His most ambitious work was dedicated in periods of unctuous piety
to his Majesty King George III., and the book's first sentence is
characteristic of his method and sensibility: 'In contemplating the
origin, rise, and fall of nations, the mind is alternately filled with
a mixture of sacred pain and pleasure.' Would you read further? Then you
will find Fauna and Flora, twin goddesses of ineptitude, flitting across
the page, unreadable as a geographical treatise. His first masterpiece
was translated into French, anno VI., and the translator apologises that
war with England alone prevents the compilation of a suitable biography.
Was ever thief treated with so grave a consideration?
Then another work was prefaced by the Right Hon. William Eden, and
all were 'embellished with beautiful coloured plates,' and ran through
several editions. Once only did he return to poetry, the favoured medium
of his youth, and he returned to write an imperishable line. Even then
his pedantry persuaded him to renounce the authorship, and to disparage
the achievement. The occasion was the opening of a theatre at Sydney,
wherein the parts were sustained by convicts. The cost of admission to
the gallery was one shilling, paid in money, flour, meat, or spirits.
The play was entitled The Revenge and the Hotel, and Barrington provided
the prologue, which for one passage is for ever memorable. Thus it runs:
From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we come,
Though not with much eclat or beat of drum;
True patriots we, for be it understood,
We left our country for our country's good.
Pages:
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162