صور الصفحة
PDF
النشر الإلكتروني

ved. He presented her to several people of the first quality; but never dared to take her to court, from which, however, she received several favors.

19. After a residence of several years in England, an example of virtue and piety, and attachment to her husband, she died as she was on the point of embarking for America. She left an only son, who was married, and left none but daughters; and from these are descended some of the principal characters in Virginia.

SPEECH OF CAIUS MARIUS TO THE ROMANS; SHEWING THE ABSURDITY OF THEIR HESITATING TO CONFER ON HIM THE RANK of generAL, MERELY ON ACCOUNT OF HIS EXTRACTION.

It is but too common, my countrymen, to observe

a material difference between the behaviour of those who stand candidates for places of power and trust, before and after their obtaining them. They solicit them in one manner and execute them in another.

2. They set out with a great appearance of activity, humility, and moderation; but they quickly fall into sloth, pride and avarice. It is undoubtedly no easy matter to discharge to general satisfaction, the duty of a supreme commander in troublesome times.

3. You have committed to my conduct the war against Jugartha. The patricians are offended at this. But, where would be the wisdom of giving such a command to one of their honorable body? a person of illustrious birth, of ancient family, of innumerable statues, but of no expe

rience!

4. What service would his long line of dead ancestors, or his multitude of motionless statues, do his country in the day of battle? What could such a general do, but in his trepidation and inexperience, have recourse to some inferi or commander for direction in difficulties to which he wa not himself equal? Thus your patrician general would fact have a general over him; so that the arting comman der would still be a plebían,

5. So true is this, my countrymen, that I have myself known those who have been chosen consul, begin then to read the history of our own country, of which, fill that time they are totally ignorant; that is they first obtained the employment, and then bethought themselves of the qualifications necessary for the proper discharge of it..

6. submit to your judgment, Romans, on which side the advantage lies, when a comparison is made between patrician haughtiness and plebian experience. The very actions which they have only read, I have partly seen and partly myself achieved. What they know by reading, I know by action. They are pleased to slight my mean birth; I despise their mean characters.

7. Want of birth and fortune is the objection against me; want of personal wealth against them. But are not all men of the same species? What can make a difference between one man and another, but the endowments of the mind? For my part I shall always look upon the bravest man as the noblest man.

8. If the patricians have reason to despise me let them likewise despise their ancestors whose nobility was the fruit of their virtue. Do they envy the honors bestowed apon me? let them envy likewise my labors, my abstinence and the dangers I have undergone for my country, by which I have acquired them.

9. But those worthless men lead such a life of inactivity, as if they despised any honors you can bestow; while they aspire to honors as if they had deserved them by the most industrious virtue. They lay claim to the rewards of activity for their having enjoyed the pleasures of luxury. Yet none can be more lavish than they are in praise of their ancestors.

10. And they imagine they honor themselves in celé brating their forefathers; whereas they do the very contrary; for, as much as their ancestors were distinguished for their virtues, so much are they disgraced for their vices.

11. The glory of ancestors cast a light indeed upon their prosperity, but it only serves to show what the descendants are. It alike exhibits to public view their degeneracy and their worth. I own I cannot boast of the deeds of my forefathers; but I hope I may answer the ca

vils

vils of the patricians, by standing up in defence of what I have myself done,

12. Observe now, my countrymen, the injustice of the patricians. They arrogate to themselves honors on acCount of exploits done by their forefathers, whilst they will not allow me due praise for performing the very same sort of actions in my own person.

13. He has no statues they cry, of his family. He can trace no venerable line of ancestors. What then! is it matter of more praise to disgrace one's illustrious ancestors, than to become illustrious by one's own good behaviour?

14. What if I can shew no statues of my family? I can shew the standards, the armour, and the trappings, which Hhave myself taken from the vanquished; I can show the scars of those wounds, which I received by facing the enemies of my country.

15. These are my statues. These are the honors I boast of. Not left me by inheritance, as theirs, but earned by toil, by abstinence, by valor; amidst clouds of dust and seas of blood; scenes of action, where those effeminate patricians, who endeavor, by indirect means, to depreciate me in your esteem, have never dared to show their faces.

