The Lawyer's Farewell to His Muse [pp. 316]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
er walks of the law. There is something strikingly
magnanimous in the self-denial, which could make such
a mind relinquish pursuits so congenial to its tastes and
so meet for its abilities, for a profession the most
abounding of all others in dry, ponderous, and perplexing drudgery, yet amongst the most vital to the
well-being of society. What a lesson to our dilettanti,
who, even after having adopted that profession, cannot
bravely face and grapple with its difficulties, but remain entranced by the Circean draughts and Syren
songs of the lightest and most frivolous of the Muses!
What should be their humiliation, when they compare
their own inability to renounce the novel, the newspaper, and the frothy magazine, with Blackstone's
generous farewell to his so far nobler muse? They
may rest assured, that it is only to one capable of
such a sacrifice, that Lord Coke's parting wish is not
addressed in vain: "I wish unto him the gladsome
light of Jurisprudence, the lovelinesse of temperance,
the stabilitie of fortitude, and the soliditie of justice."
The Lawyerrs Farewell to his Muses
BY SIR WM. BLACKSTONE.
As by some tyrant's stern command,
A wretch forsakes his native land,
In foreign climes condemned to roam,
An endless exile from his home;
Pensive he treads the destined way,
And dreads to go, nor dares to stay;
Till on some neighb'ring mountain's brow
He stops, and turns his eye below,
There, melting at the well known view,
Drops alast tear, and bids adie'u:
So I, thus doomed from thee to part,
Gay queen of fancy and of art,
Reluctant move with doubtful mind,
Oft stop, and often look behind.
Companion of my tender age,
Serenely gay, and sweetly sage!
How blithesome were we wont to rove
By verdant hill and shady grove,
Where fervent bees with humming voice
Around the honeyed oak rejoice,
And aged elms, with awful bend,
In long cathedral walks extend!
Lulled by the lapse of gliding floods,
Cheered by the warbling of the woods,
How blest my days, my thoughts how free,
In sweet society with thee!
Then all was joyous, all was young,
And years unheeded roll'd along:
But now the pleasing dream is o'er,These scenes must charm me now no more:
Lost to the field, and torn from you,
Farewell!-a long, a last adieu!
The wrangling courts, and stubborn law,
To smoke, and crowds, and cities draw;
There selfish faction rules the day,
And pride and avarice throng the way;
Diseasestaint the murky air,
And midnight conflagrations glare;
Loose revelry and riot bold
In frighted streets their orgies hold;
Or when in silence all is drowned,
Fell murder walks her lonely round;
No room for peace, no room for you,Adieu, celestial nymph, adieu!
Shakspeare, no more, thy sylvan son,
Nor all the arts of Addison,
Pope's heaven-strung lyre, nor Waller's ease,
Nor Milton's mighty self must please;
Instead of these a formal band
In furs and coifs around me stand,
With sounds uncouth, and accents dry,
That grate the soul of harmony.
Each pedant sage unlocks his store
Of mystic, dark, discordant lore;
And points with tottering hand the ways
That lead me to the thorny maze.
There, in a winding, close retreat,
Is justice doom'd to fix her seat;
There, fenced by bulwarks of the law,
She keeps the wondering world in awe;
And there, from vulgar sight retired,
Like eastern queens, is much admired.
Oh let me pierce the secret shade,
Where dwellssthe venerable maid!
There humbly mark with reverend awe,
The guardian of Britannia's law;
Unfold with joy her sacred page,
(Th' united boast of many an age,
Where mixed, though uniform, appears
The wisdom of a thousand years.)
In that pure spring the bottom view,
Clear, deep, and regularly true,
And other doctrines thence imbibe,
Than lurk within the sordid scribe;
Observe how parts with parts unite
In one harmonious rule of right;
See countless wheels distinctly tend,
By various laws, to one great end;
While mighty Alfred's piercing soul
Pervades and regulates the whole.
Then welcome business, welcome strife,
Welcome the cares, the thorns of life,
The visage wan, the pore-blind sight,
The toil by day, the lamp by night,
The tedious forms, the solemn prate,
The pert dispute, the dull debate,
The drowsy bench, the babbling hall,
For thee, fair justice, welcome all!
Thus, though my noon of life be past,
Yet let my setting sun at last
Find out the still, the rural cell
Where sage retirement loves to dwell!
There let me taste the home-felt bliss
Of innocence and inward peace;
Untainted by the guilty bribe,
Uncursed amid the harpy tribe;
No orphan's cry to wound my ear;
My honor and my conscience clear;
Thus may I calmly meet my end,
Thus to the grave in peace descend!
There are moments of despondency, when Shakspeare thought
himself no poet and Raphael no painter; when the greatest wits
have doubted the excellence of their happiest efforts.
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