Page:The Literary Magnet 1828 vol 5.djvu/22
we not suffered by a shower of rain! nay, even our most substantial dwellings are not sacred from a storm of hail. A dark cloud is capable of terrifying even the most courageous heart.
"I have lived in the first ages of the world, and have conversed with insects of a more elevated stature, of a stronger constitution, and, I may also add, far superior in wisdom to any of the present generation. I conjure you to place reliance in my last words, when I assure you, that the sun, which now appears at the surface of the water, and at no great distance from the earth, I have seen, in former times, fixed in the centre of the sky, and darting his rays directly above our heads. The earth was far more enlightened in ages past, the air much warmer, and our ancestors more sober and more virtuous.
Although my senses be weakened, my memory is not in the least impaired. I can assure you, yon glorious luminary is possessed of motion. I was witness to his first rising on the summit of yonder mountain, and I began my life about the same time that he commenced his stupendous career. He has, for several ages, been continually advancing in the firmament, with a prodigious heat, and with a brightness of which you cannot possibly conceive the least idea, and which to you had certainly been insupportable; but now, by his decline, and a sensible diminution in his vigor, I foresee that all nature must shortly have an end, and our world will be wrapped in eternal darkness in less than a hundred minutes.
"Alas, my friends, how have I heretofore flattered myself with the delusive hope of inhabiting this earth forever! What magnificence in the cells I had hollowed for myself! what confidence did I not place in the firmness of my limbs, the elasticity of their joints,—in the structure of my wings. But I have lived long enough for nature and for fame; and there is not one of all those I leave behind me, who will enjoy the same advantages in the age of darkness and decay which I perceive is about to commence. (
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SONNET TO A LADY.
I saw thee in thy lost heart's hopelessness—
The ruby lip, clear brow, and laughing eyes
Had left thee then—the eloquence of sighs
And tears were thine, that language of distress
The world had taught thee in its bitterness;
And thou wert as a stricken deer that flies
Wounded to covert: untold agonies
Wrung thy pure spirit; yet didst thou meekly bless
The hand that poured the vial on thy head,
That should have shielded thee from every wrong.
He won thy heart, and brake it; but not long
The spoiler of thy peace may boast the deed,
And go unpunished: those sad sighs and tears
That speak to heaven, shall shake his soul with fears.
Or. pro. M. Marcello.
- ↑ Cicero tells of Cæsar, that the latter frequently made use of the expression in private conversation: Se satis vel ad naturam vel ad gloriam vixisse.