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AN EXTRACT FROM PERCIVAL. 75 



With reference to attempts that have been made to deprive 

 the inventor of his rights, he can not refrain from quoting 

 from a poem of Percival, portions of which are appropriate 

 to the case in point, and which will be felt by any one who 

 has been in a similar way wronged, either in authorship or 

 invention. 



While thus they are intent * 



Alone on truth, conscious of that one pure 

 And single purpose, nor suspecting ill 

 Of such as they had trusted, thinking loo 

 The world was just, and none would dare to claim 

 What they revealed, — they find what they had won 

 By long and earnest toil, by other hands 

 Seized as their own, and shown with vain display 

 As their own trophy, with not even a hint 

 Whence they had stolen the prize. Is there a pang 

 Keener than that which runs through all the frame 

 When the high-minded spirit, who would shrink 

 Even from the touch of others' rights, first feels 

 The fruits of years of search, borne from his grasp, 

 And made the borrowed plumage, to adorn 

 The week and vain ? Yes, they are weak and vain; 

 Weak, for they cannot vindicate ther claim ; 

 And vain, for brief indeed is their display, — 

 And unsubstantial as the mists that shine 

 In the neio dawn, and melt as it ascends. 



Let none, then, venture to assume as his 

 The truths a better wins, by long research, 

 And a far train of thought, that such alone 

 Can sway and turn ; for he too soon will find 

 He cannot use them : they reject his hand, 

 And, self-conducted, seek their rightful lord. 



Irus may steal the exiled hero's bow 

 He cannot bend, and take the ponderous sword, 

 Too weighty for his arm — 



So have no fear, 

 Servant of Nature, that what gems she gives 

 Thee, from her hidden stores, will ever grace 



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-^bssSQ'B 



