No More Learning

.
* "You know how great God is. "-"Yes, and how small men are. »


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MONTESQUIEU
much better to have continued a punishment which branded him
with infamy for life; the penalty was pretended to be increased,
while it really was diminished.
Mankind must not be governed with too much severity: we
ought to make a prudent use of the means which nature has
given us to conduct them. If we inquire into the cause of all
human corruptions, we shall find that they proceed from the im-
punity of criminals, and not from the moderation of punishments.
Let us follow nature, who has given shame to man for his
scourge, and let the heaviest part of the punishment be the
infamy attending it.
But if there be some countries where shame is not a conse-
quence of punishment, this must be owing to tyranny, which has
inflicted the same penalties on villains and honest men.
And if there are others where men are deterred only by cruel
punishments, we may be sure that this must, in a great measure,
arise from the violence of the government, which has used such
penalties for slight transgressions.
It often happens that a legislator, desirous of remedying an
abuse, thinks of nothing else: his eyes are open only to this
object, and shut to its inconveniences. When the abuse is re-
dressed, you see only the severity of the legislator;-yet there
remains an evil in the State, that has sprung from this severity:
the minds of the people are corrupted and become habituated to
despotism.
Lysander having obtained a victory over the Athenians, the
prisoners were ordered to be tried, in consequence of an accusa-
tion brought against that nation of having thrown all the captives
of two galleys down a precipice, and of having resolved, in full
assembly, to cut off the hands of those whom they should chance
to make prisoners. The Athenians were therefore all massacred,
except Adymantes, who had opposed this decree. Lysander
reproached Philocles, before he was put to death, with having
depraved the people's minds, and given lessons of cruelty to all
Greece.
"The Argives" (says Plutarch), "having put fifteen hundred
of their citizens to death, the Athenians ordered sacrifices of expi
ation, that it might please the gods to turn the hearts of the
Athenians from so cruel a thought. "
There are two sorts of corruption: one when the people do
not observe the laws; the other when they are corrupted by the
laws,—an incurable evil, because it is in the very remedy itself.


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10257
IN WHAT MANNER REPUBLICS PROVIDE FOR THEIR SAFETY
From The Spirit of Laws
I'
F A republic be small, it is destroyed by a foreign force; if it
be large, it is ruined by an internal imperfection.
To this twofold inconveniency democracies and aristocra-
cies are equally liable, whether they be good or bad.
is in the very thing itself, and no form can redress it.
The evil
It is therefore very probable that mankind would have been,
at length, obliged to live constantly under the government of a
single person, had they not contrived a kind of constitution that
has all the internal advantages of a republican, together with the
external force of a monarchical government. I mean a confed-
erate republic.
This form of government is a convention, by which several
petty States agree to become members of a larger one which
they intend to establish. It is a kind of assemblage of socie-
ties that constitute a new one, capable of increasing by means of
further associations, till they arrive at such a degree of power as
to be able to provide for the security of the whole body.
It was these associations that so long ago contributed to the
prosperity of Greece. By these the Romans attacked the whole
globe; and by these alone the whole globe withstood them. For
when Rome had attained her highest pitch of grandeur, it was
the associations beyond the Danube and the Rhine,-associations
formed by the terror of her arms,- that enabled the barbarians
to resist her. From hence it proceeds that Holland, Germany,
and the Swiss Cantons are considered in Europe as perpetual
republics.
The associations of cities were formerly more necessary than
in our times. A weak defenseless town was exposed to greater
danger. By conquest, it was deprived not only of the executive
and legislative power, as at present, but moreover of all human
rights.
A republic of this kind, able to withstand an external force,
may support itself without any internal corruption; the form of
this society prevents all manner of inconveniences.
If a single member should attempt to usurp the supreme
power, he could not be supposed to have an equal authority and
credit in all the confederate States. Were he to have too great
an influence over one, this would alarm the rest; were he to
subdue a part, that which would still remain free might oppose
XVIII-642


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MONTESQUIEU
him with forces independent of those which he had usurped, and
overpower him before he could be settled in his usurpation.
Should a popular insurrection happen in one of the confeder-
ate States, the others are able to quell it. Should abuses creep
into one part, they are reformed by those that remain sound.
The State may be destroyed on one side and not on the other;
the confederacy may be dissolved, and the confederates preserve
their sovereignty.
As this government is composed of petty republics, it enjoys
the internal happiness of each; and with regard to its external
situation, by means of the association it possesses all the advan-
tages of large monarchies.
ORIGIN OF THE RIGHT OF SLAVERY AMONG THE ROMAN
CIVILIANS
From the Spirit of Laws
ONE
NE would never have imagined that slavery should owe its
birth to pity, and that this should have been excited three
different ways.
The law of nations, to prevent prisoners from being put to
death, has allowed them to be made slaves. The civil law of
the Romans empowered debtors, who were subject to be ill-used
by their creditors, to sell themselves. And the law of nature
requires that children whom a father in the state of servitude
is no longer able to maintain, should be reduced to the same
state as the father.
These reasons of the civilians are all false. It is false that
killing in war is lawful, unless in a case of absolute necessity;
but when a man has made another his slave, he cannot be said
to have been under a necessity of taking away his life, since he
actually did not take it away. War gives no other right over
prisoners than to disable them from doing any farther harm, by
securing their persons. All nations concur in detesting the mur-
dering of prisoners in cold blood.
Neither is it true that a freeman can sell himself. Sale implies
a price: now, when a person sells himself, his whole substance
immediately devolves to his master; the master therefore in that
case gives nothing, and the slave receives nothing. You will
say he has a peculium. But this peculium goes along with his


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10259
person. If it is not lawful for a man to kill himself, because
he robs his country of his person, for the same reason he is
not allowed to barter his freedom. The freedom of every citizen
constitutes a part of the public liberty; and in a democratical
State is even a part of the sovereignty. To sell one's freedom.
is so repugnant to all reason as can scarcely be supposed in any
man. If liberty may be rated with respect to the buyer, it is
beyond all price to the seller. The civil law which authorizes a
division of goods among men, cannot be thought to rank among
such goods a part of the men who were to make this division.
The same law annuls all iniquitous contracts; surely, then, it
affords redress in a contract where the grievance is most enor-
mous
The third way is birth: which falls with the two former;
for if a man could not sell himself, much less could he sell an
unborn infant. If a prisoner of war is not to be reduced to slav-
ery, much less are his children.
The lawfulness of putting a malefactor to death arises from
this circumstance,- the law by which he is punished was made
for his security. A murderer, for instance, has enjoyed the ben-
efit of the very law which condemns him; it has been a continued
protection to him: he cannot therefore object against it. But it
is not so with the slave. The law of slavery can never be bene-
ficial to him; it is in all cases against him, without ever being
for his advantage; and therefore this law is contrary to the
fundamental principle of all societies.
If it be pretended that it has been beneficial to him, as his
master has provided for his subsistence, slavery at this rate
should be limited to those who are incapable of earning their
livelihood. But who will take up with such slaves? As to in-
fants,―nature, which has supplied their mothers with milk, has
provided for their sustenance; and the remainder of their child-
hood approaches so near the age in which they are most capable
of being of service, that he who supports them cannot be said
to give them an equivalent which can entitle him to be their
master.
Nor is slavery less opposite to the civil law than to that of
nature. What civil law can restrain a slave from running away,
since he is not a member of society, and consequently has no
interest in any civil institutions? He can be retained only by a
family law; that is, by the master's authority.


