Page images
PDF
EPUB

+

Not on the thirsty glebe ambrosial rain

So

opes

its bosom for the teeming grain,

As sweet religion's heaven-descended dews
Their mild effects o'er social life diffuse;

200

Then holier shrines in mortal breasts are rear'd,
And truth is sacred when a God's rever'd.

Let hope and fear compact the moral chain, 205
A stronger power than man may man restrain;
These are the springs invisible above,

The human will to good or ill to move:

All virtue else in the tempestuous mind,
Is weak, as Bibulus to Cæsar join'd:

210

Who, without these the passions would command,
But holds a tyger in a flowery band.

• Bibulus was Cæsar's colleague in the consulship, and at first made some attempts to control him, but was soon obliged to desist, and to pass in entire insignificance the remainder of his nominal magistracy. This year of Rome was called the consulship of Julius and Cæsar.

LUCIUS

+ Fleet as the Stag th unwieldy Steer shall run, Streams backwards roll, of shadows meet the Sun, Ere the foul mass of Man's imperfect kind

Nor purged by Heaven, shall leave its dross behind,

LUCIUS JUNIUS BRUTUS.

Man's love of life beyond even life extends, Begins with breath, nor leaves him when it ends: Pleas'd with renew'd existence, he believes

A second being in his heirs revives.

215

Yet see relentless Brutus, plac'd on high,
Devote his sons to death, and view them die.
Their youth, their conscious shame for the offence,
Turn advocates more strong than innocence; 220
And soft compassion had their doom delay'd,
But oh! the inexorable father sway'd.

Not instantaneous were the sufferers' pains; '
The lictor's scourge first tore their spouting veins;
Then stooping mangled to the bloody block, 225
Their forfeit necks receiv'd the severing shok

7 Exuit patrem ut consulem ageret, orbusque vivere quam publicæ vindictæ deesse maluit. Val. Max. 1. v. c. viii.

8

παντα τα περι την τιμωριαν εθη και νομιμα φυλατίων, οσα τοις κακέργοις αποκείται παθειν, εν αγορα, παντων ορωνίων, αικιθεντας τα σωματα πληγαις αυτός, απασι τοις γινομενοις παρων, τότε συνεχώρησε τις αυχένας τοις πελεκεσιν αποκο

πηναι,

Dion. Hal. 1. v.

Unmov'd

Unmov'd he sat; while tears and groans confess'd The heaving pangs of every other breast.

O heart of triple brass! can love of fame

Extinguish nature, to exalt a name?

Serenely could thine eye a sight behold,

230

Which chills the stranger's vital tide, when told? What praise, alas! can fortitude receive,

235

Which none would imitate, nor all believe?
Take then, inhuman! thy ambition's lot ;
Thy pride's remember'd, and their crime forgot.
Amazement fill'd the throng;-the general ire
Was lost in horrour at the obdurate sire;
While justice, pausing, trembled to divide
The patriot's title with the parricide.
Preposterous scene! Consul rever'd and curst;
Faithful to Rome, to nature's laws unjust!

240

9 Υπερ απαντα δε τα παραδοξα και θαυματα το ανδρος, το ατενες της οψεως και το ατεγκτου ην'---μονος οτε ανακλαυσαμενος ώφθη του μορος των παίδων, ετε αποιμώξας εαυτού της καθέξησης του οικον ερημίας. DION. HAL. 1. v.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors][merged small]

Posterity the dread award repeals;

More for the traitors than the judge she feels;
Averts with shuddering awe th'astonish'd gaze, 245
And gives, at best, but wonder for thy praise.
Had any voice but thine pronounc'd their doom,
No pitying sigh had grac'd their guilty tomb:
Had other eyes at their sad fate look'd on,
The tears of Rome had fall'n for thee alone; 250
But in thy children's vital blood array'd,—

Stern justice turns a monster, so display'd.
Virtues o'erstrain'd, like strings in musick, fly,
Or, jarring, spoil sweet nature's harmony;
And actions, where humanity must frown,
Excite but horror, not deserve renown."

255

TRIBUNES.

9 We find from Virgil, that even the hard-hearted Romans were divided in their opinion upon this most extraordinary transaction:

[ocr errors]

utcunque ferent ea facta minores,-" Virg. Æn. vi. Manlius, however, presents another example of still more extravagant and unnatural rigour, when he condemns his son, a gallant young conqueror, to death, for a slight deviation from discipline. This barbarian,

I

after

*. Thy Colle:que in thy power and office shard, What he might have condemn'd, thou shoud'st have spard, Indulging higour in its dire excess,

Thou, striving to be more than man, ast

[ocr errors]

less.

yet ler not one outrageous Deed suffice
Toveil his merit from admiring eyes,
The brave Man's worth her tributarylay:
Just to his nobler flame the muse shall pay

[blocks in formation]

Ere time's slow current in his gradual course
Had purg'd the foulness of Rome's natal source,
Who could expect in her young state to see
High birth assum'd, and pride of family?
To see the outlaw's, ruffian's, robber's brood,
Puff'd with pre-eminence of noble blood?

260

after exhorting the young man in an unfeeling declamation to bear his fate with magnanimity, ordered his head to be struck off, and looked on at the execution of the sentence. It is reasonable to suppose that the power of life and death given by the Roman laws to parents over their children, might, in some degree, have weakened the ties of natural affection, and substituted in their place ideas of severity, which led to excesses otherwise unaccountable. Parents had it in their option either to bring up a new-born child, or to suffer it to perish: thus, what would among us be considered as the most extreme proof of inhumanity, was then looked upon as a matter of indifference. The whole youth of Rome were in a state of actual slavery; with this difference only, that their masters were their fathers. Among Catiline's conspirators was A. Fulvius," senatoris filius; quem retractum ex itinere parens necari jussit." This parental order is mentioned by Sallust, whose words I have just now quoted. This is the state, from which declaimers are fond of taking their images of liberty.

D. 2

Yet,

Near the fair corse indignant see him stand Lucretia's dagger smoking in his hand, Annointed Heads! his Denunciation hear That chased from Rome a brutal Ravisher:

Taught the proud Heirs of Royalty to own

Man's Rights more sacred than a Tyrant's Throne,
And to all Crowns this anful lesson brings,

"That laws from Heaven derivd, are more than Kings","

« PreviousContinue »