LESSON CVII. Van Den Bosch persuades Philip Van Artevelde to accept the command of Ghent.-HENRY TAYLOR. Artevelde. THIS is a mighty matter, Van den Bosch, And much to be revolv'd ere it be answered. Van den Bosch. The people shall elect thee with one voice. I will ensure the White-Hoods, and the rest Will eagerly accept thy nomination, So to be rid of some that they like less. Thy father bore, when Flanders, prosperous then, Art. They may remember it-and, Van den Bosch, To which this people brought my noble father? From which their common weal had sprung and flourished. past be past. How long he fought, how falsely came like friends Who slew my father-yea, who slew their own, (For like one had he ruled the parricides,) Even such a multitude thou'dst have me govern. Van den B. Why, what if Jacques Artevelde was killed? He had his reign, and that for many a year, And a great glory did he gain thereby. If you be as stout-hearted as your father, Art. They cannot render back The golden bowl that's broken at the fountain, And it were well to wring the payment from them Van den B. Then will I call the people to the square, And speak for your election. Art. Not so fast. Your vessel, Van den Bosch, hath felt the storm: She rolls dismasted in an ugly swell, And you would make a jury-mast of me, Whereon to spread the tatters of your canvass. And what am I?-Why, I am as the oak Wherefore should this be added to the wreck? Van den B. I pray you, speak it in the Burghers' tongue I lack the scholarship to talk in tropes. Art. The question, to be plain, is briefly this: Shall I, who, chary of tranquillity, Not busy in this factious city's broils, Nor frequent in the market-place, eschew'd The even battle,-shall I join the rout? Van den B. Times are sore changed, I see; there's none in Ghent That answers to the name of Artevelde. Thy father did not carp nor question thus When Ghent invoked his aid. The days have been When not a citizen drew breath in Ghent But freely would have died in Freedom's cause. Art. The cause, I grant thee, Van den Bosch, is good; But that my whole heart centred in myself, And send thee word betimes of my conclusion. Van den B. Betimes it must be, for the White-Hood chiefs Meet two hours hence, and ere we separate Our course must be determined. Art. In two hours, If I be for you, I will send this ring In token I have so resolved. Farewell! Van den B. Philip Van Artevelde, a greater man Then ever Ghent beheld, we'll make of thee, If thou be bold enough to try this venture. God give thee heart to do so. Fare thee well. [Exit VAN DEN BOSCH. Art. (after a long pause). Is it vain glory that thus whis pers me, That 'tis ignoble to have led my life In idle meditations-that the times Demand me, that they call my father's name? Oh! my father! LESSON CVI... Van Artevelde's Defence of his Rebellion.-HENRY TAYLOR. You speak of insurrections: bear in mind Have been insurgent; whom did we supplant?— And broad highway to power, that ever then Whilst all its instruments from first to last, To shake the ground, Deep-founded whereupon this structure stood, And its free innocence. But now, I ask, Where is there on God's earth that polity Which it is not, by consequence converse, A treason against nature to uphold? Whom may we now call free? whom great? whom wise? Whom innocent ?-the free are only they, Whom power makes free to execute all ills Whose passions nurse them from their cradles up Poor innocency lies where four roads meet, A stone upon her head, a stake driven through h For who is innocent that cares to live? power doth The hand of press the very life What then remains But in the cause of nature to stand forth, Nature, that slept beneath their poisonous drugs, From small beginnings, because God is just. LESSON CIX. Character of Columbus.-W. IRVING. THE poetical temperament of Columbus is discernible throughout all his writings, and in all his actions. It spread a golden and glorious world around him, and tinged every thing with its own gorgeous colours. It betrayed him into visionary speculations, which subjected him to the sneers and cavillings of men of cooler and safer, but more groveling minds. Such were the conjectures formed on the coast of Paria, about the form of the earth, and the situa tion of the terrestrial paradise; about the mines of Ophir, in Hispaniola, and of the Aurea Chersonesus, in Veragua; |