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MONTESQUIEU
ON THE SPIRIT OF TRADE
From the Spirit of Laws
C
OMMERCE is a cure for the most destructive prejudices: for
it is almost a general rule, that wherever we find agree-
able manners, there commerce flourishes; and that wherever
there is commerce, there we meet with agreeable manners.
Let us not be astonished, then, if our manners are now less
savage than formerly. Commerce has everywhere, diffused
knowledge of the manners of all nations; these are compared
one with another; and from this comparison arise the greatest
advantages.
Commercial laws, it may be said, improve manners for the
reason as they destroy them. They corrupt the purest
morals; this was the subject of Plato's complaints; and we every
day see that they polish and refine the most barbarous.
Peace is the natural effect of trade. Two nations who traffic
with each other become reciprocally dependent; for if one has an
interest in buying, the other has an interest in selling; and thus
their union is founded on their mutual necessities.
But if the spirit of commerce unites nations, it does not in
the same manner unite individuals. We see that in countries
where the people are moved only by the spirit of commerce,
they make a traffic of all the humane, all the moral virtues: the
most trifling things-those which humanity itself demands — are
there done or there given only for money.
The spirit of trade produces in the mind of man a certain
sense of exact justice; opposite on the one hand to robbery,
and on the other to those moral virtues which forbid our always
adhering rigidly to the rules of private interest, and suffer us to
neglect this for the advantage of others.
The total privation of trade, on the contrary, produces robbery;
which Aristotle ranks in the number of means of acquiring, yet
it is not at all inconsistent with certain moral virtues. Hospi-
tality, for instance, is most rare in trading countries, while it is
found in the most admirable perfection among nations of vaga-
bonds.
It is a sacrilege, says Tacitus, for a German to shut his door
against any man whomsoever, whether known or unknown. He
who has behaved with hospitality to a stranger goes to show
him another house where this hospitality is also practiced; and


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10261
he is there received with the same humanity. But when the
Germans had founded kingdoms, hospitality was become bur-
thensome. This appears by two laws of the code of the Bur-
gundians: one of which inflicted a penalty on every barbarian
who presumed to show a stranger the house of a Roman; and
the other decreed that whoever received a stranger should be
indemnified by the inhabitants, every one being obliged to pay
his proper proportion.
ON THE TRUE NATURE OF BENEVOLENCE
From the Spirit of Laws
A
MAN is not poor because he has nothing, but because he does
not work. The man who without any degree of wealth has
an employment, is as much at his ease as he who without
labor has an income of a hundred crowns a year. He who has
no substance, and yet has a trade, is not poorer than he who,
possessing ten acres of land, is obliged to cultivate it for his sub-
sistence. The mechanic who gives his art as an inheritance to
his children has left them a fortune which is multiplied in pro-
portion to their number. It is not so with him who, having ten
acres of land, divides it amongst his children.
In trading countries, where many men have no other subsist-
ence but from the arts, the State is frequently obliged to sup-
ply the necessities of the aged, the sick, and the orphan. A
well-regulated government draws this support from the arts them-
selves. It gives to some, such employment as they are capable
of performing; others are taught to work, and this teaching
becomes of itself an employment.
The alms given to a naked man in the street do not fulfill the
obligations of the State, which owes to every citizen a certain
subsistence, a proper nourishment, convenient clothing, and a kind
of life not incompatible with health.
Aurengzebe being asked why he did not build hospitals, said,
"I will make my empire so rich that there shall be no need of
hospitals. " He ought to have said, "I will begin by rendering
my empire rich, and then I will build hospitals. "
The riches of the State suppose great industry. Amidst the
numerous branches of trade, it is impossible but some must suffer;
,


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MONTESQUIEU
and consequently the mechanics must be in a momentary neces-
sity.
Whenever this happens, the State is obliged to lend them a
ready assistance; whether it be to prevent the sufferings of the
people, or to avoid a rebellion. In this case hospitals, or some
equivalent regulations, are necessary to prevent this misery.
But when the nation is poor, private poverty springs from the
general calamity; and is, if I may so express myself, the general
calamity itself. All the hospitals in the world cannot cure this
private poverty; on the contrary, the spirit of indolence which it
constantly inspires, increases the general and consequently the
private misery.
Henry VIII. , resolving to reform the Church of England,
ruined the monks, of themselves a lazy set of people, that en-
couraged laziness in others; because, as they practiced hospitality,
an infinite number of idle persons, gentlemen and citizens, spent
their lives in running from convent to convent. He demolished
even the hospitals, in which the lower people found subsistence,
as the gentlemen did theirs in the monasteries. Since these
changes, the spirit of trade and industry has been established in
England.
At Rome the hospitals place every one at his ease except those
who labor, except those who are industrious, except those who
have land, except those who are engaged in trade.
I have observed that wealthy nations have need of hospitals,
because fortune subjects them to a thousand accidents; but it is
plain that transient assistances are much better than perpetual
foundations. The evil is momentary; it is necessary therefore
that the succor should be of the same nature, and that it be
applied to particular accidents.
ON RELIGION
From the Spirit of Laws
THE
HE different religions of the world do not give to those who
profess them equal motives of attachment: this depends
greatly on the manner in which they agree with the turn
of thought and perceptions of mankind. We are extremely ad-
dicted to idolatry, and yet have no great inclination for the reli-
gion of idolaters; we are not very fond of spiritual ideas, and


