l«35 HoUinger Corp. pH8.5 \ yJJy^ V O E T R Y, ^ ORIGINAL AND COMPILED, WITH ^,_ ^ , __ _ . ^ > A/ METAPR7SI0AI. SKETOHSS AKD ANECDOTES. -^2-^^ BY N. P. JOHNSTON PS 2144 .J4 1835 Copy 1 {Copy right secured.) BOSTON : PRINTED rOR THE ATMHOK. 1835. J ^ tf.'^^' -^ OV > 2- 2 ys \ POETRY. The Lion, Op form erect in shaggy mane, The lion reigns alone; The wild — the wilderness — the plaih^ By prowess makes his own. He rules, he kills— but kills to eat As food to satisfy ; And leaved the oris for others' meat, To quench their hunger by. No prowling beast dares interfere, Long as he's on the prey ; For he might in an instant tear It from the light of day. No beast, nor fowl, his power can claim, Of all the regions wild : No beast, nor fowl that's wild or tame On earth — n^ajestic pile. Dwellers in the Country; their Sabbafh. Lovely the scene as orient tints disclose Their Sabbath holy !— when, from sweet repose, With purest hearts they rise and soar in prayer. Disrobed of carnal and domestic care . In guarded acts they cheerful pass the morn. And as the hallowed moments flow along, Bedizen in cleanly garb they wincj their way To yonder spire which glistens in the ray. In foot-paths walled with clustered vines they tread, Then thwart the pasture-plain and downy mead ; While limb to limb the yareful squirrel vaults, And, for to gaze awhile, as yareful halts : Attendant too, the plumy natives are, — The grazing herd, the several flocks are there. Now,in the Temple, with the goodly Priest, They have arrived ; and, bustle having ceased, Do bend in prayer as Christian like, do sing: E'en the coy biding with their praises ring ! purest Eden ! — if impure can praise, — Thou wast elysian, as the Scripture says. Jtfore magic the predominance of Judicious Reason, Yes, magic more than vernal prospect seems, When erst the sun across the foliage gleams. From whence — and as — each nymph of matin light Unfolds her rich embroidery to sight ; Or, than their hues that tint the western zone. Ere mantling eve resumes her latent throne ; Or than her shade that studded gives the scene Of countless spangles, restless and serene, — Circling, forth sparkling from the skies expanse. Of mystic movement, not unmeaning chance : Or, than the moon, the welkin queen appears, High bland in air of August eves endears, — Than she, when crystal clad of fullest form — Of chastened mein doth live the arch along : Is magic more within the Human Kind, When Reason's solemn noiseless substance rules the mind. ^ Steamboat. See ! it is coming to the key, With passengers on board : See ! once more it has arrived, And through the waters oared. 'Gainst wind and tide this boat With powerful speed will fly ; In raging noise and dashing wave, Tremendous to the ear and eye ! But, while huzzas in jovial freak, May from the crew arise ; Belike, at once, the caldron bursts ! And every pleasure dies. Then, hapless, helpless on the deck Might many a victim lie ; Expecting every moraeni to Breathe out this life for aye. " The Minute Gun at Sea. Let them who sigh in sadness here, Rejoice, and know a friend is near : — What heavenly sounds are those I hear ! What being comes the gloom to cheer ? — When in the storm on Albion's coast, , The night watch guards his weary post, From thoughts of danger free ; He marks some vessel's flashy form, And hears amid the howling storm, The minute gun at sea. Swift from the shore a hardy few — The life-boat man with a gallant crew, And dare the dangerous wave ; Through the wild surf they Cleave their #a(y^ Lost in the foam, nor know dismay, 6, For they go the crew to save. — Then, oh ! what rapture iills each breast, Of the hapless crew of the ship distressed ; When landed safe, what joys to tell, Of all the dangers that befel ! Now, is heard no more, by the watch on the shore, The minute gun at sea." For Tyranny of late has cunning grown, Poland is fallen ! As she fell. Her sounding arms^ the passing bell ! A breathing begged ? — No being breathed A paltry wish, the boon to crave : But, like of yore, their steels unsheathed, Their souls to own, or dying, save. When erst her cry in bugle high. Each champion spurred him on to die, — " Undying this, if Virtue we Uphold ; — be teaching Liberty ! Have aught a charm — would earth or sky, If cowered we from Victory ?" ^^ Ask not !" — '' Unasked of foefhan's eye ! Unheard, unknown, the parting sigh, — But, Russians, ye a gallant train, Bv sordid avarice bidden here : Befooled, ye dye the burnished spear ! 'Tis bootless ! then must subjects bleed ?" Ay tyranny — and wait the meed. — Thunder ! and blending blaze and blades Glare brazen ! lo ! the horrid shades Wrap raging and the reeling man — But darkness hides, — Save, limbed upon the smoky flood, Or, vaulting from its sable sides. The mangled, ploughing, pitching stud — The trammelled rider, eke in blood — Blurred in the battle ; that roaring still, Shook under earth ; — the distant hill Back brays re-echoing war ! Meads quiver, hollows, rocky crags, Yell numbers from their serrate jaggs, That onw^ard, downward, and afar, , Do bellowing whirl ! The rumbling jar, Now mumbling in tombs, the martyred dead, Roused, wakened from their ashes bed, Reared upward, and '' immortal" — said, "IsPola^nd!" The loss of Poland ; — and Polish Exiles. In noble defiance for freedom forthstood ; Ye did what lofty humanity could ! Aught left was undone, that was pious and brave, Your country, your kindred, from thraldom to save? Alas/ unavailing, foes compassed the soil; Did inward upon you to rapine and spoil — To spoil you of freedom ! too deep was the deed ! Still deep, for in exile the innocent bleed ; Deep wounded, they languish, away from the spot, Ne'er again to inhabit the once smiling cot : — The close bosomed friend — their children — the old, No more are beheld, ay, ceased to behold ! Even thus, not alone, as though to descry Beyc nd scarce the limits of frail nature's eye : No, the faith of the faithful foreshowing to sight; Lo ! enrobed are you all in etherial light ; Unspotted, and endless, spiritual are; — **Fain ! fain ! do we live — from yon exile afar, — Where the deathless indeed, from the dying do speed, For pure Heaven's regions, for Heaven's pure meed?" 8 The source of Infancy congenial with adult worth, and assuaging to cares. There is a charm that lives round infancy, That chuckles fancy to return awhile : It sweetly summons with an artless smile! It speaks at once, the angol, and the child; It lisps a spirit pure — without impurity. There, natal, hie, when life a tempest gives ; There, ever green and graced, the flower lives : — Leave watery glooms, high-arching, kiss the sky, And, like the rainbow, then the treble tie ! Childhood. Soon childhood comes — but never soon departs, For, seemingly, annual, from its dawning starts. Dreams of some ugly rock with black abyss ; Afore in vision as a precipice — Where Satan, horrid mass from skull to hoof, Was weened to plunge anon, and rise aloof! When rising vapore. When rising vapors, gathering fire, Burst, boiling, in commotion dire. Athwart the heavens in thunders roll, In lightnings rend the flashing clouds — As wildly impetuous now they stroll, And broaching now in sable crowds : — Man, mortal man, the touch of God ! Marks the dread scene that hovers, lowers ; Awe-stricken by the powers abroad, The while the dismal hour, adores! The vexations of this Life. Ah! who this nether world enjoys. Who wtry, well his day employs, A busy foe his back besets; Some momentary ill alloys, Some other guised in front decoys ; So, scarce a moment's peace he gets, But many a minute's peace destroys, Until at eventide he sets. Virtue in Youth^ and the glory of virtue. Auspicious youth whose morning flows With every hue which morning knows, Thine whole of Virtue's bloom : To vice averse, each beauty beams, And rich the royal treasure teems, Ere its expanse, and full perfume. To heaven thine awful spirit soars, Reads wonders, wondrous power adores, Witiiin the range of thought! Enrap^red with the life that is, What bliss to deem advancing 'tis; From sublunary wrought. O Virtue ! germ in nature's soil, Though oft may nature's workings foil, Though nature chafes the soul : Lo, hence shall every evil cease, Pure polished thou, for realm of peace, Wilt leave the wayward goaL O! then propitious choice in thou Who not to earth, to Satan bow ; — But bendest down to Heaven ! Scarce e'en fulfilled the mighty scheme, By bending, towering, seraphim! The Vanity of Wealth. BY DR. JOHNSON. No more thus brooding o'er yon heap, With avarice painful vigils keep; 10 Still unenjoyed the present stor^, Still endless sighs are breathed for more. Oh! quit the shadow, catch the prize, Which not all India's treasure buys ; To purchase heaven has gold the powtr? Can gold