The Eagle's fate and mine are one, Which, on the shaft that made him die, Espy'd a feather of his own, Wherewith he wont to soar so high.* Had Echo, with so sweet a grace, But of his voice, the boy had burn'd. VERSION. Omnes tu superans, ipsam te denique tantúm Captus ut-heu! demens, docui quo carmine,―ut Umbra, Cedo pulchra CHLORI;-et do tibi, (parce!) manus. Fulminis haud aliter summo Gestator Olympo, Ardentis sese‡ voces tam suaviter olim, Auribus ille cito captus, non lumine, amasset ;- * This beautiful thought is not preserved in the translation. Horresco referens. VIRG. Ibid. Ad libitum Erratum in this Number. For ANSER, those may read ANSWER, who consider this latter to be the better reading. K. NUMBER XXVI. SATURDAY, JUNE 20th, 1807. Verbaque provisam rem non invita sequentur. HOR. Your thoughts prepare; and set your mind at ease: SIR, IN these days of rapine and invasion, it can scarcely be expected that your valuable province should escape attack; you are therefore hereby offered the aid of a powerful army for its defence-an army consisting of five-and-thirty thousand at least on paper. Fear not our spirit. You can at all times infuse into us every particle of your own. * Be equally confident * Of Words it may with truth be said, that "Spiritus intus of our discipline: whether you would have us attack heroically in line,2 advance in column, or scatter, to elude the leaden round shot of allied dunces, or escape those canisters whose contents3 might otherwise be lodged within us, † you have but to command.-Be you a good Marshal, and you may depend upon your troops. The aid we offer is, indeed, that of our community at large, of which you may not be displeased to see the following, however imperfect and short, account. Though our remote progenitors were twice as numerous as those, with reference to whom the Children of Israel were partitioned, our volatile races (for such it is) is divided into but nine tribes, or rather casts, whose respective and hereditary offices are distinctly regulated and adhered to, after the manner of the patronymick trades established in ancient Egypt. 6 The first description of our people which I shall notice, is a gild of ushers, heralds, or avant-couriers", whose business it is to precede and introduce-some of them the grandees, and others, in truth, the rabble of our nation. Indeed the department of these latter introducers is undefined. In times of war, these may be applied to the purposes of light armed troops alit:" their existence, like our own, depends upon a breath. For as to what we see on paper, these are but pictures. * Viz. Quicquid chartis amicitur ineptis. and employed to skirmish in front of the engagement. In preparing articles of capitulation, they will also be found useful. 9 The next class will, like the Principes of the Romans, *form the substantive strength and principal body of your army. Beneath such auspices as yours, their resistless strength will be seen and felt by the enemy; it will be heard by remote ages; and understood by all tacticians.10 The third cast are a sort of substitutes for these; and so far as they may be considered in the light of a corps-de-reserve, not coming directly and in the first instance into action, might be compared to the Pilani of the Latian army. But I would not be understood as postponing the force of our quasi principes to these. The fourth grand division12 of our armed nation is subdivided into two equally valuable descriptions, the first of which is a body of indefatigable activity;they are indeed continually in action, and cannot exist without it. As for the others, if patient endurance be an estimable quality in a soldier, these are incalculably precious, inasmuch as they are passiveness itself. I might notice, as belonging to this class, a corps of observation, which for the purpose of maintaining an armed neutrality we keep on foot. * See in Livy, book viii. ch. 8. an interesting account of Roman Tactick. You, who are averse to parties, may be reluctant to accept the services of our next body; 13 which is, however, in some degree necessary, to attend and act as esquires to the gallant tribe that I have last mentioned. The four following classes are descended either from our Principes, or from those alert and patient legions which I have described. Their pedigree has been satisfactorily made out, by a hero whom some call Antihermes, and others Hornetooke.14 The first of these 15 perform a variety of at once subordinate and momentous duties: keeping the forces together, and preventing such chasms and openings as occurred at Jena: thus rendering it impossible for the enemy to break the line; cut off a part of your array; or, in short, take your troops in flank. The next, though of no great rank or celebrity themselves, are found useful in promoting the operations of the whole.16 These act somewhat in the way of adjutants or aides-de-camp; forming seasonable junctions between the Alerts already mentioned, and the substantial forces of the army; and bringing up these latter to sustain them: they also sit down before positions;-and indeed the four casts which I am now describing are always resorted to, when brevitate opus est," or there is occasion for a coup-de-main. But to resume my enumeration. The third body is miscellaneous.18 |