A thought stood before me in its garment of the past, -and lo, a legion with it! They came in thronging bands, - I could not fight nor fly them,— And so they took me to their tent, the prisoner of thoughts. THEN, I bade thee greet me well, and heed my cheerful counsels: For every day we have a Friend, who changeth not with time. Gladly did I speak of my commission, for I felt it graven on my heart, And could not hold my wiser peace, but magnified mine office. Mystery had left her echoes in my mind, and I discoursed her secret: And thence I turned aside to Man, and judged him for his Gifts. And dated all her praise from God, the birthday of the soul. But this was as the nauseous dregs of that inspiring cup: And then I left thee to thy Solitude, learning there of Wisdom. FRIEND and scholar, lover of the right, mine equal kind companion, I prize indeed thy favor, and these sympathies are dear: Still, if thy heart be little with me, wot thou well, my brother, I canvass not the smile of praise, nor dread the frowns of censure. Through many themes, in many thoughts, have we held sweet con verse; But God alone be praised for mind! He only is sufficient. And every thought in every theme by prayer had been established: Who then should fear the face of man, when God hath answered prayer? I speak it not in arrogance of heart, but humbly, as of justice, God hath blessed my mind, and taught it many truths; And I have echoed some to thee, in weakness, yet sincerely; Yea, though ignorance and error shall have marred those lessons of His teaching, I stand in mine own Master's praise, or fall to his reproof. If thou lovest, help me with thy blessing; if otherwise, mine shall be for thee; If thou approvest, heed my words; if otherwise, in kindness be my teacher. Many mingled thoughts for self have warped my better aim, Alas, I have loved pride and praise, like others worse or worthier; the fire! He shook it off, and felt no harm: so be it!-I renounce them. Rebuke then, if thou wilt rebuke,—but neither hastily nor harshly; Or, if thou wilt commend, be it honestly, of right; I work for God and good. ΤΕΛΟΣ. NOTES. First Series. (1) "And thine enfranchised fellows hail thy white, victorious sails.” Page 4. See the story of Theseus, as detailed in Dryden's translation of Plutarch, Life I. (2) "Who hath companied a vision from the horn or ivory gate!” Virg. Æn. VI. 894-897. Page 6. "Sunt geminæ somni portæ; quarum altera fertur Sed falsa ad cœlum mittunt insomnia Manes." (3) The sea-wort floating on the waves," &c. - Page 9. The common sea-weeds on the shores of Europe, the algæ and fuci, after having, for ages, been considered as synonymous with every thing vile and worthless, have, in modern times, been found to be abundant in iodine, the only known cure for scrofula, and kelp, so useful in many manufactures. Horace has signalized his ignorance of this fact in Od. III. 17, 10, "algâ inutili," &c.; and in II. Sat. 5, 8, ironically saying, that, “— virtus, nisi cum re, vilior algâ est." Virgil also has put into the mouth of Thyrsis, in Ecl. VII. 42, Projectâ vilior algâ." (4)" Hath the crocus yielded up its bulb," &c. Page 10. The autumnal crocus, or colchicum, which consists of little more than a deep bulbous root and a delicate lilac flower, produces a substance which is called veratrin, and has been used with signal success in the cure of gout and similar diseases. A few lines lower down, with reference to the elm, I would remark, that no use has yet been discovered in the principle called ulmine. "The boon of far Peru" is the potato. (5) " When acorns give out fragrant drink," &c. Page 10. At a meeting of the Medico-Botanical Society, (in 1837,) the president introduced to the notice of the members a new beverage, which very much resembled coffee, and was made from acorns peeled, chopped, and roasted. Bread made from sawdust is certainly not very palatable, but no one can doubt that it is far more sweet and wholesome than "no bread;" in a famine, this discovery, which has passed almost sub silentio, would prove to be of the highest importance. The darnel, it may be observed in passing, is highly poisonous, and a proper opposite to the lotus. (6) "He, who seeming old in youth," &c. Page 16. Compare Isa. lii. 14, "His visage was so marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men," with the idea implied in the observation, John viii. 57, "Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?" Our Lord was then thirtythree, or, according to some chronologists, even younger. (7) " A sentence hath formed a character, and a character subdued a kingdom." Page 20. A better instance of this could scarcely be found than in the late Lord Exmouth, who first directed his thoughts to the sea from a casual remark made by a groom. See his Life. (8)" That small cavern," &c. Page 22. The pineal gland, a small oval about the size of a pea, situated nearly in the centre of the brain, and generally found to contain, even in children, some particles of gravel. Galen, and after him Des Cartes, imagined it the seat of the soul. (9)" The Greek hath surnamed, ORDER." Page 28. Kóopos. The Latins also, who rarely can show a beautiful idea which they have not borrowed from Greece, have made a similar application of the term "mundus" to the fabric of the world. (10)" To this our day the Rechabite wanteth not a man," &c. Page 35. I have heard it related of Wolfe, the missionary, that, when in Arabia, he fell in with a small wandering tribe, who refused to drink wine, not on Mohammedan principles, but because it had in old time been "forbidden by Jonadab, the son of Rechab, their father." Compare Jeremiah xxxv. 19, "Jonadab, the son of Rechab, shall not want a man to stand before me forever." It will be found in Mr. Wolfe's Journal. (11)" Of Rest." Page 35. A very obvious objection to the views of Rest here given has probably occurred to more than one religious reader of the English Bible; "there remaineth a rest for the people of God;" doubtless intending the heavenly inheritance. If the Greek Testament is referred to, (Heb. iv. 9,) the word translated "rest" will be found to be caßßariouós, a sabbatism, or perpetual sabbath; a rest, indeed, from evil, but very far from being a rest from good; an eternal act of ecstatic intellectual worship, or temporary acts in infinite series. It is true that another word, kaтanavσis, implying complete cessation, occurs in the context; but this is used of the earthly image, Joshua's rest in Canaan; the material rest of earth becomes in the skies a spiritual sabbath; although I am ready to admit that the apostle goes on to argue from the word of the type. In passing, let us observe, by way of showing the uncertainty of trusting to any isolated expression of the present scriptural version, that there are no less than six several words of various meaning which in our New Testament are all indifferently rendered rest; as in Matt. xii. 43, αναπαυσις; in John xi. 13, κοίμησις; in Heb. iii. 11, καταπαυσις ; in Acts ix. 31, eipñvn; in 2 Thess. i. 7, avɛσts; and in Heb. iv. 9, σaßßarioMos. The koinots is, I apprehend, what is generally meant by rest; so wishes Byron's Giaour to "sleep without the dream of what he was; " so he who in life "loathed the languor of repose," avows that he "would not, if he might, be blest, and sought no paradise but Rest." Such, at least, is not the Christian's sabbath, which indeed fully agrees, as might be expected, with metaphysical inquiries: a good spirit cannot rest from activity in good, nor an evil one from activity in evil. Rest, in its common slothful acceptation, is not possible, or is at any rate very improbable, in the case of spiritual creatures. |