recollection, also take up arms to conquer independence and honour-this cause, so just and so glorious, has been sufficient to animate generous hearts and vivid imaginations. All men, whose elevated minds pay to the Muses a homage worthy of them, have united their hopes and applauses in favour of a feeble, but courageous people, who are braving the danger of destruction, and paying with their blood the price of the liberty they adore. Poets, historians, authors, orators, all the children of genius, whose names enlightened nations pronounce with pride, have consecrated portion of their talents in honour of modern Greece. Their eulogies have saved these noble efforts from the opprobrium which is attached to impious or factious rebellions. But amongst all those illustrious characters, who has distinguished himself like Lord Byron? Who has equalled him-I will not say in his poetry, in his prose, or in his oratory; but in his sacrifices! Who, like him, in the full sway of his passions, in the flower of his age, in the bosom of luxury, of pleasure, and of a dignified retirement, could at once tear himself from the delights of life, from a voluptuous country, and proceed to a soil impoverished by despotism, and desolated by intestine war? He lands in Greece, to encourage the timid-to animate the brave-to consecrate his fortune to noble purposes and his genius to painful efforts; above all, to appease already rising dissensions, and to double, by union, the power of a people whose very existence is in danger. This is what has been done by Lord Byron. Such greatness of mind had no example; and hitherto it has had no imi tators. "Doubtless, at some future day, when victory shall have restored peace to Greece, and leisure to her hereditary genius at some future day, the Peloponnesus will again be the theatre of the panegyrics, the festivals, and the games of Delphi, of Nemea, and of Olympia, and the descendants of Pindar will re-awaken the lyre which celebrated the glory of the conquerors of Marathon, of Platæa, and of Salamis. Then the most harmonious of languages will consecrate the memory of the immortal poet who terminated his career by an act of illustrious devotion, as imperishable as the most beautiful of its own strains. Then, the posterity of Eschylus, and of Tyrtæus, of Themisto. cles, and of Aristides, will repeat chants which will ascend to Heaven, accompanied by the unanimous praises of a whole nation, grateful, as a free people know how to be. "Already have the inhabitants of Greece worthily paid the first sepulchral honours to the generous man who thus espoused their cause. The entire nation is clad in mourning, and the people and the army, in the train of the senate and magistrates, have solemnized his obsequies; as in modern times, and in another hemisphere, the countrymen of an Adams and a Franklin, celebrated those of the heroes of their independence. Poetry will seize upon so noble a theme. In all enlightened states, they, who dedicate their muse to magnanimous actions, will consecrate their most noble strains to the last deeds and to the memorable end of Lord Byron. "For ourselves, we know how subject we all are to error and to weakness, in our actions as well as in our thoughts; let us leave to another age, and to other men, the painful task of exposing some faults, and of scrutinizing some deviations in the career of him who has never committed a crime-of him who sinned rather in abstaining from respecting some duties, but who at least never wished to tarnish that liberty, and degrade that social dignity, which all elevated minds entertain for all human-kind. This is what the writers of every age and of every nation are bound to honour with unanimous homage. "Certain it is that France will not delay to reap this noble harvest. The muse which recorded the misfortunes of Parga,* and the poet of Messeniennes,† will here find a worthy subject for excellence-for the inspiration of new ideas, calculated to elevate the heart of man, and to excite him to great and generous deeds. "I resided amongst the Greeks at the period when our triumphant eagles took, along the Hellenic coasts, a flight which was the signal for the awakening of a whole people. Then my feeble voice was heard among those which proclaimed to the descendants of Harmodius and Aristogiton, the first cry of deliverance and regeneration. I now offer my homage of respect and gratitude to the memory of one of their benefactors. Far from being unworthily jealous of a glory which illustrates a country emulous of my own, I deposit my humble palm at the foot of the monument which a great genius has raised for posterity by the noble termination of his career." 