Snatch'd from us ere thine intellectual bloom Enough, enough; let erring man submit ; Rest to thy bones, Byron !-"mad wag" thou wert, Thy mockeries of verse-poetry run mad- The writhing back of some poor scribbling wight; On eagle pinions through th' etherial height, Thou play'd'st the tumbler pigeon, and came down, And down, and down, till thou had'st reach'd the earth, Then fell asleep, and dream'd of thy Don Juan. I beg thy pardon, Byron-'twas but now My fancy mounted thee on Pegasus, And now I've made a pigeon of thee. What? "Not to be pluck'd!" Why? Hast thou not pluck'd others, Like the fierce eagle I compar'd thee to, And left them not a single plume to fly with? A pretty joke, i'faith! that thou should'st maul, And they not peck at thee! Not e'en in sport! Sole monarch of that heav'n-a galaxy Of glittering golden points make up the scene Through the dark blue, immeasurable height, His cheerful, modest, social beam, to deck So doth thy fellows, whose poetic fire, Changes th'intended happy seat of man Where scenes of blood and death are conjur'd up Like a foul demon, glories in a lie, And turns e'en wholesome labour to a curse !! A plague on this digression, how it warps Whose patient, sedentary care, they joy 1 "Cursed is the ground for thy sake, in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life." In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground, etc., etc.' "Thorns also, and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee."-Genesis iii. 17, 18, 19. There is no greater fallacy than to represent labour as a curse. Without labour we should be a burden to ourselves. Both body and mind require exercise to preserve them in health and activity. This is so plain a truth that it wants no enforcing. Labour only becomes a "curse" when so much of it is exacted of the labourer by his mercenary employer in return for the bare necessaries of life, that no time is left for recreation and proper rest. If the do-nothing classes were obliged to perform their proper share of labour in the hive of human society, this evil would not exist. The natural division of our daily life is into three portions of eight hours each, namely, one for labour, one for instruction and recreation, and the remaining third for rest-sleep," the death of each day's life," which ought to be held sacred by all, in order to fit us for the duties of the following day. What would become of us if the labours of agriculture, for instance, were neglected because, forsooth, labour is a curse? The ground will not yield us food without labour, and labour is "a curse!" "Thorns also and thistles" the earth brings forth, certainly, if left to itself; but we soon get rid of the accursed thorns and thistles by proper tillage and labour, and the blessed results are plenty, with health, and happiness, both to body and mind. Those who labour mentally, for some useful purpose in science or art, require, and deserve, their eight hours of recreation and bodily exercise, and their portion of sleep, as much as any class. Those only are wretched and accursed who live so entirely for themselves that their life is one continued round of amusement and recreation, as many do who live at the fashionable club-houses. A large fortune is often insufficient for their self-indulgence. The most useful part of their study is, perhaps, to qualify themselves for brilliancy in conversation at a luxurious dinner party, or for fascinating and seducing female innocence. Cards, dice, chess, and billiards, their employment; hunting and horse-racing their exercise-all these beginning and ending in self, self, self! Such are the truly * ** and * * * Let them fill up the blanks with what epithets they think most expressive of their useless lives. They sometimes terminate in a very cutting manner, or in a cold bath, when they do not prefer "rope or gun," poison or pistol. Fulwar Craven thought the latter was the most appropriate mode for the adverse end of a horse-race. To interrupt, and shout with wild delight, So early ripe. Ah! vain is thy appeal, Poor bird, bereft! Thou and thy mate may mourn Thine unborn offspring they have torn away, Ah, well! This "maudlin sentiment," no doubt, Whence, else, the cause of all those horrid deeds Whence was it that of old the Hebrew hordes, 1 See Appendix to Canto I., Note C. Alike were strangers to their cruel race, Pursu'd and driven out from realm to realm, For ages this hath been their self-wrought doom, 'Till modern lenity and modern laws At length remit their heavy punishment. No more he cries "old clothes "—the Jew obtains |