remove the mortal hour? In life can love be bought with gold? Are friendship's pleasures to be sold? No, all that's worth a wish — a thought, Fair virtue gives, unbribed, unbought. Cease then on trash thy hopes to bind ; Let nobler views engage thy mind. On the loss of corporeal healthy and es- trangement of the senses. Thou source of sublunary charm^ Oh health! on thee I sadly muse! My bosom reft of every calm ; No soothing hope of healing balm : 'Tvvas else at dawn, as thought reviews! — Thrice poignant to my weary soul. Though once in bright cohesion mine, How short in tranquil union, there: Alas ! for sin, what virtues thine That glimmered from thy budding shrine; O'ercast, involving in despair. Distracting, trancing nature's whole. Then why in trembling thought to deem, That twain could kindly aid dispart? Ah! would my fearful fancy dream. Unwonted pleasures still would teem. When virtue bleeding in my heart, And vice its mystic cords entwined! Disast'rous nature sin has swayed ; If now dethroned, how sad the change ; 11 Nature within,— without arrayed In cheerless scenes, — in health decayed: Unceasing sad where'er I range , Wide . . . and, as joys of health, refined. The favors of lucubration. There's something lives the astral bend beneath, Which pictures God more ample than the day ! Love to the glowing soul! The buxom wreath— But, ah ! of childhood's pranks, why fades the bay ? 'Say you ye coffin'd youth of friendly way! Be then the eve, the spangled eve sublime, Commingled with, and known its mental sway. With woes a magic train. How oft with being all estranged--T^ With flesh and spirits sadly changed — With woes a magic tre^in: Man longs extinction — frantic thought! All else to dare, but earth, (in short,) To ease his ghostly brain. Ah, devious one, when faith combiner A living mirror glows, refines, — Can aught so e'er appal? Alas! when foes dark intervene, Or woes, less darksome, damp the acqn^ May 'wildered nature fall. Sincere belief in the charity of Providence every thing here and hereafter. This life wears not a charm for me, Save whence mysterious faith Whispers, This vast Eternity, Lives the amnific, boundless God; Omai^ieat Om ! who will reward 12 All creatures of his works abroad,- — And fatherly too, it saith. Seemed a small voice — a voice sublime, When drooped my soul with care, — More touching than yon temples' chime, — To trill each nerve so finely great, Did ease anon of anxious weight; And breathes, ere long, I'll consecrate Above — in mansion there. Comes from the heaven of heaven?, this balm? It seems a mystery! But, faith aspiring, tell the charm : Flit ye thro' time — from nether waste Mount up the skies, and echo chaste, Holy, holy realm! resting place Of immortality. Immortal worth victorious over death and perishing matter. Withdraw, nor mortal the Immortal tempt! No thought discursive — attolent and fixed ; Unarmed no corner. Flattery to probe : Transient its gifts, as gifted as itself — All in decursion to the bed of death. Alas! surprising not the spirit should Terrific see in imagery prone, a wide abyf?s, And hastening from the sight, with suppliant Cry, beg, as of clay, one hour to prepare. — Can this imbrute? Contumely such in Dotage, veering to the lures of sin? Nay, rather the Immortal be unblamed; And foe to flattery, but by terror vex'd, In phrenzied vision it would shrink with awe — Yet earnest to be free. — Death in its wanton Trail of forms uncouth, some thousand years 13 Has tried, and tried in vain. Immortal to Expugn — nor else than speed him to the verge Of heaven. But hist! angelic voices echo on My ear! Frail flatterer vanish, for I near The prize: hail, ether home! mellifluous Sweetness, hail! On ether pinions as we waft To thee, we breathe the praises of redeeming Love — till, in the choral of extalic saints, Shall meet harmonious with etherial fire! The Pilgrims^ procession^ or the journey of life. So trav'leth life, its cherished boon, . Few do the bounty know ; For from the womb unto the tomb. In travail most do go : In strangely moving train ; All ages in the throng; Some look behind, beyond, (in vain,) — Would stay, or haste along. Fondly the one before Would welcome on his kind, Vainly we each would welcome o'er, Who yet remain behind. Ere long, and there with ihine; — On then, nor note the stay : A far-borne star at eve may shine, Next eve another may. Ye myriads yet unborn — The hapless and the glad! Must march, as ushers in the morn, The gay aside the mad. And J oh! when we have journey'd o'er, May none unhappy /journey more; 14 But live to Him, high thron'd in heaven, With souls as free, from sins forgiven : Love, in eternal love and pure, With Him communing, God adore. God's will be done! for that to do, Is love. — Saviour of all, we undergo Nor less, nor more, than what we know: The tranquil blest, the troubled so. JL compassionate High Priest. Heb. 4.15. *^ When gathering clouds around I view, And days are dark, and friends are few, On him I lean, who, not in vain, Experienced ev'ry human pain; He feels my griefs, he sees my fears. And counts and treasures up my tears. If aught should tempt my soul to stray From heavenly wisdom's narrow way, To fly the good ! would pursue, Or do the ill I would not do ; Still he, who felt temptation's power, Shall guard me in that dangerous hour. When vexing thoughts within me rise, x\nd, sore dismayed, my spirit dies; Then he, who once vouchsafed to bear The sickening anguish of despair, Shall sweetly soothe, shall gently dry> The throbbing heart, the streaming eye. When sorrowing o'er some stone I bend. Which covers all that was a friend, And from his voice, his hand, his smile. Divides me for a little while; Thou, Saviour, seest the tears I shed, For thou didst weep o'er Laz'rus dead. 15 And, oh! when we have safely past, Through ev'ry conflict but the last, Still, still unchanging, watch beside The bed of death — for thou hast died: Then point to realms of endless day, And wipe the latest tear away." Fabulous. Thence entering — lo! a being there, And wrapt in all the pangs of care ; Keen anguish blended with despair, Shone plainly in his frantic air! *' Friend, (! spake)— what has befel — My service thine — the trouble tell!" With heartfelt groan, he only said — " Here, I can lay my breaking head. Here, thus forlorn, my dying bed!" My soul, the scene, enveloped wide : *' Alas! had reason been the guide Unsullied from thy morning's bloom, Would nature wanton with the tomb. Infuriate, overwhelmed with gloom?" Such flashed my mind — for down 1 bent. The ivays of Omnipotence past find- ing out. Around what solemn sameness, man to thee, Mantling in occult majesty the Lord ; So, varied scarce this vision notes abroad. This darkling mind: O! who? — Immensity Which nought is, aught is, mortal and supreme, Knows but the Maker — who? the boundless scheme? Yet what this Might and whence, of seraphs ask May man — but hark ! — " Thou stumblest in thine own, 16 And ages multiplied, and yet unknown: E'en we whose residence be highest cast, Selves higher still, and higher yet commune, Scan orbs uprolling and empyreal noon! inimitably, co-eternal knit, In god-head, wisdom wheelinor every ball ; Upward revolving, they revolving^fall: — Hence, rising, thence! Continuous orbits! Thence anon hence in august duty turn, Spin from the Mighty Will! life-blazing, burn!" Then powers stupendous of empyrean lore We fancy edgeless ; chaos may inspire, Embryon suited. But, in vain with fire, Neap-wrought and toned, I adoration pour Of cherubim and seraphim, — would soar A pigmy thing, high heavens to explore. Yet not, thou all Omnipotent ! thine not. In thine unmanageable, labor near ; Untouch the Muse, as vacant to idea: 'Tis true the spell of Paradise 's forgot, Ere fell the tvvain that could the soul uprear! Still, kind Creator, still there's virtue to revere : And more and more, as rolljng time, the sphere- Discordance rank in part, and fallen we, — Shall yearly harmonize until as free, Perchance as Eden was, as pure appear! And, as in grandeur we do re-ascend, To thee Redeemer we would make amend ; No weakness never from thy goodness tend; But, linked the glorious work, Eternity Shall praises, praises in communion blend ; One lay immense, one lay through all distend!— Then wisdom, goodness, piety or man. Might godlike from archangels understand. 