Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1844-04-19

bt HENRY WILLIAM HEhBET, AUTHOR OF
RiNGwooD The ROVER, CROMWELL ETC.
In those days, as old Livy writes, there
were vast soltudrs and mighty woods in all
those regions. The city, whicl, was desl.
ned in after DAYS to overshadow a conquered
world by the terror of her eagle wings, was
then but small town, built upon two of the
seven hills which it encompasscd with IFS
mighty circuits a century or two later than
the period to which my narrative relates.-
That period was to Rome as the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries are to the histories
of France aud England, the debateable land
as it were, the disputed frontier between the
realms Of fact and fablc-the epoch of no.
nance, OF poetry of action, as opposed to that
of words, in eiher--and as in the latter times
knight erran,rv and the chivalresque attach
all eyes, so in the former do heroism and the
old heroic present themselves in the most
brilliant and attractive lights.
The eossiping old garruous historians of
those days, Heavens blessing on their ere.
dulous simplicity revel in their dissertations
of these worthless; they tell us not only what
they did, hut how they looked, and what
clothes they wore, and what they said, and
all about thcm-and now-a-davs came a
whole tribe of learned Golhs and Samarans
and tell us that we must not believe one word
abou, the old familiar friends of our school.
boy-day-that there was no such wolf AS
sucked Romulus, and no such horse as car.
ried Curlius into his gulf, and no such wo-
man AS Lucrelian, no such avenger as the ell
der Brulus. But, on the other hand, hath
not the poet taught us that, where ignorance
is bliss tits folly to be wise = and is It not
bliss to believe to luxurale in the belief, that
those glowing portraits in 'Livy's pictured
page are real llkenesses of real men and
women J.! Is it not therefore wisdom?
There we're then in those days vast soil
tudes and mighty woods, where, if things 90
on much longer as they have been of late
years doing, there seems every prospect that
there will be vast soll,ides agaIn-in the vi
cinty OF Rome-the empress and the Mo-
be OF Nation! But max the contrast =
those we're the sotudcs of Nature. the fresh.
ness Of the untamed forcst-lhe youth of the
world, virgin yet Of empires! These are
the wastes of effective civization-,be sad
sterility that succeeds over-culture-the i'm.
UcSo'y VI "sO WIN Jul ny us own greatness!
And as the last is stern aud terrible and soul
depressing $50 was the first lovely and cav
and spri'-stirring, and full of hope and pro-
mise. The was a vigor, glorious, hardy.
bold vitality about those old hardy days, that
despite their rudeness, their want of deIicacy.
their ferocity al times, to my ,oughis pre-
sents a teautiiul contrast to the eheminate
and characterless debility of our boosted
nineteenth century. Virtues we're then bold
if crimes were attrocious There we're no
gentlemen and ladies in those days No
they we're men and women. Poor vulgar
wrac;hes, they were conlenied to be men
and wo6fn and light bold men they were
and very very women! Conceive "A lady
II mcin a modern lady-aye if you will
q republican lady-a thing of tournures and
minauGries, creature redolent of mousse
line and pachouti the mother of Reeuas,
or the APPROVING matron of Brutus. Fan
cy-fany 'ady Cl@'ia'
wasa clear, calm, cold autumnal day
cold for ne shores of sunbrieht Italy the
wide rich woods that covered all the hills and
half the champagne country were dyed in
the rich ev&escent hues that tell of coming
winter; the dsalh Of the year, The har,