Alexandria gazette & daily advertiser. [volume] (Alexandria [Va.]) 1817-1822, 1818-07-24
ALEXANDRIA:
FRIDAY MORNING, JULY "a, 1928.
nv c,yro OF cHlLpE HAROLD:
Continued

1 TO enhance or impair 1t, would ohy sno"
the vanity or the malice of the critic VINO
should attempt it. Permanent popularity
is not easily 'acquired.-Mere sound and
verbal finery, even if il catch popularity by
surprise, cannot hold it long. Present tame
is often but the transient sentence OF Ca
price. Of garrulity, Of affectation' OF ia'o.
ritism, or OF malignity-for strange as u
| may appear, there are those, and they are
not few, who will praise one, out OF mere
malice to another--but permanent popula-
rity is the united opinion Of too many to be
created by light occasions, or influenced
by unworthy motives, and IS therefore sell
dom bestowed erroneousl y--never cor
rptly. Many, no doubt, will praise
work out of civility TO its author, because
praise is cheap but few will purchase
what they do not like 10 read, Besides
though many have sunk from temporary
extravagant applause into total oblivion,
a succession Of editions, and an increasing
appetite for years on the part of the world,
for the works Of any author, may be con-
sidered as a sentence which posterity is not
likely to reverse.
The extracts from Childe Harold with
VIII oh we have for some days furnished our
readers, have been intended merely to gra-
/ tify them with specimens Of noble poem,
which to many ofthem would probably be
otherwise unknown for ever, and at the
same time to rouse those who possess taste
and Judgment, but are not in the way Of
seeing the book itself; 10 the attentions il
deserves. Doctor Goldsmith in his preface
to The Arrangement of Hume's history OF
England, says that The execution of that
task cost him much pain, as there was not
single line he threw out Of the original, IN
which he did not cut away beauty. So
we may truly say Of our extracts from this
delightful poem: and that feeling has rem.
dercd our task longer and slower 10 our.
selves, 1--WE hope not weariseme to our rea-
ders) than we at first expected-and every
step that We proceed increases our diff
Guilty in selection, by presenting us in al
most every stanza some beauty which we
had not before, on two attentive perusals
ofthe work, anticipated. Convinced, bow
ever, that by giving those extracts, we
shall essentially contribute to The delight
of our readers, we shall proceed to select,
as well as our feelings, sometimes over
wbelmed during the process with the plea
sure The poem affords US, will permit.
Yet Italy. through every other land
Thy wrongs shall ring, and shall from side
Mother of arts as once Of arms; thy hand
Was then our guardian, and is still cur
guide;
Parent Of our religion! whom the wide
Nations have knelt % for the keys OF hea-'
ven.
Europe, reper,ant for her parricide, :,
F, Shall yet redeem thee, and all backward
driven,
Roll the barbarian tide, and sue TO be for
given.
Aud Arno wins US 10 the fair white walls,
Where the Elrurian Athens claims and
keeps
. A softer feeling for her fairy halls.
Girt by her theatre Of hills, she reaps
Her corn and wine, and oil, and plenty
leaps
To laughing life, with her redundant horn.
Along the banks where smiling Arno
sweeps,
Was modern luxury Of commerce born,
And buried learning nose, redeem'd 10
There too, the goddess loves in stone,
(, and fills
. The air around with beauty; we inhale
The ambrosial aspect, which beheld, instils
Part of its immortality: The veil
OF heaven is half undrawn; within the pale
We stand, and in that form and face behold
What mind can make, when natures self
would fail,
And. to the fond idolaters Of old
Envy the innate flash which such asoul
could mould.
ave gaze and turn away, and know not
where,
Dazzled and drunk with beauty, till the
heart
Reels with its fulness I; therefor ever
there.
Chained to The chariot of triumphal art,
We stand as captiyes, and would not de-
part.
Away there needs. no words, nor terms
precise,
The paltry jargon of the marble mart,
Where pedantry gulls 'iolly-we have eyes:
BloodLpulse-and breast confirm the OAR
dan shepherds prize.