Lash the reluctant beam, the cable splice,
Join the firm dove-tail with adjustment nice,
Through yawning fissures urge the willing wedge,
Or give the smoothing adze a sharper edge.
-Or, group'd in fairy bands, with playful care,
The unconscious bullet to the furnace bear ;-
Or gaily tittering, tip the match with fire,
Prime the big mortar, bid the shell aspire;
Applaud, with tiny hands, and laughing eyes,
And watch the bright destruction as it flies.

Now the fierce forges gleam with angry glare—
The windmill* waves his woven wings in air;
Swells the proud sail, the exulting streamers fly,
Their nimble fins unnumber'd paddles ply:
-Ye soft airs breathe, ye gentle billows waft,

And, fraught with Freedom, bear the expected Raft!

fectly imitated from the following exquisite passage in the Economy of Vegetation: Gnomes, as you now dissect, with hammers fine,

The granite rock, the noduled flint calcine;

Grind with strong arm, the circling chertz betwixt,
ka-o-lins and Pe-tunt-ses mixt.

Your

pure

Canto 2. 1. 297.

* The windmill, &c.-This line affords a striking instance of the sound conveying an echo to the sense. I would defy the most unfeeling reader to repeat it over, without accompanying it by some corresponding gesture imitative of the action

described.-Editor.

-Perch'd on her back, behold the Patriot train,
Muir, Ashley, Barlow, Tone, O'Connor, Paine ;
While Tandy's hand directs the blood-empurpled rein.

Ye Imps of Murder, guard her angel form,
Check the rude surge, and chase the hovering storm;

Shield from contusive rocks her timber limbs,

And guide the sweet Enthusiast * as she swims!

—And now, with web-foot oars, she gains the land,
And foreign footsteps press the yielding sand:
-The Communes spread, the gay Departments smile,
Fair Freedom's Plant o'ershades the laughing isle:
-Fired with new hopes, the exulting peasant sees
The Gallic streamer woo the British breeze;
While, pleased to watch its undulating charms,
The smiling infant† spreads his little arms.

*Sweet Enthusiast, &c.-A term usually applied in allegoric or technical poetry, to any person or object to which no other qualifications can be assigned.--Chambers's Dictionary.

The smiling infant-Infancy is particularly interested in the diffusion of the new principles. See the " Bloody Buoy;"-see also the following description and prediction:

Here Time's huge fingers grasp his giant mace,

And dash proud Superstition from her base;

Ye Sylphs of DEATH, on demon pinions flit
Where the tall Guillotine is raised for Pitt:

To the poised plank tie fast the monster's back,*
Close the nice slider, ope the expectant sack;
Then twitch, with fairy hands, the frolic pin-
Down falls the impatient axe with deafening din ;
†The liberated head rolls off below,

And simpering Freedom hails the happy blow!

*The monster's back-Le Monstre Pitt, l'ennemi du genre humain.-See Debates

of the Legislators of the Great Nation, passim.

+ Atque illud prono præceps agitur decursus.-Catullus.

No. XXVII.

MAY 14.

The gallant defence of the Isles of St. Marcou, would justify a more serious celebration than is attempted in the following Poem; and the modest and unassuming manner in which Lieutenant PRICE gives the account of Services so highly meritorious, adds to the hope which we entertain, that he will meet a more solid reward, than any Verse of ours, or of our Correspondent's, could bestow. Citizen Muskein, if he understands Horace, and can read English, will be amply rewarded for the Victory of which he has, no doubt, by this time made a pompous Report to the Directory, by the perusal of the 14th Ode of the 1st Book, for which we have to return our thanks to a classical Correspondent.

A CONSOLATORY ADDRESS TO HIS GUN-BOATS.

BY CITIZEN MUSKEIN.

O Navis, referent in mare te novi fluctus.
O GENTLE GUN-BOATS, whom the Seine
Discharged from Havre to the main ;
Now leaky, creaking, blood-bespatter'd,
With rudders broken, canvas shatter'd-
O tempt the treacherous sea no more,
But gallantly regain the shore.

Scarce could our guardian Goddess, Reason,
Ensure your timbers through the season:
Though built of wood from famed Marseilles,
Well mann'd from galleys, and from jails;
Though with Lepaux's, and Rewbell's aid,
By Pleville's skill your keel was laid;
Though lovely Stael, and lovelier Stone,*
Have work'd their fingers to the bone,
And cut their petticoats to rags

To make your bright Three-Colour'd Flags ;
Yet sacrilegious grape and ball

Deform the works of Stone and Stael,

And trembling, without food or breeches,

Our sailors curse the painted

O Navis, referent in mare te novi

Fluctus. O quid agis?-fortiter occupa
Portum. Nonne vides, ut

Nudum remigio latus,

Et malus celeri saucius Africo,

Antennæque gemant? Ac sine funibus

Vix durare carinæ

Possint imperiosius

Æquor? Non tibi sunt integra lintea;

Non Dii, quos iterum pressa voces malo;

Quamvis Pontica pinus,

Silvæ filia nobilis,

Stone-better known by the name of Williams.

+ We decline printing this rhyme at length, from obvious reasons of delicacy;

X