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SOUTHERN LITERARY GAZETTE:
3n JUustratci tUciklg Journal of 33cllcs-£cttrcs, Science anb % Jlrts.
WM. C. RICHARDS, EDITOR.
Original Portrn.
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
DESPONDENCY OE AMBITION.
I N TWO SON N ETS.
BY W. GILMORE SIMMS, ESQ.,
\BTIIOR OF ‘GUY RIVERS,’ ‘YEMASSEE,’ ‘ATALANTIS,’ &C.
‘ ‘ ■■■’
I.
A little farther on, the shadows deep
< )f this great forest give security,
And here, the aspect of the crowd thrown by,
Pride may assert the priviledge to weep: —
Acknowledging the earth, Humility,
That better knows the sense of pain than life,
AI ay, for a season, yield the outward strife,
And suffer the o’erburden’d soul to sigh !
Alas! in lowliness of heart, like mine,
That loathes it in a world of so much state,
How precious is this still obscurity,
Where even fear may mock the hurt of hate,
And the poor heart, long baffled, cease to pine,
Ys if new freedom rescued it from fate ’
11.
If the good star that quicken’d at my birth,
In spiritual tie and consciousness,
With that frail life, decreed a toil on earth,
Which earth has never yet allow’d to bless,
Be at this moment gazing from its place
In search of mine, a sympathy with shame,
And the (head cloud that settles on iny fame,
Will blotch for aye the beauty of her face !
Vet have I struggled till all stars grew pale,
Vor shamed them by that struggle ; —was it mine
To make, like theirs, the face of fortune shine,
To shield her even from the night-cloud’s veil 1
Was not the struggle much that brought distress
And pain I and is’t my shame that cannot make
success I
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
SONNET TO —,
OF AUGUSTA, GEORGIA.
;Ay ojuelos verdes! ;Ay los mis ojuelos!
[Anonimo.
T Love still floating in thy eyes’ deep sea.',
(Far deeper than all others, and as green,
Where many wonders he and I have seen
.Sighing in idleness for some fair breeze,
.• lis snowy sail now listless dozing at its ease,
While o’er the deep, from out the billow’s sheen,
Come rock and keep that frown o’er flowers and
trees ?
Xo land that sail may ever make, I ween *
Or o’er those seas have gloom and sadness past—
By dismal clouds their tender brightness crost 1
Or is Love far upon some lone strand cast,
Through many a weary hour in darkness tost,
With sail all soiled and torn and broken mast I
)r lies he far beneath those green depths—lost,?
W. *
Xew Orleans.
For the Southern Literary Gazette.
THE SPIRIT WREATH.
INSCRIBED TO
BY EDWARD J . PORTEK.
The flowerets I offer thee
Ne’er drew their birth
From the spring-tide that scatters
Its treasures o’er earth ;
For the light of earth’s brightest
Os chaplets will fade,
And their wreaths and their beauty
Together he laid.
Mine are flowers of the feelings,
As gentle and bright,
As love hath e’er twined
O’er his altar of light:
And thou only eanst bid them
Their freshness retain,
Or doom them forever
To darkness again.
By waves of the spirit’s
Ilcep fountains they ’ve slept.
Till the light of thy gentleness
Over them swept
Like earth’s spirit of perfume
Thy presence hath brought
The spell that their spirit’s
Unsealing hath wrought.
Oh still bid them wear
The pure freshness of hue
From thy brightness at waking
Their soft leaflets drew :
For thee let them still
Shed their pureness of breath,
Nor crush one sweet flower
Os the spirit’s bright wreath.
Popular Sales.
BE JUST BEFORE YOU ARE GENEROUS.
AN INSTRUCTIVE STORY.
“ Sophy,” said Mr. Lisle one day to his
wife, 44 you can't think how vexed lam about
poor YVilliams!”
“What about poor Williams'?” inquired
Airs. Lisle.
“ Why he’s such an unlucky dog. You
know, in the first place, he had no sooner
signed the agreement to take that shop in
Dean Street, than he found out that Maxwell
and Grieves had previously taken the one
next door to open in the same line; and of
course, as he was a stranger, and they were
well known in the town, there was a consid
erable chance of their carrying off all the
business.”
“ Well, but why didn’t he take care to as
certain who had taken the next shop ?” said
Airs. Lisle.
“It would have been better if he had, cer
tainly,” replied her husband; “but people
can’t think of everything. But I was going
to tell you —you know he naturally thought
that if he didn't show as good a front as Alax
well’s he'd have no chance against them at
all, so that led him to spend a good deal more
on his fittings-up than he had intended, and
left him short of money to stock his shop; so
that he was obliged to get long credits, and
bought at a disadvantage. All this threw him
behind from the beginning, poor fellow; and
although he has been as attentive to his busi
-1 ness as a man could be, he has never been
able to bring himself up.”
“ Well, he should have looked about him
better at first,” said Airs. Lisle.
“ Ah, that's always your way,” answered
the husband; “you never feel for anybody.
