The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 5, January, 1835Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 5, January, 1835
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Is it not strange that we should have conceived something much like
this, and explained the motive, too, of such unreasonable conduct in
any wild beast starving?
"Nature's quick instinct, in most savage beasts,
Prophesies danger ere man's thought awakes,
And shrinks in fear from common savageness,
Made gentle by its terror; thus, o'erawed
E'en in his famine's fury by a Power
Brute beings more than human oft adore,
The Lion lay, his quivering paws outspread,
His white teeth gnashing, till the crushing throngs
Had passed the corridors; then, glaring up
His eyes imbued with samiel light, he saw
The crags and forests of the Appenines
Gleaming far off, and with the exulting sense
Of home and lone dominion, at a bound,
He leapt the lofty palisades and sprung
Along the spiral passages, with howls
Of horror, through the flying multitudes
Flying to seek his lonely mountain lair."
We shall not protract this investigation, though many similar passages
might be produced to confirm our assertion that Mr. Bulwer has
appropriated our thoughts, and throughout wrought our descriptions into
his story, and won great profit and fame from the robbery. Those who
read his book, will readily find many descriptions closely resembling
one of the last given in the poem, which we here reprint, and many
references to ancient authors for facts which he derived from us.
"Meantime, charred corses in one sepulchre
Of withering ashes lay, and voices rose,
Fewer and fainter, and, each moment, groans
Were hushed, and dead babes on dead bosoms lay,
And lips were blasted into breathlessness
Ere the death kiss was given, and spirits passed
The ebbless, dark, mysterious waves, where dreams
Hover and pulses throb and many a brain
Swims wild with terrible desires to know
The destinies of worlds that lie beyond.
The thick air panted as in nature's death,
And every breath was anguish; every face
Was terror's image, where the soul looked forth,
As looked, sometimes, far on the edge of heaven,
A momentary star the tempest palled.
From ghastlier lips now rose a wilder voice,
As from a ruin'd sanctuary's gloom,
Like savage winds from the Chorasmian waste
Rushing, with sobs and suffocating screams," etc.
But, though we have been more highly honored by this last _chef
d'oeuvre_ of the honorable Eugene Aram than any author within our
knowledge, yet others are entitled to their property. Speaking of the
skeleton of Arbaces, Bulwer says--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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