The moral laws of the
drama are said to have an effect next after those conveyed from the
pulpit, or promulgated in courts of justice. Mr. Burke, indeed, has gone
so far as to observe that "the theatre is a better school of moral
sentiment than churches." The drama, therefore, has a right to find a
place; and to its professors are we indebted for what may justly be
considered one of the highest of all intellectual gratifications.
F.K.Y.
* * * * *
MEMORY.
(_For the Mirror_.)
How many a mortal bears a heavy chain,
Of bitter sorrow, 'neath thy iron reign,
And many a one, whose harder fate has given,
Some early woes, by thee to madness driven,
Sees the sad vision of some bygone day,
And thinks on what he hath seen with dismay:
So some lone murderer, wanders o'er the world
By thy dread arm to desperation hurl'd;
In vain he prays, or bends the lowly knee,
With fiendlike power, thou dragg'st him back with thee,
Point'st to some scene of early guilt and woe,
Opening the source from whence his sorrows flow.
As round the bark which feels the tempest's shock,
The lightning plays, and shows the fatal rock,
So memory brings our sorrows all to light
With vivid truth presents them to the sight;
Pursues the wretch who else some joy might find,
To fix her seat of empire in his mind.
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