Love of Country: A Lecture Delivered at the Woolwich Institution

Henry Mead

R. Rixon, 1839 - 27 Seiten

Beliebte Passagen

Seite 5 - But where to find that happiest spot below Who can direct, when all pretend to know? The shuddering tenant of the frigid zone Boldly proclaims that happiest spot his own; Extols the treasures of his stormy seas, And his long nights of revelry and ease ; The naked negro, panting at the line, Boasts of his golden sands and palmy wine, Basks in the glare, or stems the tepid wave, And thanks his gods for all the good they gave.

Seite 3 - From wandering on a foreign strand ? If such there breathe, go, mark him well; For him no minstrel raptures swell ; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, — Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.

Seite 8 - Fear'd by their breed and famous by their birth, Renowned for their deeds as far from home, For Christian service and true chivalry, As is the sepulchre in stubborn Jewry Of the world's ransom, blessed Mary's Son...

Seite 3 - Breathes there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land ! Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand? If such there breathe, go, mark him well...

Seite 6 - Tis still a watch-word to the earth : When man would do a deed of worth He points to Greece, and turns to tread, So sanction'd, on the tyrant's head : He looks to her, and rushes on Where life is lost, or freedom won.

Seite 11 - Forth, then, thou messenger of strife ! Thou German soldier's plighted wife! — Who feels not renovated life When clasping thee ? — Hurrah ! " While in thy scabbard at my side, I seldom gazed on thee, my bride — Now heaven has bid us ne'er divide — For ever...

Seite 20 - Like Shakespeare, Lao Tzu saw in life an interpenetration of opposites. As he said, "Bad fortune is what good fortune leans on; good fortune is what bad fortune hides in." (Chap. 85). This is exactly what Shakespeare saw: "The web of life is a mingled yarn, good and ill together." (All's Well, IV, 3). Since everything tends to "become the opposite of itself," it stands to reason that one must not be elated over one's good fortune nor depressed by ill fortune.

Seite 26 - Tis the star of earth, deny it who can; The island home of an Englishman. There's a flag that waves o'er every sea, No matter when or where ; And to treat that flag as aught but the free Is more than the strongest dare. For the lion-spirits that tread the deck Have carried the palm of the brave; And that flag may sink with a shot-torn wreck, But never float over a slave. Its honour is stainless, deny it who can ; And this is the flag of an Englishman. There's a...

Seite 26 - The Briton may traverse the pole or the zone, And boldly claim his right, For he calls such a vast domain his own, That the sun never sets on his might. Let the haughty stranger seek to know The place of his home and birth, And a flush will pour from cheek to brow While he tells his native earth. For a glorious charter, deny it who can, Is breathed in the words,

Seite 9 - My hopes of being remember'd in my line With my land's language: if too fond and far These aspirations in their scope incline, — If my fame should be, as my fortunes are, Of hasty growth; and blight, and dull oblivion bar My name from out the temple where the dead Are honour'd by the nations — let it be— And light the laurels on a loftier head ! And be the Spartan's epitaph on me — " Sparta hath many a worthier son than he.

Bibliografische Informationen

• Titel: Love of Country: A Lecture Delivered at the Woolwich Institution
• Autor/in: Henry Mead
• Verlag: R. Rixon, 1839
• Original von: University of Michigan
• Digitalisiert: 23. Mai 2006
• Länge: 27 Seiten