17 Fabulous. A BLESsiD pair, (not always Nature knows,) Once in these sweet environs found a home — Ay! thence the field from whence the mansion rose'; Ample and neat it was, — but years have flown; — 'Tis now no more! — there vegetation's strown, And various grain around extensive grows: Ton city's swell has roused the planter's bone ; The topping forests fell; where once the lawn's repose. Waxes the breezy blade, now, as the zephyr flows. They blessed mankind, and that in spirit too; Duty was rapture from their very prime : Twain souls conjugal! yet the weaiy woo — Would court distress, and lavish well their time ; Nor feel surprise, where virtues so combine, I say that indolence they never knew : Theirs were the Muses melting and sublime. " Indeed, indeed, such mightiness in two;" Not marvel I — too marvellously true. Theirs when the Spring had ground its coat of green, Yet, ere betimes unveiled was every tint, To issue forth and mingle in serene, — Afore the sun did up the orient wink, They meetly would, — and rare Aurora seen ; Still, they in fantasy the Graces drink, Ponder the verdure o'er, and, changing them6. Sing due the matin catch in whiles between. And, as in bays all languishingly bright, The crimson sun emblazons into sight ; Their sightly dwelling glassy o'er the way^ — They seek it duteous, and with ardor quite As erst ergession on the darkling day, For sky4)orn beauties of the moon-eyed sprite. ' *2 IS But, changes! changes! ever-changing mould, 'Twere hard to sketch a minute of their tale: Suffice to say, ri^al lives and love — but hold, — Friends goodly could, and kin their loss bewail. But, ah! I dream : imagination's strolled, — The feats of man within the vale untold, His volant dale — his fluctuating goal. Then — What is man who comes and goes so cold? Ye sons and daughters gone — yes, gone! can ye untold! Death Scene in Gertrude of Wyoming. CAMPBELL. The three characters mentioned in the following passage, being warned of the approach of a hostile tribe of North American Indians, are lorced to abandon their peaceful re- treat, in the vale of Wyoming, and fly for safety to a neigh- boring fort. On the following morning, at sunrise, while Gertrude, together with Albert her father, and Waldegrave her husband, are looking from the battlements on the havoc and desolation which had marked the progress of the barba- rous enemy, an Indian marksman fires a mortal shot from his ambush at Albert; and, as Gertrude clasps him in agony to her heart, another shot lays him bleeding by his side. She then takes farewell of her husband in a speech which our greatest modern critic has described as * more sweetly pa- thetic ihan any thing ever written in rhyme." — JVP Diarmid. But short that contemplation — sad and short The pause to bid each much lov'd scene adieu! Beneath the very shadow of the fort, Where friendly swords were drawn, and banners flew, Ah! w^ho could deem that foot of Indian crew Was near? — yet there, with lust of murderous deeds, Cleamed like a basilisk, from woods in view. The ambushed foeman's eye — his volley speeds, And Albert — Albert fallsi the dear old father bleeds! 19 And tranced in giddy horror Gertrude swooned; Yet, while she clasps him lifeless to her zone, Say, burst they, borrowed from her father's wound, These drops 1 — Oh God ! the life-blood is her o\^n, And faltering, on her Waldegrave's bosom thrown ; '^ Weep not, O love!" she cries, "to see me bleed ; Thee, Gertrude's sad survivor, the^ alone — Heaven's peace commiserate ; for scarce I heed These wounds; yet thee to leave is death, is^eath indeed. " Clasp me a little longer, on the brink Of fate ! while I can feel Ihy dear caress; And, when this heart hath ceased to beat — Oh! think. And let it mitigate thy wo's excess, That thou hast been to me all tenderness, A friend, to more than human friendship just. Oh! by that retrospect of happiness. And by the hopes of an immortal trust, God shall assuage thy pangs — when I am laid in dust ! " Go, Henry, go not back, when I depart ! The scene thy bursting tears too deep will move, Where my dear father took thee to his heart, And, Gertrude, thought it ecstacy to rove With thee, as with an angel, through the grove Of peace, — imagining her lot was cast In heaven ; for ours was not like earthly love ; And must this parting be our very last? No! I shall love thee still, when death itself is past." ^ Tt" * lP TV- Hushed were his Gertrude's lips! but still their bland And beautiful expression seemed to melt With love that could not die! and still his hand 3 20 She presses to the heart no more that felt. Ah, heart! where once each fond affection dwelt;, And features yet that spoke a soul more fair. Mute, gazing, agonizing as he knelt^ — Of them that stood encircUng his despair, He heard some friendly words; — but knew not what they were. YouW s farewell to worldly blessings. In op'ning teens, the homes and hills, The copses round, the waves and rills — From partin,)^, keen affection fills! The soul of Youth may overflow, Will look betimes, and musing go; Yet, such is lovely, nobly so. The glow of worth, and not of wo! — Unheard the far-toned future knell, Unfelt the sick — the with'ring spell. When past and future strike — farewell? Lines on the grave of a suicide. Campbell. By strangers left upon a lonely shore,' Unknown, unhonored, was the friendless dead: For, child to weep, or widow to deplore. There never came to his unburied head — All from his dreary habitation fled. Nor will the lanterned fisherman at eve Launch on the water by the witches' tow'r, Where hellebore and hemloc seem to weave Round its dark vaults a melancholy bow'r, For spirits of the dead at night's enchanted hour. They dread to meet thee, poor unfortunate! Whose crime it was, on hfe's unfinished road To feel the step-dame buffetings of fate, 21 And render back thy being's heavy load. Ah! once^^erhaps, the social passions glowed In thy devoted bosom — and the hand That smote its kindred heart, might yet be prone To deeds of mercy. Who may understand Thy many woes, poor suicide, unknown? — He who thy being gave shall judge of thee alone. Autumn^ or Virtue amid decline. Now from the east breaks forth in amber beam, The m®rn autumnal of autumnal prime ; Earth, sky, and air in loveliness between, And man immortal as his soul sublime. Lives over all the majesty of Time! Yet, while coeval down, if not remiss in aught incumbent from Almighty God, 'Tis virtue's way — 'tis innocence, to kiss The mourning morn, with feelings that accord, — The mellow hues of Autumn not devoid Of aught that ravishes the meaning mind: Though withering fast, the leaflet and the sward; Such charms commix, encircle so condign, Transform the dying vert to something quite benign: It whispers '^ Heaven," as rustling from the tree, Or, 'neath the tread, responding to the sound ; It whispers '^ Heaven," whilst from the orient (See!) In royal beauty rising from the ground — The sun's up flying as the leaf comes down! The Females fairest ; or premier affec- tions the only true ' basis and column of crowning Virtue. The fairest females — such goddess's peers, — Smiling in concert, or in melting tears, As up the happy to the happiest sing, 22 Or woes as wounding in a living thing. Does cruel pain, at times, their nature wring ; Else none, than sympathies as sisters, swell: ?Souls, even anguished, on each ®ther dwell! In love and pity equally excel. Such — from their pristine years how kindly staid; Scenes godly interwoven do attend Their steps thenceforth, until in truth arrayed — The angel's greatness and the females' blend J So quaintly, some might question, yea, perpend, Whether they step to earth or tread the air — Hither descending, or do up ascend: — This as it may: The fairest of the fair In deeds of charity — unquestioned therA: Thus as along Time's transitory course, ^ They meekly move to solace and to sooth; How, from their pious souls' etherial source. Teems Friendship living! flowing thence profuse, Sparkles from each eye; them lovingly imbues To sheen expressions, till they eclipse stars: Kindling love's banners with the lightning's hues. Each deep'ning pupils, from its lashes, mars The very light of day, the star of eve, debars! Ominous abodements of the futurity of Infancy, Now existence is thine, and life is before thee; (Thus musing, supposing, on an infant near;) Frail offspring of nature! there's much to allure thee, And little to shield thee from misery here. Can those limbs which enclaps thee^ a parent's I deem, Embracing, supporting, unchanging endure? — Ah, infant fair-dawning! so fondly to seem ; Ere the sun gilds the morning, may clasp thee no more. 23 Unconscious! pure spirit, to answer in smiles; In such I would ever thy converse to be : Ne'er allured by delusion, as far from its wiles As now from remorse that concentres in me. *" How the fond, faithful heart, inspired to prove Friendship refined, the calm delight of love, Feels all its tender strings with anguish torn, And bleeds at perjured Pride^s inhuman scorn !^^ Fabulous. 