In adoration join; and ardent, raise One general song! To Him, ye vocal gales, Breathe soft, whose spirit in your freshness breathes : O, talk of Him in solitary glooms! Where, o'er the rock, the scarcely waving pine And ye, whose bolder note is heard afar, Who shake the astonished world, lift high to heaven Ye headlong torrents, rapid and profound; Sound His stupendous praise; whose greater voice From world to world, the vital ocean round, Ye woodlands all, awake; a boundless song Sweetest of birds! sweet Philomela, charm The long-resounding voice, oft breaking clear, Or, if you rather choose the rural shade, Be my tongue mute, my fancy paint no more, Should fate command me to the farthest verge In the void waste as in the city full; And where He vital breathes there must be joy. Where Universal Love not smiles around, And better thence again, and better still, Come, then, expressive Silence, muse His praise. THOMSON. 43. Picture of the Miseries of War. Ir is wonderful with what coolness and indifference the greater part of mankind see war commenced. Those that hear of it at a distance, or read of it in books, but have never presented its evils to their minds, consider it as little more than a splendid game, a proclamation, an army, a battle, and a triumph. Some, indeed, must perish in the successful field; but they die upon the bed of honor, resign their lives amidst the joys of conquest, and, filled with their country's glory, smile in death! The life of a modern soldier is ill represented by heroic fiction. War has means of destruction more formidable than the cannon and the sword. Of the thousands and ten thousands that perished in the late contests with France and Spain, a very small part ever felt the stroke of an enemy; the rest languished in tents and ships, amidst damps and putrefaction; pale, torpid, spiritless, and helpless; gasping and groaning, unpitied among men, made obdurate by long continuance of hopeless misery; and were at last whelmed in pits, or flung into the ocean, without notice and without remembrance. By incommodious encampments and unwholesome stations, where courage is useless and enterprise impracticable, fleets are silently dispeopled, and armies sluggishly melted away. Formidable, adapted to excite fear or apprehension: able, 63. Thus is a people gradually exhausted, for the most part, with little effect. The wars of civilized nations make very slow changes in the system of empire. The public perceives scarcely any alteration but an increase of debt; and the few individuals who are benefited are not supposed to have the clearest right to their advantages. If he that shared the danger enjoyed the profit, and, after bleeding in the battle, grew rich by the victory, he might show his gains without envy. But, at the conclusion of a ten years' war, how are we recompensed for the death of multitudes and the expense of millions, but by contemplating the sudden glories of paymasters and agents, contractors and commissaries, whose equipages shine like meteors, and whose palaces rise like exhalations? 44. Thoughts on Time. THE bell strikes one. But from its loss; Is wise in man. We take no note of time to give it then a tongue As if an angel spoke, I feel the solemn sound. If heard aright, It is the knell of my departed hours. Where are they? with the years beyond the flood! It is the signal that demands despatch; How much is to be done? My hopes and fears A dread eternity! how surely mine! And can eternity belong to me, Poor pensioner on the bounties of an hour? Contractor, one who agrees with government to furnish provisions, or other supplies, or to perform any work or service for the public, at a certain price or rate. - - Commissary, in a military sense, one who has the charge of furnishing provisions, clothing, &c., for an army. O time! than gold more sacred; more a load Youth is not rich in time; it may be poor; With holy hope of nobler life to come; Time higher aimed, still nearer the great mark On all-important time, through every age, Though much and warm the wise have urged, the man Is yet unborn who duly weighs an hour. "I've lost a day"— the prince who nobly cried Had been an emperor without his crown. Of Rome? say, rather, lord of human race; So should all speak; so reason speaks in all For rescue from the blessings we possess? Ah, how unjust to nature and himself To lash the lingering moments into speed, And whirl us happy riddance. from ourselves. |