To spurn a fame so dearly bought,—
This is high principle’s control,
This is true continence of soul.
Blush, heroes, at your cheap renown,
A vanquished realm, a plundered town
Your conquests were to gain a name—
This conquest triumphs over fame.”
“Florio” is a metrical tale of a young man of good principles and right feelings, who, from deference to fashion, has indulged in vanities and follies bordering on depravity, which he lays aside in disgust when virtue and good sense, in alliance with female loveliness, have made apparent to him the absurdity and danger of his aberrations. In the following extract the 148 reader will recognize some of the oft-quoted couplets of which we have spoken:—
“Exhausted Florio, at the age
When youth should rush on glory’s stage,