'TwAs once in June, at even, I sought the Willow-wild ; Sad, lonely, yet believing. An hour to beguile. A female there — beyond me,~ A sylvan of the shade. *^ Ah! stay" — the vista warned me To tarry in the glade : For lo in tearful sadness. The languid beauty bent; ^ Alas! in silent madness, Would features represent. Well there — the western halo Did vary all the while ; In purple, green, and yellow, Was dipped its sweetest smile: — • But, ah! how little greeting To fickle ' Fortune's child/ In Willow-wild a weeping, Of Weeping- willow-wild. The shire curfew trembles, The brilliant zone delays, ^3 24 Each singer sane assembles To touch the trembhng lays: — But, ah! how little greeting To fickle ' Fortune's child,' In Willow-wild a weeping, Of Weeping-willow-wild. 'Twas now, in piquant anguish, Would craze her listless mein ; Less frantic, now, would languish The injured lass between, — Not me — of words a meeting — To scan ill fortune's child, In Willow-wild-the-weeping, Of Weeping-willow-wild! I caught apart the anguish, — But not its wretched wane; Beheld her spirit languish In agonizing pain. So, yon aerial spangle. Should fickle fortune throw; So, might the fairest angel Gleam horror here — below! Came twilight, — and becalming Her guileless spirit now. Left hallowed spot the charming, — But, ah! the perjured vow ; For pangs a fever heating, She dies; A mother's smile. Adieu! the Willow-weeping : Farewell! the Willow-wild* 25 ^' Oh I give me tears for others' woes, And patience for my own." Ah! wearied one, why life forlorn, So lonesome, lingering in the lease? Why! bleeding being weep the morn, Which woke thee in — departed peace ? Do, hapless self, coerce thy tears, Or roll them in creation's moan : How can a pilgrim of the spheres, Wash freely in himself alone! Has Job, has Daniel, Moses too, Has peerless Paul admonished you? Has Jeremiah, Joseph shone, Isaiah, David, Solomon? Has Jesus touched thy soul with love? Supernal does the measure prove? Explore his volume, nay nor spare, Unread, to trace him anywhere. Come, then, with us to yonder cell, And glance within the crevice through, And say^ that tenderness can dwell Thrice shackled and impoverished too. There, see! the galled durance see ! Turn youth. Oh! turn, and feel aloud In sighs, but not '^ unhappy me," — Whose shackle is a single shroud. And never, never hence forget, That generous wo is wo away: That manly's borne a public debt, United in the public pay. 26 ** To be resigned when ills betide, Patient when favors are denied, And pleased with favors given. Dear Female, this is wisdom's part; This is that incense of the heart, Whose fragrance seents to heaven. ^^ No consanguineous guardians left Beneath the concave skies ; Of dearest prototypes befett, An orphan maiden sighs. O, doleful vicissitude of things! Where, now, the villa's calm? Where, now, my Philomela sings, Sequestered from alarm? As wont when once in affluence, The village purlieu I, To bless some huts of indigence, ' Blithe skirted far and nigh : — Big tears as symbols of delight. Peeped e'en from sucklings' eyes ; Profluent leaped in lucid light. As blessed me they with sighs. Then I did bless, and blessed was, And sang my Philomel : Unblessing now, unblest, because We cannot do as well. Howbeit, I should murmnr not, For those I once could aid, Have forced me to their cleanly cot; And sure we are well repaid. Oft, now, whilst June is in perfume, Levant ere all in flames, 27 I rise, adore, and in the bloom Of dawn with blooming dames ; Go gladsome whither the water glides, To collect lillies, which Mansuete along its silken sides, Us damsels do bewitch. My nosegay plucked from aquose verge, I scent its perfume pure ; And kiss the humid bunch, and urge Mc on to town once more. As mornings past, with needlework I've hamlet left for thence To sell the same; at even murk Returning home with pence. So, thus I go for that effect. In tucker lillies gay ; My lillies, though, I don't expect To sell, but give away. Such' odoriferous posies theirs, Have evsr meant should be. Whom I might meet, of infant years, In ruth or charity. But, think how hazardous for me — An orphan virgin I, — To jaunt to mart into city. In trade to sell or buy : Yet, I have sought the Lord betimes. Whose guardianship's replete ; How weaned I am from earth — some lines Must evince. — I'll repeat : — " Not while an idea is in tune ; While beings we elsewhere commune ; 28 While Goodness wears a wasting tear, Or Wisdom wipes an eyelid here ; While pied the heavens — bespangled o'er, Or round the moon as cherubs more, — May never say, my spirit say — * Stamped to earth's crust.' " Aurora now 's too scared to blush, So blanched her every tinct ; And, now, I hear the city's rush, For yonder 's its precinct : And yonder, too 's a stripling who Is fast approaching me, — Alack! my lillies are in view I spy, and so spies he! He could no less : — " My dear," quoth he, ^' Those flowerets I will buy; If, dear, you wish to sell ; why we; — They've surely struck my eye." Nonplused for answer, for, like love, I find he is full wily: Trembling^, she says, while falls her glove, *' Take, Sir, aquatic lilly!" My voice suppressed and manners queer, He makes he heard me not ; And, demure, only says, '' My dear!" As though he had forgot. Albeit, finally does add, ^' Did say you somewhat illy?" — " You may \nistake," (my dearest lad I) ^' I oflTered you a lilly." — *^ 0! then I may miss takcy^^ he cries, *' No longer I'll be wily; 29 With heart and hand I take the prize; I have the very lilly!" * * ^ * » And, now, remark us bridal pair, Repairing to our villa : We'll press our needy patrons there. And sing shall Philomela. The last Rose of Summer. MOORE. 'Tis the last rose of summer left blooming alone, All her lovely companions are faded and gone ; Not a flower of her kindred, no rosebud is nigh, To reflect back her blushes, or give sigh for sigh. I'll not leave thee, thou lone one, to pine on the stem, Since the lovely are sleeping, go, sleep thou with them; Thus kindly I scatter thy leaves o'er thy bed. Where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead. Soon, soon may I follow, when friendships decay, And from love's shining circle the gems drop away; When true hearts lie withered, and fond^ ones are flown, Oh! who could inhabit this bleak world alone. God. DERZHAVIN. {From Bowring^s Russian Anthology.] Thou eternal One! whose presence bright All space doth occupy, all motion guide; Unchanged through time's all-devastating flight ; 30 Thou only God! There is no God beside! Being above all beings! Mighty One! Whom none can comprehend and none explore; Who fiU'st existence with thi/ self alone : Embracing all,— supporting, — ruling o'er^ — Being whom we call God — and know no more! In its sublime research, philosophy May measure out the ocean deep — may count The sands, or the sun's rays — but, God! for Thee There is no weight nor measure : — none can mount Up to thy mysteries. Reason's brightest spark, Though kindled by thy light, in vain would try To trace thy counsels, infinite and dark: And thought is lost ere thought can soar so high, Even like past moments in eternity. Thou from primeval nothingness didst call First chaos, thence existence; — Lord! on thee Eternity had its foundation : — all Sprung forth from thee: — of light, joy, harmony, Sole origin: — all life, all beauty thine. Thy word created all, and doth create ; ' Thy splendor fills all space with.rays divine. Thou art, and wert, and shalt be! Glorious! Great! Light-giving, life-sustaining. Potentate! Thy chains the unmeasured universe surround : Upheld by thee, by thee inspired with breath! Thou the beginning with the end hast bound, And beautifully mingled life and death! As sparks mount upwards from the fiery blaze, So suns are born, so worlds spring forth from thee ; And as the spangles in the sunny rays Shine round the silver snow, the pageantry Of heaven's bright army glitters in thy praise. A million torches lighted by thy hand Wander unwearied through the blue abyss: 31 They own thy power, accomplish thy command, All gay with lite, all eloquent in hiiss. What shall we call them? Piles of chrystal light — A glorious company of golden streams — Lamps of celestial ether burning bright — Suns lighting systems with their joyous beams? But thou to these art as the noon to night. Yes! as a drop of water in the sea, All this magnificence in thee is lost:— What are ten thousand worlds compared to thee? And what am I then? Heaven's unnumbered host, Though multiplied by myriads, and arrayed In all the glory of sublimest thought, Is but an atom in the balance, weighed Against thy greatness, is a cypher brought Against infinity I O, what am I then? nought! Nought ! yet the effluence of thy light divine, Pervading worlds, hath reached my bosom too ; Yes! in my spirit doth thy spirit shine, As shines the sun-beam in a drop of