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THE COUNTRYMAN.
The Effect of Seizure.
Who back would roll the sweeping tide of time,
And hush the past’s relentless funeral chime;
Who’d lengthen out the journey home to heaven,
The priceless be on, by faith to mortals given.
Ah ! selfish he who’d tear his friends away
From where they bask in heaven’s cerulean ray;
Who’d bring them back to glad his home on
earth,
And cheer the sorrows of his desolate hearth.
The living suffer, but the dead pursu^
Unending pleasure, heaven’s empyrean through;
Through stranger climes the living have to
roam,
The dead—the dead repose in peace at home".
’Tis time to go—the sun’s declining rays
Immerse yon hill-tops in their golden blaze,
While lengthening shadows cast their darkness
here,
And birds of night with dusky wing appear.
The lonely whip-poor-will, in yonder wood,
Pours forth her night-song to her fledgling brood;
As twlight comes the day -flower shuts its bloom,
The rat bit creeps beside the lonely tomb ;
As Phoebus wheels away his car of light,
The sombre goddess comes, desponding night.
Oh ! once my home, dear sacred spot adieu,
Where’er I turn my heart still true to you,
Shall cherish with the la test breath that’s drawn,
The joyful scenes of this delightful lawn.
Its home no more my bosom here may claim,
But dear to me, and cherished still the tame,
Even when I find my lasting home in heaven,
One half my love shall to this spot be given,
And plumes celestial oft shall waft me o'er
The vale my mortal eyes shall see no more.
Ambition.
“ Ambition makes the same mistake con
cerning power that avarice makes con
cerning wealth : she begins by ' accumula
ting power, as a means to happiness, and
she finishes by continuing to accumulate it
as an end. Ambition is in fact the ava
rice of power, and happiness herself is soon
sacrificed to that very lust of dominion,
which was first encouraged only as the
best mode of obtaining it. Hyder, like
Richard the Third, was observed by one of
his most familiar companions, Gholaum Ali,
to start frequently in his sleep. He once
took the liberty to ask this despot ‘ of wliat
be had been dreaming?’ ‘ My friend,’re
plied Hyder, ‘ the state of a beggar is more
delightful than my envied monarchy ;
awake, they see no conspirators; asleep,
they dream of no assassins.’ But ambition
will indulge no other passions as her fa
vorites, still less will she bear with them
as rivals ; but as "her vassals, she can em
ploy them, or dismiss them at her will ; she
is cold, because with her all is calculation ;
she is systematic, because she makes every
thing centre in herself; and she regards
policy too much, to have the slightest re
spect to persons. Cruelty or compassion,
hatred or love, revengo or forbearance, are,
to her votaries, instruments rather than in
fluences, and means rather than motives.
These passions form indeed the disturbing
forces of weaker minds, not unfrequently
opposing their march and impeding their
progress ; but ambition overrules these pas
sions, and drawing them into the resistless
sphere of her own attraction, she converts
them into satellites, subservient to her ca
reer, and augmentative of her splendor.
Yet ambition has not so wide a horizon as
some have supposed : It is a horizon that
embraces probabilities always, but impossi
bilities never.
Cromwell followed little events before he
ventured to govern great ones ; and Napo
leon never sighed for the sceptre until he
had gained the truncheon ; nor dreamt of
the imperial diadem until he had first con
quered a crown. None of those who gaze
at the height of a successful usurper, are
more astonished at his sudden elevation,
than he himself who has attained it ; hut
even he was led to it by degrees, since no
man aspires to that which is entirely be
yond his reach. Caligula was the only ty
rant who was ever suspected of longing for
the moon ; a proof of his maduess, not of
his ambition ; and if little children are ob
served to cry for the moon, it is because
they fancy they can touch it. It is beyond
their desire, the moment they have discov
ered that it is beyond their reach.
|Notk.—Sylla was an exception to this
rule ; ambition in him was subordinate to
revenge.”]
Government’s New Function.
The state of Georgia has assumed a new
prerogative—that of robbing its own citi
zens. It used to be thought that the ob
ject of government was to protect people
in their property. Now, its object seems
to he to rob them of it. On account of
robbery, the British crown lost its Aineri-
colonies : on account of robbery, the
American Union lost its Southern States :
but neither Great Britain nor the U. S.
government was ever guilty of a more
high-handed robbery of its citizens than
the one now going on in Georgia.
“Our enemies, in their judgment of us,
come nearer the truth than we do our
selves.”
“There are many cures for love, but not
one of them is infallible.”
“We are by no means aware how much
we are influenced by our passions.”
“Old age is a tyrant which forbids the
pleasures of youth on pain of death.”
Let those who doubt the impropriety of
government’s turning robber, refer to the
effect of seizure upon the markets of the
country.
The Atlanta Confederacy of lltli, in its
market report, says :—“ So far, the seizers
have ha I tilings their own way, this week.
They are killing the goose to get her gold
en eg*rs.
Salt cannot be had at any price, and
merchants who had bought it in Vitgir.ia
and elsewhere, to bring here, are changing
its destination.”
The Augusta Chronicle, in its market re-
port, says :—“ The seizures made here by
Gov. Brown, acting by authority of a res
olution of the legislature, has pretty much
put a stop to transactions in the class of ar
ticles seized. Nothing subject to seizure
can be found on sale in this maiket—con
signments from abroad have been counter
manded and Until the seizures cease, and
give time to replenish the stock, we
may expect the kind of goods in question
to be very scarce and to bear a correspond
ingly high prices. The reported seizure of
corn in South-Western Georgia will also
have the tendency to enhance the price of
bread stuffs.”
This is the price the people pay for al
lowing demagogues to rule them. Was
such high-handed outrage ever known as
the robbery resolution of the Georgia legis
lature ?
PrestMice of Mind.
“In the insurrection headed by WatTy-
ler, Richard II. owed the preservation of
his 1 ite to his intrepidity and presence of
mind. In the meeting at Smithfield, when
the insurgents saw their leader fall by the
sword of the Lord Mayor, Walworth, they
drew their bows to revenge his fall. Rich
ard, then only 14 years of age, galloped up
to the a'rchers and exclaimed, ‘What are
you doing, my lieges ? Tyler was a trait
or : come with me, and I will be your lead
er.’ Wavering and disconcerted, they
followed him into the fields at Islington,
and, falling on their knees, begged for mer
cy.— This monarch gave several other
proofs of his courage at an early age.”
You Own Nothing.
Let no one, high or low, rich or poor,
flatter himself that he now owns anything.
It lie has a bushel corn in his crib, or a
side of meat in his smoke-house, it is not
his. The government robbers may come
| along at any moment, and rob him of it.
“Our pride is often increased by what
I we retrench from our other faults.”