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    LITERATURE.

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    ^ poetical Works of James Russell Lowell...

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    WAJLJfS AND STKAYS.

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    Subject eor a Statue. (To be placed in t...

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    Ar01306

    Literature.

    LITERATURE .

    ^ Poetical Works Of James Russell Lowell...

    _^ poetical Works of James Russell Lowell London : _Routledge and Co . The name of James Russell Lowell deservedl y ranks high amonotlie p oets of America . His imaginative powers are very great , and i siiigs the praise of universal freedom with extraordinar y beauty and ritrour . There runs through his verses , too , a sweet and womanly _^ derness , which render them very loveahle . His writings are in th emselves a sufficient disprovement of the oft repeated fallacy that true poetry is dying out from amongst us . How can poetry perish the shall shme

    _virile sun as brightl y , and the spring be as green and _wous as in the olden time ? When the earth is bathed in golden sun shine , when mountain and dale are clad in a garb of beautious _goffers , and the blue sky above is spangled with the countless worlds of God ' s boundless universe ; while withher thousand voices nature is p ouring into men ' s souls her songs of love and beaut y , it is not possible for poetry to perish . But for the exercise of his poetic genius , _Ixrtvell has chosen a sphere still wider than the material beauties of tiie world . In humanity itself- —in the freedom and happiness of mankind , he has found subjects far _worthier of his pen . What a noble spirit of uuiversal brotherhood is expressed in the following stanzas : —

    THE FATHERLAND . Where is the true man ' s fatherland ? Is it where he by chance was born 1 Doth not the yearning spirit scorn In such scant borders to be spanned ? Oh , yes ! his fatherland must be , As the blue heaven , wide and free ! Is it alone where freedom is , Where God is God , and man is man 1 . Doth he not claim a broader span For the soul ' s love of home than this 1 Oh , yes ! his fatherland must be , As the blue heaven , wide and free ! Where ' er the human heart doth wear Joy ' s myrtle-wreath or sorrows gyves , "Where ' er a human spirit strives After a life more true and fair There is the true man ' s birth-place grand , His world-wide fatherland ! Wnere e ' er a single slave doth pine , "Wheree'er one man may help another , Thank God for such a birth-right brother , That spot of earth is thine and mine , There is the true mans birth-place grund , His world-wide fatherland ! _TWa is a noble anneal for freedom : — STANZAS ON FREEDOM . Men ! whose boast it is that ye Come of fathers brave and free , II there breathe on earth a slave Are ye truly free and brave t If ye do not feel the chain , When it works a brothers pain , Are ye not base slaves indeed—Slaves unworthy to be freed ? Women ! who shall one day bear Sons to breathe New England air , If ye hear , without a bluhs _. Deeds to make the roused blood rush Like Ted lava through your veins , For your sisters now in chains-Answer ! are ye fit to be _"Mnthpra _< _vf tliA hravft nnd'free ? Is true freedom but to break Fetters for our own dear sake , And , with leathern hearts , forget That we owe mankind a debt : No ! true freedom is to share All the chains our hrothers wear , And with heart and hand to be _u-impst in _-mflkfi _nfTiera free ! They are slaves who fear to speak For the fallen and the weak ; They are slaves who will not choose Haired , scoffing , and abuse , Eather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think ; They are slaves who dare not be Tn the rirrht with two or three . The Ion * martyrdom oi \ Kight and triumpn ot wrong—wie ignuram and bmtaUzed multitude crucyfying their benefactors , afterwards to look upon them as martyrs—the long struggle between freedom and oppression , with its termination—glorious for liberty—m the future , is finpW _pictured in the following : —

    When a deed is done for Freedom , through the earth ' s aching breast Huns a thrill of joy prophetic , trembling on from east to west And the slave where ' er he cowers , feels his soul withm him chrao , To the awful verge of manhood , as the energy sublime Of a century bursts full-blossomed on the thorny stem of Time . _Through the walls of hut and palace shoots the instantaneous throe When the travail of the Ages swings earths systems to and fro ; \ t the birth oft _' each new Era with a recognizing start _Nation wildly " looks at nation with mute lips apart _LTir-Tr _nth's vet mightier man-child leaps beneath the Futures heart

