Page images
PDF
EPUB

men and uncouth manners; yet shall, before you taste of death,""&c.-BURKE in 1775.

Page 149, line 3.

Assembling here, &c.

How simple were the manners of the early colonists! The first ripening of any European fruit was distinguished by a family-festival. Garcilasso de la Vega relates how his dear father, the valorous Andres, collected together in his chamber seven or eight gentlemen to share with him three asparaguses, the first that ever grew on the table-land of Cusco. When the operation of dressing them was over (and it is minutely described) he distributed the two largest among his friends; begging that the company would not take it ill, if he reserved the third for himself, as it was a thing from Spain.

North America became instantly an asylum for the oppressed; huguenots, and catholics, and sects of every name and country. Such were the first settlers in Carolina and Maryland, Pennsylvania and New England. Nor is South America altogether without a claim to the title. Even now, while I am writing, the ancient house of Braganza is on its passage across the Atlantic,

Cum sociis, natoque, Penatibus, et magnis dis.

Page 149, line 5.

Untouched shall drop the fetters from the slave;

Je me transporte quelquefois au delà d'un siècle. J'y vois le bonheur à côté de l'industrie, la douce tolérance remplaçant la farouche inquisition; j'y vois un jour de fête; Péruviens, Mexicains, Américains libres, François s'embrassant comme des frères, et bénissant le règne de la liberté, qui doit amener partout une harmonie universelle. Mais les mines, les esclaves, que deviendront-ils ? Les mines se fermeront; les esclaves seront les frères de leurs maitres.Brissot.

There is a prophetic stanza, written a century ago by Bp. Berkeley, which I must quote, though I may suffer by the comparison.

Westward the course of empire takes its way.
The four first acts already past,

A fifth shall close the drama with the day.
Time's noblest offspring is the last.

Page 153, line 18.

Where on his altar-tomb, &c.

An Interpolation.

Page 154, line 3.

Tho' in the western world His grave,

An Anachronism. The body of Columbus was not yet removed from Seville.

It is almost unnecessary to point out another in the Ninth Canto. The telescope was not then in use; though described long before with great accuracy by Roger Bacon.

[graphic]

JACQUELINE.

1813.

[graphic]
« PreviousContinue »