DRYDEN AND POPE. Dryden knew more of man in his general nature ́, and Pope in his local manners. The notions of Dryden were formed by comprehensive speculation', those of Pope by minute attention. There is more dignity in the knowledge of Dryden, more certainty in that of Pope`. The style of Dryden is capricious and varied, that of Pope cautious and uniform. Dryden obeys the motions of his own mind; Pope constrains his mind to his own rules of composition. Dryden's page is a natural field, rising into inequalities, and diversified by the varied exuberance of abundant vegetation'; Pope's is the velvet lawn`, shaven by the scythe, and leveled by the roller. If the flights of Dryden are higher, Pope continues longer on the wing. If, of Dryden's fire, the blaze is brighter, of Pope's the heat is more regular and constant. Dryden often surpasses expectation, and Pope never falls below it. Dryden is read with frequent astonishment', and Pope with perpetual delight. LAS CASAS DISSUADING FROM BATTLE. Is then the dreadful measure of your cruelty not yet complete? Battle! against whom? Against a king, in whose mild bosom your atrocious injuries, even yet, have not excited hate; but who, insulted or victorious, still sues for peace. Against a people, who never wronged the living being their Creator formed; a people who received you as cherished guests, with eager hospitality and confiding kindness. Generously and freely did they share with you, their comforts, their treasures, and their homes; you repaid them by fraud`, oppression ́, and dishonor`. Pizarro, hear me! Hear me, chieftans! And thou ́, All-powerful! whose thunder can shiver into sand the adamantine rock, whose lightnings can pierce the core of the riven and quaking earth', O let thy power give effect to thy servant's words, as thy spirit gives courage to his will! Do not, I implore you, chieftains",-do not, I implore you, renew the foul barbarities your insatiate avarice has inflicted on this wretched, unoffending race. But hush, my sighs"! fall not, ye drops of useless sorrow! heart-breaking anguish, choke not my utterance. XXV. SELECT PARAGRAPHS IN POETRY. THE pulpit, therefore, (and I name it, fill'd Of its legitimate, peculiar powers) Must stand acknowledg'd, while the world shall stand, The most important and effectual guard, Support, and ornament of virtue's cause. There stands the messenger of truth:, there stands The legate of the skies: His theme, divine`; By him, the violated law speaks out Its thunders; and, by him, in strains as sweet LIBERTY. Meanwhile, we'll sacrifice to liberty. Remember, O my friends", the laws, the rights`, TOMORROW. Tomorrow, didst thou say?? Methought I heard Horatio say, tomorrow`: "T is a sharper, who stakes his penury And pays thee naught, but wishes, hopes, and promises, That gulls the easy creditor. Tomorrow! It is a period nowhere to be found In all the hoary registers of Time`, Unless perchance in the fool's calendar. Wisdom disclaims the word, nor holds society HUMANITY. I would not enter on my list of friends, (Though graced with polish'd manners and fine sense, Who needlessly sets foot upon a worm`. As God was free to form them at the first, XXVI. CHARACTER OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. FROM PHILLIPS. THIS is an extract from a speech delivered by Phillips, an Irish lawyer of distinction, upon the character of Napoleon Bonaparte. It is a good exercise on the inflections appropriate to antithesis and series. DE STAEL; a celebrated French authoress, the daughter of Neckar. KOTZEBUE; a distinguished German poet. DAVID; a French painter of distinction. 1. HE is fallen! We may now pause before that splendid prodigy, which towered among us like some ancient ruin, whose power terrified the glance its magnificence attracted. Grand, gloomy', and peculiar ́, he sat upon the throne a sceptered hermit, wrapt in the solitude of his own originality. A mind, bold, independent, and decisive; a will", despotic in its dictates; an energy that distanced expedition`; and a conscience, pliable to every touch of interest", marked the outlines of this extraordinary character: the most extraordinary, perhaps, that in the annals of this world, ever rose", or reigned, or fell. 2. Flung into life, in the midst of a revolution that quickened every energy of a people who acknowledged no superior", he commenced his course, a stranger by birth ́, and a scholar by charity. With no friend but his sword, and no fortune but his talents, he rushed into the list where rank, and wealth, and genius had arrayed themselves, and competition fled from him, as from the glance of destiny. 3. He knew no motive but interest; acknowledged no criterion but success; he worshiped no God but ambition`, and with an eastern devotion, he knelt at the shrine of his idolatry. Subsidiary to this, there was no creed that he did not profess, there was no opinion that he did not promulgate: in the hope of a dynasty', he upheld the crescent; for the sake of a divorce', he bowed before the cross; the orphan of St. Louis, he became the adopted child of the republic; and with a parricidal ingratitude, on the ruins both of the throne and the tribune", he reared the throne of his despotism. A professed catholic", he imprisoned the Pope; a pretended patriot, he impoverished the country; and in the name of Brutus, he grasped without remorse, and wore without shame, the diadem of the Cæsars. 4. The whole continent trembled at beholding the audacity of his designs, and the miracle of their execution. Skepticism bowed to the prodigies of his performance`; romance assumed the air of history`; nor was there aught too incredible for belief, or too fanciful for expectation, when the world saw a subaltern of Corsica waving his imperial flag over her most ancient capitals. All the visions of antiquity became common-place in his contemplation: kings were his people; nations were his out-posts`; and he disposed of courts, and crowns`, and camps`, and churches`, and cabinets, as if they were the titular dignitaries of the chessboard! Amid all these changes', he stood immutable as adamant. It mattered little whether in the field', or in the drawing-room; with the mob", or the levee; wearing the jacobin bonnet, or the iron crown; banishing a Braganza", or espousing a Hapsburg; dictating peace on a raft to the czar of Russia, or contemplating defeat at the gallows of Leipsig; he was still the same military despot. 5. In this wonderful combination, his affectations of literature must not be omitted. The jailer of the press, he -ffected the patronage of letters; the proscriber of books", he ncouraged philosophy`; the persecutor of authors', and the murderer of printers, he yet pretended to the protection of learning; the assassin of Palm, the silencer of De Stäel, and the denouncer of Kotzebue, he was the friend of David`, the benefactor of De Lille, and sent his academic prize to the philosopher of England. 6. Such a medley of contradictions, and, at the same time, such an individual consistency', were never united in the same character. A royalist; a republican and an emperor; a Mohammedan; a catholic and a patron of the synagogue; a subaltern and a sovereign; a traitor and a tyrant; a Christian and an infidel; he was, through all his vicissitudes, the same stern, impatient, inflexible original`; the same mysterious, incomprehensible self; the man without a model, and without a shadow`. WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE, was born at Stratford-on-Avon, in England, in 1564. He was the son of a wool-comber, and received some education at a grammar school, though little is known with certainty of the incidents of his life. He removed to London when about twenty-two years of age, and rose to distinction through the success of his immortal dramas. died in 1616. . To be, or not to be? That is the question The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune", Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And, by opposing, end them? To die; to sleep`; Nô more: and, by a sleep, to say we end The heart-ache, and the thousand natural shocks That flesh is heir to; 'tis a consummation Devoutly to be wish'd. To die; to sleep`; To sleep! perchance to drêam-Ay, there's the rub; He |