66 He call'd aloud:-"Say, Father! say, He knew not that the chieftain lay Speak, Father!" once again he cried, If I may yet be gone? And"-but the booming shots replied, Upon his brow he felt their breath, And look'd from that lone post of death, While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud, The wreathing fires made way. They wrapt the ship in splendour wild, Like banners in the sky. There came a burst of thunder sound- Ask of the winds, that far around With mast, and helm, and pennon fair, But the noblest thing which perish'd there, SPEECH OF HENRY V. BEFORE THE BATTLE OF AGINCOURT. WHAT'S he that wishes more men from England? To do our country loss; and, if to live, The fewer men the greater share of honour. No, no, my lord!-wish not a man from England: May straight depart; his passport shall be made, He that outlives this day, and comes safe home, Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars. Old men forget, yet shall not all forget, But they'll remember, with advantages, What feats they did that day. Then shall our names, This day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England, now a-bed, Shall think themselves accursed they were not here, ROMAN GREATNESS. SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS defined the grand style to consist ina certain assemblage of contrary qualities. Upon some such principle as this, the Romans might be accounted a great people; for never was there any which combined such opposite requisites for the purpose of attaining empire; the utmost daring and the most guarded caution; a philosophical indifference to other religions, and a fanatical superstition; an austere self-denial, and an untamed rapacity; individual decency, and national effrontery; a great facility of incorporating foreign states with themselves, and the most exclusive nationality. Their discipline was of iron rigour. It would have broken the spirit of almost any other people; but, instead of subduing, it helped to sustain in them that enthusiastic courage, which, on the day of battle, filled their whole frame, gave a terrible beauty to their bearing, flashed from their eyes, and defeated the very minds of their enemies. The generals who plundered and wasted nations, and filled all Italy with their spoils, were at home plain, simple, frugal, humane men, whose rude cupboards did not contain a single vessel of gold or silver, and whose houses were distinguished only by a total absence of ornament. Factions raged at home; abroad, they presented nothing but unanimity. Mutual oppression was common, but that, too, was an exclusive privilege; wo to the king or state that touched the hair of a Roman's head, or wounded with a haughty look the majesty of the republic in the meanest of her sons! Law, again, notwithstanding some gross and daring infractions, was, on the whole, regarded with much respect, and held in high honour. In fact, their domestic virtue was the great means by which rapacity and tyranny did their work abroad. It was on that stock the boldest shoots of every vicious disposition in their external policy were engrafted, and they flourished with an increased wildness of vigour from the very perversity of the principle. Had not the cement of civil justice been employed, their power would have been as transitory as that of the Turks or Mongols; if it held longer and firmer, it is mainly to be attributed to this, that it was in the bosom of household virtues, domestic affections, and social charities, their eagle plumed his wings for the most daring flights of infamous oppression. THE BETTER LAND. I HEAR thee speak of the better land, Is it where the feathery palm-trees rise, Not there, not there, my child! Is it far away, in some region old, Where the rivers wander o'er sands of gold, Where the burning rays of the ruby shine, Eye hath not seen it, my gentle boy! THE NIGHTINGALE. No cloud, no relique of the sunken day But some night-wandering man, whose heart was pierced Or slow distemper, or neglected love, |