I'm sure a better-hearted fellow than Wil
liams dosn’t exist. Who could be kinder than
both he and his wife were when little Jane
was ill ? They were always sending us some
thing or another out of the shop that they
thought the child would like —dates, and figs,
and sugar-candy, and oranges at a time I know
they were at least half-a-crown a dozen, for
I went into Maxwell’s shop on purpose to
ask, out of curiosity.”
“It was very good-natured, I admit,” an
swered Alis. Lisle; “but I must say I was
often more soiry than obliged. The child
couldn’t have used half they sent had she been
well, much less when she was sick. I should
often have sent them back, only you said it
would seem so ungrateful. That sort of thing
lays one under such awkward obligations ;
| particularly when people can't afford it, which
l am sure they couldn't.”
“Then it was the more kind of them at
any rate,” replied the husband. “ It’s easy to
give what one can spare, but real generosity
consists in giving what one wants one’s-self.”
Airs. Lisle did not feel satisfied with this
position of her husband : she felt there was
a fallacy about it; hut not having reflected
; sufficiently on such subjects to be able to de
tect at once where the weakness lay, she was
silent; whilst Mr. Lisle, who on his part was
perfectly sincere, thinking he had gained a
legitimate advantage in the argument, pur
sued his discourse with more confidence.
I “It often seems, really,” continued he “as
; if fortune delighted in persecuting those who
least deserve it. I'm sure if everybody had
their deserts. Williams merits success much
more than Maxwell—a fellow that actually
wouldn’t go ten miles to see his sister, though
he knew she was on her death-bed.”
“ Yes, that was very bad indeed,” answer
ed Airs. Lisle. “I never could bear him after
that.”
“ And yet everything goes well with him
that he undertakes,” pursued her husband.—
“ Those railroad shares that he bought, for
example. I hear they are likely to pay fifteen
per cent.”
“1 wish you’d had some of them,” said
ATHENS, GEORGIA, SATURDAY, JULY 15, IS4B.
Airs. Lisle: “you know Air. Bostock always
told us thev would turn out well. Alaxwell
would not have bought them without good ad
vice—he’s so cautious.”
“ But I hadn’t the money, you know, So
phia,” replied Air. Lisle. “ I couldn’t be off
my word with Williams; and I had promised
to lend him a few hundred pounds at Christ
mas, which he expected would keep him up
till he had time to get out of his difficulties.”
“Instead of which he is farther in difficul
ties,” said the wife.
“ But he couldn’t foresee that,” replied the
husband; “ nobody expects luck is always to
be against them.”
“Well, but what’s the matter with him
now ” inquired Mrs. Lisle. “Has anything
particular happened ?”
“Why, it appears that the Liverpool house
that has always furnished hiyi with sugars
has got a hint from somebody—Alaxwell, per
haps, 1 shouldn’t wonder—that he’s not going
on well; and they have not only stopped
the supplies, but tliey threaten to put in an
execution directly, if he don’t pay them at
least part of the debt, if he can’t pay the
whole. And what makes it so particularly
unlucky is, that Airs. Williams’ aunt Patty,
they say, positivly can’t hold out-above anoth
er six weeks; and if they could only contrive
to keep the mill going ‘till she pops off, her
money would bring them up, and set all right.
Besides, she’s very proud and very stingy—
that everybody knows—and who can tell hut
she might alter her will if she found out how
things are with them.”
“I shouldn’t wonder if she did, indeed,” re
plied Airs. Lisle; “ for she was always against
their marrying till Williams had tried how
far his business was likely to answer; and
she scolds and reproaches them, and asks
them how they expect to keep all those child
ren off the parish.”
“Unfeeling, selfish old wretch !” said Air.
Lisle.
“ They certainly have a very large family
for such young people,” observed Airs. Lisle.
“ Well, that's the worse for them in present
circumstances,” replied the husband. “As I
said before, everything goes against some peo
ple; and when one thing turns out ill, it seems
as if it led the way for everything else to do
the same.”
“But why don’t he ask the Liverpool peo
ple to wait the event of Miss Patty’s death?”
“So he has, but they think its all a sham.”
“Then I don’t see what he’s to do, I’m
sure.”
“ Nor I, unless he could contrive to patch
up any way for the next six months, till Aliss
Patty’s off’the hooks.”
Airs. Lisle, at this crisis of the conversation
addressed her attention very exclusively to
the stocking she was darning, and remain
ed silent. Air. Lisle sat with his legs crossed,
looking into the fire ; but he saw the expres
sion of his wife’s face out of the cornel of his
eye. Presently he began to beat what some
people call the devil's tatoo with his heel.
“I don't think you like Williams, Sophia,”
said he after a pause.
41 1 have no dislike to him,” answered Airs.
Lisle; 44 but I can’t help thinking that he
might have done better if he had been more
prudent.”
“That’s just what the world always says
when anybody’s unfortunate,” answered Mr.
