KD46854 HARVAR ENTERED, according to act of Congress, in the year 1840, by JOHN D. SPALDING, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New-York. J. D. SPALDING, PR. TO THE PRESIDENTS, PROFESSORS AND STUDENTS OF UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES, AND TO THE PRINCIPALS, INSTRUCTERS AND PUPILS OF ACADEMIES AND CLASSICAL SCHOOLS, IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, THIS LITTLE VOLUME 18 INSCRIBED; THAT IT MAY FURNISH A MOTIVE, TO EXCITE THE YOUTH OF THIS COUNTRY, NOT ONLY TO THE DILIGENT AND ACCURATE STUDY, BUT ALSO TO THE THOROUGH ACQUISITION OF THE DEAD LANGUAGES; THE ATTAINMENT OF WHICH HAS, OF LATE YEARS, BECOME UNPOPULAR WITH A LARGE PORTION OF OUR COUNTRYMEN, TO THE GREAT LOSS OF MENTAL DISCIPLINE; AND THE SERIOUS INJURY OF THE INTERESTS OF LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. CONTENTS. Preface Page 5. Muscipula-The Mouse-trap. 10 & 11 Dr. Watts' Latin Ode--English translation 38 & 39 50 & 51 PREFACE. The most of the following poems were written between eighty and ninety years ago; and are the production of a respectable Physician, who died near the close of the last century. His manuscripts, which are voluminous, and on various subjects, both literary and scientifick, have remained in the hands of his family, to the present time; and the following selection has been made, merely as a specimen of poetick talent and literary acquirements. The fate of the residue will depend on the reception, with which this volume meets, from the American publick. The Author was a native of the State of New-York. He was educated at one of the oldest Colleges in this country, at which, he graduated at a very early age, and of which, he was afterwards an officer. After completing his professional studies and spending several years in the practice of medicine; with the view of qualify ing himself for more extensive usefulness in his profession, he voluntarily relinquished a lucrative practice, and the endearments of home, and embarked for Europe. In the course of the voyage, the packet in which he sailed was attacked by a French privateer, and our author was slightly wounded. He, however, arrived in safety, and remained nearly three years abroad, not lounging about the cities, or flying from kingdom to kingdom, merely to gratify an idle curiosity, or to make a boast of what he had seen and where he had been; but in the diligent prosecution of the object, for which he had left his native land and the home of his fond parents, of whom he was then their only surviving child. A large portion of his time was spent on the continent: and at one of the oldest universities, he received the degree of M. D. after undergoing a thorough examination, as his Diploma certifies, "per universam Medicinam ;" and delivering a Latin dissertation on an assigned Thesis; and defending the same, "prompte adversus Professorum opponentium argumenta objectionesque;" in compliance with the regulations of the Institution. He also resided several months in the city of London, where he attended a course of Anatomical Lectures, and enjoyed the privileges of one of the publick Hospitals. The associations, in which he was then placed, occasioned some of the most severe satires that ever proceeded from his pen. Having accomplished the object of his tour, procured some rare and highly valuable additions to his medical library, and furnished himself with surgical instruments, to an extent, possessed by few, at that period, in this country, he returned to his native State, where he continued in the diligent and successful exercise of his profession, to the time of his decease. Having been a hard student from his early years, and engaged in extensive professional occupation, in reference to which he continued to read and write with singular diligence, much of his leisure was devoted to literary pursuits. The success which attended these efforts may be inferred from the fact, that before he commenced his foreign travels, he had made himself master of seven different languages, several of which were so familiar to him, that he could converse or compose in them, with nearly the same facility, as in his mother-tongue. Hence, many of his MSS. are in those languages. As a literary curiosity, it is worthy of mention, that he has left a Latin versification of the CXVIIth Psalm, in all the varieties of metre, of the different Odes of Horace. Nor was his attention confined to mere matters of literature, but was directed, with equal interest, to those of a scientifick character. His MSS. show, that the subjects of Chemistry and Electricity, then in their infancy, and other branches of Natural Science had not only arrested his attention, but, led him to investigations and results that would be thought impracticable, with no other apparatus, than his own mechanical genius and skill constructed. From a very early age, our Author manifested a decided taste for poetry; and this species of composition constituted his principal relaxation, from the labours of study or professional engagements. Many of his MSS. were injured, and some entirely destroyed, in the revolutionary war; his house having been repeatedly plundered by the enemy, to whom he was peculiarly obnoxious, on account of his undisguised whig principles. Several poems of a patriotick character were published at that time; but owing to the existing circumstances of the country, they did not excite that attention, to which, it is believed, their merits entitled them. The occasion on which the CAMBROMYOMACHIA, the principal poem in this selection, was written, is unknown and from some remarks on a blank leaf of the translation, a doubt might arise, as to his intention of claiming its authorship. This circumstance, however, is fully explained, on the supposition, that he was preparing to publish it anonymously, which had been the uniform mode of all his former publications. |