The New-York Weekly Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository: Forming an Interesting Collection of Original and Select Literary Productions in Prose and Verse
General
The New-York Weekly Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository: Forming an Interesting Collection of Original and Select Literary Productions in Prose and Verse
American periodicals
He trusted in ancient literature, he had been taught by history the
great lessons of a noble disinterestedness, an immoveable constancy, an
absolute devotion to glory. Like those heroes to whom idolatrous but
grateful Rome elevated altars, Pulaski would have sacrificed all his
property to the prosperity of his country; he would have spilled the
last drop of his blood for its defence; he would even have immolated his
only, his beloved daughter, Lodoiska.
Lodoiska! how beautiful! how lovely! her dear name is always on my lips,
her adored remembrance will live for ever in my heart!
From the first moment that I saw this fair maid, I lived only for her;
I abandoned my studies; friendship was entirely forgotten. I consecrated
all my moments to Lodoiska. My father and hers could not be long
ignorant of my attachment; they did not chide me for it; they must have
approved it then? This idea appeared to me to be so well founded, that I
delivered myself up, without suspicion, to the sweet passion that
enchanted me: and I took my measures so well, that I beheld Lodoiska
almost daily, either at home, or in company with my sisters, who loved
her tenderly:--two sweet years flew away in this manner.
At length Pulaski took me one day aside, and addressed me thus: “Your
father and myself have formed great hopes of you, which your conduct has
hitherto justified; I have long beheld you employing your youth in
studies equally useful and honourable. To-day--(He here perceived that I
was about to interrupt him) What would you say? Do you think to tell me
any thing I am unacquainted with? Do you think that I have occasion to
be hourly witness of your transports, to learn how much my Lodoiska
merits to be beloved? Is it because I know as well as you the value of
my daughter, that you never shall obtain but by meriting her? Young man,
learn that it is not sufficient that our foibles should be legitimate,
to be excusable; those of a good citizen ought to be turned entirety to
the profit of his country; love, even love itself, like the basest of
the passions, is either despicable or dangerous, if it does not offer to
generous hearts an additional motive to excite them towards honour.
“Hear me: Our monarch, for a long time in a sickly habit of body, seems
at length to approach towards his end. His life, become every day more
precarious, has awakened the ambition of our neighbours. They doubtless
prepare to sow divisions among us; and they think that by over-awing our
suffrages, they will be enabled to force upon us a king of their own
chusing. Foreign troops have already dared to appear on the frontiers of
Poland; already two thousand Polish gentlemen have assembled, on purpose
to punish their audacious insolence. Go and join yourself with those
brave youths; go, and at the end of the campaign return covered with the
blood of our enemies, and shew to Pulaski a son-in-law worthy of him!”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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