Page images
PDF
EPUB

Whom does this spacious hold contain ?
Sons for whom mothers weep in vain,
The father torn from home;
(While sisters hope to stay the tears
Of their last parent's widow'd years,)
In thee, alas! may roam.

Some tyrant youth in thee may part,
The sov'reign of a virgin heart,
That beats for him alone;

Whose plighted vows of endless love,
She never doubts will faithful prove,
Still judging from her own.

Tell not the fond, confiding maid,
How oft her trust will be betray'd,
How oft the youth forsworn;
Wound not her unsuspecting breast,
In fancy's sweet illusion blest,
And absence may be borne.

Be thou, kind Heaven, the vessel's guide, For her the whelming waves divide,

The stormy winds control;
Whither she steer her devious way

To distant India's fervent day,
Or seek the frozen pole.

Yet dost thou, in thy wrath, ordain
That the fair fabric ne'er again

Shall bear her wand'rers home?

If, given to the greedy tides,

The storm must rend her parting sides, And ruin be her doom,

Spare, in thine ire, her gallant crew,
Spare, in their lives, their children's too,
The mother and the wife:

The troubled deep awhile assuage,
Speak, and appease the fearful rage
Of elemental strife.

From fell Arabia's barren strands,
Her ruthless sons, her burning sands,
The vessel far convey;

Nor let the hapless crew be thrown
Where gen'rous pity is unknown,
Or monsters howl for prey.

Their tedious toils and travels o'er,
May Albion's snow-white cliffs once more
The weary wand'rers gain;

And each, his dangers at an end,

Recount them to the wond'ring friend,
With joy enhanc'd by former pain.

ADVICE ON THE EDUCATION OF A PRINCE.

In a Letter of the Unfortunate Lewis XVI. to the Abbe ****: Paris, March 11, 1791.

"His goodness was diffus'd to human kind." DRYDEN.

You ask me, Sir, for such instructions as may be fitted to direct the education of the Dauphin, at that tender age when the passions are yet dormant, but when reason furnishes the child with the disposition and the means of improvement.

These instructions appear to me the more necessary, as there are but few works extant proper to serve as guides for preceptors, and to train up a child with usefulness. I send you a series of reflections which have been suggested to me by the study of good writers, and which I have endeavoured to simplify as much as possible. I have performed this task with the zeal dictated by a father's tenderness, and the feelings of a man deeply penetrated with the duties which belong to that rank which my son is called to fill by his birth. You have to form the heart, and perfect the moral and physical faculties of a child.

Example, seasonable advice, praise bestowed with address, and reproof tempered by mildness will awaken in the heart of your young pupil a tender sensibility, the dread of doing wrong, the desire of acting well, a laudable emulation, and the wish of pleasing his preceptor.

Few books, but those well chosen; elementary works clear, concise, and methodical; agreeable occupation, which, without burdening the memory, excites curiosity, inspires a taste for study, and the love of labour, will soon form the mind of a well-organised, docile, and studious child.

Extracts often repeated, walks, and rural labours, the toils and pleasures of which the preceptor should partake, and which may be limited to the cultivation of a small garden; a few sports with children of his own age in the presence of the master. Such are the infallible means of preserving the child's health, of saving him from the languor of idleness, and of strengthening his constitution,

You ought to fix the hours of your studies, your walks, and your manual occupations, so as to render them commodious to yourself and useful to the child..

I will set apart some moments to instruct my son in geography; the first elements of history will be unfolded to him; and we will lay before his young mind

the annals of ancient and modern nations.

I should not be displeased that my son made himself acquainted with some mechanical art, in the moments of leisure or recreation. I am well aware that people blame me, and make it the subject of pleasantry, that I handle the tools of the smith whilst I wield the sceptre of kings. This taste I inherit from my ancestors. One of our superlatively-sage philosophers has made an apology for me in his writings, and this, perhaps, is all I found good in his Emile, all at least that appeared to me worthy of being excused.

Let the principles of the different branches of knowledge be engraven on my son's memory; I despise superficial minds; they are ignorant, presumptuous, and more liable to error than other men.

Never encourage, by adulation, the caprices of your pupil; my son will learn, but too soon, that the time approaches when he will be at liberty to indulge them.

Magnify in his eyes the virtues that constitute a good king, and let your lessons be adapted to his comprehension. Alas! he will be one day but too strongly tempted to imitate such of his ancestors as were distinguished only by their warlike exploits; military glory dizzies the brain, and what species of glory is that which rolls its eye over streams of human blood, and desolates the universe?

Teach him, with Fenelon, that pacific princes alone are held by the people in religious remembrance. The first duty of a prince is to render his people happy: if he knows what it is to be a king, he will always know how to defend his people and his crown.

He must be made familiar with our best French authors, in order to unfold, in his intellectual faculties, that purity of expression which ought to belong to the language and writings of a prince, whom all his subjects will have a right to judge.

Teach him early to know how to pardon injuries, forget injustice, and reward laudable actions; to respect morality, to be good, and to acknowledge the services which are rendered to him.

Speak to him often of the glory of his ancestors, and present to him, as a model of his conduct, Lewis IX. a religious prince, and a friend to morality and truth; Lewis XII. who would not punish the conspirators against the Duke of Orleans, and on whom the French conferred the title of Father of his People. Point out to him also Henry the Great, who fed the city of Paris while it insulted and made war against him; and Lewis XIV. not while he gives laws to Europe, but when he pacifies the world, and becomes the protector of talents, of the sciences, and the fine arts.

Curb the passions, and never conceal the foibles of your pupil. Let the calm of private virtues regulate his desires, and he will become mild, pacific, and worthy of being beloved. You will then have insured the success of your undertaking; you will be applauded, and will partake of that gratitude which nations owe to those who have imitated the wisdom of Fenelon, while

« PreviousContinue »