THE GREAT WORLD-MAKER. 47 remained but a wilderness; for all the magnificent, the wonderful, the elegant, or the luxurious enterprises of the world have been initiated by poverty. But for poverty, the earth would not have been dug, nor wildernesses penetrated, nor forests felled, nor colonies established, nor flax, cotton, and silk wove or spun, nor all the necessaries and elegances of an easy and slothful life ever produced. In the realms of literature, poverty has so immutably been at work, as the source of all success, that, with the exception of Rogers and Byron, so far as our memory leads us to believe, there is no name to which a history of absolute want is not attached: with many has been associated even a melancholy fate. It is only now, when times are changed, that Bulwer has gained a fortune by his writings, and Thackeray and Dickens live in palaces erected by the profits of their own But less than two hundred years ago, Lovelace and Butler died of want; Otway choked himself with a piece of bread which he was greedily devouring to appease his hunger; Savage wrote his poetry on scraps of paper picked out of the gutter, and expired in a jail without a farthing for his interment; Dryden was forced to die in harness; and even in more pens. recent days that inspired boy, of whom Coleridge sung, as "Sublime of hope and confident of fame," after having been many days without food, poisoned himself, to put an end to his miserable days; and it is barely twelve years ago that the promising Thom of Inverary played the beggar's flute in the public street, and died behind a hedge, succumbing under the cold of falling snows! But apart from this melancholy and misery, it will not pass unnoticed that poverty, which seems to the superficialist so unwholesome, puts all our energies into action; and wherever we look, whatever department of human labour we search in, we invariably find that it is only the poverty-stricken who have achieved success and renown. There is a just and adequate picture drawn of poverty in the "Consuelo" of George Sand, translated by Mrs. Child; it is well worthy the serious consideration of every individual, and we give it here:- "Paths sanded with gold, verdant heaths, ravines loved by the wild-goats, great mountains crowned with stars, wandering torrents, impenetrable forests, let the good goddess pass through-the Goddess of Poverty! THE GOOD GODDESS OF POVERTY. 49 "Since the world existed, since men have been, she traverses the world, she dwells among men: she travels singing, and she sings working-the goddess, the good Goddess of Poverty! "Some men assembled to curse her. They found her too beautiful, too gay, too nimble, and too strong. Pluck out her wings,' said they; 'chain her, bruise her with blows, that she may suffer, that she may perish-the Goddess of Poverty!' They have chained the good goddess, they have beaten and persecuted her; but they cannot disgrace her. She has taken refuge in the soul of poets, in the soul of peasants, in the soul of martyrs, in the soul of saints--the good goddess, the Goddess of Poverty! "She has walked more than the wandering Jew; she has travelled more than the swallow; she is older than the cathedral of Prague; she is younger than the egg of the wren; she has multiplied more upon the earth than strawberries in Bohemian forests-the goddess, the good Goddess of Poverty! "She has many children, and she teaches them the secret of God. She talked to the heart of Jesus, upon the mountains; to the eyes of the Queen of Libussa, when she became enamoured of a labourer; to the spirit of John and of Jerome, upon the funeral pile of Constance. She knows more than all the doctors and all the bishops-the good Goddess of Poverty! "She always makes the grandest and most beautiful that we see upon the earth; it is she who has cultivated the fields and pruned the trees; it is she who tends the flocks singing the most beautiful airs; it is she who sees the first peep of dawn, and receives the last smile of evening-the good Goddess of Poverty! "It is she who builds the cabin of the woodcutter with green boughs, and gives to the poacher the glance of the eagle; it is she who rears the most beautiful urchins, and makes the spade and the plough light in the hands of the old man--the good Goddess of Poverty! "It is she who inspires the poet, and makes the violin, the guitar, and the flute, eloquent under the fingers of the wandering artist; it is she who carries him on her light wing, from the source of the Moldan to that of the Danube; it is she who crowns his hair with pearls of dew, and makes the stars shine for him large and more clear-the goddess, the good Goddess of Poverty! THE GOOD GODDESS OF POVERTY. 51 "It is she who instructs the ingenious artizan who teaches him to hew stone, to carve marble, to fashion gold, silver, brass, and iron; it is she who renders the flax supple and fine as a hair, from the fingers of the old mother, or of the young girl--the good Goddess of Poverty! "It is she who sustains the cottage shaken by the storm; it is she who saves rosin for the torch, and oil for the lamp; it is she who kneads bread for the family, and weaves garments for summer and winter; it is she who feeds and maintains the world—the good Goddess of Poverty! "It is she who has built the grand churches and the old cathedrals; it is she who carries the sabre and the gun, who makes war and conquests. It is she who collects the dead, tends the wounded, and hides the conqueredthe good Goddess of Poverty ! "Thou art all patience, all strength, and compassion, O, good goddess! It is thou who unitest all thy children in a holy love, and who givest to them faith, hope, charity-O, Goddess of Poverty! Thy children will cease one day to carry the world upon their shoulders; they will be |