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MONTESQUIEU
10263
yet are most attached to those religions which teach us to adore
a spiritual being. This proceeds from the satisfaction we find in
ourselves at having been so intelligent as to choose a religion.
which raises the Deity from that baseness in which he had been
placed by others. We look upon idolatry as the religion of an
ignorant people; and the religion which has a spiritual being for
its object as that of the most enlightened nations.
When with a doctrine that gives us the idea of a spiritual
supreme being, we can still join those of a sensible nature, and
admit them into our worship, we contract a greater attachment
to religion; because those motives which we have just mentioned
are added to our natural inclinations for the objects of sense.
Thus the Catholics, who have more of this kind of worship than
the Protestants, are more attached to their religion than the
Protestants are to theirs, and more zealous for its propagation.
When the people of Ephesus were informed that the fathers
of the council had declared they might call the Virgin Mary the
Mother of God, they were transported with joy; they kissed the
hands of the bishops, they embraced their knees, and the whole
city resounded with acclamations.
When an intellectual religion superadds a choice made by
the Deity, and a preference of those who profess it to those
who do not, this greatly attaches us to religion. The Mahometans
would not be such good Mussulmans, if on the one hand there
were not idolatrous nations who make them imagine themselves
the champions of the unity of God; and on the other, Christians
to make them believe that they are the objects of his preference.
A religion burthened with many ceremonies attaches us to
it more strongly than that which has a fewer number. We have
an extreme propensity to things in which we are continually
employed: witness the obstinate prejudices of the Mahometans
and the Jews, and the readiness with which barbarous and sav-
age nations change their religion,-who, as they are employed
entirely in hunting or war, have but few religious ceremonies.
Men are extremely inclined to the passions of hope and fear:
a religion therefore that had neither a heaven nor a hell could
hardly please them. This is proved by the ease with which
foreign religions have been established in Japan, and the zeal
and fondness with which they were received.
In order to raise an attachment to religion, it is necessary
that it should inculcate pure morals. Men who are knaves by
retail are extremely honest in the gross: they love morality.


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MONTESQUIEU
And were I not treating of so grave a subject, I should say that
this appears remarkably evident in our theatres: we are sure of
pleasing the people by sentiments avowed by morality; we are
sure of shocking them by those it disapproves.
When external worship is attended with great magnificence,
it flatters our minds, and strongly attaches us to religion. The
riches of temples, and those of the clergy, greatly affect us.
Thus, even the misery of the people is a motive that renders
them fond of a religion which has served as a pretext to those
who were the cause of their misery.
ON TWO CAUSES WHICH DESTROYED ROME
From the Grandeur and Decadence of the Roman Empire'
WH
HILST the sovereignty of Rome was confined to Italy, it was
easy for the commonwealth to subsist: every soldier was
at the same time a citizen; every consul raised an army,
and other citizens marched into the field under his successor: as
their forces were not very numerous, such persons only were
received among the troops as had possessions considerable enough
to make them interested in the preservation of the city; the
Senate kept a watchful eye over the conduct of the generals, and
did not give them an opportunity of machinating anything to the
prejudice of their country.
But after the legions had passed the Alps and crossed the sea,
the soldiers whom the Romans had been obliged to leave dur-
ing several campaigns in the countries they were subduing, lost
insensibly that genius and turn of mind which characterized a
Roman citizen; and the generals having armies and kingdoms at
their disposal were sensible of their own strength, and would no
longer obey.
The soldiers therefore began to acknowledge no superior but
their general; to found their hopes on him only, and to view the
city as from a great distance: they were no longer the soldiers
of the republic, but of Sylla, of Marius, of Pompey, and of Cæsar.
The Romans could no longer tell whether the person who headed
an army in a province was their general or their enemy.
So long as the people of Rome were corrupted by their trib-
unes only, on whom they could bestow nothing but their power,
the Senate could easily defend themselves, because they acted
consistently and with one regular tenor, whereas the common


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10265
people were continually shifting from the extremes of fury to
the extremes of cowardice; but when they were enabled to invest
their favorites with a formidable exterior authority, the whole
wisdom of the Senate was baffled, and the commonwealth was
undone.
The reason why free States are not so permanent as other
forms of government is because the misfortunes and successes
which happen to them generally occasion the loss of liberty;
whereas the successes and misfortunes of an arbitrary government
contribute equally to the enslaving of the people. A wise repub-
lic ought not to run any hazard which may expose it to good or
ill fortune; the only happiness the several individuals of it should
aspire after is to give perpetuity to their State.
If the unbounded extent of the Roman empire proved the
ruin of the republic, the vast compass of the city was no less
fatal to it.
The Romans had subdued the whole universe by the assist-
ance of the nations of Italy, on whom they had bestowed various
privileges at different times. Most of those nations did not at
first set any great value on the freedom of the city of Rome,
and some chose rather to preserve their ancient usages; but
when this privilege became that of universal sovereignty,— when
a man who was not a Roman citizen was considered as nothing,
and with this title was everything, the people of Italy resolved
either to be Romans or die: not being able to obtain this by
cabals and entreaties, they had recourse to arms; and rising in
all that part of Italy opposite to the Ionian sea, the rest of the
allies were going to follow their example. Rome, being now
forced to combat against those who were, if I may be allowed
the figure, the hands with which they shackled the universe, was
upon the brink of ruin; the Romans were going to be confined
merely to their walls: they therefore granted this so much wished-
for privilege to the allies who had not yet been wanting in fidel-
ity; and they indulged it, by insensible degrees, to all other
nations.
But now Rome was no longer that city the inhabitants of
which had breathed one and the same spirit, the same love for
liberty, the same hatred of tyranny; a city in which a jealousy
of the power of the Senate and of the prerogatives of the
great (ever accompanied with respect) was only a love of equal-
ity. The nations of Italy being made citizens of Rome, every


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MONTESQUIEU
city brought thither its genius, its particular interests, and its
dependence on some mighty protector: Rome, being now rent
and divided, no longer formed one entire body, and men were
no longer citizens of it but in a kind of fictitious way; as there
were no longer the same magistrates, the same walls, the same
gods, the same temples, the same burying-places, Rome was no
longer beheld with the same eyes; the citizens were no longer
fired with the same love for their country, and the Roman senti-
ments were obliterated.
Cities and nations were now invited to Rome by the ambi-
tious, to disconcert the suffrages, or influence them in their own
favor; the public assemblies were so many conspiracies against
the State, and a tumultuous crowd of seditious wretches was
dignified with the title of Comitia. The authority of the people
and their laws-nay, that people themselves - were no more
than so many chimæras; and so universal was the anarchy of
those times, that it was not possible to determine whether the
people had made a law or not.
Authors enlarge very copiously on the divisions which proved
the destruction of Rome; but their readers seldom discover those
divisions to have been always necessary and inevitable. The
grandeur of the republic was the only source of that calamity,
and exasperated popular tumults into civil wars. Dissensions
were not to be prevented; and those martial spirits which were
so fierce and formidable abroad could not be habituated to any
considerable moderation at home. Those who expect in a free
State to see the people undaunted in war and pusillanimous in
peace, are certainly desirous of impossibilities; and it may be
advanced as a general rule that whenever a perfect calm is visi-
ble, in a State that calls itself a republic, the spirit of liberty no
longer subsists.
Union, in a body politic, is a very equivocal term: true union
is such a harmony as makes all the particular parts, as oppo-
site as they may seem to us, concur to the general welfare of
the society, in the same manner as discords in music contribute
to the general melody of sound. Union may prevail in a State
full of seeming commotions; or in other words, there may be
a harmony from whence results prosperity, which alone is true
peace; and may be considered in the same view as the various
parts of this universe, which are eternally connected by the
action of some and the reaction of others.


