John Home
Published: 2015-07-04
Total Pages: 438
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Excerpt from The Works of John Home, Esq., Vol. 2 of 3: Now First Collected, to Which Is Prefixed an Account of His Life and Writings by Henry Mackenzie Prologue, Spoken by Mr Garrick. When Philip's son led forth his warlike band, To die, or conquer, in a distant land; To fan the fire, a martial muse he chose; From Homer's song a new Achilles rose! When generous Athens her prime trophies won, Vanquish'd Darius, and Darius' son, The stage breathed war - the soldier's bosom burn'd, And fiercer to the field each chief return'd: Now, when the world resounds with loud alarms, When victory sits plumed on Britain's arms, Be war our theme: the hero's glorious toil, And virtue springing from the iron soil! Our scenes present a siege in story known; Where magnanimity and valour shone: If nature guides us, if the hand of truth Draws the just portrait of a Roman youth, Who, with the best and noblest passions fired, In the same moment conquer'd and expired; Perhaps your hearts may own the pictured woe, And from a fonder source your sorrows flow: Whilst warm remembrance aids the poet's strain, And England weeps for English heroes slain. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.