COMPRISING ANECDOTES OF ANCIENT MINSTRELSY, ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE
4 TRISI MELODIES. »
NOTWITHSTANDING the number of literary men to Had Mr Moore done no more than this, he whom Ireland has given birth, there is very little would be entitled to the gratitude of his counconnected with their names which conveys to us trymen; but his gevius, like his own Peri, seems any thing of a national association ; for the land never pleased, but while hovering over the reof their nativity scarcely enjoys a single ray of gion he loves; or if it makes a short excursion, that brilliant mind, which sheds its intellectual it is only in the hope of securing some advantage brightness over the sister country. Congreve was that may accelerate the removal of those disqnaan apostate, and Swift only by accident a patriot; lifications, which are supposed to exclude happiness whilst Goldsmith was weak enough to affect an from the limits of his country. In • Lalla Rookh. air of contempt for a people whose accent was he has given his fire-worshippers the wrongs and indelibly stamped on his tongue. We could pro- feelings of Irishmen; while, in the « Memoirs of tract the list of her ungrateful and thoughtless Captain Rock,» he has accomplished a most diffi. men of mind, even to our own day; but the cult task — written a history of Ireland that has task would be invidious, and we gladly turn from been read. it to one who forms a splendid exception-one On such grounds we may well claim for Mr who is not ashamed of Ireland, and of whom Iro- Moore what he deserves--the crown of patriotism; land is justly proud.
but it is not on this head alone he is entitled to Land of the Muse ! in glory's lay,
our praise. As a poet, since the lamented death In history's leaf thy name shall soar, of Byron, he stands al.post without a competitor; When, like a meteor's noxious ray, and as a prose-writer, he is highly respectable.
The reign of tyranny is o'er ;
Immortal names have honour'd thee-
Mr Moore is the only son of the late Mr Garret
A Sheridan, a Wellesley:
Moore, formerly a respectable tradesman in DubAnd still is beaming round thy sbore lin, where our poet was born on the 28th of May, The spirit bright of Liberty,
1780. He has two sisters; and his infantine days For thou canst boast a patriot, Moore !
seem to have left the most agreeable impressions Mr Moore is every way an Irishman, in heart, on his memory. In an epistle to his eldest sisin feelings, and in principles. For his country ter, dated November, 1803, and written from he has done more than any man living: he has Norfolk in Virginia, he retraces with delight their associated her name, her wrongs, and her attri- childhood, and describes the endearments of butes, with poetry and music, peither of which home, with a sensibility as exquisite as that which can ever die, while taste, patriotisin, and literature breathes through the lines of Cowper on receivsubsist in the world; and whilst these survive, ing his mother's picture. Ireland will forin the theme of Beauty's song, and He acquired the rudiments of an excellent Irish music the charm of every cultivated mind. education under the care of the late Mr Samuel But, all extrinsic circumstances apart, there is in Whyte, of Grafton-street, Dublin, a gentleman the melodies of Mr Moore a sacred fire, which cov- extensively known and respected as the early tuveys its vividness to the soul of his readers; and tor of Sheridan. He eviuced such talent in early ihey must be made of sterner stuff than the ordi- life, as determined his father to give him the adnary race of men, if their bosoms do not glow with vantages of a superior education, and at the early liberal and patriotic enthusiasm, while they pe- age of fourteen, he was entered a student of Triruse the harmonious creations of a poet who has nity College, Dublin. clothed the wild and eccentric airs of his coun- Mr Moore was greatly distinguished while at try in words that burn, and sentiments that find the University, by an enthusiastic attachment to an echo in every generous breast.
the liberty and independence of his country,