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10267
In a despotic State, indeed, which is every government where
the power is immoderately exerted, a real division is perpetually
kindled. The peasant, the soldier, the merchant, the magistrate,
and the grandee, have no other conjunction than what arises from
the ability of the one to oppress the other without resistance;
and if at any time a union happens to be introduced, citizens
are not then united, but dead bodies are laid in the grave con-
tiguous to each other.
It must be acknowledged that the Roman laws were too
weak to govern the republic; but experience has proved it to be
an invariable fact that good laws, which raise the reputation and
power of a small republic, become incommodious to it when once
its grandeur is established, because it was their natural effect to
make a great people but not to govern them.
The difference is very considerable between good laws and
those which may be called convenient; between such laws as
give a people dominion over others, and such as continue them.
in the possession of power when they have once acquired it.
There is at this time a republic in the world (the Canton of
Berne), of which few persons have any knowledge, and which, by
plans accomplished in silence and secrecy, is daily enlarging its
power. And certain it is that if it ever rises to that height of
grandeur for which it seems preordained by its wisdom, it must
inevitably change its laws; and the necessary innovations will not
be effected by any legislator, but must spring from corruption.
itself.
Rome was founded for grandeur, and her laws had an ad-
mirable tendency to bestow it; for which reason, in all the
variations of her government, whether monarchy, aristocracy, or
popular, she constantly engaged in enterprises which required
conduct to accomplish them, and always succeeded.
The expe-
rience of a day did not furnish her with more wisdom than all
other nations, but she obtained it by a long succession of events.
She sustained a small, a moderate, and an immense fortune with
the same superiority, derived true welfare from the whole train
of her prosperities, and refined every instance of calamity into
beneficial instructions.
She lost her liberty because she completed her work too
soon.


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MONTESQUIEU
USBEK AT PARIS, TO IBBEN AT SMYRNA
From the Persian Letters >
HE Women of Persia are finer than those of France, but those
THE of this country are prettier. It is difficult not to love the
first, and not to be pleased with the latter; the one are
more delicate and modest, and the others more gay and airy.
What in Persia renders the blood so pure is the regular life the
women observe: they neither game nor sit up late, they drink no
wine, and do not expose themselves to the open air. It must be
allowed that the seraglio is better adapted for health than for
pleasure: it is a dull, uniform kind of life, where everything
turns upon subjection and duty; their very pleasures are grave,
and their pastimes solemn, and they seldom taste them but as so
many tokens of authority and dependence. The men themselves
in Persia are not so gay as the French; there is not that free-
dom of mind, and that appearance of content, which I meet with
here in persons of all estates and ranks. It is still worse in
Turkey, where there are families in which, from father to son,
not one of them ever laughed from the foundation of the
monarchy. The gravity of the Asiatics arises from the little
conversation there is among them, who never see each other
but when obliged by ceremony. Friendship, that sweet engage-
ment of the heart, which constitutes here the pleasure of life,
is there almost unknown. They retire within their own house,
where they constantly find the same company; insomuch that
each family may be considered as living in an island detached
from all others. Discoursing one time on this subject with a
person of this country, he said to me: —
"That which gives me most offense among all your customs is
the necessity you are under of living with slaves, whose minds and
inclinations always savor of the meanness of their condition. Those
sentiments of virtue which you have in you from nature are enfee-
bled and destroyed by these base wretches who surround you from
your infancy. For, in short, divest yourself of prejudice, and what
can you expect from an education received from such a wretch,
who places his whole merit in being a jailer to the wives of another
man, and takes a pride in the vilest employment in society? who is
despicable for that very fidelity which is his only virtue, to which
he is prompted by envy, jealousy, and despair; who, inflamed with a


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10269
desire of revenging himself on both sexes, of which he is an outcast,
submits to the tyranny of the stronger sex provided he may distress
the weaker; a wretch who, deriving from his imperfection, ugliness,
and deformity, the whole lustre of his condition, is valued only
because he is unworthy to be so; who, in short, riveted forever to
the gate where he is placed, and harder than the hinges and bolts
which secure it, boasts of having spent a life of fifty years in so
ignoble a station, where, commissioned by his master's jealousy, he
exercises all his cruelties. "
RICA AT PARIS, TO IBBEN AT SMYRNA
From the Persian Letters >
WH
HETHER it is better to deprive women of their liberty or to
permit it them, is a great question among men: it ap-
pears to me that there are good reasons for and against
this practice. If the Europeans urge that there is a want of
generosity in rendering those persons miserable whom we love,
our Asiatics answer that it is meanness in men to renounce the
empire which nature has given them over women. If they are
told that a great number of women, shut up, are troublesome,
they reply that ten women in subjection are less troublesome
than one who is refractory.
Another question among the learned is, whether the law of
nature subjects the women to the men. No, said a gallant phi-
losopher to me the other day, nature never dictated such a law.
The empire we have over them is real tyranny, which they
only suffer us to assume because they have more good-nature
than we, and in consequence more humanity and reason. These
advantages, which ought to have given them the superiority had
we acted reasonably, have made them lose it because we have
not the same advantages.
But if it is true that the power we
have over women is only tyrannical, it is no less so that they
have over us a natural empire-that of beauty-which nothing
can resist. Our power extends not to all countries; but that of
beauty is universal. Wherefore then do we hear of this privilege?
Is it because we are the strongest? But this is really injustice.
We employ every kind of means to reduce their spirits.
Their
abilities would be equal with ours, if their education was the
same. Let us examine them in those talents which education has


## p. 10270 (#86) ###########################################

10270
MONTESQUIEU
not enfeebled, and we shall see if ours are as great. It must be
acknowledged, though it is contrary to our custom, that among
the most polite people the women have always had the authority
over their husbands; it was established among the Egyptians in
honor of Isis, and among the Babylonians in honor of Semiramis.
It is said of the Romans that they commanded all nations, but
obeyed their wives. I say nothing of the Sauromates, who were
in perfect slavery to the sex: they were too barbarous to be
brought for an example. Thou seest, my dear Ibben, that I have
contracted the fashion of this country, where they are fond of
defending extraordinary opinions, and reducing everything to a
paradox. The prophet has determined the question, and settled
the rights of each sex: the women, says he, must honor their
husbands, and the men their wives; but the husbands are allowed
one degree of honor more.


