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The Christian Scholar

By the Author of "The Cathedral" [i.e. Isaac Williams]
Williams, Isaac (1802-1865)

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I. THE ROMAN CHARACTER.

[_]

From S Augustine's City of God, b. v. ch. 18.

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?
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