dj^w. Nought! yet I live, and on hope>pini(ms fly Eager towards thy presence ; for in thee 1 live, and breathe, and dwell ; aspiring high, Even to the throne of thy divinity. I am, O God! and surely tJiou must be ! Thou art, directing, guiding all, thou art! Direct my understandinar, then, to thee; Control my spirit, guide mv wandering heait: Though but an atom midst immensity, Still I am something fashioned by thy hand! I hold a middle rank 'twixt heaven and earth, On the last verge of mortal being stand, Close to the realms where angels have their birth, Just on the boundaries of the spirit land! •4 • 32 The chain of being is complete in me; In me is matter's last gradation lost, And the next step is spirit — Deity! I can command the lightning, and am dust! A monarch, and a slave ; a worm, a god! Whence came I here? and how so marvellously Constructed and conceived? unknown! this clod Lives surely through some higher energy ; For from itself alone it could not be! Creator, yes! thy wisdom and thy word Created me! thou source of life and good! Thou spirit of my spirit, awd my Lord! Thy light, thy love, in their bright plenitude Filled me with an immortal soul, to spring Over the abyss of death, and bade it wear The garments of eternal day, and wing Its heavenly flight beyond this little sphere. Even to its source — to thee — ^its Author there. O thoughts ineflable! O visions blest! Though worthless our conceptions all of thee. Yet shall thy shadowed image fill our breast, And waft its homage to thy Deity. Thus seek thy presence, Being wise and good! Midst thy vast works admire, obey, adore : And, when the tongue is eloquent no more^ The soul shall speak in tears of gratitude. METAPHYSICAL SKETCHES Of the Passions ; Fear and Anger. The above, are the resisting and non-resisting passions of the human sensitive or animal nature. Being therein grounded, they are apart in their ac- tion from immediate direct mental influence ; or, in other words, as consequences from intellectual causes. This singleness of action which character- izes them, their ascendencies over the sensitive be- ing distinctly such, are plainly demonstrable in the ' beast of the field, and its homogeneal like; however heterogeneal as respects formation, color, element, &c. Moreover, while these passions appear, as sole- I \y sensitive creatures, it is as evident they have not , the nervous primary affections coherent to the mind of man, nor the malevolence arising from the defi- I ciency of those affections. But to speak rather of I their casual influence in regard to man upqn his mental faculties : we find them powerfully influential in subverting the same; or which functions, by re- pulsing, can make them subordinate and as power- fully subservient to mental interests. Fear of the twain, beyond dispute, is, the broadest actor of the intellectual being; it is the most busy passion, de- lusive and real, upon the mind, and is even as 34 universal as thought itself: for it may by chimera be overstrained, and carried beyond its real confines ; and so, by indirect co-operalion with ideal abberra- tion, we may deem the world Ihe most distant parts of it as matter or bodies of hazard ; obstacles as multi- tudmous in their bearings, as a rapid succession of fancies can make them. Vapid (observe) as well as vital things, are thus drawn upon the mind in terror, and as evils too weighty to be resisted by the arm or voice of man : to be dreaded not. And, truly, with- in the very limits of truth, there is much to fear of this wn)rld, and very little to be counteracted or turn- ed aside by judicious intuition, much less ratiocina- tion. Now, on the other hand, the mere passion, Anger, is very much restricted : for (note) it can be opposed strictly only to sensitive beings, and to such, naturally, of approximate litigiousness ; though, in- deed, to any inferior that could any way excite ire. It has nought to oppose in the elements above or be- low, in vegetable substances, in the mysteries, &c. Still, in compliant conformation to sane idea, 4no[er or the resisting passion, may be a strong auxiliary as supporter and advancer to man's highest felicity : for not only will all fighting cease, but all fears of being buffeted ; and, consequently, prevailing har- mony with respect to both passions. As they now are in operation through the human family, they are far from harmony, and from being obsequious agents beneath the understanding ; and, consequently, a lack of understanding above them to make them so. Furthermore, in their present intractable state, it may not be easy to judge, which of the deuce in ex- cess is really the most destructive, the most paralyz- . ing to mental endeavors to humanize mankind. Probably, nearly equalization exists between them by the way of gravity ; though by this it ts not meant that their influence, with allusion to the nervous 35 mental system, is equally the same : for in man who is possessed of the nervous system, in him concep- tions of a fearful cast may produce anger ; in short it emenates from the passion fear, always, in man ; ^nd even in brutes, which did it not, they would re- main unmoved, indifferent to self-preservation, or contention to appease painful feelings, as hunger, thirst, fears of young, ^c. In mankind fear being liable to ideal impressions, makes anger somewhat singularly erratic in some cases : but^ in all cases human and beastial, it is engendered, less or more, by fear as discomfiture of the temperature of the spirits of the passions' system ; and in man so much at least, as to occasion los^ of volubility of speech, easy boldness of phiz, idea, or the like. Specimen of either Passion, Lost Fear with pallid limbs convulsed — With thought bedimmed and sense distract — With shrunken blood and broken pulse — Each joint and muscle on the rack,— Rushes aghast! Upon his track The demon tears, and nothing slack — He feels the fury at his back; Still struggles on — as on he flees. Terrific turns at what he sees : Till, visage lax and sockets rent, He drops adown in palsy spent; Exhausted every terror sent, Or what his systems underwent, — He lies in restorating wheeze. Of reason reft with senses blunt, Raves Anger to the mortal brunt! Doth he recoil? — He springs amain, Swol'n gory, or with whitened frame : #4, 36 Revenge! revenge! — he feels the name, And sees as much, but not with brain; That's topsyturvey quite. With Ang-er fell, 'tis all the same, As eyeless on will fight the frame, And headless — could the crazy game, Still bang about upright. Let us beware of the banes of art: for preturnatu- ral, as well as natural aids, are poor friends ! It is true they cannot transmute the virtuously rooted mind to the wickedly rooted one; being casual evils in relation to it, and which enforce casual infirmities upon the mind of the single individual to his own un- happiness, disease, and despondency, — by the way the very reverse of mental immorality, as that prompts to wicked intent by wicked thought directly from the mind, and which, instead of injuriasr our in- dividual person only and casually, turns our disin- genuous soul coolly to outward infringement of the person of others. Since, as casual evils however, they are deranging to mind and body, they must weaken and perturb the power of self-possession, self-dependence, and self happiness; and so after this manner lay us open to innumerable disasters, slanderous delinquencies, and too sorely to the in- siduous artifices of the immoral mind. He who cannot espy farther before than he can behind, is a dangerous guide. How seldom do we take care of ourselves. Often, unhelping, we pass the helpless when time is more than ours, as beyond we have no aim save mere mo- tion. 37 To act from the grand principle of charity, exten- sively, were to advance one another by spiritual force ; instead of advancing before one another by natural force only, in imitation of the spirit, and, as consequent, retrograding, verily, as fast as we can. Now it is owing to this discous default, that so little headway is made the right way ; that objects of charity are almost universally disseminated by ob- jects of charity. Magnanimous, then, shall be its progression, when, holily swift in the spirit, we shall scarcely be seen to do in the natural man; yet hold up and progress one another intentionally more, than we thrust back and detrude accidentally. At the present time it is vice versa; outrageously so, and in all probability, more or- less has been with us, ever since our first parents' sin and abasement. How semblant simplicity and flattery: yet what essentially differ more! It is one thing for us to understand asd feel infir- mities, and to govern our sphere of duty accordingly. Another, unfelt, to understand them, and