## p. 10270 (#87) ###########################################



## p. 10270 (#88) ###########################################


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## p. 10270 (#90) ###########################################

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## p. 10271 (#91) ###########################################

10271
THOMAS MOORE
(1779-1852)
BY THOMAS WALSH
LTHOUGH of late years, through the gradual change of taste,
the importance of Thomas Moore to the critical reader has
grown to be more that of a personality than that of a poet,
yet, in large and steady demand at the libraries, his works outrank
those of Byron, Scott, and all other popular poets.
Whether this be a tribute to his sentimentality or his music, there
can be no doubt that Moore, who came of the people,— his father a
small grocer and liquor-dealer of Dublin,-understood their feelings
better than he is generally supposed to have done; and while he
was singing to the languishing ladies of London, never forgot the
less fashionable though no less sentimental audience beyond.
For it is by his songs that his name has made its place in the
poet's corner of the heart: not by his elaborated pictures of an Orient
that he never beheld; his loves of angelic (and too earthly) spirits;
nor his high-flown and modish 'Evenings in Greece. ' Fate has its
ironies, and this is one of them: Tom Moore, the darling of English
aristocracy, the wit of fashionable Bohemia, lives for us principally
as the pretty Irish lad from Dublin; his boyish fad of Anacreon and
Thomas Little forgotten, and only the songs that came from his
heart remembered.
Born in a humble though decent quarter of Dublin, on the 28th of
May, 1779, he inherited that love of country which is so characteris-
tic of his race. Ireland has cause indeed to be grateful to Moore. It
is true that his tastes and his friendships were placed far from her
unfortunate shores. But in those days she offered no future to a lit-
erary man; and it required more than ordinary courage to espouse
her cause when even sympathy with her was considered treasonable
to England. Among his English friends, who thought Ireland synony-
mous with barbarity and ignorance, he moved about amiably patri-
otic, striking down the barriers of intolerance with the shafts of his
conciliating wit. Sunday after Sunday, though his controversial works
in favor of Catholicism would fill many volumes, he was to be found
in an Anglican chapel.
While Moore never deserted or neglected his humble parents, of
whom he was justifiably proud, nor forgot his early friends and


## p. 10272 (#92) ###########################################

10272
THOMAS MOORE
helpers, yet as he rose in life, his diaries contain few names but those
of the great. With his gifts of social wit and gayety he was more
courted than courting, however; and in this light should be received
the saying that "Tommy dearly loved a lord. " Few men ever sur-
passed him in that art of brilliant conversation that contributed so
largely to his successful career. He is the past-master in that art
among the moderns; and Golzan, when he asserted that the footmen
in the old French salons were more distinguished in their conversa-
tion than the great writers since their day, should have excepted the
Irish poet.
While not a great linguist, he was certainly endowed with the gift
of tongues; so that when he left the University in Dublin in 1799,
with his classical studies completed, he was proficient in both French
and Italian. His name was now entered at the Middle Temple, Lon-
don. His youth, he was only twenty,- his humble parents and
meagre fortunes, had not prevented him from gaining some foothold
in Dublin society. For besides his personal gifts, he was already
known as a poet, from some published effusions; and it was whis-
pered that the pretty youth who had dabbled in the plot that sent
his college-mate, Robert Emmet, to the gallows, had under his arm the
manuscript of the 'Odes of Anacreon,' which, to the unsophisticated
aristocrats of Dublin, must have given the young bard an air of fas-
cinating worldliness.
His first business in London was to obtain a patron; and we
soon hear of him as supping, through Lord Moira's influence, with the
Prince Regent, at the table of Mrs. Fitzherbert. A subscription for
the publication of the 'Odes,' headed by the name of his Royal
Highness, soon enabled Moore to produce his dainty translations of
the Teian bard, with all the conventional foot-notes and pretty pieces
of learning that the time so much admired; with every nymph and
cup-bearer pictured in corkscrew curls and voluminous draperies. It
is an epitome of the spirit of its time,-this little volume,—so bland
in its pretensions to learning, at the same time so fashionable and so
seemingly erudite. Quotations in Greek, Latin, French, and Italian
meet the eye on almost every page; and pretty conceits from outside
sources, that can be brought by any straining of means into some con-
nection with the main work, are scattered with a lavish hand.
w
The success of this volume was so great that we hear no more of
Moore in the Middle Temple. In the years of prosperity and gayety
that followed,-years of bewildering successes for so young a man,-
a laureateship is offered and declined. The great men of the day
stood anxious to be of use to the youth whom fashion had taken by
the hand; and, again through the influence of Lord Moira, Moore was
made Registrar of the Admiralty Court of Bermuda. But the island
-


## p. 10273 (#93) ###########################################

THOMAS MOORE
10273
of "the still-vext Bermoothes" was not to the taste of the gay little
dancer in the sun; and tarrying there only long enough to appoint
a deputy, he proceeded on the American tour that resulted in his
'Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems. ' In America Moore naturally found
little to admire. He was shocked at "the rude familiarity of the
lower orders"; and on his arrival in Washington, took sides with the
British minister and his wife in that historic quarrel with the Presi-
dent on the subject of social precedence, that mystified the magnates
of the republican court.
He shared, indeed, the national aptitude for quarreling; on one
occasion challenging Jeffrey to a duel, because of a critique in the
Edinburgh, a duel which the police interrupted at the crucial moment,
and which resulted in the lifelong friendship of the combatants. It
happened, however, that when the pistols were seized, one of them
was discovered to be without a bullet; whereupon Byron in his 'Eng-
lish Bards and Scotch Reviewers' so ridiculed the affair that Moore
challenged him in turn. Friends however interfered, and a friendship
was founded between the combatants that has for its memorial the
'Life and Journals of Lord Byron' by Thomas Moore.
In 1811 the poet married Miss Bessie Dyke, an Irish actress of
some note, whose beauty had gained her from the fastidious Rogers
the names of "Madonna della Sedia" and "Psyche. " She had all the
womanly qualities of self-control, patience, and economy, that were
needed by the wife of the spoiled little bard, who gave her until his
death all the devotion of a lover.
His life after his marriage was to be one series of social and liter-
ary triumphs, shadowed only by the money difficulties by which his
own carelessness and his Bermudan deputy's dishonesty threatened at
one time to overwhelm him. He paid his debts, however, by means
of the success of his satires, the generous terms of the Longmans in
ordering 'Lalla Rookh,' and the pension of £300 given him by the
government through the grace of Lord John Russell, who was one
day to be his biographer. Fond as he was of dancing and dining,
however, he was both industrious and persevering at his work-bench,
where he turned out not less than thirty volumes, among the best
known of which are -The Odes of Anacreon,' The Fudge Family
in Paris, Epistles, Odes, and Other Poems,' 'The Two-penny Post
Bag,' 'Lalla Rookh,' 'Rhymes on the Road,' 'The Epicurean, a Prose
Story,' 'The Loves of the Angels,' 'The Life of Sheridan,' 'The Life
of Lord Byron,' and 'The Life of Lord Edward Fitzgerald. '
During his sojourns in France, while his friends compromised the
Bermudan suits, Continental society united to do him honor. Royalty
listened to his charming drolleries, and languished over the songs
which he sang and accompanied on the piano with an elegance that
XVIII-643


