How chang'd from him, who, bold as [lion, Stood Aid-de-Camp to Gov'rnor Tryon; Made rebels vanish once, like witches, And sav'd his life, but dropp'd his bree[ches! I scarce had made a fearful bow, And trembling ask'd him, "How d'ye [do?" When, lifting up his eyes so wide, (His eyes alone-his hands were ty'd ;) With feeble voice, as spirits use, Now almost choak'd with gripe of

[noose;

66

* Ah! fly, my friend," he cry'd, es

[cape,

And keep yourself from this sad scrape; Enough you've talk'd, and writ, and [plann'd;

The Whigs have got the upper hand. Dame Fortune's wheel has turn'd so [short,

"The pretences of the Highlanders to prophecy by second-sight are too well known to need an explanation."

*There is in this scene a general allusion to the appearance and speech of Hector's ghost, in the second book of the Eneid.

It plung'd us fairly in the dirt;

Could mortal arm our fears have ended,
This arm (and shook it) had defended.
But longer now 'tis vain to stay;
See ev'n the Reg'lars run away:
Wait not till things grow desperater,
For hanging is no laughing matter:
This might your grandsires' fortunes
[tell you on,
Who both were hang'd the last rebel-
[lion;

Adventure, then, no longer stay,
But call your friends, and run away.
For lo, through deepest glooms of night,
I come to aid thy second sight,
Disclose the plaugues that round us
[wait,

And wake the dark decrees of fate.
Ascend this ladder, whence unfurl'd,
The curtain opes of th' other world;
For here new worlds their scenes unfold,
Seen from this back-door of the old.*

*That the gallows is the back-door leading from this to the other world, is a perfectly new idea in Epic Poetry; unless the hint might have been taken from the rear-trumpet of Fame in Hudibras.

As when Æneas risq'd his life,
Like Orpheus vent'ring for his wife,
And bore in show his mortal carcass,
Through realms of Erebus and Orcus,
Then in the happy fields Elysian,
Saw all his embryo sons in vision :
As shown by great archangel, Michael,
Old Adam saw the world's whole sequel
And from the mount's extended space,
The rising fortunes of his race;
So from this stage shalt thou behold
The war its coming scenes unfold,
Rais'd by my arm to meet thine eye;
My Adam, thou; thine angel, I.`
But first my pow'r, for visions "bright,
Must cleanse from clouds thy mental

[sight, Remove the dim suffusions spread, Which bribes and sal'ries there have

[bred; And, from the well of Bute, infuse Three genuine drops of Highland dews, To pruge, like euphrasy and rue, Thine eyes, for much thou hast to view. "Now,freed from Tory darkness, raise, Thy head, and spy the coming days;

*See Milton's Paradise Lost, Book II.

For lo, before our second-sight;
The Continent ascends in light;
From north to south what gath'ring

[swarms
Increase the pride of rebel arms!
Through ev'ry State our legions brave
Speed gallant marches to the grave,
Of battling Whigs the frequent prize,
While rebel trophies stain the skies.
Behold, o'er nothern realms afar,*

*Nothing less than the whole History of the Am. War would be sufficient, completely to illustrate the merits of this single paragraph. Malcolm,the gallows-taught prophet, in preparing the mind of M Fingal to contemplate, with proper intelligence, the various scenes that are to rise successively to view in the course of the Vision, glances over the Continent, and mentions in this passage the principal scenes of action, from the expedition into Canada in 1775, to the capture of Lord Cornwallis in 1781. The concluding part of his speech is therefore a kind of argument to this whole book of Vision; in which the same objects are unfolded at large, with their attendant circumstances; in order that they make a proper impression on the

Extended the kindling flames of war!
See fam'd St. John's and Montreal,
Doom'd by Montgom'ry's arm to fall!
Where Hudson with majestic sway,
Through hills disparted ploughs his way,
Fate spreads on Bemus' Heights alarms,
And pours distruction on our arms;
There Bennington's ensanguin'd plain,
And Stony-Point, the prize of Wane.
Behold near Del'ware's icy roar,
Where morning dawns on Trenton's

[shore, While Hessians spread their Christmas

[feasts,

Rush rude these uninvited guests;

elevated mind of the great M'Fingal. It is thus that our Poet, like Homer, in his Iliad, seizes all occasions to do honor to his principal hero. By supposing him already possessed of all natural and political knowledge that could be obtained by mortal study and experiance, he makes him, like Achilles, capable of receiving instruction only by the agency of a super-terrestial power. The advisers of Achilles descended from the skies, that of M Fingal is mounted towards the skies.