[From ‘English Songs, and other Poems, by Barry Cornwall.’]
Weave, brothers, weave!--Swiftly throw
The shuttle athwart the loom,
And show us how brightly your flowers grow,
That have beauty but no perfume!
Come, show us the rose, with a hundred dyes,
The lily, that hath no spot;
The violet, deep as your true love’s eyes,
And the little forget-me-not!
Sing,--sing, brothers! weave and sing!
’Tis good both to sing, and to weave
’Tis better to work than live idle.
’Tis better to sing than grieve.
Weave, brothers, weave!--Weave, and bid
The colours of sunset glow!
Let grace in each gliding thread be hid!
Let beauty about ye blow!
Let your skein be long, and your silk be fine,
And your hands both firm and sure,
And time nor chance shall your work untwine;
But all,--like a truth,--endure!--
So,--sing, brothers, &c.
Weave, brothers, weave!--Toil is ours;
But toil is the lot of men:
One gathers the fruit, one gathers the flowers,
One soweth the seed again:
There is not a creature, from England’s King,
To the peasant that delves the soil,
That knows half the pleasures the seasons bring,
If he have not his share of toil!
So,--sing, brothers, &c.
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_Dances: the Tarantula._--“The Peccorara and Tarantella are the dances
of Calabria: the latter is generally adopted throughout the kingdom of
Naples. The music accompanying it is extravagant and without melody: it
consists of some notes, the movement of which is always increasing, till
it ends in producing a convulsive effort. Two persons placed opposite to
each other make, like a pair of savages, wild contortions and indecent
gestures, which terminate in a sort of delirium. This dance, originating
in the city of Tarentum, has given rise to the fable of the Tarantula,
whose venomous bite, it is pretended, can be cured only by music and
hard dancing. Many respectable persons who have resided for a long time
in the city of Tarentum, have assured me that they never witnessed any
circumstance of the kind, and that it could be only attributed to the
heat and insalubrity of the climate, which produce nervous affections
that are soothed and composed by the charms of music. The Tarantula is a
species of spider that is to be found all over the South of Italy. The
Calabrians do not fear it, and I have often seen our soldiers hold it in
their hands without any bad effects ensuing.”--_Calabria, during a
Military Residence_
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_Property._--The advantages of the acquisition of property are two-fold;
they are not merely to be estimated by the pecuniary profit produced,
but by the superior tone of industry and economy which the possessor
unconsciously acquires. When a man is able to call _his own_ that which
he has obtained by his own well-directed exertion, this power at once
causes him to feel raised in the scale of being, and endows him with the
capability of enlarging the stock of his possessions. A cottager having
a garden, a cow, or even a pig, is much more likely to be an industrious
member of society than one who has nothing in which he can take an
interest during his hours of relaxation, and who feels he is of no
consequence because he has nothing which he can call _his own_. The
impressions which have been produced upon the minds of the peasantry, by
affording them the means of acquiring property and of possessing objects
of care and industry, are great, unqualified, and unvaried. In every
instance the cottager has been rendered more industrious, the wife more
active and managing, the children better educated, and more fitted for
their station in life.
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_A Golden Rule._--Industry will make a man a purse, and frugality will
find him strings for it. Neither the purse nor the strings will cost him
anything. He who has it should only draw the strings as frugality
directs, and he will be sure always to find a useful penny at the bottom
of it. The servants of industry are known by their livery; it is always
_whole_ and _wholesome_. Idleness travels very leisurely, and poverty
soon overtakes him. Look at the _ragged slaves_ of _idleness_, and judge
which is the best master to serve--INDUSTRY or IDLENESS.
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