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Already blighted, with her blackening trace,
The opening bloom of every social grace,
And all those courtesies, that love to shoot
Round virtue's stem, the flowrets of her fruit!

"Oh! were these errors but the wanton tide
Of young luxuriance, of unchasten'd pride;
The fervid follies and the faults of such
As wrongly feel, because they feel too much;
Then might experience make the fever less,
Nay, graft a virtue on each warm excess :
But no; 'tis heartless, speculative ill,
All youth's transgression with all age's chill,
The apathy of wrong, the bosom's ice,
A slow and cold stagnation into vice!

"Long has the love of gold, that meanest rage,
And latest folly of man's sinking age,
Which, rarely venturing in the van of life,
While nobler passions wage their heated strife,
Come skulking last, with selfishness and fear,
And dies, collecting lumber in the rear!
Long has it palsied every grasping hand
And greedy spirit through this bartering land;
Turn'd life to traffic, set the demon gold
So loose abroad, that virtue's self is sold,
And conscience, truth and honesty are made
To rise and fall, like other wares of trade!

"Already in this free, this virtuous state,
Which, Frenchmen tell us, was ordain'd by fate,
To shew the world, what high perfection springs
From rabble senators, and merchant kings-
Even here already patriots learn to steal
Their private perquisites from public weal*,

* "I must decline," says Washington, in his inaugural address to Congress,) "I must decline, as inapplicable to myself, any share in the personal emoluments which may be indispensably included in a permanent provision for the executive department."After such a declaration, it is by no means pleasant to know, that Washington not only received his salary, but was in the habit of anticipating the regular periods of payment, and had constantly, during a space of five years, several thousand dollars of the public money in his hands. He was accused of letting out those sums at interest, but this we may consider as a calumny of the party opposed to him. The fact however of his overdrawing the salary, appears by an extract from the Books of the Treasury, subjoined to a justification which the Secretary found it necessary to publish at the time; and this exposure was one of the many humiliations which preceded the retirement of Washington from the Presidency.

And,

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And, guardians of the country's sacred fire,
Like Afric's priests, they let the flame for hire!
Those vaunted demagogues, who nobly rose
From England's debtors to be England's foes,
Who could their monarch in their purse forget,
And break allegiance, but to cancel debt *
Have prov'd at length the mineral's tempting hue,
Which makes a patriot, can unmake him toot.
Oh! freedom, freedom, how I hate thy cant !
Not Eastern bombast, not the savage rant
Of purpled madmen, were they number'd all
From Roman Nero down to Russian Paul,
Could grate upon my ear so mean, so base,
As the rank jargon of that factious race,
Who poor of heart and prodigal of words,
Born to be slaves and struggling to be lords,
But pant for licence, while they spurn controul,
And shout for rights, with rapine in their soul!
Who can, with patience, for a moment see
The medley mass of pride and misery,
Of whips and charters, manacles and rights,
Of slaving blacks and democratic whites,
And all the pye-bald polity that reigns
In free confusion o'er Columbia's plains?
To think that man, thou just and gentle God!
Should stand before thee, with a tyrant's rod
O'er creatures like himself, with souls from thee,
Yet dare to boast of perfect liberty!

"The most persevering enemy to the interests of this country, amongst the politicians of the western world, has been a Virginian mer.. chant, who, finding it easier to settle his conscience than his debts, was one of the first to raise the Standard against Great Britain, and has ever since endeavoured to revenge upon the whole country the obligations which he lies under to a few of its merchants.”

+"See Porcupine's account of the Pennsylvania Insurrection in 1794. In short, see Porcupine's Works throughout, for ample corroboration of every sentiment which I have ventured to express. In saying this, I refer less to the comments of that writer, than to the occurrences which he has related and the documents which he has preserved. Opinion may be suspected of bias, but facts speak for themselves."

"In Virginia the effects of this system begin to be felt rather seriously. While the master raves of liberty, the slave cannot but catch the contagion, and accordingly there seldom elapses a month without some alarm of insurrection amongst the negroes. The accession of Louisiana, it is feared, will increase this embarrassment; as the numerous emigrations which are expected to take place, from the southern states to this newly acquired territory, will considerably diminish the white population, and thus strengthen the proportion of negroes, to a degree which must ultimately be ruinous,"

Away,

Away, away-I'd rather hold my neck
By doubtful tenure from a sultan's beck,
In climes, where liberty has scarce been nam'd,
Nor any right but that of ruling claim'd,
Than thus to live, where bastard freedom waves
Her fustian flag in mockery over slaves ;
Where (motley laws admitting no degree
Betwixt the vilely slav'd and madly free)
Alike the bondage and the licence suit

The brute made ruler and the man made brute!"

This is strong painting. The bard evidently feels his subject; and the indignation which he expresses is natural to the mind of a lover of real freedom, employed in the contemplation of beings who imitate liberty, as a monkey imitates a man.

the pye-ball polity that reigns

In free confusion o'er Columbia's plains ;

is a most happy thought, and happily expressed. In this Epistle, the American mind is chiefly delineated; in the next which we shall quote, the American manners are principally pourtrayed. It is addressed to Dr. Hume, from the City of Washington.

