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Triumphant past the crystal ports of light,
(Stupendous guest!) and seized eternal youth;
Seized in our name. E'er since, 'tis blasphemous
To call man mortal. Man's mortality

Was, then, transferred to death; and heaven's duration
Unalienably sealed to this frail frame,

This child of dust. Man, all immortal! hail;
Hail, Heaven! all lavish of strange gifts to man!
Thine all the glory; man's the boundless bliss! Young.

DIALOGUES.

1.-Lochiel's Warning.

Wizard. LOCHIEL! Lochiel! beware' of the day
When the Lowlands shall meet thee in battle' array!
For a field of the dead' rushes red on my sight,
And the clans of Culloden are scatter'd in fight':
They rally', they bleed', for their kingdom and crown';
Woe', woe' to the riders that trample them down'!
Proud Cumberland' prances, insulting' the slain,
And their hoof-beaten bosoms' are trod to the plain'.
But hark! through the fast-flashing lightning of war',
What steed to the desert flies frantic and far?
'Tis thine, oh Glenullin'! whose bride shall await,
Like a love-lighted watch'-fire, all night at the gate'.
A steed comes at morning: no rider' is there;
But its bridle is red with the sign of despair'.
Weep', Albin! to death and captivity' led!
Oh weep'! but thy tears cannot number the dead':
For a merciless' sword on Culloden shall wave,
Culloden'! that reeks with the blood of the brave'.'
Lochiel. Go, preach to the coward', thou death-
telling seer!

Or, if gory Culloden so dreadful' appear,
Draw, dotard, around thy old wavering sight!
This mantle', to cover the phantoms of fright.

Wizard. Ha! laugh'st thou, Lochiel, my vision to

scorn'?

Proud bird of the mountain', thy plume shall be torn'!
Say, rush'd the bold eagle exultingly' forth,

From his home, in the dark-rolling clouds of the north'?
Lo! the death-shot of foemen' outspeeding, he rode
Companionless', bearing destruction' abroad;
But down' let him stoop from his havoc on high!
Ah! home' let him speed-for the spoiler is nigh.
Why flames the far summit'? Why shoot to the blast,
Those embers', like stars from the firmament' cast!
'Tis the fire-shower of ruin', all dreadfully driven
From his eyry', that beacons the darkness of heaven'.
Oh, crested Lochiel! the peerless in might,
Whose banners arise on the battlements' height',
Heaven's fire is around' thee, to blast and to burn';
Return to thy dwelling! all lonely', return!

For the blackness of ashes' shall mark where it stood',
And a wild mother scream' o'er her famishing brood'.
Lochiel. False' Wizard, avaunt! I have marshalled
my clan';

Their swords are a thousand', their bosoms' are one'!
They are true' to the last of their blood and their breath',
And like reapers' descend to the harvest of death'.
Then welcome' be Cumberland's steed to the shock!
Let him dash his proud foam' like a wave on the rock!
But woe to his kindred', and woe to his cause',
When Albin her claymore indignantly draws;
When her bonnetted chieftains to victory' crowd,
Clanranald the dauntless', and Moray the proud';
All plaided and plumed' in their tartan' array-

Wizard. Lochiel', Lochiel', beware of the day!
For, dark and despairing, my sight I may seal',
But man' cannot cover' what God' would reveal:
"Tis the sunset of life' gives me mystical lore,
And coming events' cast their shadows before'.
I tell thee, Culloden's dread echoes shall ring
With the blood'-hounds that bark for thy fugitive king'.
Lo! anointed by heaven with the vials of wrath',
Behold, where he flies on his desolate path'!
Now, in darkness and billows', he sweeps from my sight':

Rise'! rise'! ye wild tempests, and cover his flight! 'Tis finished'. Their thunders are hushed on the moors'; Culloden is lost', and my country deplores';

But where is the iron-bound prisoner? Where'?
For the red eye of battle' is shut in despair.
Say, mounts he the ocean'-wave, banished', forlorn',
Like a limb from his country cast bleeding and torn'?
Ah no! for a darker' departure is near;