command accordingly our sphere of duty. Those whom we cfannot understand, or those who cannot understand us to our understanding, we are prone to conceit they are void of the same to that degree ; being so ourselves. Even none of Adam and Eve's lineage, is unwise in his own eyes, as to that ; for every one, whatever be his years and abil- ities, is wiser at the present period of his existence, than he ever was hitherto, or ever shall be: and the reason of this is, there is not a whit of intrinsic wis- dom in this world that may be cognoscible to the de- pendant capacity of humanity. Our present ideas 5 38 can have no cognizance of their presence ; of what are forthcoming ; or of what are past as now present to mind: and when though immediately so by se- quent ideas, they are instinctively forced the instant^ and that to catch but a jot of matter of vast nature, by means of comparison. This matter of fact to our ideas may be within us ; or with the antipodes, so it belongs to this world: for no ideas, while we are so- journers here, can be formed out of the world ; and, moreover, whatever we imagine in il, as something transcendent over the intellecj^tral being, as a dero gation consequently of him ; so far as we wander from the human model, so far we disparage our best sample of harmony and symetry. Perhaps, all that we have intelligence of upon earth, amounts to no more than degrees of folly less or more, which ac- cording to the pre-eminency of comparison, is ana- logically analyzed as such ; which gives, by the wayy an assortment of virtue and vice, of moral science and vicious desultory art ; leaving us, nevertheless, ignoramuses still : for to be otherwise, to be a whit wise, we must, apparently, be all-wise ; at least we must know what that is meant for in every point of view, that we profess to know and appreciate in some. Upon the whole, no sin in the sight of heaven shall accrue from an humble estimation of ourselves, as our virtues are, irrefragably, few and feeble ; and only a condescension to them, can show us in justice their paucity and imbecility. To live a continent, philanthropic, energetic state of celibacy, from consideration that the fallen state of the intellectual world is so, because of the risen state or overwhelming propagation of the natural world, would be the criterion of the most noble love. 39 Wonder^ia the first emotion of the well-organized infant irtfnd in epming into existence. As such it is forerunner and interior trait of rising idea in the mind, through the seasons of intancy, childhood, and adolescency ; and, indeed, through adult years to the last hours of life, as marvellousness or credulous- ness, the mere hissk of wonder, is subordinate to it ; that if predominated, would be the depression of won- der from the ushering in to the exit of mind from its earthly tabernacle, ; itself at the same time continu- ing passive nearly to adult years; when it would make its appearance in fatuous conceptions of trite and common things and actions, so as to make mysterious what to wonder would be actually common-place. To be really ungrateful, is to be unconscious of ingratitude. For such to follow, then, its depravity must come, and directly come, from the intellectual system of thought, which, in its inborn degeneracy, will not dictate as a monitor to the scrutiny of the evil : and how can it in truth, when it acquiesces in, and prompts the evil immediately itself! On the other hand, casual ingratitude or ingratitude of the system of the senses, comes entirely from impassion- ed sensibilities ; by the way of fear, or from anger produced by fear, from painful wounds of body, from the effects of inebriation as the consequence of use or nnis usage of stuffs, drugs, liquors, S^c. And, as soon as deranged feeling becomes restored to its healthy state, the unadulterated mental functions in- spect what has passed while it slept; and seeing, and feeling now in the nervous affections, that there has been misconduct, it awakens the compunctions of remorse to regeneration. This casual ingratitude, undoubtedly occurs more frequently ia Christendom 40 thaa the occasion does that discloses the ingratitude of mental depravity. Compassion is active pity carried into force and effect by physical energy and combined original vir- tues and undei standing. Pity is the fountain-head of compassion, and is circumscribed and passive, as to reason and corporal energy ; for we may pity a league off, but not compassionate. He who stoops to pick up a failing of humanity, adds one more to his own stock. Untied the galled idler from school, youth often turns and spurns what coming age limps back to ad- mire. The malevolent sensations of the nervous sys- tem, at the most do not more than other classes of people, characterize travellers, navigators, back- settlers, nor, in fine, any who are itinerant for good purposes ; or even any who in mendicancy wander and wonder about free from active vice : and, '* from low farms, poor pettying villagers, sheep cotes, and mills, sometimes with lunatic bans, sometimes with prayers, enforce their charity." For such sensa- tions are the most in perturbation in commonwealths and communities, from the civil intestine discords betwixt contiguously localized man and man in their endeavors to make flourish and to defend their re- spective accumulations. Nothing, peradventure, of this Ijfe, is a more dif- ficult task, than to convmce the understanding of another, that you have a tittle of the Utopian your- 41 self, and that that tittle is in conformable operation to its highest interests ; whilst the least visible to the naked eye of sense, is preposterous to the same in your exterior ; the consequence, perhaps, of habit, bodily imbecility or decrepitude, bodily debility — of what not pertaining to disordered nature only. It will not be amiss in the light of justice, if we would trace and be convicted of absolute absurdity, for us to have in mind, as preparatory thereto — that though it is rational to think we see, it is more so to see we think. The seven primary affections of the intellectual and moral system of man, Jealousy, Shame, Grief, Despair, Joy, Sorrow, and Pity. Jealousy would appear to be the leading one, or rather the channel in which the others in confluence meet. May not its ascendant influence in relation to them, bear si- militude to that of the integral body of time over its distinctions ; and to that of the primary color red over the other primary hues, 4rc., Sfc, Avarice, incest, actual stupration of another's per son, innocent entirely of seducing acquiesence, and perfidious ingratitude of the mental and moral sys tem; — it would appear, may be propensities only of the most contractedly rooted judgment and moral sensibilities. All reformation, national or individual, must com- mence at the source of the reforming spirit, to the unconditional prohibition of that thing to be reform" €id or done away. #5 42 Mercy we show, when we lessen inlliction by the cries and entreaties of the sufferer. Clemency or lenity, wh^n mitigating punishment in accordance to our mild and charitable views of the nature of the crime. But the great virtue compassion, we com- mand and govern, when in commisseration we feel and heal the wounds of the truly innocent in afflic- tion. Malice is the grossest corruption of ihe mind; the feculence of envy. Joy is the most crank, simple, pleasurable affec- tion uf the primaries ; and in its siniplicity the most early developed of them all. Proximate to which is sorrow, and after follow pity and shame before the season of puberty. Suspicion is the wavering to and fro of the mind, in a vague and indiscriminate manner. As such it may be posterior to jealousy where breach of virtue has come to light, and emanate from it ; but not jealousy posterior to and emanate from suspicion. Though seemingly synonymous, judgment, it would appear, characterizes the one, and misjudgment^the other* The more of this world's goods we can command by noble means for noble ends, the more its material matter, the root of all evil when absorbing the soul to annihilation, may be metamorphosed to the root of all good, and the most ample range be cleared by, and for, talent, innocence, wisdom and beneficence. 