## p. 10274 (#94) ###########################################

THOMAS MOORE
10274
great musicians envied for its effect. 'Lalla Rookh' was presented
by the Imperial personages on the court stage of St. Petersburg.
The Duchess of Kent and the little Princess Victoria sang his own
songs to him.
For Moore," says Lady Morgan, a very capable
judge,-"now belongs to gilded saloons and grand pianofortes. "
When he goes to Ireland, he must kiss every woman on board the
Dublin packet; and the galleries of the theatres ring with "Come,
show your Irish face, Tom! " That he had the tastes of a dandy,
we learn from a letter of the time describing his "smart white hat,
kid gloves, brown frock coat, yellow cassimere waistcoat, gray duck
trousers, and blue silk handkerchief carelessly secured in front by a
silver pin. " At another time he orders a coat of "blue with yellow
buttons"; but meanwhile he complains that he has been obliged to
wear his white hat in the winter rains for want of a better. In spite
of his toilets, however, the good-natured crowd that followed the
"Great Poet" in his Irish wanderings were so disappointed that there
were frequent outcries of "Well, 'tis a darling little pet, at any rate;"
"Be dad, isn't he a dawny creature, and doesn't he just look like one
of the good people! " (fairies). But there was never any lack of
enthusiasm and cheering.
-
At length the shadows began to darken on the spirit of Moore,
as one by one his five children died, and he was left at last alone
with his devoted Bessy. His wit and brilliancy began to fade; and
though, as Willis relates, he continued to stumble in his short-sighted
way into the salons of the great houses where he was worshiped, and
though he still sat among the wits and peers at table,—the light
fancy, the store of anecdote and droll allusion, diminished until all that
made his greatness became mere tradition. It was too late to hope
that he would change his life,-retire to the privacy of his home,
hiding the eclipse of mind that has so often darkened the last years
of men of genius. It was in the midst of the gay and worldly throng
in which he had passed his golden days that he lapsed into silence,
and became the spectre of the feasts to which, above all, he was once
welcome.
The end came in February 1852, when he had reached his seventy-
third year.
Of all his family, he was survived only by the noble
woman who saw him laid beside their five children in the church-
yard of Bromham in Wiltshire.
James tralah.
هم


## p. 10275 (#95) ###########################################

THOMAS MOORE
10275
Ο
PARADISE AND THE PERI
From Lalla Rookh
NE morn a Peri at the gate
Of Eden stood disconsolate;
And as she listened to the springs
Of life within, like music flowing,
And caught the light upon her wings
Through the half-open portal glowing,
She wept to think her recreant race
Should e'er have lost that glorious place!
"How happy," exclaimed this child of air,
"Are the holy spirits who wander there
'Mid flowers that never shall fade or fall:
Though mine are the gardens of earth and sea,
And the stars themselves have flowers for me,
One blossom of heaven outblooms them all!
"Though sunny the lake of cool Cashmere,
With its plane-tree Isle reflected clear,
And sweetly the founts of that valley fall;
Though bright are the waters of Sing-su-hay
And the golden floods that thitherward stray,
Yet-oh, 'tis only the blest can say
How the waters of heaven outshine them all!
"Go, wing thy flight from star to star,
From world to luminous world, as far
As the universe spreads its flaming wall;
Take all the pleasures of all the spheres,
And multiply each through endless years-
One minute of heaven is worth them all! »
The glorious angel who was keeping
The gates of light beheld her weeping;
And as he nearer drew, and listened
To her sad song, a tear-drop glistened
Within his eyelids, like the spray
From Eden's fountain when it lies
On the blue flower which - Bramins say -
Blooms nowhere but in Paradise.
"Nymph of a fair but erring line! "
Gently he said "one hope is thine.
―――


## p. 10276 (#96) ###########################################

10276
THOMAS MOORE
'Tis written in the Book of Fate,
The Peri yet may be forgiven
Who brings to this eternal gate
The gift that is most dear to heaven!
Go seek it, and redeem thy sin,-
'Tis sweet to let the pardoned in. ”
Rapidly as comets run
To the embraces of the sun;
Fleeter than the starry brands
Flung at night from angel hands
At those dark and daring sprites
Who would climb the empyreal heights,-
Down the blue vault the Peri flies,
And, lighted earthward by a glance.
That just then broke from morning's eyes,
Hung hovering o'er our world's expanse.
But whither shall the spirit go
To find this gift for heaven? "I know
The wealth," she cries, "of every urn
In which unnumbered rubies burn
Beneath the pillars of Chilminar;
I know where the Isles of Perfume are,
Many a fathom down in the sea,
To the south of sun-bright Araby;
I know too where the Genii hid
The jeweled cup of their King Jamshid,
With life's elixir sparkling high,-
But gifts like these are not for the sky.
Where was there ever a gem that shone
Like the steps of Alla's wonderful throne?
And the drops of life-oh! what would they be
In the boundless deep of eternity? "
While thus she mused, her pinions fanned
The air of that sweet Indian land
Whose air is balm; whose ocean spreads
O'er coral rocks and amber beds;
Whose mountains, pregnant by the beam
Of the warm sun, with diamonds teem;
Whose rivulets are like rich brides,
Lovely, with gold beneath their tides;
Whose sandal groves and bowers of spice
Might be a Peri's Paradise!


## p. 10277 (#97) ###########################################

THOMAS MOORE
10277
But crimson now her rivers ran
With human blood; the smell of death
Came reeking from those spicy bowers,
And man the sacrifice of man
Mingled his taint with every breath
Upwafted from the innocent flowers.
Land of the sun! what foot invades
Thy Pagods and thy pillared shades,
Thy cavern shrines and idol stones,
Thy monarchs and their thousand thrones?
'Tis he of Gazna: fierce in wrath
He comes, and India's diadems
Lie scattered in his ruinous path.
His bloodhounds he adorns with gems
Torn from the violated necks
Of many a young and loved sultana;
Maidens within their pure zenana,
Priests in the very fane he slaughters,
And chokes up with the glittering wrecks
Of golden shrines the sacred waters!
Downward the Peri turns her gaze,
And through the war-field's bloody haze
Beholds a youthful warrior stand
Alone beside his native river,
The red blade broken in his hand
And the last arrow in his quiver.
"Live," said the conqueror, "live to share
The trophies and the crowns I bear! "
Silent that youthful warrior stood;
Silent he pointed to the flood
All crimson with his country's blood:
Then sent his last remaining dart,
For answer, to the invader's heart.
False flew the shaft, though pointed well;
The tyrant lived, the hero fell! .
Yet marked the Peri where he lay,
And when the rush of war was past,
Swiftly descending on a ray
Of morning light, she caught the last,
Last glorious drop his heart had shed
Before its free-born spirit fled!


