Dark lay her eyelid's jetty fringe Was ever vision half so sweet! Think, think how quick my heart-pulse beat, That moment's trembling happiness. A STUDY FROM THE ANTIQUE. BEHOLD, my love, the curious gem Some fair Athenian girl, perhaps, Upon her hand this gem display'd, Nor thought that time's succeeding lapse Should see it grace a lovelier maid. Look, dearest, what a sweet design! The more we gaze, it charms the more; Come-closer bring that cheek to mine, And trace with me its beauties o'er. Thou seest, it is a simple youth By some enamour'd nymph embrac'd —Look, as she leans, and say in sooth, Is not that hand most fondly plac'd? Upon his curled head behind It seems in careless play to lie,' Yet presses gently, half inclin'd To bring the truant's lip more nigh. Oh happy maid! too happy boy! The one so fond and little loath, 1 Somewhat like the symplegma of Cupid and Psyche at Florence, in which the position of Payche's hand is finely and delicately exsive of affection. See the Museum Florentinum, tom. ii. tab. 13,44 There are few subjects on which poetry could be more in The other yielding slow to joy Oh rare, indeed, but blissful both. Imagine, love, that I am he, And just as warm as he is chilling; Imagine, too, that thou art she, But quite as coy as she is willing: So may we try the graceful way In which their gentle arms are twin'd, And thus, like her, my hand I lay Upon thy wreath'd locks behind: And thus I feel thee breathing sweet, As slow to mine thy head I move; And thus our lips together meet, And thus, and thus, I kiss thee, love, - λιβανάτω είκασεν, ότι απολλυμένον ευφραίνει. ARISTOT. Rhetor. lib. iii. cap. 4. THERE's not a look, a word of thine, There never yet a murmur fell From that beguiling tongue, Which did not, with a ling'ring spell, Upon my charmed senses dwell, Like songs from Eden sung. Ah! that I could, at once, forget The lov'd remembrance go. No; if this slighted heart must see Its faithful pulse decay, "Twas thus in the shade of the Calabash-Tree, With a few, who could feel and remember like me, The charm that, to sweeten my goblet, I threw Was a sigh to the past and a blessing on you. Oh! say, is it thus, in the mirth-bringing hour, When friends are assembled, when wit, in full flower, Shoots forth from the lip, under Bacchus's dew, In blossoms of thought ever springing and new — Do you sometimes remember, and hallow the brim Of your cup with a sigh, as you crown it to him Who is lonely and sad in these valleys so fair, And would pine in elysium, if friends were not there! Last night, when we came from the Calabash- When my limbs were at rest and my spirit was free, The friends who were dear and beloved before, brary:" but there certainly are not materials for such a work. The island, since the time of its discovery, has experienced so very few vicissitudes, the people have been so indolent, and their trade so limited, that there is but little which the historian could amplify into importance; and, with respect to the natural productions of the country, the few which the inhabitants can be induced to cultivate are so common in the West Indies, that they have been described by every naturalist who has written any account of those islands. It is often asserted by the trans-Atlantic politicians that this little colony deserves more attention from the mother-country than it receives, and it certainly possesses advantages of situation, to which we should not be long insensible, if it were once in the hands of an enemy. I was told by a celebrated friend of Washington, at New York, that they had formed a plan for its capture towards the conclusion of the American War; "with the intention (as he expressed h.mself) of making it a nest of hornets for the annoyance of British trade in that part of the world." And there is no doubt it lies so conveniently in the track to the West Indies, that an enemy might with ease convert it into a very harassing impediment. The plan of Bishop Berkeley for a college at Bermuda, where American savages might be converted and educated, though concurred in by the government of the day, was a wild and useless speculation. Mr. Hamilton, who was governor of the island some years since, proposed, if I mistake not, the establishment of a marine academy for the instruction of those children of West Indiana, who might be intended for any nautical employment. This was a more rational idea, and for something of this nature the island is admirably calculated. But the plan should be much more exten Oh magic of love! unembellished by you, Hath the garden a blush or the landscape a hue ? Or shines there a vista in nature or art, Like that which Love opes thro' the eye to the heart? Alas, that a vision so happy should fade! That, when morning around me in brilliancy play'd, The rose and the stream I had thought of at night Should still be before me, unfadingly bright; While the friends, who had seem'd to hang over the stream, And to gather the roses, had fled with my dream. But look, where, all ready, in sailing array, The bark that's to carry these pages away, Impatiently flutters her wing to the wind, And will soon leave these islets of Ariel behind. What billows, what gales is she fated to prove, Ere she sleep in the lee of the land that I love! Yet pleasant the swell of the billows would