine In figure, she had something of sublime In eyes which sadly shone, as seraphs' shine. All youth-but with an aspect beyond time; Radiant and grave-as pitying man's decline; Mournful-but mournful of another's crime, She look'd as if she sat by Eden's door, And grieved for those who could return no more. XLVI. She was a Catholic, too, sincere, austere, As far as her own gentle heart allow'd, Perhaps because 't was fallen: her sires were proud XLVII. She gazed upon a world she scarcely knew And kept her heart serene within its zone. Apart from the surrounding world, and strong Now it so happen'd, in the catalogue Of Adeline, Aurora was omitted, Although her birth and wealth had given her vogue, Against her being mention'd as well fitted, XLIX. And this omission, like that of the bust And with an air, to say the least, imperious, Juan rejoin'd" She was a Catholic, And therefore fittest, as of his persuasion; Of others with her own opinions, stated— LI. And wherefore not? A reasonable reason, Or what is just the same-it wearies out. LII. Why Adeline had this slight prejudice— For prejudice it was-against a creature Since Adeline was liberal by nature; Perhaps she did not like the quiet way With which Aurora on those baubles look'd, Than finding thus their genius stand rebuked, LIV. It was not envy-Adeline had none; Her place was far beyond it, and her mind. Following the "ignes fatui" of mankind. Little Aurora deem'd she was the theme Of such discussion. She was there a guest; A beauteous ripple of the brilliant stream Of rank and youth, though purer than the rest, Which flow'd on for a moment in the beam Time sheds a moment o'er each sparkling crest. Had she known this, she would have calmly smiledShe had so much, or little, of the child. LVI. The dashing and proud air of Adeline Imposed not upon her: she saw her blaze Much as she would have seen a glow-worm shine, Then turn'd unto the stars for loftier rays. Juan was something she could not divine, Being no sibyl in the new world's ways; Yet she was nothing dazzled by the meteor Because she did not pin her faith on feature. LVII. His fame too, for he had that kind of fame Half virtues and whole vices being combined; Juan knew nought of such a character High, yet resembling not his lost Haidée; Yet each was radiant in her proper sphere : The island girl, bred up by the lone sea, More warm, as lovely, and not less sincere, Was Nature's all: Aurora could not be, Nor would be thus: - the difference in them Was such as lies between a flower and gem. LIX. Having wound up with this sublime comparison, There had not been one Shakspeare and Voltaire, LX. I say, in my slight way I may proceed To play upon the surface of humanity. More foes by this same scroll: when I began it, I Thought that it might turn out so-now I know it, But still I am, or was, a pretty poet. LXI. The conference or congress (for it ended Some acids with the sweets-for she was heady; But, ere the matter could be marr'd or mended, The silvery bell rang, not for "dinner ready," But for that hour, call'd half-hour, given to dress, Though ladies' robes seem scant enough for less. LXII. Great things were now to be achieved at table, With massy plate for armour, knives and forks For weapons; but what Muse since Homer's able (His feasts are not the worst part of his works) To draw up in array a single day-bill Of modern dinners? where more mystery lurks, In soups or sauces, or a sole ragoût, Than witches, b-ches, or physicians, brew. LXV. Fowls" à la Condé," slices eke of salmon, With "sauces Génévoises," and haunch of venison; Wines too, which might again have slain young Ammon A man like whom I hope we sha'n't see many soon; They also set a glazed Westphalian ham on, Whereon Apicius would bestow his benison; And then there was champagne with foaming whirls, As white as Cleopatra's melted pearls. LXVI. Then there was God knows what " à l'Allemande," Gently to lull down the subsiding soul; While great Lucullus' Robe triumphal muffles — (There's fame)—young partridge fillets, deck'd with truffles. 3 LXVII. What are the fillets on the victor's brow To these? They are rags or dust. Where is the arch Which nodded to the nation's spoils below? Where the triumphal chariots' haughty march? Gone to where victories must like dinners go. Farther I shall not follow the research: But oh ye modern heroes with your cartridges, When will your names lend lustre e'en to partridges ? LXVIII. Those truffles too are no bad accessories, Follow'd by "petits puits d'amour "— a dish Of which perhaps the cookery rather varies, So every one may dress it to his wish, According to the best of dictionaries, Which encyclopedize both flesh and fish ; But even sans "confitures," it no less true is, There's pretty picking in those "petits puits." 4 LXIX. The mind is lost in mighty contemplation Requires arithmetic beyond my forces. Who would suppose, from Adam's simple ration, From out the commonest demands of nature? LXX. The glasses jingled, and the palates tingled; In the feast, pecking less than I can tell; Can't, like ripe age, in gormandize excel, 'But thinks less of good eating than the whisper (When seated next him) of some pretty lisper. East, has left his more extended celebrity to the transplantation of cherries (which he first brought into Europe), and the nomenclature of some very good dishes; and I am not sure that (barring indigestion) he has not done more service to mankind by his cookery than by his conquests. A cherry-tree may weigh against a bloody laurel; besides, he has contrived to earn celebrity from both. 4" Petits puits d'amour garnis des confitures,"-a classical and well known dish for part of the flank of a second course. |