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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