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THE BATTLE OF BLENHEIM.

ROBERT SOUTHEY.

[ROBERT SOUTHEY, the son of a linendraper in Bristol, was born on the 12th of August, 1774 He was intended for the Church; but his adoption

of Socinian and Republican opinions abruptly closed his academic career in 1794. Shortly after this he published "Wat Tyler" and "Joan of Arc,”— two poems full of revolutionary sentiments. In November, 1795, he married Miss Fricker of Bristol, sister of the wife of Coleridge. In 1801 he accompanied Mr. Foster, Chancellor of the Exchequer, to Ireland, in the capacity of private secretary. On his return from Ireland he altered his republican opinions, and settled on the banks of the Greta, near Keswick. He here commenced a life of ceaseless study and composition, which he maintained uninterruptedly till within a few years of his death. In 1813 he accepted the office of poet-laureate. The latter years of his life were spent in utter prostration of intellect. He died at Greta on the 21st of March, 1843. He left at his death, as the result of his literary labours, about 12,000, to be divided among his children, and one of the most valuable private libraries in the kingdom.]

Ir was a summer evening,

Old Kaspar's work was done,
And he before his cottage-door
Was sitting in the sun;
And by him sported on the green
His little grandchild, Wilhelmine.

She saw her brother Peterkin

Roll something large and round,

Which he beside the rivulet

In playing there had found;

He came to ask what he had found

That was so large, and smooth, and round.

Old Kaspar took it from the boy,

Who stood expectant by;

And then the old man shook his head,

And heaved a natural sigh:

"Tis some poor fellow's skull," said he,

"Who fell in the great victory.

"I find them in the garden,

For there's many here about;
And often when I go to plough,

The ploughshare turns them out:
For many thousand men," said he,
"Were slain in that great victory."

"Now tell us what 'twas all about,"
Young Peterkin he cries;
And little Wilhelmine looks up,

With wonder-waiting eyes:

"Now tell us all about the war,
And what they kill'd each other for."

"It was the English," Kaspar cried,
"Who put the French to rout;
But what they kill'd each other for
I could not well make out:

But everybody said," quoth he,

"That 'twas a famous victory.

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They burn'd his cottage to the ground,

And he was forced to fly :

So with his wife and child he fled,

Nor had he where to rest his head.

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"With fire and sword the country round

Was wasted far and wide,

And many a tender mother then

And new-born baby died:

But things like that, you know, must be

At every famous victory.

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They say it was a shocking sight

After the field was won,

For many a thousand bodies there

Lay rotting in the sun;

But things like that, you know must be

After a famous victory.

"Great praise the Duke of Marlboro' won,

And our good Prince Eugene."

"Why, 'twas a very wicked thing!"

Said little Wilhelmine.

"Nay, nay, my little girl," quoth he,

"It was a famous victory.

"And everybody praised the Duke

Who this great fight did win."—

"But what good came of it at last?"

Quoth little Peterkin.

Why that I cannot tell," said he

"But 'twas a famous victory."

THE PLEASURES OF HOPE.

BY THOMAS CAMPBELL.

[THOMAS CAMPBELL, the son of a merchant in Glasgow, was born on the 27th of July, 1777. He was the youngest of ten children, and was educated with great care. At the age of thirteen he was placed in the University of Glasgow, where he gained many honours. In April, 1799, at the early age of twenty-one, he published his "Pleasures of Hope,” which passed through four editions in the course of a twelvemonth. After its publication he went to the Continent, and, from the monastery of St. Jacob, was a spectator of the Battle of Hohenlinden. His immortal stanzas on that conflict form one of the grandest battle-pieces that ever were written. In 1809 he published his "Gertrude of Wyoming,"-an affecting tale of an Indian incursion on a Pennsylvanian village during the American War. For many years Campbell was editor of the "New Monthly Magazine." In 1827 he was elected Rector of the University of his native city,-an honour which was conferred upon him in the two following years. His lyrical productions are among the noblest in the English language. He died in 1844, at Boulogne, whither he had gone for the benefit of his health. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.]

Analysis of Part I.

THE Poem opens with a comparison between the beauty of remote objects in a landscape, and those ideal scenes of felicity which the imagination delights to contemplate.— The influence of anticipation upon the other passions is next delineated. An allusion is made to the well-known fiction in Pagan tradition, that, when all the guardian deities of mankind abandoned the world, Hope alone was left behind.-The consolations of this passion in situations of danger and distress.-The seaman on his midnight watch. -The soldier marching into battle.-Allusion to the interesting adventures of Byron.

The inspiration of Hope, as it actuates the efforts of genius, whether in the department of science, or of taste.-Domestic felicity, how intimately connected with views of future happiness.-Picture of a mother watching her infant when asleep.-Pictures of the prisoner, the maniac, and the wanderer.

From the consolations of individual misery, a transition is made to prospects of political improvement in the future state of society.-The wide field that is yet open for the progress of humanizing arts among uncivilized nations.-From these views of amelioration of society, and the extension of liberty and truth over despotic and barbarous countries, by a melancholy contrast of ideas we are led to reflect upon the hard fate of a brave people recently conspicuous in their struggles for independence. - Description of the capture of Warsaw, of the last contest of the oppressors and the oppressed, and the massacre of the Polish patriots at the bridge of Prague. -Apostrophe to the self-interested enemies of human improvement.-The wrongs of Africa.-The barbarous policy of Europeans in India.-Prophecy in the Hindoo mythology of the expected descent of the Deity to redress the miseries of their race, and to take vengeance on the violators of justice and mercy.

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