Squatter sovereign., 1856-07-01
SHORT PATENT SERMONS.
ny DOW, Js.-
on THE PREsENT DAY POETS,

rExT. g
I,ve genius, I've fame, IL
Pye friends without number, j
But the sound Of my name o
Shall not break on my siainoef; A
The harp that 1 sweep
Shall rot in my graves;
NV friends can but weep le
They never could save. h
Thou beautiful world!
Farewell and ye skies!.
Your gsoy forever
Must fade from my eyes! Il
And must be hidden If
The cold grave within.
To be thing
That never had been!
nv DEAR FRIENDs-and Ices, too, il /
am blest with any IL fear that there may
be some among you who don't understand
me. ard my preaching. What makes me
think SO, is, that man stopped me in the
street the other day. and told me that he
thought nv sermons had tendency TO
bring religion into ridicule. i at first shud-
dered at the idea, and sort OF chill crawl |
ed up my trousere' legs like a brshet OF
spiders; bu, soon saw that the film oil
prejudice had grown pretty thick over the
] eyes Of his understanding, and. moreover,
that be often slept during my preaching;
or, in other words, he didn't read my ser-
mons enough to know more than precious
little about them. So reasoned with him.
I told him TO exani ise carefully every one
of my back discourses, and he would find
t that never took text from the Bible
7 never quoted from the scriptures-seldom
or never referred 10 them-nor meGd!ed
with religion in any way. This brought
e him to his milk a little, and ne could only
s find fault with the title, Short Patent Ser
+ mons.' Noy, my friends, let me tell you,
call my discourses Sermons, because
90 on. in sermonizing strain with what
: ever subject my fancy pitches upon. II
|. sermon is not necessarily confined TO re-
l. Iigion. l cannot call them Lectures. as
a lectures merely elucidate subjects, or speeu'
l. late upon theories, without giving admon.
s, ition or friendly advice. l cannot cali t:en
e Sentimental Cogitations, os such are no.
pit directed to an audience. must Lave ar
audience TO preach at. and, thankrny stars
le have large one, and respectable enc
Id call them Patent, because their style ]:
Id peculiar to myself: inherent within me, ant
of I can't help it. They are short, because
Id they are not long. This explains th'
ne whole, and if anybody can point out ;
a single sentiment of mine clashing with th'
as sensibilities Of christian-making due al
en- lowances for the eccepiriciiies OF my Eatur
e- Il will forfeit my grey hairs to the ma
ed kers of fiddle bows.
IL NV tenacious friends! the words tha
Is compose my text were the last ones uttei
aS ed, said or sung by disconsolate old baci
ply elor. who seemed TO feel that the blac
nd curtain of death was about todrcp betwee
Tor him and the gaze of an admiring wori'
ne that his talents and virtues were soon TO
his buried in the deep sea of oblivion, unpicl
ed by memory, and never to be fished t
nY by the graphing irons of recollection. +
the was disconsolate, because ne knew that
oil had genius, fame and popularity, and tn
icA his friends without number would allow {
De- these to sink into forgetfulness, soon aft
II l he himself had taken his leave, and becon
Po- as a mere nothing that never had been.
'e Yet the death.tcne of his harp breath
IN melody, and put forth blossoms even In {
hey cold december Of the tomb: 1, was
bad fortune, my friends, to be mode
-. poetic have few tears wasted on
grave, and then remembered no more.
When minstrel dies at the present d;
1'n his harp is buried to rot with him9 and
coId-worm discovers IFS strings wnIie fe'
ing on his once-devoted heart. 1t IS
sIa- suffered to hang upon the cypress and
echo the strains it once gave out. No
goes TO blue ruin as soon as the fing
must that swept it have erufnbled to dust
There was time, my hearers. when P
we itrv was thought to exude from the pen
inspiration; afterward the summit OF
nassus was barely accessible to the stro
jus' es. pinions of genius; and poets wal
= ioi out of the world surrounded by an II
!. - 'he tinguishable blaze of glory-bat. nos
NO" days, minstrelsy is as common as sha
g on April, and .hought no. half SO much
'ne Every school-boy can write poetry
upon and the flowers on sentiment that deco
'oden the Tyres Of our greatest baTdsi are not
more than artificial ones. IN imitatis
TO those that bloomed in the gardens v
en- at the Muses. planted IN days Of yore.
he Is girdle of Apollo has been worn thf
bare IN the service Of fhe Mines, and