    So the Evil ' s triumph sendeth , with a terror anu a cum , Tindpr continent to continent , the sense of coming ill , _Ld the _sllvewhere ' er he cowers , feels his sympathies with God _fn hot _tear-dtips ebbing earthward , to be drunk up by the sod , _m a earpe crawls round _^ buried , delving in the nobler clod . Pnr _minkind are one in spirit , and an instinct bears along , _lonnTtteeaS _electriccircle , the swift flash of right or wrong _Wher conscious or unconscious , yet Humanity ' s vast frame _S ugh is ocean-sundered fibres feels the gush of joy or s ame ; - ! „ _. i .. " _«»„ nr loss of one race all the rest have equal claim .

    Once to every roan and nation comes tne _moment io use me , t ™ ° _' _tttS tall angels , to _ensWeW her from all _wong .

    _w __ _- ? _i—« « .- _^ s _™ _mnmentous till the judgment hath passed by .

    ^ Poetical Works Of James Russell Lowell...

    Careless seems the great Avenger ; history ' s pages but record One death-grapple in the darkness 'twixt old systems and the Word : Truth for ever on the scaffold , Wrong for ever on the throne—Standeth God within the shadow , keeping watch above his own . We see dimly in the Present what is small and what is great , " Slow of faith how weak an arm may turn the iron helm of fate , But the soul is still oracular ; amid the markets din , List ihe omnious stern whisper from the Delphic cave within"They enslave their children's children who make compromise with sin . " i Slavery , the earthborn Cyclops , fellest of the giant brood , Sons of brutish Force and Darkness , who have drenched the earth with ' tilnnrl i

    Famished in his self-made desert , blinded by our purer day , Gropes in yet unblasted regions for his miserable prey ;—Shall we guide his gory fingers where our helpless children play ? Then to side with Truth is noble when we share her wretched crust , Ere her cause bring fame and profit , and 'tis prosperous to be just ; Then it is the brave man chooses , while the coward stands aside , Doubting in his abject spirit , till his Lord is crucified , And the multitude make virtue of the faith they had denied . Count me o'er Earth ' s chosen heroes—they were souls that stood alone While the men they agonized for hurled the contumelious stone , Stood serene and down the future saw the golden beain incline To the side of perfect justice , mastered by their faith divine , By one man ' s plain truth to manhood and to God ' s supreme design .

    By the light of burning heretics Christ ' s bleeding feet I track , Toiling up new Calvaries ever with the cross that turns not back , And these mounts of anguish number how each generation learned One new word of that grand Credo which in prophet-hearts hath burned Since the first man stood God-conquered with his face to heaven upturned For Humanity sweeps onward : where to-d _* y the martyr stands On the morrow crouches Judas with the silver in his hands ; Far in front the cross stands ready and the crackling fegots bum While the hooting mob of yesterday in silent awe return To clean un the _pcattered ashes into History ' s eolden urn

    'Tis as easy to be heroes as to sit the idle slaves Of a legendary virtue carved upon our fathers' graves ; Worshippers of light ancestral make the present light a crime :- — Was the Mayflower launched by cowards , steered by Men _Oddiiii _itxeir time 1 Turn those tracks toward Past or Future , that make Plymouthrock sublime ? They were men of present valonr , stalwart old iconoclats , Unconvinced by axe or gibbet that all virtue was the Past ' s ; But we make their truth our falsehood , thinking that hath made us free , Hoarding it in mouldy parchments , while our tender spirits flee The rude _erasn of that _ereat Imnulse which drove them across the sea .

