74 SOLILOQUY ON THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. Through what variety of untried being, Through what new scenes and changes must we pass ! Through all her works-he must delight in virtue ; But when, or where? This world was made for Cæsar.2 [Laying his hand on his sword. Thus am I doubly armed;3 my death and life, The wreck of matter, and the crash of worlds. 1 Plato, thou reason'st well! When Cato Uticensis saw the whole Roman republic yielding itself up to Julius Cæsar, he resolved to put an end to his life rather than fall into his enemy's hands. Before doing so, however, he spent a night in reading Plato's Phado. This dialogue gives an account of the calm and magnanimous way in which Socrates confronted death, Addison. tonic belief in the immortality of the soul. 2 This world was made for Cæsar. Cæsar's distinguished achievements on so many battle-fields soon gained for him great popularity. He defeated the supporters of the aristocracy at the battles of Pharsalia (48 B.C.) and Thapsus (46 B.C.), which left him sole master of the Roman world. and it exhibits in an interesting 3 Doubly armed. What were the two manner the grounds of the Pla weapons? THE CONVICT SHIP. Morn on the waters! and purple and bright, Full to the breeze she unbosoms her sail, And her pennon 1 streams onward, like hope, in the gale; Bright as the visions of youth ere they part, Night on the waves! and the moon is on high, Like a heart-cherished home on some desolate plain! Spreading her wings on the bosom of night, 76 THE AFRICAN CHIEF. Or deems that he watches, afloat on the wave, With streamers afloat, and with canvas unfurled; 3 Yet chartered by sorrow, and freighted with sighs: 4 As the smiles we put on, just to cover our tears; Whilst the vessel drives on to that desolate shore, Where the dreams of our childhood are vanished and o'er. Hervey. 1 Pennon, a small flag; a long narrow 4 Chartered by sorrow, and freighted piece of bunting. 2 Pageant, an imposing spectacle. & Canvas unfurled, sails spread. with sighs, hired by sorrow, and laden with sighs. THE AFRICAN CHIEF. Chained in the market-place he stood— A man of giant frame, Amid the gathering multitude, That shrunk to hear his name ; Vainly, but well, that chief had fought— Yet pride, that fortune humbles not, The scars his dark broad bosom wore, A prince among his tribe before, He could not be a slave! Then to his conqueror he spake : 'My brother is a king; Undo this necklace from my neck, And take this bracelet ring, And send me where my brother reigns; And I will fill thy hands With store of ivory from the plains, And gold-dust from the sands.' 'Not for thy ivory nor thy gold A price thy nation never gave For thou shalt be the Christian's slave, Then wept the warrior-chief, and bade To shred his locks away, And, one by one, each heavy braid Thick were the plaited locks, and long ; And deftly hidden there, Shone many a wedge of gold among The dark and crispèd hair. 'Look! feast thy greedy eyes with gold, Long kept for sorest need; And say that I am freed. Take it !-my wife, the long, long day, Weeps by the cocoa-tree, And my young children leave their play, 'I take thy gold-but I have made 78 NAPOLEON AND THE SAILOR. Strong was the agony that shook His heart was broken-crazed his brain; Whispered, and wept, and smiled: They drew him forth upon the sands, NAPOLEON AND THE SAILOR. Napoleon's banners at Boulogne 1 Armed in our island every freeman; They suffered him—I know not how— His eye, methinks, pursued the flight A stormy midnight watch, he thought, Than this sojourn would have been dearer, If but the storm his vessel brought To England nearer. Bryant. |