"Tis evening now; the heats and cares of day

In twilight dews are calmly wept away.

The lover now, beneath the western star,

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Sighs through the medium of his sweet segar,
And fills the ears of some consenting she

With puffs and vows, with smoke and constancy!
The weary statesman for repose hath fled
From halls of council to his negro's shed,
Where blest he woes some black Aspasia's grace,
And dreams of freedom in his slave's embrace !

"In fancy now, beneath the twilight gloom,
Come, let me lead thee o'er this modern Rome,
Where tribunes rule, where dusky Davi bow,
And what was Goose-Creek once is Tiber now!
This fam'd metropolis, where Fancy sees
Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees;
Which travelling fools and gazetteers adorn
With shrines unbuilt and heroes yet unborn,

Though nought but wood and ********* they see,
Where streets should run and sages ought to be!

"And look, how soft in yonder radiant wave,
The dying sun prepares his golden grave!-
Oh great Potowmac! oh yon banks of shade!
Yon mighty scenes, in nature's morning made,
While still, in rich magnificence of prime,
She pour'd her wonders, lavishly sublime,

Nor

care,

Nor yet had learn'd to stoop, with humbler
From grand to soft, from wonderful to fair!
Say, were your towering hills, your boundless floods,
Your rich savannas and majestic woods,
Where bards should meditate and heroes rove,
And woman charm and man deserve her love!
Oh! was a world so bright but born to grace
Its own half-organiz'd, half-minded race
Of weak barbarians, swarming o'er its breast,
Like vermin, gender'd on the lion's crest?
Were none but brutes to call that soil their home,
Where none but demi-gods should dare to roam?
Or worse, thou mighty world! oh! doubly worse,
Did heaven design thy lordly land to nurse
The motley dregs of every distant clime,
Each blast of anarchy and taint of crime,
Which Europe shakes from her perturbed sphere,
In full malignity to rankle here?

But, hush!-observe that little mount of pines,
Where the breeze murmurs and the fire-fly shines,
There let thy fancy raise, in bold relief,
The sculptur'd image of that veteran chief,
Who lost the rebel's in the hero's name,

And stept o'er prostrate loyalty to fame;

Beneath whose sword Columbia's patriot train

Cast off their monarch, that their mob might reign!"

"Now turn thee, HUME, where faint the moon-light falls

On yonder dome-and in those princely halls,

If thou canst hate, as oh! that soul must hate,
Which loves the virtuous and reveres the great,`
If thou canst loath and execrate with me
That Gallic garbage of philosophy,

That nauseous slaver of these frantic times,
With which false liberty dilutes her crimes!
If thou hast got, within thy free-born breast,
One pulse, that beats more proudly than the rest,
With honest scorn for that inglorious soul,
Which creeps and winds beneath a mob's controul,
Which courts the rabble's smile, the rabble's nod,
And makes, like Egypt, every beast its god!
There, in those walls-but, burning tongue forbear!
Rank must be reverenc'd, even the rank that's there:
So here I pause-and now, my HUME! we part;
But oh! full oft, in magic dreams of heart,
Thus let us meet, and mingle converse dear
By Thames at home, or by Potowmac here!

O'er lake and marsh, through fevers and through fogs,
Midst bears and yankees, democrats and frogs,
Thy foot shall follow me, thy heart and eyes
With me shall wonder, and with me despise !

While I, as oft, in witching thought shall rove
To thee, to friendship, and that land I love,
Where, like the air that fans her fields of green,
Her freedom spreads, unfever'd and serene;
Where sovereign man can condescend to see
The throne and laws more sovereign still than he!
Once more, adieu !-my weary eye-lid winks,
The moon grows clouded and my taper sinks."

Some of the thoughts, and of the language too, in this Epistle, are sublime. Our bard excels more in this kind of writing, than in his amatory Poems, of which the specimens, in the present volume, are pretty abundant. Generally speaking, they betray more of the sen sualist than of the lover; the strains of desire, not the language of affection. From a bard so feeling, we cannot look for such respect for the sex; and hence the following verses on Lying will not be perused with surprize.

"I do confess, in many a sigh

My lips have breath'd you many a lie,
And who, with such delights in view,
Would lose them, for a lie or two?

"Nay-look not thus, with brow reproving;
Lies are, my dear, the soul of loving!
If half we tell the girls were true,;;
If half we swear to think and do,
Were aught but lying's bright illusion,
The world would be in strange confusion!

"If ladies' eyes were, every one,
As lovers swear, a radiant sun,
Astronomy should leave the skies,
To learn her lore in ladies' eyes!
Oh no!-believe me, lovely girl,
When nature turns your teeth to pearl,
Your neck to snow, your eyes to fire,
Your yellow locks to golden wire,
Then, only then, can heaven decree,
That should live for only me,
Or I for you, as night and morn,
We've swearing kist, and kissing sworn!

you

you,

"And now, my gentle hints to clear,
For once, I'll tell you truth, my dear!
Whenever you may chance to meet
A loving youth, whose love is sweet,
Long as you're false and he believes
Long as you trust and he deceives you,
So long the blissful bond endures;
And while he lies, his heart is your's:
But oh! you've wholly lost the youth,
The instant that he tells you truth!"

From

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