43 *The true ridiculous, or to be truly ridiculous, is to te risible at what is queerly antic, immediately and intuitively forced upon the mind. When its linea- ment is of this character, it is of an innocent com- plexion, as to the hidden intents of the mind ; as it solely arises from coincidence of outward things, so capriciously coming together, as to impulse the mind to spasmodic utterance of what cannot so rea- dily be uttered by full verbal accents. Still, it is but an ordinary saw, *^ Laugh and be wise:" except we can understandingly, at the acme folly of laugh- ter; and in idea virtually enjoy what, it would ap- pear, is the most laughable of every thing pertaining to mind and matter. It is a quality of human nature that may admit of dissimulatian, as well as simula- tion ; and may be very uglily used as a mask to spumous, malign feeling, obliquely vented while the matter of jest is alive to others in innocence, and may be seemingly as innocently jocund therewith, to any one present, in our dissimulation ; though, at the very time, otherwise taken as we would have it, by the person or persons, the butt of inoffensive hilar- ity in others. From the above, the ridiculous, friv- olous or virulent in tendency, is the progenitor of much disguised wickedness, or wo disguised in mirth. How comely then " is the tear of sympathy, and the heart that melts at the tale of wo." Genuine wit is a quality not homogeneous with that of laughter ; for the eye of pity always, and, generally, delicacy and chastity of pithy idea do govern and overrule its pencil. Whereas, objects or scenes constituting laughter, do, in most cases, give forth the converse : repugnant to true feelings of wit, not only from their chaotic cast, but from 44 tKerc being objects or scenes more exciting to pity, shame^ or indignation, &,c. There is a wide difference betwixt simulation and dissimulation. The latter is a defect of the mental and moral system exclusively. The former is cir- cumstantial as to time, place, &c. ; the casual re- sult of pusillanimity, or bodily abberration, pain or the like of the system of the senses. Most common- ly, fear of some portentous or impending evil is the foundation of it ; which reaching the mind, compels it to coincide with that evil submissively, to which, in reality, it is foreign and averse. The most virtu- ous and uniform are sometimes constrained, and in wisdom and uprightness, to simulate in the face of the mentally wicked \ as instrumental in protracting their lives, or in freeing themselves from mancipa- tion, for works of wisdom and benevolence. Or we are led to simulate in the face of the virtuously minded, as well as the wickedly, in order to screen casual vices, as respects our mind, of which we are, consequently, consciously knowing. Shame moves us to veil them from the former ; fear moves to co- ver them from the latter, that they may not have means to injure our credit and rights. But dissimu- lation, from its very nature, can never be the cause, or effect of shame, fear, anguish, &c.; as the mental is never passively innocent, but, more or less in clandestine and active vice. The primary affections, indisputably, are more pure in the female sex than in the male; and, neces- sarily, the corruptions of them less vile and general : particularly envy, malice, bombastic scorn and dis- dain, and covetous ambition. And the bare suppo- 45 sition is no hypothesis of a few minutes confutation. That were the quintessence extracted, of the male and female character, and well weighed in the mind, the balance would preponderate in favor of the female sex^ as the paramount and leading sex: A just reviewal of past life will always awaken in- terest beyond the grave. The interim between us now and the tomb, is the world : if we look to it blank to the past, we shall not look beyond it ; but go backwards in spirit with the waning residue of past amnesty. Pity, of all the primary affections, is the most fre- quently called upon in public life ; its unsuspecting innocence the most easily wheedled and imposed up- on ; and its manner, the most readily clapped on hypocritically. There are two fixed distinctions of order to be found in the universe of man and matter. Order of the essence of the spirit to etherial gravitation; and of course, the matter in its place that followeth though it be disorderly in the letter. Order of the matter of ideas, without regard to the purport of its gravity, that it be in no wise wicked, and the major of it chastened to etherial love or harmony. ^* To know things well, we should know them in detail ; and that i§ in a manner infinite; our knowledge, therefore, is always superficial and imperfect." A nation licentious of head and hand is far less ig- noble, than one slavishly submissive of head and hand. 46 The parent of malice — envy, that deadly foe to admiration, and the most intimate crony of slander, the progeny of flattery, is the only affection of the primary or corrupt, that reverses to extremes, or wheels from ideas of others' good to instant aversion of the same to make one affection. Thus, envy, not only being far below the impurity of hate, as hate, of whatever degree, only warps us so far as to counter- check a supposed or actual evil in other, appearing to or directed upon us;. — but good being the object of its aversion, it is the offspring of mind that is gone, or in much hazard of going, to perdition. En» vy having no virtue, it has no bearmg on intrinsic worth to actual violation or knowledge of it. Were it to know virtue, it would be like unto it; principles of virtue known, being principles of virtue loved, felt, and possessed. Let us beware, then, of the terrene dross. The mediocrit mind (as the world may choose to term it) free from its influence ; — could it trace that mind while in part cotemporary with it, its forthcoming career, — it would find how awfully great, sooner or later, it becomes; and this for having lived up to the undying princi- ples of mental innocence, or purity from wicked in- tent, while a palmer below. Surely it would seem, mental strength and mental innocence are twin-born sisters ! Every ascendant propension of the mind, that car- ries with it a spark of emulation tending either to friendly or unfriendly rivalry, is comprised under the head ambition. Only those of the latter tendency induce us to seek solely our individual gratifications, shiftless as to merit and demerit in the eye of the mind personally and collectively; being more or less 47 to some compass or other, f under the domination of the puff of popularity, a prey to i^^ smirk and syco- phancy, or to its sneer and decrial. Whilst those of the former move us to advance the real weal of every one with whom concerned, by advancing them where, and in what, we can on principle by princi- ple Thus two in friendship, males or females, or differing in sex, shall bring about each other^s good by attending, as it were, to the promotion/or eacli other's welfare in each other's stead. Whenever good is conferred upon the one by the other, the re- ceiver being blessed with the same, is stimulated m gratetul feeling to return the favor, arid, if feasible, more ' than return : and, while thus gratitude prompts to the excelling in grace for the other s sake, so to excel is the mean aspired at in ambition to surpass likewise. Weeds not extirpated, but trodden under foot, shall become serpents in the grass. Intellectual force is the only true force, to course up the heights of heavenward philanthrophy. Therefore when fuch begins to lag, and in place of it as shackles only upon augmenting evils of jiarty spirit, the laws of arbitrary art, upstarting ffom fallacious seeing, hearsay, and feeling, are resorted to,— craft that so perverted may become at last, that vice shall give law to virtue;— it will augur painfully the tower of Babel, the bewilderment of all right reason, the only true force to general order and happiness through society. Nothing of the human being js a standard to guage the tenor of his mind, as virtuous or wicked, but the law of mental innocence, which to this end must be 48 implanted therein, and that gives cognition person- ally only. For it is a melancholly truth, that the mentpl system may be dead to innocence of inten- tion to a degree incredibly disingenuous ; and, yet, studied uniformity accoramodHte the outer man with all acumen to surrounding events. We shall not give way to anxious fears, to excessive anger, to dejection-of mind^ to impassioned ejaculations of any cast ; shall not uphold that unpopular, nor withdraw from this popular party ; shall not sacrifice reputa- tion to noxious stimulants, (solely to, the root of which to its eradication, temperance, brotherly should converge :) in short, punctilious that unfair words or gests, shall not contradict seeming fair ideas, rather than conscious fair ideas, shall controvert the words or gests unfair. The three sorts of pride. Self-esteem, vanity, and the plebian contemptuous pride. The first (self-esteem) is much void of affectation, being a characteristic of superior mental endowments. In weighty reflections and comparisons of individual desert respectively, its traits mainly live ; so that where duly formed are its estimations of ourselves and