St. Hippolytus, Bp. 3d Cent. St. Symphorian, A. D. 178. St. Timothy, A. D. 311. St. Andrew, Deacon, A. D. 880. St. Philibert, Abbot, A. D. 684.
Chronology.
On the 22d of August, 1818, Warren Hastings, late governor-general of India, died; he was born in 1733. His government in India, the subject of parliamentary impeachment, which cost the nation above a hundred thousand pounds, and himself more than sixty thousand, is generally admitted to have been conducted with advantage to the interests of the native powers, and the East India company. His translation of Horace’s celebrated ode, beginning, “Otium divos rogat,” &c., is admitted to be superior to all others:—
Imitation of Horace, Book xvi., Ode 2
On the Passage from Bengal to England.
For ease the harassed seaman prays,
When equinoctial tempests raise
The Cape’s surrounding wave;
When hanging o’er the reef he hears
The cracking mast, and sees or fears,
Beneath, his watery grave.
For ease the slow Mahratta spoils
And hardier Sic erratic toils,
While both their ease forego;
For ease, which neither gold can buy,
Nor robes, nor gems, which oft belie
The covered heart, bestow;
For neither gold nor gems combined
Can heal the soul, or suffering mind:
Lo! where their owner lies;
Perched on his couch distemper breathes
And care, like smoke, in turbid wreathes
Round the gay ceiling flies.
He who enjoys, nor covets more,
The lands his father held before,
Is of true bliss possessed;
Let but his mind unfettered tread,
Far as the paths of knowledge lead,
And wise as well as blest.
No fears his peace of mind annoy,
Lest printed lies his fame destroy,
Which laboured years have won;
Nor packed committees break his rest,
Nor av’rice sends him forth in quest
Of climes beneath the sun.
Short is our span; then why engage
In schemes, for which man’s transient age
Was ne’er by fate designed?
Why slight the gifts of nature’s hand?
What wanderer from his native land
E’er left himself behind?