The war drum is muffled', and black is the bier';
His death-bell is tolling'; oh! mercy, dispel'
Yon sight, that it freezes my spirit to tell' !
Life flutters convulsed in his quivering limbs',
And his blood-streaming nostril in agony' swims.
Accursed be the faggots', that blaze at his feet',
Where his heart' shall be thrown, ere it ceases to beat,
With the smoke of its ashes' to poison' the gale-
Lochiel. Down', soothless insulter! I trust' not
the tale:

For never shall Albin a destiny' meet,

So black with dishonour', so foul with retreat'. Though my perishing ranks should be strewed in their göre,

Like ocean-weeds heaped on the surf-beaten shore',
Lochiel', untainted by flight or by chains',

While the kindling of life in his bosom' remains,
Shall victor' exult, or in death be laid low',
With his back to the field', and his feet to the foe'!
And leaving in battle' no blot' on his name,
Look proudly' to heaven from the death-bed of fame'.
Campbell.

2.-Vanoc and Valens, in the Tragedy of the Briton.

Van. Now, tribune:

Val. Health to Vanoc.

Van. Speak your business.

Val. I come not as a herald, but a friend:

And I rejoice that Didius chose out me

To greet a prince in my esteem the foremost.

Van. So much for words.Now to your purpose, tribune.

Val. Sent by our new lieutenant, who in Rome
And since from me has heard of your renown,
I come to offer peace; to reconcile

Past enmities; to strike perpetual league
With Vanoc; whom our emperor invites

To terms of friendship; strictest bonds of union.
Van. We must not hold a friendship with the Ro-
Val. Why must you not?

Van. Virtue forbids it.
Val. Once

[mans.

You thought our friendship was your greatest glory. Van. I thought you honest.-I have been deceiv'd.Would you deceive me twice? No, tribune; no! You sought for war,-maintain it as you may.

Val. Believe me, prince, your vehemence of spirit,
Prone ever to extremes, betrays your judgment.
Would you once coolly reason on our conduct-
Van. O, I have scann'd it thoroughly—Night and day
I think it over, and I think it base;

Most infamous! let who will judge-but Romans.
Did not my wife, did not my menial servant,
Seducing each the other, both conspire
Against my crown, against my fame, my life?
Did they not levy war and wage rebellion?
And when I would assert my right and power
As king and husband, when I would chastise
Two most abandon'd wretches-who but Romans
Oppos'd my justice and maintain'd their crimes?
Val. At first the Romans did not interpose,
But griev'd to see their best allies at variance.
Indeed when you turn'd justice into rigour,
And even that rigour was pursued with fury,
We undertook to mediate for the queen,
And hop'd to moderate-

Van. To moderate!.

What would you moderate?-my indignation;
The just resentment of a virtuous mind?
To mediate for the queen !-you undertook?—
Wherein concern'd it you? but as you love
To exercise your insolence! Are you
To arbitrate my wrongs? Must I ask leave,

Must I be taught, to govern my own household?
Am I then void of reason and of justice?
When in my family offences rise,

Shall strangers, saucy intermeddlers, say,
Thus far, and thus you are allow'd to punish?
When I submit to such indignities;

When I am tam'd to that degree of slavery-
Make me a citizen, a senator of Rome,
To watch, to live upon the smile of Claudius;
To give my wife and children to his pleasures,
To sell my country with my voice for bread.
Val. Prince, you insult upon this day's success,
You may provoke too far-but I am cool-
I give your answer scope.

Van. Who shall confine it?

The Romans?Let them rule their slaves-I blush,
That, dazzled in my youth with ostentation,
The trappings of the men seduc'd my virtue.

Val. Blush rather that you are a slave to passion; Subservient to the wildness of your will;

Which, like a whirlwind, tears up all your virtues,
And gives you not the leisure to consider.
Did not the Romans civilize you?-

Van. No. They brought new customs and new

vices over,

Taught us more arts than honest men require,
And gave us wants that never nature knew.

Val. We found

you naked

Van. And you found us free.

[out

Val. Would you be temperate once, and hear me Van. Speak things that honest men may hear with temper,

Speak the plain truth, and varnish not your crimes. Say, that you once were virtuous-long ago

A frugal hardy people, like the Britons,

Before you grew thus elegant in vice,

And

gave your

luxuries the name of virtues.

The civilizers!—the disturbers, say;—

The robbers, the corrupters of mankind,

Proud vagabonds!-who make the world your home, And lord it where you have no right.

What virtue have you taught?

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