others, we shall ever walk up means to ends with dignity in the scale of being, not vaunting like to the vulgar pride. Vanity is a more feminine quality, humorous and innocently fantastic ; and as such conspicuously most afore, and awhile after, the season of puberty. There are many grades of it down to grossness; but the fairest lives in pleasing, flying fancies of our own qualifications, our accomplishments, and fashionable embellishments ; our smiles, dialect, delicacy, car- 49 riage, habiliments ever novel, etc., all as delight- some to ourselves, and, too, as much so to every body -else. To this end, physical beauty born with a spirit of vanity, is rather disinclined; and is apt to degenerate to the plebean pride, to which vanity of the most innocent form considered in itself is far from being obnoxious through all its ramifications. Its character being to please and to be pleased, it awakens within us the social graces in ambition to excel and to exceed ; and when surpassed it inspires only to crowd more sail, while we in the rear are not contemned. The contemptuous pride is neither mental, inno- cent, nor feminine; but a quality morose, brazen, and gadding to our nature in contempt of others. It interchanges in common with other corruptions of the ideal system ; while it moves us to arrogance against whatever may look like poverty of purse,- dress, badge, station, &c.— The three grades, m all probability, take their modifications from the whole mind's confirmation. The intellectual being, in combination includes three circumscribed systems of vitality, •Mife rising still on life" in gradual refining process. The most subhmed— the prerogative of humanity alone, is the moral and mental system. As such it kn«ws the power of xiomparison, choosing, at option, one thing over another tending to the greatest or meanest ex- tremc, according to the power of comparison. It is, too, the fount of the cardinal affections, and the cor- mpt^nes which predominate over, or are subordi- nate to, the cardinals, according to inferiority or su- periority of moral mental system. Next comes the 6 50 animal system of sense; or the casual operator, as respects the leading system of thought. Comprised within it, at least, are the three most sensitive and vivific instinctive powers ; seeing, feeling, hearing: the passions, fear and anger; and the sexual amato- ry. The next and least, is the nutritive system; comprising the passive, sterile senses of taste and scent, and the appetites of hunger and thirst. If when we have arrived to mature years of self- action and dependence, we try to, and can, defraud a fellow-being of a half-penny, callous to all innate crimination; we can with little innate concern, de- fraud a person of any mass of coin or property, were circumstances of so calamitous a nature to his legal rights, as to screen us from all pubhc judicature as tiarkly in the case as in that of a half-penny. Astonishment is of two classes. The one arises -* at unexpected obliquity, as such in opprobrious lan- guage or demeanor striking upon the mind and act- ing, more or less, on the comparing power to the ex- citement of painful or disagreeable emotions in the nervous region of the breast; such as hate, pity, de- spair, anger, and indignation intermingling: espe- cially if the misconduct, astonishing, be that of a youth's or junior's. The other class gives excite- ment, in beholding some works of nature, science, or art, as strikingly novel, grand, stupendous, mons- trous, terrible, &.c. The mental and moral system is weakly, and indirectly, acted upon, while the cas- ual system of sense is chiefly affected; giving rise in the character of astonishment, to surprise, wonder, marvellousness, amazement, terror, and horror. 51 There are two kinds of hatred. One is aversion to undeserved evil throvrn, or directed intentionally, upon us. Were it deserved, or what we in the same spirit in which it was sent, would retort back ; re- vengeful malice would come over us, instead of this hateful aversion. The other is aversion to wicked or polluted conduct in general, without askaunt bearing to individual infringement particularly. All pastimes and games resorted to in the season of juvenility, which are not founded on imagination, or what is the immutable property of children, one and all, to their brotherly harmony, are very perni- cious and empoisoning to all frank intentions and pure affections, that should be fostered to their un- folding in childhood. Such pastimes are favorable as rest in sounds, terms^ harmless gesticulations ; things of touch, but not of take by any game of haz- ard, as marbles are taken, coppers, buttons, pins, and tiny things seemingly ; but of momentous mag- nitude, for they may sway empires. Despair is of three grades: one only of which is a primary. That arises in the mind, from sudden strong conception of the total prostration, to appear- ance, of some laudable design to which the soul con- centrated; that is fallen to nought now by unforse©n incidences, or by the machinations of the mentally ill-disposed person or persons. Resistance in frenj zied anger is made with much impetus ; but not knowing what to resist, it either has no-^xed direc- tion, or it is turned to desperati)sin upon the individ- ual's self The exclamation — "Ail these things are against me!" tinges not slightly of this despair. 52 The next grade to the primary, is of strong men- tal cast, but differs widely from the prime one in other respects, mainly in that it is under the oppo- site passion fear to an unhappy degree. The phre- netic imagination of the individuaVis worked upon by every fearful, strange, and uncouth image that such an imagination can depict ; and which are, rarely^ in substance no where present ; and when so, wide- ly distorted from the reality. The third grade is the product, or is seated in the passion of fear ; but is the most inferior and common as respects the activity of intellect: still no cast of character has certain exemption from its influence. Unlike the last mentioned above, all fearful scenes and shapes whatever, are actually so to the senses, and are received immediately from without upon their superficial functions; rarely entering deep enough for ideal hallucination to confirmation of madness within from causes there; and whenever so, barren of the prolific imaginations of the former grade. These fearful scenes giving rise to it, are mostly the commotions of the natural world; as in earthquakes, hurricanes, shipwrecks, sudden Wars, ^•c. To such horrors, while the most original mind may conch in distraction ; the most obdurate myr- midon may also, who cannot be influenced by the two superior grades. I 1 ANECDOTES. A rattlesnake was destroyed many years ago, having only seventeen rattles or buttons ; but meas- ured lengthwise nine feet four inches and a half, and about six inches in diameter at its middle ; which was remarkably wasted, so that its ribs and spine plainly protruded When first observed, it was in the act of horrifying from the ground, a squirrel of the largest species in a tree. On being immediately killed, it was opened; and two squirrels ofthe same species were found inside ; both of which, to appear- ance, pretty lately engorged. A short time previous to the above, one was killed in the vicinity, of a much inferior size ; yet having twenty-four rattles. * A chickensnake literally crammed with young chicks, was discovered crawling away from a hen- roost, by the cackling, stupor, and dizzinesg ofthe poultry, which the stench and strangeness of the snake had occasioned. It had, moreover, one chick alive betwixt its jaws, which sow wap rescued; and #6 / fi4 its body being immediately opened^ the foremost was taken out and resuscitated. Another of the same in a wood, was discovered awkwardly moving along, laden inside and o«t with leverets which it had purloined from a cony's bur- row a short distance away. Having first eaten its fill to satiety, it had taken one between its jaws, one at its middle tie4 with the same in a half-knot, and another within a curve of its tail; though not com- pletely secured as in its struggles it would work out. While some animals move easy and concise in their instincts to main effects or final results, others propjf^nsed to efiects or results as final, are in their movements as far prolix and laborsome. For exam- ple : a large grreenish wasp was known to drag a worm mudi.l^ger than itself, and over grassy uneven ground, and for more than a quarter of a mile, for the sole purpose to deposit it in a hole in the earth. On digging into which, it was found to have depos- ited others there of the same sort. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS ■HI 018 597 837 • OF CONGRESS o 018 597 837