In Cæsar's bosom, i and revenge my country, |
I could enjoy the pangs of death', ]
And smile in agony !
Luc.

Others, perhaps, |
May serve their country with as warm a zeal, i
Though 't is not kindled into so much rage. |

Semp. This sober conduct | is a mighty virtue
In luke-warm patriots !!

Cato. Come — no more', Sempronius, |
All here are friends to Rome, I and to each other — 1
Let us not weaken still the weaker side 1
By our divisions. /

Semp. Cato, my resentments
Are sacrificed to Rome - I stand reprov'd.

Cato. Fathers, 't is time you come to a resolve. I

Luc. Cato, we all go into your opinion - | Cæsar's behaviour has convinc'd the senate | We ought to hold it out till terms arrive.

Semp. We ought to hold it out till death' — \ but, Cato, My private voice is drown'd amidst the senate's. |

Cato. Then let us rise', my friends', ) and strive to fill
This little interval, I this pause of life, I
While yet our liberty, and fates are doubtful,
With resolution, | friendship, | Roman bra'very, |
And all the virtues we can crowd in to it,
That heaven may say it ought to be prolong’d. !
Fathers, farewell. - The

young
Numidian

prince Comes forward, and expects to know our counsels. |

THANATOPSIS.

(w. C. BRYANT.)
To him who, in the love of Nature, I holds
Communion with her visible forms, she speaks
A various language: Ifor his gayer hours, |
She has a voice of glad'ness, and a smile,

* Thanatopsis (Greek), from thanatos, death, and opsis, sight a view of death.

And eloquence of beauty; and she glides
Into his darker musings with a mild
And gentle sym'pathy | that steals away
Their sharpness, ere he is aware.

When thoughts
Of the last bitter hour, I come like a blight
Over thy spirit; and sad images
Of the stern, agony, b , and shroud', | and pall', |
And breathless dark,ness, and the narrow house',
Make thee to shudder, I and grow sick at heart, |
Go forth under the open sky, and list
To Nature's teachings, while from all around - 1
Earth', and her wa'ters, and the depths of air' - 1
Comes a still voice, !

Yet a few days, and thee The all-beholding sun | shall see no more | In all his course ; , nor yet in the cold ground, I Where thy pale form was laid with many tears, Nor in the embrace of o'cean, / shall exist Thy image. | Earth that nourish'd thee, shall claim Thy growth | to be resolv’d to earth again ; ] And, lost each human trace, surrendering up Thine individual being, shalt thou go To mix for ever with the elements, —| To be a brother to the insensible rock', | And to the sluggish clod which the rude swain Turns with his share, and treads upon. | The oak Shall send his roots abroad, sand pierce thy mould. I Yet not to thy eternal resting-place, Shalt thou retire alone, nor couldst thou wish' | Couch more magnificent. | Thou shalt lie down With patriarchs of the infant world — with kings, '1 The powerful of the earth - the wise', the good', / Fair forms, and hoary seers' of ages past', | All in one mighty sepulchre. !

a Sad images; not sad-dim'a-ges. • Stern agony; not stern-naggo-ny.

The hills, i Rock-ribb'd, and ancient as the sun'; | the vales', Stretching in pensive quietness between ; | The venerable woods'; | rivers that move In ina jesty, and the 't complaining brooks | That make the meadows green; and, pour'd round all' Old ocean's grey, and melancholy waste', Are but the solemn decorations all', / Of the great tomb of man. I

The golden suni, 1 The planets, | all the infinite host of heav'n, i Are shining on the sad, abodese of death, | Through the still lapse of ages. | All that tread The globe , , are but a hand ful to the tribes That slumber in its bosom. | Take the wings Of morn'ing, I and the Barcan des ert , pierce, I Or lose thyself in the continuous woods' | Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound, Save his own dashings — 1 yet the dead are there ; | And mill'ions in those solitudes, since first The flight of years began, I have laid them down In their last sleep — the dead reign there, alone. I So shalt thou' rest — and what if thou shalt fall, Unnoticed by the living; and no friend Take note of thy departure? | All that breathe Will share thy destiny. | The gay will laugh When thou art gone ; | the solemn brood of care Plod on, I and each one, as before, will chase His favourite phantom - 1 yet all these shall leave Their mirth, and their employments, and shall come, And make their bed with thee. |

As the long train Of ages glides away, | the sons of men', | The youth in life's green spring, and he who goes In the full strength of years', / ma’tron and maidi, 1 Sad abodes; not sad'der-bodes. "But a handful; not butter handful.

a

1

The bow'd with age, | the infant in the smiles
And beauty of its innocent age cut off,a |
Shall one by one | be gather'd to thy side, I
By those who, in their turn, I shall follow them. I
So live, I that when thy summons comes, I to join
The innumerable caravan / that moves
To the pale realms of shade, | where each shall take
His chamber in the silent halls of death,
Thou go not, like the quarry-slave at night', !
Scourg'd to his dun geon, l but, sustain'd, and sooth'd |
By an unfaltering trust, | approach thy grave, |
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams.

SPEECH OF CICERO AGAINST VERRES.

The time is come, fathers, | when that which has long been wished for, | towards allaying the envy your order has been subject to, / and removing the imputations against trials, 1 is effectually put into your power. | An opinion has long prevailed, I not only here at home, i but likewise in foreign countries, I both dangerous to you, I and pernicious to the state', -- that, in prosecutions, men of wealth are always safe', I however clearly convicted. I

There is now to be brought upon his trial, before you, I to the confusion, I hope, l of the propagators of this slanderous imputation, I one whose life, and actions condemn him in the opinion of all impartial persons; I but who, according to his own reckoning, I and declared dependence upon his riches, I is already acquit,ted : I mean Caius Verres.

I demand justice of you, Fathers, / upon the robber of the public treasury, the oppressor of Asia Minor, and Pamphylia, I the invader of the rights, and privileges of Ro'mans, | the scourge, and curse of Sicily. |

If that sentence is passed upon him, I which his crimes deserve, / your authority, Fathers, I will be venerable, and sa cred in the eyes of the public;) but, if his great riches should bias you in his favour, | I shall still gain one point,-- | to make it apparent to all the world, that what was wanting in this case, I was not a criminal, | nor a pros'ecutor; / but jus'tice, and adequate punishment. 1

To pass over the shameful irregularities of his youth, / what does his quæs'torship, | the first public employment he held, what does it exhibit, I but one continued scene of villanies? | Cneius Carbo, plundered of the public money by his own treasurer, a consul stripped, and betrayed', / an army, deserted, and reduced to want', / a province, robbed', | the civil, and religious rights of a people violated.

The employment he held in Asia Minor, and Pamphyl'ia, -what did it produce but the ruin of those countries, / in which houses, cities, and temples were robbed by him? | What was his conduct in his præ'torship here at home ? | Let the plundered temples, and public works neglected, that he might embezzle the money intended for carrying them on, I bear witness. | How did he discharge the office of a judge' ? | Let those who suffered by his injustice, answer.

But his prætorship in Sicily, crowns all' his works of wickedness, I and finishes a lasting monument to his infamy. | The mischiefs, done by him in that unhappy country, I during the three years of his iniquitous administration, / are such, that many years', I under the wisest, and best' of prætors, I will not be sufficient to restore things | to the condition in which he found them; | for it is noto'rious, / that, during the time of his tyranny, | the Sicilians neither enjoyed the protection of their own original laws; l of the regulations made for their benefit by the Roman senate, / upon their coming under the protection of the commonwealth ; | nor of the natural, and unalienable rights of men. |