    They have nghts who dare maintain them ; we are traitors to our sires , Smothering in their holy ashes Freedom ' s new-lit altar-fires ; Shall we make then * creed our jailer 1 Shall we , in bur haste to slay , From the tombs of the old prophets steal the funeral lamps away To light up the martyr-fagots round the prophets of to-day 1 New occasions teach new duties ; Time makes ancient good uncouth ; They mnst upward still , and onward , who would keep abreast of Truth ; Lo , before us gleam her camp-fires ! we ourselves must pilgrims be , Launch our Mayflower , and steer boldly through the . desperate winter sea , Nor attempt the Future's portal with the Past ' s blood-rusted key _^

    What a lesson for the " Democrats of America is contained in the above ! They might easily be heroes , but tliey prefer to be the slaves of a " legendary virtue *'—that of their fathers . But there is hope for America , when a voice like Lowell ' s is raised to thunder in the ears of the upholders and abettors of slavery : "They enslave their children ' s children , who make compromise with sin . ' The best piece in this collection is , undoubtedly , that entitled ' Prometheus . " Our space will enable us to extract only one or two _nnsKflo'PS _' - — _rKUsiKi'iiifiUS . Thy hated name is tossed once more in scorn From off my lip s , for I Will tell thy doom . < And are these tears 1 Xay , do not triumph , Jove ! They are wrung from me but by the agonies ; Of prophecy , like those sparse drops which fall \ From clouds in travail of f he lightning , when { The great wave of the storm high-curled and black Rolls steadily onward to its thunderous break . i Whv art thou nmde a ( rod of , thon poor type | Of anger , and revenge , and cunning for _.-e ? ! True Power was never born of bratisli Strength , ' Nor sweet Truth suckled at the shaggy dugs \ Of that old she-wolf . Are thy thunderbolts , ; That quell the darkness for a space , so strong As the prevailing patience of meek Light , ¦ Who , with the invincible tenderness of peace , Wins it to be a portion of herself ? Why art thou made a god of , thou , who ha 9 t The never-sleeping terror at thy heart , That birthright of all tyrants worse to bear Than this thy ravening bird on which I smile ? Thou swear _' st to free to free me , if I will unfold What kind of doom it is whose omen flits ! Across thy heart , as o ' er a troop of doves The fearful shadow of the kite . What need \ To know the truth whose knowledge cannot _sav _^ . Evil its errand hath , as well as Good ; ' When thine is finished , thou art known no more , ***** it The pipings of glad shepherds on the hills , \ Tending the flocks no more to bleed for thee ,-r The songs of maidens pressing with white feet The vintage on thine altars poured no more , — The murmurous bliss of lovers , underneath ; Dim grape-vine bowers , whose rosy bunches press Not half so close as their warm cheeks , unchecked By thoughts of thy brute lust—the hive-like hum Of peaceful commonwealths , where sunburnt Toil ¦ _Ronnij fne itsplf the rich earth made its own By its own labour , lightened with giaa hymns To an omnipotence whicJi _"• " n * _-adbolts > Would cope with _« 3 _asparfc « r .: ' Jthe vast sea-Even the spirit of free love and peace ; Duty ' s sure recompense through life and death—These are such harvests as all master-spirits Reap , haply not on earth , but reap no _leps Because the sheaves are bound by hands not theirs ; These are the bloodless daggers wherewithal They stab fallen tyrants , t ' tu their high veveng * : For their best part of life on earth _« s when , T , one ufter death , prisoned ani ; jai no more , Their thoughts , their wad ( Ir _^ _iiiis even , , _vtve ueconv ? Part of the necessary air _nwn breathe . ; When , like the moon , hrrself hehind a cloud , They shed down light before us _** n life ' s sea , That cheers us to steer onward still in hope . Earth with her twining memories ivies o ' er Their holy sepulchres ; the chainless sea , In tempest or wide calm , repeats their thoughts ; The lightening and the thunder , all free things , Have legends of them for the _eai' 3 of men . All other glories are as falling stars , But universal Nature watches theirs : Kiir > h _strength is won by love of human bind .

    ^ Poetical Works Of James Russell Lowell...

