"Beatus ille procul!" from "negotiis,"
Saith Horace; the great little poet's wrong;
His other maxim, "Noscitur a sociis,"
Is much more to the purpose of his song;
Though even that were sometimes too ferocious,
Unless good company he kept too long;
But, in his teeth, whate'er their state or station,
Thrice happy they who have an occupation!
LXXVIII.
Adam exchanged his paradise for ploughing;
Eve made up millinery with fig-leaves-
The earliest knowledge from the tree so knowing,
As far as I know, that the church receives:
And since that time, it need not cost much showing,
That many of the ills o'er which man grieves,
And still more women, spring from not employing
Some hours to make the remnant worth enjoying.
LXXIX.
And hence high life is oft a dreary void,
A rack of pleasures, where we must invent A something wherewithal to be annoy'd.
Bards may sing what they please about content; Contented, when translated, means but cloy'd; And hence arise the woes of sentiment, Blue-devils, and blue-stockings, and romances Reduced to practice, and perform'd like dances. LXXX.
I do declare, upon an affidavit,
Romances I ne'er read like those I have seen; Nor, if unto the world I ever gave it,
Would some believe that such a tale had been: But such intent I never had, nor have it;
Some truths are better kept behind a screen,
Especially when they would look like lies;
I therefore deal in generalities.
"An oyster may be cross'd in love,"-and why?
Because he mopeth idly in his shell,
And heaves a lonely subterraqueous sigh,
Much as a monk may do within his cell:
And a-propos of monks, their piety
With sloth hath found it difficult to dwell;
Those vegetables of the Catholic creed
Are apt exceedingly to run to seed.
Oh, Wilberforce! thou man of black renown,
Whose merit none enough can sing or say,
Thou hast struck one immense colossus down,
Thou moral Washington of Africa!
But there's another little thing, I own,
Which you should perpetrate some summer's day, And set the other half of earth to rights:
Shut up the world at large; let Bedlam out,
And you will be perhaps surprised to find
All things pursue exactly the same route,
As now with those of soi-disant sound mind.
This I could prove beyond a single doubt,
Were there a jot of sense among mankind;
But till that point d'appui is found, alas!
Like Archimedes, I .cave earth as 'twas.
LXXXV.
Our gentle Adeline had one defect
Her heart was vacant, though a splendid mansion; Her conduct had been perfectly correct,
As she had seen nought claiming its expansion A wavering spirit may be easier wreck'd,
Because 'tis frailer, doubtless, than a stanch one, But when the latter works its own undoing, Its inner crash is like an earthquake's ruin.
She loved her lord, or thought so; but that love
Cost her an effort, which is a sad toil,
The stone of Sysiphus, if once we move
Our feelings 'gainst the nature of the soil.
She had nothing to complain of, or reprove,
No bickerings, no connubial turmoil.
Their union was a model to behold,
Serene and noble,-conjugal but cold.
There was no great disparity of years,
Though much in temper; but they never clash'd: They moved like stars united in their spheres,
Or like the Rhone by Leman's waters wash'd, Where mingled and yet separate appears
The river from the lake, all bluely dash'd Through the serene and placid glassy deep, Which fain would lull its river-child to sleep.
Now, when she once had ta'en an interest
In any thing, however she might flatter
Herself that her intentions were the best,
Intense intentions are a dangerous matter:
Impressions were much stronger than she guess'd,
And gather'd as they run, like growing water,
Upon her mind; the more so, as her breast
Was not at first too readily impress'd.
But when it was, she had that lurking demon
Of double nature, and thus doubly named-
Nirmness yclept in heroes, kings, and seamen,
That is, when they succeed; but greatly blamed
As obstinacy, both in men and women,
Whene'er their triumph pales, or star is tamed:---
And 'twill perplex the casuists in morality,
You have freed the blacks-now pray shut up the To fix the due bounds of this dangerous quality.
But, more or less, the whole's a syncope,
Or a singultus-emblems of emotion,
The grand antithesis to great ennui,
Wherewith we break our bubbles on the ocean,
That watery outline of eternity,
Or miniature at least, as is my notion,
Which ministers unto the soul's delight,
In seeing matters which are out of sight.
III.
But all are better than the sigh supprest,
Corroding in the cavern of the heart,
Making the countenance a mask of rest,
And turning human nature to an art.
Whate'er thou takest, spare awhile poor beauty,
She is so rare, and thou hast so much prey,
What though she now and then may slip from duty
The more's the reason why you ought to stay.
Gaunt Gourmand! with whole nations for your booty
You should be civil in a modest way:
Suppress, then, some slight feminine diseases,
And take as many heroes as Heaven pleases.
Fair Adeline, the more ingenuous
Where she was interested, (as was said,) Because she was not apt, like some of us,
To like too readily, or too high bred
Few men dare show their thoughts of worst or best; To show it-points we need not now discussDissimulation always sets apart
Would give up artlessly both heart and head Unto such feelings as seem'd innocent, For objects worthy of the sentiment.
