While the language free and bold How the vault of Heaven rung, When Satan, blasted, fell with his host; While this, with reverence meet, Ten thousand echoes greet. From rock to rock repeat Round our coast: While the manners, while the arts, That mould a nation's soul, Still cling around our hearts, Between let ocean roll, Our joint communion breaking with the sun : Yet, still from either beach, The voice of blood shall reach, More audible than speech, WASHINGTON ALLSTON. XXXI. TO BROTHER JONATHAN. "IF the friends of freedom are often led to despair of its fortunes amidst the dense population, aged monarchies, and corrupted passions of the old world, the aurora appears to rise in a purer sky and with brighter colours in the other hemisphere. In those immense regions which the genius of Columbus first laid open to European enterprise, where vice had not yet spread its snares nor wealth its seductions, the free spirit and persevering industry of England have penetrated a yet untrodden continent, and laid in the wilderness the foundations of a vaster monument of civilization than was ever yet raised by the hands of man. Nor has the hand of nature been wanting to prepare a fitting receptacle for the august structure. Far beyond the Atlantic wave, amidst forests trod only by the casual passage of the savage, her creative powers have been, unknown to us, in everlasting activity: in the solitudes of the Far West, the garden of the human race has been for ages in preparation; and amidst the ceaseless and expanding energies of the Old World, her prophetic hand has silently prepared in the solitude of the New, unbounded resources for the future increase of man."-Alison's History of Europe. "As men, in proportion to their moral advancement, learn to enlarge the circle of their regards, an exclusive affection for our relatives, our class, or our country, is a sure mark of an unimproved mind, so is that narrow and unchristian feeling to be condemned, which regards with jealousy the progress of foreign nations, and cares for no portion of the human race but that to which itself belongs."-Arnold. TO BROTHER JONATHAN. Ho! Brother, I'm a Britisher, That wouldn't warp or swerve or stir I know your heart, an open heart, And shrewd to scheme a likely plan, I tell you, Brother Jonathan, There may be jealousies and strife, For men have selfish ends, But petty quarrels ginger' life, And help to season friends; And pundits who, with solemn scan,' Judge humans' most aright, Decide it, testy Jonathan, That brothers always fight. Two fledgling sparrows in one nest Then how should eaglets meekly rest, The children of the storm? No! while their rustled pinions fan The eyrie's dizzy side, Like you and me, my Jonathan, It's all for Love and Pride! "God save the Queen" delights you still, And "British Grenadiers," The good old strains your heartstrings thrill, And catch you by both ears; And we,-O hate us if you can, For we are proud of you, We like you, Brother Jonathan, And "Yankee Doodle" too! There's nothing foreign in your face, Nor strange upon your tongue, You come not of another race, Together both,-'twas long ago,-- Or charging fierce the Paynim foe For John's own Brother Jonathan There lived a man, a man of men, For Shakspeare, happy Jonathan, There was another glorious name, Who gain'd the double-first of fame, And let us hide him if we can, More miserly than pelf, Our Yankee brother Jonathan Cries "halves" in Milton's self! Well, well: and every praise of old, You would be just, and may be bold Since England's glory first began, Till just the other day, The half is yours; but, Jonathan, SONG OF THE GREEK BARD. O Brother, could we both be one, How gladly would the very sun While earth to John and Jonathan Add but your stripes and golden stars To brave St. George's cross, And never dream of mutual wars, Let us two bless, where others ban, And love when others hate, And so, my cordial Jonathan, We'll fit, I calculate.1 What more? I touch not holier strings Nor glance at prophets, priests, and kings, As friend with friend, and man with man, As David's love to Jonathan, 1. These words and phrases are Americanisms. They are of course here purposely brought in, by way of compliment, but they ought to be cautiously used. TUPPER. 57 2. Pundit, in the Hindostan language, means a learned Brahmin; one versed in Sanscrit, and in the sciences, laws, &c. of the country. XXXII. SONG OF THE GREEK BARD. "THE Greek states have long since disappeared from the face of the earth-the Republics, as well as the Macedonian kingdoms founded by Alexander, have long since ceased to exist. Many centuriesnear 2,000 years have elapsed since a vestige remained of that ancient greatness and transitory power. If the celebrated battles and other mighty events of those ages are still known to us-if they still excite in us a lively interest, it is principally because they have been delineated with such incomparable beauty, such instructive interest, by the great classical writers. It is not the republican governments of Greece, nor the brief and fleeting period of Grecian liberty, which was so soon succeeded by civil war and anarchy-it is not the universal empire of Macedon, which was but of short duration, and was soon swallowed up in the Roman or Parthian domination-it is not these that mark out the place which Greece occupies in the great whole of universal history, nor the mighty and important part she has had in the civilization of mankind. The share allotted to her was the light of science in its most ample extent, and in all the clear brilliance of exposition which it could derive from art. It is in this intellectual sphere only that Greeks have been gifted with extraordinary power, and have exerted a mighty influence on after ages. Plato and Aristotle, far more than Leonidas and Alexander the Great, contain nearly the sum and essence of all [the?] truly permanent and influential which the Greeks have bequeathed to posterity."-Schlegel's Philosophy of History. THE isles of Greece, the isles of Greece! The Scian and the Teian muse, The hero's harp, the lover's lute, The mountains look on Marathon- I dreamed that Greece might still be free; A king sat on the rocky brow Which looks o'er sea-born Salamis; And men in nations-all were his! |