6 Monthly Magazine," in a brief memoir of Byron, says, "Lord Byron resembled an ancient Greek in many points: as has been observed, he reminds us of those better days of Grecian story when valour bowed at the shrine of wisdom, and never appeared more engaging than when scattering incense over the tomb of genius. Enslaved and degraded as the Greeks have become, they are still the descendants of that wonderful race that first gave elevation to the human mind; and if there be one pageant more sublime than another, it is undoubtedly the funeral of an illustrious foreigner consigned to the tomb amidst scenes and associations such as exist in no other country-who merits the regrets he so spontaneously calls forth -whose pall is supported by warriors who hoped to have fought or fallen by his side whose bier is strewed with flowers, and his requiem chanted by the vestals of liberty, and his funeral knell answered by echoes that may have smote the ear of Socrates and Plato. That such a distinction awaits all that remains of the noble author of Childe Harold' we can as little doubt as that he richly deserved it. Even when a mere boy his Lordship was a perfect enthusiast in the cause of Greece. Again and again he braved all the perils of Turkish jealousy to linger amidst scenes which his youthful studies had taught him to revere he climbed Parnassus-swam the Hellespont-bathed his burning brow in the waters of Helicon-penned sublime verses on the plains of Marathon; and, in a word, resigned himself so completely to classic association, that he seemed a Greek in spirit, though a Briton in name. GREECE---LORD BYRON, Again upon that lovely shore Each Grecian bondsman firmly stood, With fragrance sweet as is their hue; There is a name that will survive Greece was the subject of thy muse, To finish there thy mortal race That ever warmed the breast of man: Yet not in vain did BYRON die From home and scenes of youth afar: For, as a standard floating high, Amid the clashing ranks of war, Whene'er it meets the soldier's sight, Gives him fresh courage for the fight; His name, if once in battle spoken, Shall nerve each heart with firmer zeal ; Whilst to each Greek it does betoken The friend that perished for his weal. TIMO. FROM A POEM ENTITLED " RETROSPECTION." Bur, hark!---a dreadful knell has met mine ear; As ever, ev'n in Greece, by man was run. To trace those Stanzas, ah! I little thought That ere I'd lay it down, that first of men, Should be reduced unto a thing of naught. "We ne'er shall look upon his like again ;" His intellectual part its home has sought; His soul unto its maker has arisen, "This world to his great spirit was a Prison." Greece, keep his heart---whilst living it was thine; "O1.what a noble mind is here o'erthrown.” BEST friend to sacred Freedom and the free, Yet would'st thou not despise my humble lay; Thine's not the fame, by battles earn'd, The blood-stained glory of a victor's name; Thou sought'st for knowledge in the ways of death, And early found it---ere the usual span A "right divine," despotic rule to gain, Against Oppression thou wast ever arm'd R. B. We shall conclude with two original pieces with which we have been favoured, others have reached us for which we have no room. ON THE DEATH OF LORD BYRON. (For the Mirror. WEEP, weep ye nations of the earth, Cease, cease ye birds of joyful notes, Ye trees that tower aloft in pride, Ye flowers and herbs of various kinds, For his whose eye flash'd heavenly fire, Alas! too soon's grown dim. E. L. INDEX ΤΟ THE MIRROR, VOLUME THE THIRD. ABBADONA, a Tale, 227. Abeona, Transport, burnt, 198, 230. Analects, by the Opium Eater, 104. Antwerp Cathedral, Account of, 81. April, on the Month of, 246. Aurora Borealis, Artificial, 362. Balloons, History of, 391. Battle of Wakefield Green, 226. of the Shannon and Chesapeake, Bats, Winter Sleep of, 213. Beards and Barbers, History of, 36, 59. 's Dog, the, a Poem, 154. Bell-ringing, on, 201. Bells, Anecdotes of Church, 199. Benefit of Clergy explained, 178. BIOGRAPHY, SELECT, 14, 92, 123, 154, 207, 281, 294, 317, 382, 393, 406. Bowles, Rev. W. L., Lines by, 155. Mausoleum, Account of, 129. Butter, Methods of Making, 127, 223. 350, 357, 417. Cade, Jack, Insurrection of 1. Cards, Origin of, 211. Catalani, Memoirs of, 155. Cavern in North America, Great, 381. Chain-Bridge over the Thames, 303. Chili, Entertainments in, 282. Coals, Discovery and Use of, 277. COMMON-PLACE BOOK, MY, 331, 375, 408. , in Town, the First, 211. Constitution, American, 253. Coughs, Receipt for a, 127, 288. Cowper, the Poet, Letter and Poems of, 108. Cromwell Lying in State, 273. 's House in Whitehall, 305. Crossing the Desert, 316. of Proverbs, 70. Crucifixion, the, 229. Dancing, Defence of, 373. Dartford Nunnery, Account of, 9. David's Day, St., 153. Davy, Sir Humphrey, 216. Day after Pay-Day at Sea, 109. Grierson, Constantia, Life of, 231. Grotto of St. Odille, 319. Gwyn, Nell, Memoirs of, 207. Hands, on the Custom of Kissing, 67. Hindoo Architect, a, 123. Festival, 258. Hot Rolls or St. Monday, 132. Human Life, Pulsations of, 304. Deaf and Dumb, Instructions for the, 147, Hunchbacks, the Three, 187. 195. Deafness, Remedy of, 176, 224. --, on the Punishment of, 205. Anecdotes of the, 183, 304. Ears and Ear-rings, on, 151. Easter Monday Customs, 253, Embalming, 36. Engravers, British, 110. Entertainment, Places of, in India, 409. Epee, the Abbe de l', 147, 161. EPIGRAMS in every Number. EPITAPHS in every Number. Eponina and Sabinius, 101. Esquimaux, the, 217, 280, 379. Ettrick Shepherd, Anecdotes by, 183. Farmer's Wife, the, 91. February, on the Month of, 89, 99. Fifteenth Century, Customs of the, 213. Franklin, Dr., Anecdote of, 158. Gay, the Poet, Anecdote of, 269. Gibraltar, Journal of Siege of, 244. Good Woman, Sign of, Explained, 131. Grey Ass, the better Sign, 210. Huntingdon, Countess, Letter of, 163. Ink, Indelible, Recipes for, 159. Stanzas on King's Voyage to, 199. Jack of Newberry, Account of, 314. January, on the Month of, 53, 68. Jockie is grown a Gentleman, 326, 387. Kemble, Stephen, and the Jew, 287. Lambeth, a Poem, 308. Church, 143. Latour, Manbourg, Anecdote of, 160. Lee, Nathaniel, Anecdote of, 240. Letter from the Country to a Friend in Life, Probabilities of, 111. In London, 178. Lines to an Infant, 101. presented with a rose, 405. Love, Miss, Lines on, 240. |