66 Prop nerveless limbs with cheerful succour kind, Impart new light to a reviving mind, "And in firm trust that Providence will bless "Th' unmurmuring thrall of undeserved distress, 66 Attempt to teach him, for life's future plan, "All that may guard the youth and grace the man. 66 May'st thou, sweet Patience, losing then thy name, "But still a friend beneath a seraph's frame, "Join us for ever in that blissful sphere, "And hail'd as Man, who on this earth alone OCCASIONAL SONG, Sung after the recital of the preceding verses. "ENOUGH of the solemn! of brows darkly bent, "Of our dear cheerful cripple, we joy in the birth, "That justly may claim celebration; "When, though cripples, our seamen, uncrippled in worth, "Have revived the sick fame of the Nation. "The brave little Nelson, of one arm bereft, "Teaches France to confess from his fire, "That a Briton, though maim'd, if his heart is "Is superior to others entire. "To Nature, to Fortune, impute not a fault, "For a cripple, while Glory will court hir "Still Genius and Love on their wings may ex "Him, who had not a leg to support him "At a season like this, when we all should be "E'en gravity gracefully tipples; "Drink with me then, dear friends, for the to "Shall be health, love, and honour to cri END OF THE SEVENTH PART. ALTHOUGH the birthday of the beloved invalid was celebrated with social cheerfulness, and sanguine hopes were entertained of his restoration, it became every day more evident that the native elegance of his figure must be cruelly deformed. He possessed, however, a strength and sweetness of spirit that enabled him to contemplate the prospect of deformity, without feeling it as a vexation. The idea that he had lost for ever the graces of an upright, airy, and active person, never affected the invariable suavity of his temper; and he surveyed with cheerful applause a portrait of himself, which his friend, Miss Greene, drew at Felpham in the course of October, and which, while it exhibited the sprightly tenderness of his features, very forcibly expressed the distortion of his frame. His anxious father was incessantly employed in devices to amuse the beloved cripple, whom he supported in his arms, (as we learn from his Diary of October) while the cheerful invalid, now utterly unable to stand alone, entertained himself with planting a mulberry tree in the new garden of the turret. Though he had entirely lost the use of the lower limbs, both dear he and his father were sanguine in the hope of seeing them restored—a hope not only encouraged by their medical friends, but at this time agreeably increased by an accidental discovery of the poet, who found a proof, in a few Greek verses, that this severe malady had been not only studied, but absolutely cured, by the physicians of antiquity. I transcribe the original, and a translation from a card which the translator used to carry in his pocket-book, as a perpetual incentive to hope and expect the restoration of his son. Κομήτα σχολαστικά. Νωθρὸς ἐγὼ τελέθεσκον ἀπ ̓ ἰξύος ἐς πόδας ἄκρος, Τῆς πρὶν ἐνεργείης δηρὸν ἀτέμβομενος Ζωῆς καὶ θανάτοιο μεταίχμιον "Αϊδι γείτων, Μόνον ἀναπνείων, τἄλλα δὲ πάντα νέκυς. ̓Αλλὰ σοφὸς με Φίλιππος, ὃν ἐν γραφίδεσσι δοκεύεις, Αὖθις δ' Αντωνίνος, απερ πάρος, ἐν χθονὶ βαίνω, "Benumb'd from loins to feet, mere senseless clay, 66 Long robb'd of all my former strength I lay, "A very corpse in all things but in breath The anxious, yet still hoping father, said, in the end of his Diary for October, 66 "I cannot close this month without thanks to Heaven for supporting my spirits through the various pains my heart has "suffered concerning the dear invalid, and for animating me with better prospects of various kinds. May Heaven direct "the residue of my life, for the general good of all who ought "to be dear to me!" 66 An ardent desire to accomplish the object of this affectionate prayer, by acquiring all the insight he could into the best methods of promoting the recovery of his son, induced Hayley to quit his favourite retirement and make a long visit to London in the beginning of November. As the dear cripple continued to drive himself abroad in the one-horse chair, so kindly lent to him by Captain Godfrey, he had intended to pass some hours with his father at Eartham, on the day preceding the projected journey of the poet. Not arriving according to his appointment, his absence excited a most painful alarm; and William, the trusty and kind-hearted old Sancho of Eartham, was dispatched to the coast, and returned with such tidings as quieted the fears of his master. The following corre3 g VOL. II. |