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8. Upon the river's further strand
A trembling crowd of gazers stand;
In wild despair their hands they wring,
Yet none may aid or succor bring;

And the hapless toll-man, with babes and wife,
Is screaming for help through the stormy strife.

9. When shall the Brave Man's praises swell
As organ blast or clang of bell?·

Ah! name him now, he tarries long;
Name him at last, my glorious song!

O! speed, for the terrible death draws near;
O, Brave Man! O, Brave Man! arise, appear!

10. Quick gallops up, with headlong speed,
A noble Count on noble steed!

And, lo! on high his fingers hold

A purse

well stored with shining gold. Two hundred pistoles' for the man who shall save Yon perishing wretch from the yawning wave!"

11. Who is the Brave Man, say, my song:
Shall to the Count thy meed belong!

Though, Heaven be praised, right brave he be,
I know a braver still than he :

O, Brave Man! O, Brave Man! arise, appear!
O, speed, for the terrible death draws near!

12. And ever higher swell the waves,

And louder still the storm-wind raves,
And lower sink their hearts in fear,

O, Brave Man! Brave Man! haste, appear!
Buttress and pillar, they groan and strain,
And the rocking arches are rent in twain!

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13. Again, again before their eyes,

High holds the Count the glittering prize;
All see, but all the danger shun,

Of all the thousand stirs not one.
And the toll-man in vain, through the tumult wild,
Out-screams the tempest with wife and child.

14. But who amid the crowd is seen,

In peasant garb, with simple mien,
Firm, leaning on a trusty stave,
In firm and feature tall and grave?
He hears the Count, and the scream of fear;
He sees that the moment of death draws near!

15. Into a skiff he boldly sprang;

He braved the storm that round him rang;

He called aloud on God's great name,
And backward a deliverer came.
But the fisher's skiff seems all too small
From the raging waters to save them all.

16. The river round him boiled and surged;
Thrice through the waves his skiff he urged,
And back through wind and waters' roar,
He bore them safely to the shore:

So fierce rolled the river, that scarce the last
In the fisher's skiff through the danger passed.

17. Who is the Brave Man? Say, my song,
To whom shall that high name belong
Bravely the peasant ventured in,

But 't was, perchance, the prize to win.
If the generous Count had proffered no gold,
The peasant, methinks, had not been so bold.

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18. Out spake the Count, "Right boldly done!
Here, take thy purse; 't was nobly won
A generous act, in truth, was this,
And truly the Count right noble is;
But loftier still was the soul displayed
By him in the peasant-garb arrayed.

19. "Poor though I be, thy hand withhold;
I barter not my life for gold!

Yon hapless man is ruined now;

Great Count, on him thy gift bestow."
He spake from his heart in his honest pride,
And he turned on his heel and strōde aside.

20. Then loudly let his praises swell
As organ blast or clang of bell;
Of lofty soul and spirit strong,
He asks not gold, he asks but song!

So glory to God, by whose gift I raise

The tribute of song to the Brave Man's praise!

FROM THE GERMAN OF BURGER.

LXXIV. A PUPIL'S TRIBUTE TO HIS TEACHER.

1. JOHN HENDERSON was born at Limerick, in Ireland, but came to England early in life with his parents. From the age of three years he discovered the pres'ages of a great mind. Without retracing the steps of his progression, a general idea may be formed of them from the circumstance of his having professionally

taught Greek and Latin in a public seminary at the age of twelve years. Some time after, his father commencing a boarding-school in the neighborhood of Bristol, young Henderson undertook to teach the classics; which he did with much reputation, extending, at the same time, his own knowledge in the sciences and L+A general literature to a degree that rendered him a prodigy of intelligence.

2. At the age of eighteen, by an intensity of application of which few persons can conceive, he had not only thoughtfully perused all the popular English authors of a later date, but taken an extensive survey of foreign literature. He had also waded through the folios of the Schoolmen, as well as a weaned with the minutest attention, into the more obsolete" writers of the last three centuries; preserving, at the same time, a distinguishing sense of their respective merits, particular sentiments, and characteristic traits; which, on proper occasions, he com'mented upon in a manner that astonished the learned listener, not more by his profound remarks than by his cool and sententious elo

quence.

