A BURIAL AT SEA. 233 



Talking of the Hedge Schools, as they are called ; i. e. such as 

 are found in the meanest situations, Mr. Moore describes the course 

 of their classical instruction in the following words. 1st, in History, 

 "Annals of Irish Rogues and Rapparees;" 2nd, in Biography, 

 " Memoirs of Jack the Bachelor, " a notorious smuggler, and of 

 " Freny," a celebrated highwayman ; 3rd, in Theology, " Pastorin- 

 ies' prophecies," and the " Miracles of Prince Hohenloe ; " 4thly, in 

 Poetry, " Ovid's Art of Love," and " Paddy's Resource ; " 5thly, 

 in Romance reading, " Don Belianis of Greece," " Moll Flanders," 

 &c., &c. 



From this assortment of mental cultivation, it is evident that the 

 taste for reading is not always an unbalanced good. And that lite- 

 rary education is not a substitute for a moral one; but the higher 

 the literary attainments the greater the necessity that a higher moral 

 power should be exerted. Yet we find that, for ages, the Irish pea- 

 sant was acquiring learning only to fill his mind with the most 

 desperate and depraved information. I am happy to say that a 

 spirit of better instruction is in successful progress. I hope no state 

 quackery may impede its march. 



FUNEREAL SKETCHES, No. XIX. 

 A BURIAL AT SEA. 



The island shore is flat and low, 

 Where wavelets ripple too and fro, 

 For, hid within the coral strand 

 That girdles round this narrow land, 

 So low, some curious wight erewhile 

 Had named the place the Drowned Isle :* 

 Scarce seen, the seaman's watch a-lee 

 Lost its bright ridges in the sea, 

 Save when, as stirred the tropic air, 

 Stirred the wild war of surges there 

 That beat amain, like Age in grief, 

 Their hoary tresses on the reef; 

 Or save, as far as eye might reach, 

 The bushy mangroves lined the beach, 

 And cast a verdant fan at noon 

 Their freshness down the bright lagoon, 



'Tis night ! and not a star to smile, 

 As beacon, o'er the Mangrove isle, 



* ANEGADA, or the Drowned Island, is the Northernmost of the Antilles. 

 VOL. III. 1834 H 



