Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846Various
History
Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 367, May 1846
Various
England -- Periodicals; Scotland -- Periodicals
Hence are our hearts bewilder'd in their choice,
And hence our feet from Virtue led astray:
Truth calls imperious with repulsive voice
To follow on a steep and rugged way;
While Beauty beckons us along a gay
And flowery path, that leads, with treacherous slope,
To gulfs remote from happiness or hope.
Who will bring back the world's unblemish'd youth
When these two wander'd ever hand in hand;
When Truth was Beauty, Beauty too was Truth,
So link'd together with unbroken band,
That they were one; and Man, at their command,
Tasted of sweets that never knew alloy,
And trod the path of Duty and of Joy?
Chiefly the Poet's power may work the change:
His heavenly gift, impell'd by holy zeal,
O'er Truth's exhaustless stores may brightly range,
And all their native loveliness reveal;
Nor e'er, except where Truth has set his seal,
Suffer one gleam of Beauty's grace to shine,
But in resistless force their lights combine.
THE CAMPAIGN OF THE SUTLEJ.
Of the whole wonderful annals of our Indian Empire, the campaign of the
Sutlej will form the most extraordinary, the most brilliant, the most
complete, and yet the briefest chapter. It is an imperishable trophy,
not less to the magnanimity of British policy, than to the
resistlessness of British valour. The matchless gallantry, felicity, and
rapidity of the military operations against a formidable foe of
desperate bravery and overpowering numbers, through a tremendous
struggle and terrific carnage--the blaze of four mighty and decisive
victories won in six weeks--proudly seal our prowess in arms. The
spotless justice of the cause; the admirable temper of its management;
the almost fastidious forbearance which unsheathed the sword only under
the stern compulsion of most wanton aggression; and the generous
moderation which has swayed the flush of triumph--nobly attest our
wisdom in government. The character of a glorious warrior may fitly
express the character of a glorious war, which has been _sans peur et
sans reproche_. To record in our pages memorable deeds which have added
lustre even to the dazzling renown of Britain, would be at any time, but
at present, we conceive, is peculiarly, a duty. The cordiality of the
public interest in these important events dwindles and shrinks, like
paper in the fire, before the intensity of that more domestic sympathy
which has been every where awakened by individual calamities. The
frightful cost at which we have purchased success, may be heard and seen
in the wail and the gloom round a multitude of hearths. No dauntless
courage was more conspicuous,--alas! no gallant life-blood was poured
out more copiously,--than that of the sons of Scotland. The eternal
sunshine of glory which irradiates the memory of the fallen brave, may
be yet too fierce a light for the aching eye of grief to read by; but we
thought that a simple consecutive recital of the recent exploits of our
army in India would be unwelcome to none.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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