So swift, so pure, so cold, so bright,

They pierced my frame with icy wounds, And all that half year's polar night,

Those dancing streamers wrapp'd me round.

Slowly that darkness pass'd away,

When down upon the earth I fell,-
Some hurried sleep was mine by day;
But, soon as toll'd the evening bell,
They forced me on, where ever dwell
Far distant men in cities fair,
Cities of whom no trav'llers tell,

Nor feet but mine were wanderers there.

Their watchmen stare and stand aghast,
As on we hurry through the dark;
The watch-light blinks as we go past,

The watch-dog shrinks and fears to bark; The watch-tower's bell sounds shrill; and, hark! The free wind blows-we've left the townA wide sepulchral ground I mark,

And on a tombstone place me down.

What monuments of mighty dead!

What tombs of various kinds are found! And stones erect their shadows shed

On humble graves, with wickers bound; Some risen fresh above the ground,

Some level with the native clay, What sleeping millions wait the sound, "Arise, ye dead, and come away!"

Alas! they stay not for that call;

Spare me this wo! ye demons, spare!They come the shrouded shadows all,

"Tis more than mortal brain can bear; Rustling they rise, they sternly glare

At man upheld by vital breath; Who, led by wicked fiends, should dare To join the shadowy troops of death!

Yes, I have felt all man can feel,

Till he shall pay his nature's debt; Ills that no hope has strength to heal, No mind the comfort to forget: Whatever cares the heart can fret,

The spirits wear, the temper gall, Wo, want, dread, anguish, all beset My sinful soul!-together all!

Those fiends upon a shaking fen

Fix'd me, in dark tempestuous night; There never trod the foot of men, There flock'd the fowl in wintery flight; There danced the moor's deceitful light Above the pool where sedges grow; And when the morning sun shone bright, It shone upon a field of snow.

They hung me on a bough so small,

The rook could build her nest no higher; They fix'd me on the trembling ball That crowns the steeple's quivering spire; They set me where the seas retire,

But drown with their returning tide; And made me flee the mountain's fire, When rolling its burning side.

I've hung upon the ridgy steep

Of cliffs, and held the rambling brier; I've plunged below the billowy deep, Where air was sent me to respiro; I've been where hungry wolves retire; And (to complete my woes) I've ran Where bedlam's crazy crew conspire Against the life of reasoning man.

I've furl'd in storms the flapping sail,
By hanging from the topmast-head;
I've served the vilest slaves in jail,
And pick'd the dunghill's spoil for bread;
I've made the badger's hole my bed,
I've wander'd with a gipsy crew;
I've dreaded all the guilty dread,

And done what they would fear to do.

On sand, where ebbs and flows the flood,
Midway they placed and bade me die;
Propp'd on my staff, I stoutly stood
When the swift waves came rolling by ;
And high they rose, and still more high,
Till my lips drank the bitter brine;

I sobb'd convulsed, then cast mine eye,
And saw the tide's reflowing sign.

And then, my dreams were such as naught
Could yield but my unhappy case;
I've been of thousand devils caught,
And thrust into that horrid place,
Where reign dismay, despair, disgrace;
Furies with iron fangs were there,
To torture that accursed race,

Doom'd to dismay, disgrace, despair.

Harmless I was; yet hunted down
For treasons, to my soul unfit;
I've been pursued through many a town,
For crimes that petty knaves commit;
I've been adjudged t' have lost my wit,
Because I preach'd so loud and well;
And thrown into the dungeon's pit,

For trampling on the pit of hell.

Such were the evils, man of sin,
That I was fated to sustain ;
And add to all, without-within,

A soul defiled with every stain
That man's reflecting mind can pain;
That pride, wrong, rage, despair, can make
In fact, they'd nearly touch'd my brain,
And reason on her throne would shake.

But pity will the vilest seek,

If punish'd guilt will not repine,I heard a heavenly Teacher speak, And felt the Sun of mercy shine; I hail'd the light! the birth divine! And then was seal'd among the few; Those angry fiends beheld the sign, And from me in an instant flew.

Come, hear how thus the charmers cry To wandering sheep, the strays of sin, While some the wicket-gate pass by, And some will knock and enter in :

Full joyful 'tis a soul to win,

For he that winneth souls is wise; Now hark! the holy strains begin,

And thus the sainted preacher cries:*

"Pilgrim, burden'd with thy sin,
Come the way to Zion's gate,
There, till Mercy let thee in,

Knock and weep, and watch and wait.
Knock-He knows the sinner's cry:
Weep! He loves the mourner's tears:
Watch!-for saving grace is nigh:
Wait!-till heavenly light appears.

"Hark! it is the Bridegroom's voice;
Welcome pilgrim to thy rest;
Now within the gate rejoice,

Safe and seal'd, and bought and bless'd!
Safe-from all the lures of vice,
Seal'd-by signs the chosen know,
Bought by love and life the price,
Bless'd-the mighty debt to owe.

"Holy Pilgrim! what for thee
In a world like this remain ?

From thy guarded breast shall flee,
Fear and shame, and doubt and pain.
Fear-the hope of Heaven shall fly,
Shame-from glory's view retire,
Doubt-in certain rapture die,
Pain-in endless bliss expire."

But though my day of grace was come,
Yet still my days of grief I find ;
The former clouds' collected gloom
Still sadden the reflecting mind;
The soul, to evil things consign'd,
Will of their evil some retain;
The man will seem to earth inclined,
And will not look erect again.