Some parts of Juan's history, which rumor,
That live gazette, had scatter'd to disfigure,
She had heard; but women hear with more good
Such aberrations than we men of rigor. [humor
Besides his conduct, since in England, grew more
Strict, and his mind assumed a manlier vigor;
Because he had, like Alcibiades,
The art of living in all climes with ease.
His manner was perhaps the more seductive,
Because he ne'er seem'd anxious to seduce;
Nothing affected, studied, or constructive
Of coxcombry or conquest: no abuse
Of his attractions marr'd the fair perspective,
To indicate a Cupidon broke loose,
And seem to say, "resist us if you can "—
Which makes a dandy while it spoils a man.
They are wrong-that's not the way to set about it;
As, if they told the truth, could well be shown.
But, right or wrong, Don Juan was without it;
In fact, his manner was his own alone:
Sincere he was-at least you could not doubt it,
In listening merely to his voice's tone.
The devil hath not in all his quiver's choice
An arrow for the heart like a sweet voice.
By nature soft, his whole address held off
Suspicion though not timid, his regard
Was such as rather seem'd to keep aloof,
To shield himself, than put you on your guard.
Perhaps 'twas hardly quite assured enough,
But modesty's at times its own reward,
Like virtue; and the absence of pretension
Will go much further than there's need to mention
XV.
Serene, accomplish'd, cheerful, but not loud
Insinuating without insinuation;
Observant of the foibles of the crowd,
Yet ne'er betraying this in conversation;
Proud with the proud, yet courteously proud,
So as to make them feel he knew his station
And theirs ;-without a struggle for priority,
He neither brook'd nor claimed superiority.
That is, with men: with women, he was what
They pleased to make or take him for; and their
Imagination's quite enough for that:
So that the outline's tolerably fair,
They fill the canvas up-and "verbum sat,"
If once their phantasies be brought to bear
Upon an object, whether sad or playful,
They can transfigure brighter than a Raphael.
XVII.
Adeline, no deep judge of character,
Was apt to add a coloring from her own. "Tis thus the good will amiably err,
And eke 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.
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.
I perch upon an humbler promontory,
Amid life's infinite variety:
With no great care for what is nicknamed glory,
But speculating as I cast mine eye
On what may suit or may not suit my story,
And never straining hard to versify;
I rattle on exactly as I'd talk
With any body in a ride or walk.
I don't know that there may be much ability
Shown in this sort of desultory rhyme;
But there's a conversational facility,
Which may round off an hour upon a time.
Of this I'm sure at least, there's no servility
In mine irregularity of chime,
Which rings what's uppermost of new or hoary,
Just as I feel the "improvvisatore."
"Omnia vult belle Matho dicere-dic aliquando
Et bene dic neutrum, dic aliquando male."
The first is rather more than mortal can do ;
The second may be sadly done or gayly;
The third is still more difficult to stand to;
The fourth we hear, and see, and say, too, daily:
The whole together is what I could wish
To serve in this conundrum of a dish.
A modest hope-but modesty's my forte,
And pride my foible :-let us ramble on.
I meant to make this poem very short,
But now I can't tell where it may not run.
No doubt, if I had wish'd to pay my court
To critics, or to hail the setting sun
Of tyranny of all kinds, my concision
Were more;-but I was born for opposition.
But then 'tis mostly on the weaker side: So that I verily believe if they
Who now are basking in their full-blown pride,
Were shaken down, and "dogs had had their
Though at the first I might by chance deride [day,"
Their tumble, I should turn the other way,
And wax an ultra-royalist in loyalty,
Because I hate even democratic royalty.
I think I should have made a decent spouse,
If I had never proved the soft condition;
I think I should have made monastic vows,
But for my own peculiar superstition:
'Gainst rhyme I never should have knock'd my brows,
Nor broken my own head, nor that of Priscian;
Nor worn the motley mantle of a poet,
If some one had not told me to forego it.
But "laissez aller "-knights and dames I sing, Such as the times may furnish. 'Tis a flight Which seems at first to need no lofty wing, Plumed by Longinus or the Stagyrite :
The difficulty lies in coloring
(Keeping the due proportions still in sight) With nature manners which are artificial, And rendering general that which is especial.
The difference is, that in the days of old
Men made the manners; manners now make men
Pinn'd like a flock, and fleeced too in their fold,
At least nine, and a ninth besides 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.
We'll do our best to make the best on't :-March!
March, my Muse! If you cannot fly, yet flutter;
And when you may not be sublime, be arch,
Or starch, as are the edicts statesmen utter.
We surely may find something worth research
Columbus found a new world in a cutter,
Or brigantine, or pink, of no great tonnage,
While yet America was in her nonage.
When Adeline, in all her growing sense
Of Juan's merits and his situation,
Felt on the whole an interest intense-
Partly perhaps because a fresh sensation,
Or that he had an air of innocence,
Which is for innocence a sad temptation,As women hate half measures, on the whole, She 'gan to ponder how to save his soul.
She had a good opinion of advice,
Like all who give and eke receive it gratis, For which small thanks are still the market-price, Even where the article at highest rate is. She thought upon the subject twice or thrice, And morally decided, the best state is, For morals, marriage; and, this question carried 'She seriously advised him to get married
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