be, And the roar of those gales would be music to me. Not the tranquillest air that the winds ever blew, Not the sunniest tears of the summer-eve dew, Were as sweet as the storm, or as bright as the foam Of the surge, that would hurry your wanderer home. THE STEERSMAN'S SONG, WRITTEN ABOARD THE BOSTON FRIGATE 28TH APRIL WHEN freshly blows the northern gale, And under courses snug we fly; Or when light breezes swell the sail. And royals proudly sweep the sky; sive, and embrace a general system of education; which would relieve the colonists from the alternative to which they are reduced at present, of either sending their sons to England for instruction, of intrusting them to colleges in the states of America, where icess. by no means favourable to Great Britain, are very sedulously inculcated. The women of Bermuda, though not generally handsome, have an affectionate languor in their look and manner, which is always interesting. What the French imply by their epithet mas seems very much the character of the young Bermudian girls — that predisposition to loving, which, without being awakened by any particular object, diffuses itself through the general manner is a tone of tenderness that never fails to fascinate. The men of the island, I confess, are not very civilised; and the old philosopher, who imagined that, after this life, men would be changed into mules, and women into turtle-doves, would find the metamorphos in some degree anticipated at Bermuda. 1 Mountains of Sicily, upon which Daphnis, the first inventor of bucolic poetry, was nursed by the nymphs. See the lively deserije tion of these mountains in Diodorus Siculns, lib. iv. *Hpava yas up? κατά την Σικελίαν εστιν, &ς τον καλλει, κ. τ. λο 2 A ship, ready to sail for England. 3 I left Bermuda in the Boston about the middle of April, in corepany with the Cambrian and Leander, aboard the latter of which was the Admiral, Sir Andrew Mitchell, who divides his year betwee Halifax and Bermuda, and is the very soul of society and good-forlowship to both. We separated in a few days, and the Boston, after a short cruise, proceeded to New York. 'Longside the wheel, unwearied still Port, my boy! port. When calms delay, or breezes blow My bliss with one that's far away, But see the wind draws kindly aft, TO THE LORD VISCOUNT FORBES. FROM THE CITY OF WASHINGTON. IF former times had never left a trace All hands are up the yards to square, TO Steady, boy! so. "But flow for all, through nation, rank, and sect, "Free as that heaven its tranquil waves reflect. "Around the columns of the public shrine "Shall growing arts their gradual wreath intwine, "Nor breathe corruption from the flow'ring braid, "Nor mine that fabric which they bloom to shade. "No longer here shall justice bound her view, "Or wrong the many, while she rights the few; "But take her range through all the social frame, "Pure and pervading as that vital flame "Which warms at once our best and meanest part, "And thrills a hair while it expands a heart!" Oh golden dream! what soul that loves to scan The bright disk rather than the dark of man, That owns the good, while smarting with the ill, And loves the world with all its frailty still, What ardent bosom does not spring to meet The generous hope, with all that heavenly heat, Which makes the soul unwilling to resign The thoughts of growing, even on earth, divine! Yes, dearest friend, I see thee glow to think The chain of ages yet may boast a link Of purer texture than the world has known, And fit to bind us to a Godhead's throne. But, is it thus? doth even the glorious dream Already has the child of Gallia's school 1 "What will be the old age of this government, if it is thus early decrepit!" Such was the remark of Fauchet, the French minister at Philadelphia, in that famous despatch to his government, which was intercepted by one of our cruisers in the year 1794. This curious memorial may be found in Porcupine's Works, vol. i. p. 279. It remains a striking monument of republican intrigue on one side, and republican profligacy on the other; and I would recommend the perusal of it to every honest politician, who may labour under a moment's delusion with respect to the purity of American patriotism. 2 "Nous voyons que, dans les pays où l'on n'est affecté que de l'esprit de commerce, on trafique de toutes les actions humaines et de toutes les vertus morales."- Montesquieu, de l'Esprit des Lois, liv. xx. chap. 2. 9 I trust I shall not be suspected of a wish to justify those arbitrary steps of the English government which the colonies found it Already blighted, with her black'ning trace, The op'ning bloom of every social grace, And all those courtesies, that love to shoot Round virtue's stem, the flow'rets of her fruit. And were these errors but the wanton tide As wrongly feel, because they feel too much; Long has the love of gold, that meanest rage, Already in this free, this virtuous state, Which, Frenchmen tell us, was ordain'd by fate, To show the world, what high perfection springs From rabble senators, and merchant kings,Even here already patriots learn to steal Their private perquisites from public weal, And, guardians of the country's sacred fire, Like Afric's priests, let out the flame for hire. Those vaunted demagogues, who nobly rose From England's debtors to be England's foes," Who could their monarch in their purse forget, And break allegiance, but to cancel debt," Have prov'd at length, the mineral's tempting hue, Which makes a patriot, can unmake him too. Oh! Freedom, Freedom, how I hate thy cant! Not Eastern bombast, not the savage rant Of purpled madmen, were they number'd all From Roman Nero down to Russian Paul, Eo necessary to resist; my only object here is to expose the selfish motive of some of the leading American demagogues. 