FRATERNAL AFFECTION.

IN the beginning of the sixteenth century, the

Portuguese carracks sailed from Lisbon to Goa, a very great, rich, and flourishing colony of that nation in the - East Indies. There were no less than twelve hundred souls, marines, passengers, priests, and friars, on board one of these vessels.

2. The beginning of their voyage was prosperous; they had doubled the southern extremity of the great continent of Africa, called the Cape of Good Hope, and were steering their course northeast, to the great continent of India, when some gentlemen on board, who had studied geogra phy and navigation, found in the latitude in which they were then sailing, a large ridge of rocks laid down in their sea charts,

3. They

3. They no sooner made this discovery, than they acquainted the captain of the ship with the affair, desiring him to communicate the same to the pilot, which request he immediately granted, recommended him to lie by in the night, and slacken sail by day, until they should be past the danger.

4. It is a custom always among the Portuguese absolutely to commit the sailing part of the navigation of the vessel, to the pilot who is answerable with his bead for the safe conduct and carriage of the king's ships, or those belonging to private traders; and he is under no manner of direction from the captain, who commands in every other respect.

5. The pilot being one of those self-sufficient men who think every hint given them from others in the way of their profession derogatory from their understandings, took it as an effront to be taught his art, and instead of complying with the captain's request, actually crowded more sail than the vessel had carried before.

6. They had not sailed many hours, when, just about the dawn of day, a terrible disaster befel them, which would have been prevented if they had lain by. The ship struck upon a rock. I leave to the reader's imagination, what a scene of horror this dreadful accident must occasion among twelve hundred persons, all in the same inevitable danger; beholding, with fearful astonishment, that instantaneous death which now stared them in the face.

7. In this distress, the captain ordered the pinnance to be launched, into which, having tossed a small quantity of biscuit, and some boxes of marmalade, he jumped in himself, with nineteen others, who with their swords prevented the coming in of any more, lest the boat should sink.

8. In this condition they put off into the great Indian Ocean, without a compass to steer by, or any fresh water but what might fall from the heavens, whose mercy alone could deliver them. After they had rowed four days in this miserable condition, the captain, who had been for some time very sick and weak died.

9. This added, if possible, to their misery; for as they now fell into confusion, every one would govern, and none would obey. This obliged them to elect one of their own

company

company to command them, whose orders they implicitly agreed to follow. This person proposed to the company to draw lots and cast every fourth man overboard; as their small stock of provision was so far spent, as not to be able at a very short allowance to sustain life above 3 days longer. 10. There were now nineteen persons in all; in this number were a friar and a carpenter, both of whom they would exempt, as the one was useful to absolve and comfort them in their last extremity, and the other to repair the pinnance in case of a leak or other accident.

11. The same compliment they paid to their new captain, he being the odd mau, and his life of much consequence. He refused their indulgence a great while; but at last they obliged him to acquiesce; so that there were four to die out of the sixteen remaining persons.

12. The first three submitted to their fate; the fourth was a Portuguese gentleman who had a younger brother in the boat, who, seeing him about to be thrown overboard, most tenderly embraced him, and with tears in his eyes besought him to let him die in his room; enforcing his arguments by telling him that he was a married man, and had a wife and children at Goa, beside the care of three sisters, who absolutely depended upon him; that, as for himself he was single, and his life of no great importance; he therefore conjured him to suffer him to supply his place.

13. The elder brother, astonished, and melting with this generosity, replied, that, since the divine providence, had appointed him to suffer, it would be wicked and unjust to permit any other to die for him, especially a brother, to whom he was so infinitely obliged. The younger, persisting in his purpose, would take no denial; but throwing himself on his knees, held his brother so fast, that the com pany could not disengage them.

14. Thus they disputed for a while, the elder brother bidding him to be a father to his children, and recommended his wife to his protection; and as he would inherit his estate, to take care of their common sisters; but all he could say could not make the younger desist. This was a scene of tenderness that must fill every breast, susceptible of generous impressions, with piety. At last the constancy of the elder brother yielded to the pity of the other.

« السابقةمتابعة »