Lisle. 44 There’s nothing so easy as finding
out that people’s misfortunes might have been
avoided if they had acted differently to what
they have. It’s a very convenient doctrine
certainly, because it exonerates one from the
pain of pitying them, or the duty of assisting
them.”
“I don’t see that it prevents our pitying
them,” answered Mrs. Lisle, “because one
may blame people and pity them too.”
“At all events it absolves you from assist
ing them,” said the husband.
“ If one could do them any good by assist
ing them, and if one could do it without injur
ing one’s-self, there might be some sense in
it,” replied Mrs. Lisle.
“Those are just the selfish maxims of the
world, Sophia,” answered Mr. Lisle. “In
the first place, when one assists people, it is
in the hope and belief that we are doing them
good. If things don't turn out according to
our expectations, it isn't our fault; we have
at least the consolation of having done a gen
erous action. And as for only assisting oth
ers when we are sure the doing it will not in
jur ourselves, there would be very few offices
done in the world at that rate ; besides, as I
said before, I don’t see much generosity in
VOLUME 1.---NUMBER 10.
giving away what we don’t want. However,
to come to the point at once —I believe in this
particular instance, so far from injuring my
self. that the best thing 1 can do is to assist
Williams. You see if lie is made a bankrupt
now, so far from ever being able to pay me
my five hundred, I doubt whether I shall get
two shillings in the pound.”
44 That shows how imprudent it was to lend
it.” remarked Airs. Lisle.
“Well, it’s too late to lament that now.”
answered the husband. “I fancied, from his
own account, that things were likely to go
better with him than they have done. I dare
say he thought so himself. However, as I
was saying, 1 don't suppose I should get two
shillings m the pound if there was a break-up
now; but if we can keep things going till the
old girl's death, he has faithfully promised
that the very day he touches the money, he
will pay me my five hundred down upon the
nail.”
•• But how are you to keep things going?”
inquired Airs. Lisle.
“Just by putting my name to a hill for a
twelvemonth. Old ratty can’t hold out a
twelvemonth : we are sure of that.”
“ 1 don't know that,” said Mrs. Lisle.
44 But the doctor knows it, and told Wil
liams so: indeed, he said it was his opinion
she couldn’t last six weeks.”
“But suppose, Edward, she did live over
the twelvemonth,” said Airs. Lisle, looking
up at her husband with an anxious face,
44 what are you to do then ? Are you to go
to a prison to keep Williams out of one ?”
“ Prison! Nonsense, Sophia! YAm really
talk as if you supposed 1 was a fool!” ex
clamed Air. Lisle. “In the first place, if you
must suppose what’s impossible—that old
Patty Wise is to live, which we know she
can't, because we know that her disease is
mortal —I have no doubt the holder of the bill,
knowing his money was ultimately safe would
give me a little longer time; hut even if he
was churlish, and would not, let the worst
come to the worst, I could pay it; and the
very day that Williams gets the old womans’
money, he would give it me back asrain.”
Mrs. Lisle did not feel quite satisfied with
this statement of the case; but she had never
been in the habit of opposing her husband,
and had not resolution enough to do it now
to any effect; and indeed she had a secret
misgiving that, oppose as she might in the
present instance,, the result would be exactly
the same. Williams was a gay, pleasant
companion—good-natured, liberal, hospitable,
and sanguine—and by these qualities had ren
dered himself so agreeable to Air. Lisle, that,
he would have found it more difficult to refuse
Williams a loan, or the use of his name, than
he would to have denied his wife some article
necessary to her comfort, or his children some
advantage important to their education His
arguments, too, were always so specious when
she to obtain a hearing for any of
her prudential maxims, and the side he took
appeared so much the most amiable, that some
times she almost feared she might be selfish
and unfeeling, as he always on these occa
sions asserted she was; and at all events, as
she had a real affection for him, she could not
bear that he should think her so, and there
fore preferred Submitting, though against her
judgement, to persisting, at the risk of losing
his good opinion.
So Mr. Lisle acting under the influence of
his good-nature, and his friendly feelings to
wards Williams, put his name to a bill for
seven hundred pounds; and Williams declared
he was the best fellow in the world, and that
he might rely on it, that the very moment the
breath was out of old Patty Wise, he would
take up the bill, and release him from the en
gagement. Added to this, in the fervour of
his gratitude, he sent his benefactor a case ot
tine Curacoa, a rich Stilton cheese, and sever
al other luxuries--very agreeable to Air. Lisle,
but such as he would not have thought him
self by any means authorised, by his circum
stances. to purchase for his own table ; whilst
Airs. Lisle received constant offerings in the
shape of boxes of foreign fruits, a few pounds
of very fine tea. and various other delicacies,
quite beyond the line of their standard of
house-keeping. Air. and Mrs. Williams, too,
saw a great deal of company, and the Lisles
were always of the party —a great deal too
much company Airs. Lisle thought; but her
husband remarked, that as they were only
evening parties, and the greatest part of the
refreshments were furnished from their own
shop, the expense must be trifling.
In this manner the six weeks to which Airs