4 The most persevering enemy to the interests of this country, amongst the politicians of the western world, has been a Virginian merchant, who, finding it easier to settle his conscience than har debts, was one of the first to raise the standard against Great Britain, and has ever since endeavoured to revenge upon the wh country the obligations which he lies under to a few of its mer chants. 5 See Porcupine's account of the Pennsylvania Insurrection in 1794. In short, see Porcupine's works throughout, for ample ecTOboration of every sentiment which I have ventured to express. It saying this, I refer less to the comments of that writer than to the occurrences which he has related and the documents which he ha preserved. Opinion may be suspected of bias, but facts speak for themselves. Could grate upon my ear so mean, so base, Who can, with patience, for a moment see The medley mass of pride and misery, Of whips and charters, manacles and rights, Of slaving blacks and democratic whites,' And all the piebald polity that reigns In free confusion o'er Columbia's plains? To think that man, thou just and gentle God! Should stand before thee with a tyrant's rod O'er creatures like himself, with souls from thee, Yet dare to boast of perfect liberty; Away, away-I'd rather hold my neck By doubtful tenure from a sultan's beck, In climes, where liberty has scarce been nam'd, Nor any right but that of ruling claim'd, Than thus to live, where bastard Freedom waves Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves; Where-motley laws admitting no degree Betwixt the vilely slav'd and madly freeAlike the bondage and the licence suit, The brute made ruler and the man made brute. But, while I thus, my friend, in flowerless song, So feebly paint, what yet I feel so strong, The ills, the vices of the land, where first Those rebel fiends, that rack the world, were nurst, Where treason's arm by royalty was nerv'd, Moulding thy fancy, and with gradual art Bright'ning the young conceptions of thy heart? Forgive me, Forbes - and should the song destroy One generous hope, one throb of social joy, ΤΟ THOMAS HUME, ESQ. M.D. FROM THE CITY OF WASHINGTON. Διηγήσομαι διηγήματα ίσως απιστα, κοινωνα ὧν πεπονθα ουκ έχων. XENOPHONT. EPHES. Ephesiac. lib. v. "Tis evening now, beneath the western star In fancy now, beneath the twilight gloom, And Frenchmen learn'd to crush the throne they Come, let me lead thee o'er this "second Rome!”3 serv'd Thou, calmly lull'd in dreams of classic thought, That bard hath fancied or that sage hath been. 1 In Virginia the effects of this system begin to be felt rather seriously. While the master raves of liberty, the slave cannot but eatch the contagion, and accordingly there seldom elapses a month without some alarm of insurrection amongst the negroes. The accession of Louisiana, it is feared, will increase this embarrassment; as the numerous emigrations, which are expected to take place, from the southern states to this newly acquired territory, will consideratly diminish the white population, and thus strengthen the proportion of negroes, to a degree which must ultimately be ruinous. 2 The "black Aspasia" of the present** of the United States, inter Avernales haud ignotissima nymphas, has Ten rise to much pleasantry among the anti-democrat wits in America. "On the original location of the ground now allotted for the west of the Federal City (says Mr. Weld), the identical spot on which the capitol now stands was called Rome. This anecdote is related by many as a certain prognostic of the future magnificence of this eity, which is to be, as it were, a second Rome.". - Weld's Travels, letter IT. Where tribunes rule, where dusky Davi bow, 4 A little stream runs through the city, which, with intolerable affectation, they have styled the Tiber. It was originally called Goose-Creek. 5 "To be under the necessity of going through a deep wood for one or two miles, perhaps, in order to see a next-door neighbour, and in the same city, is a curious and, I believe, a novel circumstance." Weld, letter iv. The Federal City (if it must be called a city) has not been much increased since Mr. Weld visited it. Most of the public buildings, which were then in some degree of forwardness, have been since utterly suspended. The hotel is already a ruin; a great part of its roof has fallen in, and the rooms are left to be occupied gratuitously by the miserable Scotch and Irish emigrants. The President's house, a very noble structure, is by no means suited to the philosophical humility of its present possessor, who inhabits but a corner of the mansion himself, and abandons the rest to a state of uncleanly desolation, which those who are not philosophers cannot look at without regret. This grand edifice is encircled by a very rude paling, through which a common rustic stile introduces the |