Richmond daily Whig. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1842-1861, 1843-07-18

How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
by all their country's wishes blest.
IPhen Spring returns, rih fingers cold,
To deck icith foueSrs their haiioto'd mould
She then shall deck a sweeer sod
Than Fancys feet have trod
BY fairy hands their knell is rung
Ky forms unseen their dirgo is sung;
There Honor comes pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps the clay,
And Freedom shall awhile repair
To dwell weeping mOurRer there.
This has been universally and Justly esteemed one
of the sweetest lyrics in the whole compass of En-
gsh literature. As written by Collins, there is not
a word too much, a word too little and every
one is drawn from the squire well ofEnglish unde-
filed. " The man oftaste and sensibity never tires
OF repeating and re-repeating it. When the last
line is ended, he nvoluntarily reverts to the first,
to renew the pleasure-which the charming image
ry and sweet, soothing cadence never fails to in
spire.
But this miserable Locoloco Goth-ths Vandal
this monstcr-ihis british leveller of letters as
of laws and morals, has dared to alter, amend and
improve that which the brightest integences of
the old and new world had pronounced to be per-
feet. He, reeking with the fumes of whiskey and
onions-rushes in where angels fear To tread-and
with the rffian-like ferocity OF Sub-terranean De-
mocrat, pulls down the fair structure which genius
had erected. In the pentitude of his ignorance he
must put new words into the mouth of Collins and
new measure to his angelic stride. What must be
the shock TO the gentle spirit of the Poet transla-
ted TO kindred skieS-too sensitive when taberna-
cled in flesh, for this earth-at this brutal outrage
upon his tender muse
Edmund Burke lost caste in the British House of
Commons, a classic, for incorrectly placing the
accent in the latin word rectigdl If such slip of
the tongue justly incurred such penalty, what
punishment would be disproportioned to the offence
of this Troglodyte-this indweller of caverns and
feeder upon snakes, in mangling the remains of the
gifted Collins 7 To be ducked in a horse -pond-
to he beaten with Pack-staves like Sancho-Panza-
to he impaled-to be headed up in a cask set round
with iron spikes, and tnndled down a HILL like old
Regulus were too good for him. Some new and
unimagned torture must be devised.
We havn the patience TO comment on the in
novations and cancellations of this Locofoco YAM
Pire. The ignoramus never having seen the fin
gers of Spring, of any other genteel lady, sup
pressed the sweet, expressive "dery," and to make
up the deficiency, the petit-larceny rascal steals
'loirers" to double 'deck' the sod and still not
satisfied with the villaines he had perpetrated,
metamorPhses the ''weeping hermd' into "lreep.
ing mourner o the Hyperborean o the
Troglodyte
We venture to rescue poor Collins from the ten.
der mercies of this savage butcher, by republish-
ing the Ode it first fell from his Tyre and soothed
the soul of CRANKY:
How sleep the brave who sink to rest,
by all their county's wishes blest
When Spring with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallow'd mould
She there shall dress a sod
Than Fancy's feet have Iod.
by Fairy hands their kne is runR,
BY forms their dirge is sung;
There Honor comes, pilgrim grny,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay,
And Freedom shall awhile repair,