 | The Christian Scholar |  |
LIVY.
I. THE ROMAN CHARACTER.
A Brutus steel'd against his own heart's blood,—Mucius with his right-hand in shrivelling fire,—
Curtius engulph'd in a live sepulchre,—
Regulus dying for his country's good,—
Camillus firm in her ingratitude,—
Poor Cincinnatus Rome's imperial sire;—
These all were types on the world's theatre,
Sons by whose love and suffering hardihood
Rome as the Queen of nations took her stand;
Thus e'en the semblance of true piety
Had length of days from the Almighty's hand.
If for a shadow such their self-command,
How should immortal spirits live and die
For an eternal City in the sky?
II. NUMA POMPILIUS.
That Power comes down from Heaven;—
The shadow of the Kingly might
To the Anointed given.
That Power is from below;
And haply they in this their dream
Are wiser than we know.
As erst was Charles, the Good;
But always, Lord, we know from Thee,
That evil is the multitude.
And with the Many side,
They for their God must evil take,
And Satan for their guide.
III. THE FAITHLESS GUARDIAN.
“It was the custom of the Falisci to have the same person as master and companion of their children: and as it is at this day the custom in Greece, they had many boys committed to the care of one master. The children of the princes were instructed, as is usually the case, by a person pre-eminent for his learning. This man had during peace adopted the custom of leading out the boys before the city for the sake of play and exercise; this practice being not interrupted by the war, he was used to draw them out from the gate at shorter or longer distances; and by varying their sports and conversation he advanced when an opportunity occurred further than usual, and thus led them on within the stations, and from thence into the Roman camp, and the tent of Camillus the general. There to this act of wickedness he added a still more iniquitous speech; saying, that ‘he delivered Falerii into the hands of the Romans; since he gave into their own power those boys whose parents were the heads of the State.’ On hearing which Camillus replied, ‘Thou hast not come, wicked man, with thy wicked gift to a people and a commander like thyself.’....He then had him stripped of his clothing, and with his hands tied behind his back, delivered him up to the boys, furnishing them with rods, to drive the traitor back into the city.”
To rear and mould the sons of Heaven;
(All children they of Royal Blood,
A more than princely brotherhood)
To vitiate the youthful mind;—
And leaves them with the foe to be
For ever in captivity.
Lets vainly loose the visions foul
Of evil spirits, which abide
In classic beauties, there to hide,
Like spiders when on watch they lie
In their sun-gilded tapestry;
Yea, there have been who gather'd lies
Of all those heathen deities,—
Such fabled legends have inwrought
Through limbec of their own bad thought;
And thence in minds yet free from ill
With all impurities instil.
Haply the ends which such await
Are mirror'd in this traitor's fate.
Ye make not this high ministry
The snare of youth, the woe of age;
For 'tis an Angel's privilege.
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