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Untitled Article
single murmur , " They come ! " its tardy approach , the slow fall of the oar , the solemn silence , are well described , and naturally inspire the question , " Can it be thy navy , Rome ! Do thy sons thus greet their native shore , Ana-thy ships their native foam ?"
While the withdrawment of the sun as the funereal pageant approached , not to blaze out till the galley containing the Caesar ' s widowed queen had landed , and the golden urn was displayed , is a piece of poetical refinement worthy the scene . And what a beautiful and touching scene it is ! one only of the myriads which fill the pages of history , of every history , of every age ; scenes written in the legible and eternal characters of truth and passion , yet remaining a dead language to many , who merely regard them as fine pieces of antiquity , to be looked upon with veneration , visited once in a way ,
and then to pass from the mind as a " dream or idle show ; " when they should be resorted to as to a familiar dwelling-place , tbe pillars of a home of refuge , the hearthstone that we cling to ! Chiefs and sages of former days are sacrificed to on high places and festival times , rather than cherished as household gods , of whose benign and blessed influences we daily and hourly reap the benefit . History , in fact , we have by head rather than by heart ; and that it is so , may partly be traced to that false system of education , now almost exploded , in which children were taught it as a thing of course , its
dates and facts crammed into them , and administered like doses of medicine , " all for their good . " But yet it is more referrible to a class of writers ( to whom we have before alluded ) who , occupying a wide field of young attention , are strewing it over with sickly and baleful weeds , weakening and corrupting the soil which , by being p lanted with good seed , might bring forth abundantly . " But the young must have poetry and light reading as a relief . ' * Certainly : and it is here that we think history , its poetry , romance , drama , to say nothing of its moral efficacy , might be introduced so well , and turned
to much advantage . And why not ? This class of writers is not of the ideal world ; they are essentially imitative ; and it would be strange if the sources from whence not only the master spirits of former , but of our own times , are proud to draw their immortality , should by them be considered unworthy of attention . We have historical novels , historical plays , but little
or no historical poetry ; which we might have so easily , by their simply taking the striking scenes and facts as they occur in the narratives , from among the discussions of the times and remarks of the historian , and presenting to us in their own elegant and tempting manner . The gems are there ; they have only to set them ; and instead of perseverin g in their own " fitful fancies and random reveries , " which , alike over the mind of author
and reader , " come like shadows , so depart , "—by heeding that cloud of living witnesses , upholding their splendid testimony , in the cause of all that ever has been great and good , and by taking one single heart-thrilling record of romantic heroism or sublime self-sacrifice , —they would set at work more emotion , and produce a more stimulating influence on the
moral and intellectual energy of the young , than all the volumes of all the transcripts of themselves have ever done , or can ever hope to do . We are sanguine as to the influence of history , and would even make it a fashionable amusement , awkward as Diogenes might feel with his tub in the drawing-room , and expecting , as we should , to see Cincinnatus make another run from the courtly album to his wonted home in the unadorned
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180 Dews of Castalie .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1829, page 180, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2570/page/28/
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