## p. 10278 (#98) ###########################################

10278
THOMAS MOORE
"Be this," she cried, as she winged her flight,
"My welcome gift at the gates of light.
Though foul are the drops that oft distill
On the field of warfare, blood like this
For liberty shed so holy is,
It would not stain the purest rill
That sparkles among the bowers of bliss!
Oh, if there be on this earthly sphere
A boon, an offering heaven holds dear,
'Tis the last libation Liberty draws
From the heart that bleeds and breaks in her cause! "
"Sweet," said the angel, as she gave
The gift into his radiant hand,
"Sweet is our welcome of the brave
Who die thus for their native land;
But see-alas! - the crystal bar
Of Eden moves not: holier far
Than even this drop the boon must be
That opes the gates of heaven for thee! »
Her first fond hope of Eden blighted,
Now among Afric's lunar mountains
Far to the south the Peri lighted,
And sleeked her plumage at the fountains
Of that Egyptian tide, whose birth.
Is hidden from the sons of earth,
Deep in those solitary woods
Where oft the Genii of the floods
Dance round the cradle of their Nile
And hail the new-born giant's smile.
Thence over Egypt's palmy groves,
Her grots, and sepulchres of kings,
The exiled spirit sighing roves,
And now hangs listening to the doves
In warm Rosetta's vale; now loves
To watch the moonlight on the wings
Of the white pelicans that break
The azure calm of Moris's lake.
'Twas a fair scene: a land more bright
Never did mortal eye behold!
Who could have thought, that saw this night、
Those valleys and their fruits of gold


## p. 10279 (#99) ###########################################

THOMAS MOORE
10279
Basking in heaven's serenest light;
Those groups of lovely date-trees bending
Languidly their leaf-crowned heads,
Like youthful maids, when sleep descending
Warns them to their silken beds;
Those virgin lilies all the night
Bathing their beauties in the lake,
That they may rise more fresh and bright
When their beloved sun's awake;
Those ruined shrines and towers that seem
The relics of a splendid dream,
Amid whose fairy loneliness
Naught but the lapwing's cry is heard,
Naught seen but (when the shadows flitting
Fast from the moon unsheath its gleam)
Some purple-winged sultana sitting
Upon a column motionless,
And glittering like an idol bird! -
Who could have thought that there, even there,
Amid those scenes so still and fair,
-
The demon of the plague hath cast
From his hot wing a deadlier blast,
More mortal far than ever came
From the red desert's sands of flame!
So quick that every living thing
Of human shape touched by his wing,
Like plants where the simoom hath past,
At once falls black and withering!
The sun went down on many a brow
Which, full of bloom and freshness then,
Is rankling in the pest-house now,
And ne'er will feel that sun again.
And oh! to see the unburied heaps
On which the lonely moonlight sleeps—
The very vultures turn away,
And sicken at so foul a prey!
Only the fierce hyena stalks
Throughout the city's desolate walks
At midnight, and his carnage plies;
Woe to the half-dead wretch who meets
The glaring of those large blue eyes
Amid the darkness of the streets!
"Poor race of men! " said the pitying Spirit,
"Dearly ye pay for your primal fall:


## p. 10280 (#100) ##########################################

10280
THOMAS MOORE
Some flowerets of Eden ye still inherit,
But the trail of the Serpent is over them all! »
She wept: the air grew pure and clear
Around her as the bright drops ran;
For there's a magic in each tear
Such kindly spirits weep for man!
Just then beneath some orange-trees,
Whose fruit and blossoms in the breeze
Were wantoning together, free,
Like age at play with infancy,-
Beneath that fresh and springing bower,
Close by the lake, she heard the moan
Of one who at this silent hour
Had thither stolen to die alone:
One who in life, where'er he moved,
Drew after him the hearts of many;
Yet now, as though he ne'er were loved,
Dies here unseen, unwept by any!
None to watch near him; none to slake
The fire that in his bosom lies
With even a sprinkle from that lake
Which shines so cool before his eyes;
No voice well known through many a day
To speak the last, the parting word,
Which when all other sounds decay
Is still like distant music heard,-
That tender farewell on the shore
Of this rude world when all is o'er,
Which cheers the spirit ere its bark
Puts off into the unknown dark.
Deserted youth! one thought alone
Shed joy around his soul in death:
That she whom he for years had known,
And loved, and might have called his own,
Was safe from this foul midnight's breath;
Safe in her father's princely halls,
Where the cool airs from fountain falls,
Freshly perfumed by many a brand
Of the sweet wood from India's land,
Were pure as she whose brow they fanned.
―
But see
who yonder comes by stealth
This melancholy bower to seek,


## p. 10281 (#101) ##########################################

THOMAS MOORE
10281
Like a young envoy sent by Health
With rosy gifts upon her cheek?
'Tis she: far off, through moonlight dim
He knew his own betrothed bride,—
She who would rather die with him
Than live to gain the world beside!
Her arms are round her lover now,
His livid cheek to hers she presses,
And dips, to bind his burning brow,
In the cool lake her loosened tresses.
Ah! once, how little did he think
An hour would come when he should shrink
With horror from that dear embrace,
Those gentle arms that were to him
Holy as is the cradling-place
Of Eden's infant cherubim!
And now he yields- now turns away,
Shuddering as if the venom lay
All in those proffered lips alone;
Those lips that then so fearless grown,
Never until that instant came
Near his unasked or without shame.
"Oh! let me only breathe the air,
The blessed air, that's breathed by thee,
And whether on its wings it bear
Healing or death, 'tis sweet to me!
There― drink my tears while yet they fall;
Would that my bosom's blood were balm,
And well thou knowest I'd shed it all
To give thy brow one minute's calm.
Nay, turn not from me that dear face:
Am I not thine - thy own loved bride —
The one, the chosen one, whose place
In life or death is by thy side?
Think'st thou that she whose only light
In this dim world from thee hath shone,
Could bear the long, the cheerless night
That must be hers when thou art gone?
That I can live and let thee go,
Who art my life itself? No, no-
When the stem dies, the leaf that grew
Out of its heart must perish too!
Then turn to me, my own love, turn,
Before, like thee, I fade and burn;