    THJi CUKSE OF Xfl . UUTH . UNu- IM . UUJ . N JL . EilJA . N . tUSiU . , ( From Carlyle ' s Stump Orator . ) Given a general insincerity of mind for several generations , you will certainl find the Talker established in the place of honour ; and the Doer , hidden in th obscure crowd , with activity lamed , or working sorrowfully forward on paths unworthy of him . All men are devoutly prostrate , worshipping the eloquent talker ; and no man knows what a scandalous idol he is . Out of whom in the mildest manner , like comfortable natural rest , comes mere asphyxia and death everlasting ! Probably there is-not in Nature a more distracted phantasm than your commonplace eloquent speaker , as he is found on platforms , in parliaments , on Kentuck y stumua . at tavern-dinners , in windv . _emntv . insincere times like

    ours . The excellent ' Stump-Orator , as our admiring xankee menus ctenne him , he who in any occurrent set of circumstances can start forth , mount upon his stump , ' his rostrum , tribune , place in parliament , or _otliei * ready elevation , and pour forth from him his appropriate ' excellent speech , ' Ms interpretation of the said circumstances , in such manner as poor windy mortals round him shall cry bravo to , —he is not an artist I can much admire , as matters go ! Alas , he is in general the windiest mortal of them all ; and is admired for being so , into the bargain . A mouthpiece of Chaos to poor benighted mortals that lend ear to him as a voice from Cosmos , this excellent stump-orator fills me wilh amazement . Not empty , these musical wind-utterances of his ? they are big with pro * phecy ; they announce , too audibly to me , that the end of many things are _drawi nrr _vtirvVi I

    He who well considers , will find this same ' art of speech , as v ? e moderns have it , to be a truly astonishing product of the Ages ; and the longer he considers it , the more astonishing and alarming . I reckon it the saddest of all the curses that now lie heavy on us . Words will not express what mischiefs the misuse of words has done , and is doing , in these heavylatlen generations . J Do you want a man not to practise what he believes , then encourage him to keep often speaking it in words . Every time he speaks it , the tendency to do it will . grow less . His empty speech of what he believes , will be a weariness and an affliction to the wise man . But do you wish his empty speech of what he believes , to become further an insincere speech of what he does not believe 1 Celebrate to htm his gift of speech ; assure him that he shall rise in Parliament by means-of it , and achieve great things without any _performance : that eloquent

    speech , whether _performed or not , is admirable . My friends , eloquent un per-*» _'med speech , in Parliament or elsewhere , is horrible ! The eloquent man that « i _« iivers , in Parliament or elsewhere , a beautiful speech , and will perform nothing of it , but leaves it as if already performed , —what can you make of thai m _3 _& _S ? He has enrolled himself among the Ignes Fatui and Children of the Wind ; means to serve , as abeautifully illuminated Chinese Lantern , in that corps _&» . " } 38 _i ? rth .. I think , the most serviceable thing you could do to that man , if permissible , would be a severe one : To clip off a bit of his eloquent tongue , by way of penance and warning ; another bit , if he again spoke without performing ; and SO again , till you had dipt the whole tongue away from him , —and -were delivered , you and he . from at least one miserable mocke ? y : " There , eloquent friend , see now " in silence if there be any redeeming deed in thee ; of blasnhemnn _* winrt-elnnnnnne . at least , we shall have nn _mni-fi !"

    No grand Doer in this world can be a copious speaker about his doings William the Silent spoke himself best in a country liberated ; Oliver Cromwell id not shine in rhetoric ; Goethe , when he had but a book in view , found that e must say nothing even of that , if it was to succeed with him . ***** And would you learn how to get a mendacious thought , there is no surer recipe than carrying a loose tongue . The lying thought , you already either have it , or will soon get it by that method . He who lies with his very tongue , he clearly enough has ceased to think truly in his mind . How can the thought of such a lviori wiliof ho _/» _ol 1 _u _Ihruiorllf _Tio _ntliot * _tVl _' . lY _* ¦ _fftlco ?

    Alas , the palpable liar with his tongue does at least know that he is lying , and has or might have some faint vestige of remorse and chance of amendment ; but tlie impalpable liar , whose tongue articulates mere accepted commonplaces , cants and babblement , which means only " Admire me , call me an excellent stump-orator !"—of him what hope is there ? His thought , what thought he had , lies dormant , inspired only to invent vocables and plausibilities ; while the tong e goes so glib , the thought is absent , gone a-v _* oolijathering ; getting itself dru _^ Red with the applausive ' Heat , hear !'—what will become of such a man ? His ! dle thought has run all to seed , and grown false and the giver of falsities > the i nner light of his mind is gone out ; all his light is mere putridity sind phos pho rescence henceforth . Whosoever is in quest of ruin , let him with assurance follow that man : he is one . or is on the _rieht road to it .

