PROGRESS OF MAN.

EXTRACT.

HAIL! beauteous lands* that crown the Southern Seas; Dear happy seats of Liberty and Ease!

Hail! whose green coasts the peaceful ocean laves, Incessant washing with his watery waves?

Delicious islands! to whose envied shore

Thee, gallant Cook! the ship Endeavour + bore.

There laughs the sky, there zephyr's frolic train, And light-wing'd loves, and blameless pleasures reign: There, when two souls congenial ties unite, No hireling Bonzes chant the mystic rite; Free every thought, each action unconfined, And light those fetters which no rivets bind.

* The ceremony of invocation (in Didactic Poems especially) is in some measure analogous to the custom of drinking toasts: the corporeal representatives of which are always supposed to be absent, and unconscious of the irrigation bestowed upon their names. Hence it is, that our Author addresses himself to the natives of an island who are not likely to hear, and who, if they did, would not understand him.

+ His Majesty's ship Endeavour.

There in each grove, each sloping bank along, And flow'rs and shrubs and odorous herbs among, Each shepherd * clasp'd, with undisguised delight, His yielding fair one,-in the Captain's sight: Each yielding fair, as chance or fancy led, Preferr❜d new lovers to her sylvan bed.

Learn hence, each nymph, whose free aspiring mind

Europe's cold laws, † and colder customs ‡ bind—
O! learn, what Nature's genial laws decree--
What Otaheite § is, let Britain be!

*In justice to our author we must observe, that there is a delicacy in this picture, which the words, in their common acceptation, do not convey. The amours of an English shepherd would probably be preparatory to marriage (which is contrary to our Author's principles), or they might disgust us by the vulgarity of their object. But in Otaheite, where the place of shepherd is a perfect sinecure (there being no sheep on the island) the mind of the reader is not offended by any disagreeable allusion.

Laws made by Parliaments, or Kings.

Customs voted or imposed by ditto, not the customs here alluded to.

§ M. Bailly and other astronomers, have observed, that in consequence of the varying obliquity of the Ecliptic, the climates of the circumpolar and tropical climates may, in process of time, be materially changed. Perhaps it is not very likely that even by these means Britain may ever become a small island in the South Seas. But this is not the meaning of the verse-the similarity here proposed, relates to manners, not to local

situation.

Of WHIST OF CRIBBAGE mark the amusing game-
The Partners changing, but the SPORT the same.
Else would the Gamester's anxious ardour cool,
Dull every deal, and stagnant every pool.

-Yet must one * Man, with one unceasing Wife,
Play the LONG RUBBER of connubial life.

Yes! human laws, and laws esteem'd divine,
The generous passion straiten and confine;
And, as a stream, when art constrains its course,
Pours its fierce torrent with augmented force,
So, Passion + narrow'd to one channel small,
Unlike the former, does not flow at all.
-For Love then only flaps his purple wings,
When uncontroll'd by Priestcraft or by Kings.

Such the strict rules that, in these barbarous climes, Choke youth's fair flow'rs, and feelings turn to crimes: And people every walk of polish'd life, +

With that two-headed monster, MAN and WIFE.

*The word one here, means all the inhabitants of Europe (excepting the French, who have remedied this inconvenience), not any particular individual. The Author begs leave to disclaim every allusion that can be construed as personal.

As a stream-simile of dissimilitude, a mode of illustration familiar to the ancients.

Kensington Gardens,”

Yet bright examples sometimes we observe,
Which from the general practice seem to swerve;
Such as presented to Germania's * view,

A Kotzbue's bold emphatic pencil drew ;
Such as, translated in some future

age,
Shall add new glories to the British stage;
-While the moved audience sit in dumb despair,
"Like Hottentots,+ and at each other stare."

With look sedate, and staid beyond her years,
In matron weeds a Housekeeper appears.
The gingling keys her comely girdle deck-
Her 'kerchief colour'd, and her apron check.
Can that be Adelaide, that "soul of whim,"
Reform'd in practice, and in manner prim?
—On household cares intent,‡ with many a sigh
She turns the pancake, and she moulds the pie;
Melts into sauces rich the savoury ham
From the crush'd berry strains the lucid jam ;

* Germania-Germany; a country in Europe, peopled by the Germani; alluded to in Cæsar's Commentaries, page 1, Vol. 2. edit. prin.-See also several Didactic Poems.

+ A beautiful figure of German literature. The Hottentots remarkable for staring at each other.-God knows, why.

This delightful and instructive picture of domestic life is recommended to all keepers of Boarding Schools, and other seminaries of the same nature.

Bids brandied cherries,* by infusion slow,
Imbibe new flavour, and their own forego,
Sole cordial of her heart, sole solace of her woe!
While still, responsive to each mournful moan,
The saucepan simmers in a softer tone.

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It is a singular quality of brandied cherries, that they exchange their flavour for that of the liquor in which they are immersed. See Knight's Progress of Civil Society.