## p. 10282 (#102) ##########################################

10282
THOMAS MOORE
Cling to these yet cool lips, and share
The last pure life that lingers there! "
She fails she sinks; as dies the lamp
In charnel airs or cavern damp,
So quickly do his baleful sighs
Quench all the sweet light of her eyes.
One struggle; and his pain is past-
Her lover is no longer living!
One kiss the maiden gives, one last
Long kiss, which she expires in giving!
--
"Sleep," said the Peri, as softly she stole
The farewell sigh of that vanishing soul,
As true as e'er warmed a woman's breast,-
"Sleep on; in visions of odor rest;
In balmier airs than ever yet stirred
The enchanted pile of that lonely bird,
Who sings at the last his own death-lay
And in music and perfume dies away! "
Thus saying, from her lips she spread
Unearthly breathings through the place,
And shook her sparkling wreath, and shed
Such lustre o'er each paly face,
That like two lovely saints they seemed,
Upon the eve of Doomsday taken
From their dim graves in odor sleeping;
While that benevolent Peri beamed
Like their good angel calmly keeping
Watch o'er them till their souls would waken.
But morn is blushing in the sky;
Again the Peri soars above,
Bearing to heaven that precious sigh
Of pure self-sacrificing love.
High throbbed her heart, with hope elate:
The Elysian palm she soon shall win,
For the bright spirit at the gate
Smiled as she gave that offering in;
And she already hears the trees
Of Eden with their crystal bells
Ringing in that ambrosial breeze
That from the throne of Alla swells;
And she can see the starry bowls
That lie around that lucid lake


## p. 10283 (#103) ##########################################

THOMAS MOORE
10283
Upon whose banks admitted souls
Their first sweet draught of glory take!
But ah! even Peris' hopes are vain:
Again the fates forbade, again
The immortal barrier closed. "Not yet,"
The angel said, as with regret
He shut from her that glimpse of glory:
"True was the maiden, and her story,
Written in light o'er Alla's head,
By seraph eyes shall long be read.
But, Peri, see the crystal bar
Of Eden moves not: holier far
-
Than even this sigh the boon must be
That opes the gates of heaven for thee. »
Now upon Syria's land of roses
Softly the light of eve reposes,
And like a glory the broad sun
Hangs over sainted Lebanon,
Whose head in wintry grandeur towers
And whitens with eternal sleet,
While summer in a vale of flowers
Is sleeping rosy at his feet.
To one who looked from upper air
O'er all the enchanted regions there,
How beauteous must have been the glow,
The life, the sparkling from below!
Fair gardens, shining streams, with ranks.
Of golden melons on their banks,
More golden where the sunlight falls;
Gay lizards, glittering on the walls.
Of ruined shrines, busy and bright
As they were all alive with light;
And yet more splendid, numerous flocks
Of pigeons settling on the rocks,
With their rich restless wings that gleam
Variously in the crimson beam
Of the warm west, as if inlaid
With brilliants from the mine, or made
Of tearless rainbows such as span
The unclouded skies of Peristan.
-
And then the mingling sounds that come,
Of shepherd's ancient reed, with hum


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10284
THOMAS MOORE
Of the wild bees of Palestine,
Banqueting through the flowery vales;
And, Jordan, those sweet banks of thine,
And woods so full of nightingales.
But naught can charm the luckless Peri:
Her soul is sad, her wings are weary;
Joyless she sees the sun look down
On that great temple once his own,
Whose lonely columns stand sublime,
Flinging their shadows from on high
Like dials which the wizard Time
Had raised to count his ages by!
Yet haply there may lie concealed
Beneath those chambers of the sun
Some amulet of gems, annealed
In upper fires, some tablet sealed
With the great name of Solomon,
Which, spelled by her illumined eyes,
May teach her where beneath the moon,
In earth or ocean, lies the boon,
The charm, that can restore so soon
An erring spirit to the skies.
Cheered by this hope, she bends her thither;-
Still laughs the radiant eye of heaven,
Nor have the golden bowers of even
In the rich west begun to wither;-
When, o'er the vale of Balbec winging,
Slowly, she sees a child at play,
Among the rosy wild flowers singing,
As rosy and as wild as they;
Chasing with eager hands and eyes
The beautiful blue damsel-flies,
-
That fluttered round the jasmine stems
Like wingèd flowers or flying gems:
And near the boy, who, tired with play,
Now nestling 'mid the roses lay,
She saw a wearied man dismount
From his hot steed, and on the brink
Of a small imaret's rustic fount,
Impatient fling him down to drink.
Then swift his haggard brow he turned
To the fair child, who fearless sat,


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THOMAS MOORE
10285
Though never yet hath day-beam burned
Upon a brow more fierce than that:
Sullenly fierce-a mixture dire,
Like thunder-clouds, of gloom and fire;
In which the Peri's eye could read
Dark tales of many a ruthless deed,-
The ruined maid, the shrine profaned,
Oaths broken, and the threshold stained
With blood of guests! -there written, all,
Black as the damning drops that fall
From the denouncing angel's pen,
Ere mercy weeps them out again.
-
Yet tranquil now that man of crime
(As if the balmy evening-time
Softened his spirit) looked and lay,
Watching the rosy infant's play;
Though still, whene'er his eye by chance
Fell on the boy's, its lurid glance
Met that unclouded, joyous gaze
As torches that have burnt all night,
Through some impure and godless rite,
Encounter morning's glorious rays.
But hark! the vesper call to prayer,
As slow the orb of daylight sets,
Is rising sweetly on the air
From Syria's thousand minarets!
The boy has started from the bed
Of flowers where he had laid his head,
And down upon the fragrant sod
Kneels with his forehead to the south,
Lisping the eternal name of God
From purity's own cherub mouth;
And looking, while his hands and eyes
Are lifted to the glowing skies,
Like a stray babe of Paradise
Just lighted on that flowery plain,
And seeking for its home again.
Oh! 'twas a sight,- that heaven, that child,-
A scene, which might have well beguiled
Even haughty Eblis of a sigh
For glories lost and peace gone by!
And how felt he, the wretched man
Reclining there, while memory ran


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10286
THOMAS MOORE
O'er many a year of guilt and strife,-
Flew o'er the dark flood of his life,
Nor found one sunny resting-place,
Nor brought him back one branch of grace.
"There was a time," he said, in mild,
Heart-humbled tones, "thou blessed child!
When, young and haply pure as thou,
I looked and prayed like thee; but now-— »
He hung his head; each nobler aim
And hope and feeling, which had slept
From boyhood's hour, that instant came
Fresh o'er him, and he wept - he wept!
Blest tears of soul-felt penitence;
In whose benign, redeeming flow
Is felt the first, the only sense
Of guiltless joy that guilt can know.
"There's a drop," said the Peri, "that down from the moon
Falls through the withering airs of June
Upon Egypt's land, of so healing a power,
So balmy a virtue, that even in the hour
That drop descends, contagion dies
And health reanimates earth and skies!
Oh, is it not thus, thou man of sin,
The precious tears of repentance fall?
Though foul thy fiery plagues within,
One heavenly drop hath dispelled them all!