Poems of James Russell Lowell: With biographical sketch by Nathan Haskell DoleLowell, James Russell
General
Poems of James Russell Lowell: With biographical sketch by Nathan Haskell Dole
Lowell, James Russell
American poetry
alehouse, he was counselled to traverse the city with a drum
and fife, the sound of which inspiring music would be sure
to draw the Doctor from his retirement into the street. We
are all more or less bitten with this martial insanity.
_Nescio quâ dulcedine ... cunctos ducit._ I confess to some
infection of that itch myself. When I see a
Brigadier-General maintaining his insecure elevation in the
saddle under the severe fire of the training-field, and when
I remember that some military enthusiasts, through haste,
inexperience, or an over-desire to lend reality to those
fictitious combats, will sometimes discharge their ramrods,
I cannot but admire, while I deplore, the mistaken devotion
of those heroic officers. _Semel insanivimus omnes._ I was
myself, during the late war with Great Britain, chaplain of
a regiment, which was fortunately never called to active
military duty. I mention this circumstance with regret
rather than pride. Had I been summoned to actual warfare, I
trust that I might have been strengthened to bear myself
after the manner of that reverend father in our New England
Israel, Dr. Benjamin Colman, who, as we are told in Turell's
life of him, when the vessel in which he had taken passage
for England was attacked by a French privateer, "fought like
a philosopher and a Christian,... and prayed all the while
he charged and fired." As this note is already long, I shall
not here enter upon a discussion of the question, whether
Christians may lawfully be soldiers. I think it sufficiently
evident, that, during the first two centuries of the
Christian era, at least, two professions were esteemed
incompatible. Consult Jortin on this head.--H. W.]
No. IV.
REMARKS OF INCREASE D. O'PHACE, ESQUIRE, AT AN EXTRUMPERY CAUCUS IN
STATE STREET, REPORTED BY MR. H. BIGLOW.
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