XVI. That is, with men with women he was what XVII. Adeline, no deep judge of character, Was apt to add a colouring from her own: 'Tis thus the good will amiably err, And eke the wise, as has been often shown. Experience is the chief philosopher, But saddest when his science is well known: And persecuted sages teach the schools Their folly in forgetting there are fools. XVIII. Was it not so, great Locke? and greater Bacon? Great Socrates? And Thou, Diviner still, Whose lot it is by man to be mistaken, And Thy pure creed made sanction of all ill? Redeeming worlds to be by bigots shaken, How was Thy toil rewarded? We might fill Volumes with similar sad illustrations, But leave them to the conscience of the nations. XIX. I perch upon an humbler promontory, With no great care for what is nicknamed glory, On what may suit, or may not suit, my story, XX. I don't know that there may be much ability Which may round off an hour upon a time. XXI. 'Omnia vult belle Matho dicere-dic aliquando Et bene, die neutrum, dic aliquando male.' † As it is necessary in these times to avoid ambiguity, I say that I mean by Diviner still,' Christ. If ever God was man,or man God,-He was both. I never arraigned His creed, but the use, or abuse, made of it. Mr Canning one day quoted Christianity to sanction negro slavery, and Mr Wilberforce had little to say in reply. And was Christ crucified that black men might be scourged? If so, He had better been born a Mulatto, to give both colours an equal chance of freedom, or at least salvation. + [Thon finely would'st say all? A line, and leave posterity undone, Unless a marriage was applied to mend The prospect and their morals; and, besides, They have at hand a blooming glut of brides. XXXIV. From these they will be careful to select, For t'other, one who promises much duty: XXXV. When Rapp the Harmonist embargoed marriage In his harmonious settlement (which flourishes Strangely enough as yet without miscarriage, Because it breeds no more mouths than it nourishes, Without those sad expenses which disparage What Nature naturally most encourages), Why call'd he Harmony' a state sans wedlock? Now here I've got the preacher at a dead lock. XXXVI. Because he either meant to sneer at harmony Or marriage, by divorcing them thus oddly; But whether reverend Rapp learn'd this in Ger-There was Miss Millpond, smooth as summer s many Or not, 'tis said his sect is rich and godly, Pious and pure, beyond what I can term any Of ours, although they propagate more broadly. My objection's to his title, not his ritual, XXXVII. But Rapp is the reverse of zealous matrons, Who favour, malgré Malthus, generationProfessors of that genial art, and patrons Of all the modest part of propagation; Which, after all, at such a desperate rate runs, That half its produce tends to emigration, That sad result of passions and potatoesTwo woods which pose our economic Catos. XXXVIII. Had Adeline read Malthus? I can't tell : I wish she had; his book's the eleventh commandment, Which says, 'Thou shalt not marry, 'unless well; This he (as far as I can understand) meant. This extraordinary and flourishing German colony in America does not entirely exclude matrimony, as the 'Shakers' do, but lays such restrictions upon it as prevent more than a certain quantum of births within a certain number of years; which births (as Mr Hulme observes) generally arrive in a little flock like those of a farmer's lambs, all within the same month perhaps. These Harmonists (so called from the name of their settlement) are represented as a remarkably flourish-I That usual paragon, an only daughter Who seem'd the cream of equanimity, sea, Till skimm'd-and then there was some milk and water, With a slight shade of blue, too, it might be, Beneath the surface; but what did it matter? Love's riotous, but marriage should have quiet, And, being consumptive, live on a milk diet. XLII. And then there was the Miss Audacia Shoestring, XLIII. And then there was-but why should I go on, Unless the ladies should go off?—there was Indeed a certain fair and fairy one, Of the best class, and better than her classAurora Raby, a young star who shone O'er life, too sweet an image for such glass; A lovely being, scarcely form'd or moulded, A rose with all its sweetest leaves yet folded; Jacob Tonson, according to Mr Pope, was accustomed to g, pious, and quiet people. See the various recent writers call his writers 'able pens,' 'persons of honour,' and especially n America. eminent hands. Vide Correspondence, &c. XLIV. Rich, noble, but an orphan; left an only XLV. Early in years, and yet more infantine In figure, she had something of sublime In eyes, which sadly shone, as seraphs' shine: All youth-but with an aspect beyond time: Radiant and grave-as pitying man's decline; Mournful-but mournful of another's crime; She look'd as if she sat by Eden's door, And wherefore not? A reasonable reason, Convinces all men, even a politician; And grieved for those who could return no more. So the end's gain'd, what signifies the route? |