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3. So surprisingly retentive was his memory, that he never forgot what he had once learned, nor did it appear that he ever suffered even an image to be effaced from his mind; whilst the ideas which he had so rapidly accumulated existed in his brain not as a huge chaos, but as clear and well-organized systems, illustrative of every subject, and subservient to every call. It was this quality which made him so superior a disputant; fo his mind had investigated the various sentiments and hypotheses of men, so had his almost intuitive discrimination stripped them, of their deceptive appendages, and separated fallacies from truth, marshalling their arguments so as to elucidate or detect each

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4. But, in all his disputations, it was an invariable maxim with him never to interrupt, the most tedious or confused oppōnents, though, from his pithy questions, he made it evident that, from the first, he anticipated the train and consequences of their reasonings. His favorite studies were, Philology, History, Astronomy, Medicine, Theology, Logic, and Metaphysics, with all the branches of Natural and Experimental Philosophy; and that his attainments were not superficial will be readily admitted by those who knew him best. As a linguist, he was acquainted with the Persian, Arabic, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin languages, together with the French, Spanish, Italian, and German; and he distinctions, so as to read them with facility, but in the greater part conversed fluently.

not only knew their ruling principles and and he

5. His conversation was such as might have been expected from a man whose fancy was so creative, whose knowledge omnifarious and whose recollection so unbounded. EI He combined scholastic accuracy with unaffected ease; condensed and pointed, yet rich and perspic uous. Were it possible for his numerous friends, by any energy of reminiscence, to collect his discourse, John Henderson would be distinguished as a voluminous author, who yet preserved a Spartan frugality of words.

6. In all companies he led the conversation. But in no instance was his superiority oppressive. Calm, attentive, and cheerful, he confuted more gracefully than others compliment; the tone of dogmatism and the smile of contempt were equally unknown to him. Sometimes, indeed, he raised himself stronger and more lofty in his eloquence; then chiefly, when, fearful for his weaker brethren, he opposed the arrogant of the illiterate deist, or the worse jargon of sensual and cold-blooded atheism. He knew that the clouds of ignorance which enveloped their understandings steamed up from the pollutions of their hearts, and, crowding his sails, he bore down upon them with salutary violence.

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7. But the qualities which most exalted John Henderson in the estimation of his friends were his high sense of honor and the great benevolence of his heart; not that honor which originates in a jealous love of the world's praise, nor that benevolence which delights only in publicity of well-doing. His honor was the anxious delicacy of a Christian, who regarded his soul as a sacred pledge, that must some time be re-delivered to the Almighty lender; his benevolence a circle, in which self indeed might be the centre, but all that lives was the circumference. This tribute of respect to thy name and virtues, my beloved Henderson is paid by one who was once proud to call thee tutor and friend, and who will do honor to thy memory till his spirit rests with thine! Lestimon

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8. Those who were unacquainted with John Henderson's character may naturally ask, "What test has he left the world of the distinguished talents thus ascribed to him?" None! He cherished a sentiment, which, whilst it teaches humility to the proud, explains the cause of that silence so generally regretted. Upon the writer of this brief notice once expressing to him some regret at his not having benefited mankind by the result of his deep and varied investigations, he replied, "More men become writers from ignorance than from knowledge, not knowing that they have been anticipated by others. Let us decide with cau tion, and write late." Thus the vastness and variety of his acquirements, and the diffidence of his own mental maturity, alike prevented him from illuminating mankind, till death called

him to graduate in a sphere more favorable to the range of his soaring and comprehensive mind. He died on a visit to Oxford, in November, 1788, in the thirty-second year of his age.

9. It would be wrong to close this brief account of John Henderson without naming two other excellences with which he was eminently endowed. First, the ascendency he had acquired over chis temper. There are moments in which most persons are susceptible of a transient irritability, but the oldest of his friends never beheld him otherwise than calm and collected. It was a condition he retained under all circumstances, and which, to those over whom he had any influence, he never failed forcibly to inimpresor culcate, together with that unshaken firmness of mind which encounters the unavoidable misfortunes of life without repining; and that from the noblest principle, a conviction that they are regulated by Him who cannot err, and who, in His severest allotments, designs only our ultimate good.

10. As a proof of his self-command, the following incident may be adduced. During his residence at Oxford, a student of a neighboring college, proud of his logical acquirements, was solicitous of a private disputation with the renowned Henderson. Some mutual friends introduced him, and, having chosen his subject, they conversed for some time with equal candor and moderation; but at length Henderson's antagonist, perceiving his confutation inevitable, in the height of passion threw a full glass of wine in John Henderson's face. Henderson, without altering his features or changing his position, gently wiped his face, and then coolly replied, "This, sir, is a digression; now for the argument." It is hardly necessary to add, the insult was resented by the companyturning the aggress'or out of the room.

11. In a letter from Oxford to my brother Amos, his late pupil, for whom John Henderson always entertained the highest esteem, he thus expresses himself: "See that you govern your passions. What should grieve us but our infirmities? What make us angry but our own faults? A man who knows he is mortal, and that all the world will pass away, and by and by seem only like a tale, -a sinner who knows his sufferings are all less than his sins, and designed to break him from them, who knows that everything in this world is a seed that will have its fruit in eternity, that God is the best, the only good friend, - that in Him is all we want, that everything is ordered for the best, so that it could not be better, however we take it. - he who believes this in his heart is happy."

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12. The other excellence referred to was the simplicity and condescension of his manners. From the gigantic stature of his understanding, he was prepared to trample down his pigmy com

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