    Be not a Public Orator , thou brave young British man , thou art now growing to be something : not a Stump-Orator , if thou canst help it . There where thou art , work , work ; whatsoever thy hand findeth to do , do it , —with the hand of a nun , not of a phantasm ; be that thy unnoticed blessedness and exceeding great reward . Thy words , let them be few , and well ordered . Love silence rather than speech in these tragic days , when , for very speaking , the voice of man has fallen inarticulate to man ; and hearts , in this loud babbling , sit dark and dumb towards one another . The old are what they are , and will not tilter ; our hope is in you . England ' s hope , and the world ' s , is that there may once more be millions such , instead of units as now . Made ; if _& uste pede . And many future generations , acquainted again with the silences , and once _« _sre cognisant of what is noble find _faitlful and divine , look back on us with witv trid incredulous astonishment I

    Wajljfs And Stkays.

    _WAJLJfS AND STKAYS .

    Subject Eor A Statue. (To Be Placed In T...

    Subject eor a Statue . ( To be placed in the House of Commons ) - Disraeli , like Niobe , all Thiers , —Punch . " Peace and _Plenty "—ox Noise . —Many members of the Peace Society advocate their cause iu such a noisy m anner—agitating away as if they were going to move heaven and earth to enforce their pacific principles—that we think it would only be just to change the name of these Friends of Peace—but not Quietness—an d to call them , for the fntlirft . " _FiAttTH-OTTATTTCRS " _Pmifth

    The French bCHOOiiiASTBa . —The Minister of Public Instruction has been received at Lille with all the honours of war . It is quite right that Louis Napoleon ' s schoolmaster should teach the young idea how to shoot . The Lancastrian plan gives writing-lessons in sand ; the schoolmaster at Lille improves on thi s—turning the sand into gunpowder . —Punch . A New _Foiai op Heiio-Worship . —The robbery committed upon a French author by our Chancellor of the Exchequer , when he was expatiating on the virtues of Wellington , was intended after all as a compliment , for Disraeli thought he could not pay the memory of the departed hero a greater honour than by taking something more , from

    In a barbers shop in North Shields there is a bill recommending a certain patent medicine , with the very dubious heading—" try one box ; no other medicine need ever be taken afterwards . " A man whom Dr . Johnson once reproved for following a useless and demoralising business , said in excuse , " You know , doctor , that I musi live . " This brave old hater of everything mean and hateful coolly replied , that " he did not see the least necessity for that . " A couple of pedestrians , " gents from town , " passing through a toll bar , attempted a joke at the expense of a young woman who stood a the door , by asking what the charge was for passing through the bai " If you are gentlemen , nothing ; if you are donkeys , a penny each , TfinlipA the damsel , much to their _disromtitnrA

    An Indian chiei once went to the office of the American Commissioner at Chicago , to whom he introduced himself as a very gooc Indian , a great friend to the Americans , and concluded by asking _foi a glass of whiskey . The commissioner gravely told him that the _^ never gave whiskey to good Indians , who never wished for such things that it was only used by bad Indians , « Then" replied the Indian quickly , " me one infernal rascal !" A poetical auctioneer , well known in the county of Durham for hi literary powers , concluded a recent announcement of a furniture sal with the following sublime comp arison : —¦ « And a host of domestic ap preciables , in some degree countless as the glittering jewels _whici bestrid the lacteal turnmke of the blue _ethereal "

    The Achilii Trial .- —A rule to obtain a new trial of this case was grant in the Court of Queen ' s Bench on Monday , on the ground that the verdict _w _nrvainaf _Atriflansm

• Citation
  • Northern Star (1837-1852), Nov. 27, 1852, page 253, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/nss_27111852/page/13/