Thus, though elect. I feel it hard

To lose what I possess'd before,
To be from all my wealth debarr'd,-

The brave Sir Eustace is no more:
But old I wax and passing poor,

Stern, rugged men my conduct view;
They chide my wish, they bar my door,
"Tis hard-I weep-you see I do.-
Must you, my friends, no longer stay?
Thus quickly all my pleasures end;
But I'll remember, when I pray,
My kind physician and his friend :
And those sad hours, you deign to spend
With me, I shall requite them all;
Sir Eustace for his friends shall send,
And thank their love at Greyling Hall

It has been suggested to me, that this change from restlessness to repose, in the mind of Sir Eustace, is wrought by a methodistic call; and it is admitted to be such a sober and rational conversion could not have happened while the disorder of the brain continued: yet the verses which follow, in a different measure, are not Intended to make any religious persuasion appear ridiculous; they are to be supposed as the effect of memory in the disordered mind of the speaker, and, though evi dently enthusiastic in respect to language, are not meant to convey any impropriety of sentiment.

VISITER.

The poor Sir Eustace!-Yet his hope
Leads him to think of joys again;
And when his earthly visions droop,

His views of heavenly kind remain :—
But whence that meek and humbled strain,
That spirit wounded, lost, resign'd?
Would not so proud a soul disdain
The madness of the poorest mind?

PHYSICIAN.

No! for the more he swell'd with pride, The more he felt misfortune's blow; Disgrace and grief he could not hide,

And poverty had laid him low: Thus shame and sorrow working slow. At length this humble spirit gave; Madness on these began to grow,

And bound him to his fiends a slave.

Though the wild thoughts had touch'd his brain Then was he free: so, forth he ran,

To soothe or threat, alike were vain:

He spake of fiends, look'd wild and wan; Year after year, the hurried man

Obey'd those fiends from place to place;

Till his religious change began

To form a frenzied child of grace.

For, as the fury lost its strength,

The mind reposed; by slow degrees
Came lingering hope, and brought at length,
To the tormented spirit, ease :

This slave of sin, whom fiends could seize,
Felt or believed their power had end ;-
"Tis faith," he cried, "my bosom frees,
And now my Saviour is my friend."

"

VAGRANT.

My crime-This sickening child to feed,
I seized the food, your witness saw;
I knew your laws forbade the deed,
But yielded to a stronger law.

Know'st thou, to Nature's great command
All human laws are frail and weak?
Nay! frown not-stay his eager hand,
And hear me, or my heart will break.

In this, th' adopted babe I hold

With anxious fondness to my breast, My heart's sole comfort I behold,

More dear than life, when life was bless'd;

I saw her pining, fainting, cold,

I begg'd-but vain was my request.

I saw the tempting food, and seized-
My infant sufferer found relief;
And, in the pilfer'd treasure pleased,
Smiled on my guilt, and hush'd my grief.

But I have griefs of other kind,

Troubles and sorrows more severe; Give me to ease my tortured mind, Lend to my woes a patient ear; And let me if I may not find

A friend to help-find one to hear. Yet nameless let me plead-my name Would only wake the cry of scorn; A child of sin, conceived in shame, Brought forth in wo, to misery born.

My mother dead, my father lost,

I wander'd with a vagrant crew; A common care, a common cost,

Their sorrows and their sins I knew; With them, by want on error forced,

Like them, I base and guilty grew.

Few are my years, not so my crimes;
The age, which these sad looks declare,
Is Sorrow's work, it is not Time's,

And I am old in shame and care.

Taught to believe the world a place

Where every stranger was a foe,

'I rain'd in the arts that mark our race, To what new people could I go? Could I a better life embrace,

Or live as virtue dictates? No!

So through the land I wandering went,
And little found of grief or joy;
But lost my bosom's sweet content
When first I loved-the Gipsy-Boy.

A sturdy youth he was and tall,

His looks would all his soul declare; His piercing eyes were deep and small, And strongly curl'd his raven hair.

Yes, Aaron had each manly charm,

All in the May of youthful pride, He scarcely fear'd his father's arm, And every other arm defied.-—

Oft, when they grew in anger warm,
(Whom will not love and power divide ?)

I rose, their wrathful souls to calm,
Not yet in sinful combat tried.

His father was our party's chief,

And dark and dreadful was his look; His presence fill'd my heart with grief, Although to me he kindly spoke. With Aaron I delighted went,

His favour was my bliss and pride;
In growing hope our days we spent,

Love growing charms in either spied,
It saw them, all which Nature lent,
It lent them, all which she denied.
Could I the father's kindness prize,

Or grateful looks on him bestow,
Whom I beheld in wrath arise,

When Aaron sunk beneath his blow?
He drove him down with wicked hand,
It was a dreadful sight to see;
Then vex'd him, till he left the land

And told his cruel love to me;-
The clan were all at his command,
Whatever his command might be.
The night was dark, the lanes were deep,
And one by one they took their way;
He bade me lay me down and sleep,
I only wept and wish'd for day
Accursed be the love he bore,

Accursed was the force he used, So let him of his God implore For mercy, and be so refused! You frown again,-to show my wrong, Can I in gentle language speak? My woes are deep, my words are strong,And hear me, or my heart will break.

MAGISTRATE.

I hear thy words, I feel thy pain:
Forbear awhile to speak thy woes;
Receive our aid, and then again

The story of thy life disclose.

For, though seduced and led astray,
Thou'st travell'd far and wander'd long;
Thy God hath seen thee all the way,
And all the turns that led thee wrong.

PART II.

Quondam ridentes oculi, nunc fonte perenni
Deplorant pœnus nocte dieque suas.
CORN. GALLI Eleg.

MAGISTRATE.

COME, now again thy woes impart,

Tell all thy sorrows, all thy sin; We cannot heal the throbbing heart

Till we discern the wounds within. Compunction weeps our guilt away, The sinner's safety is his pain; Such pangs for our offences pay, And these severer griefs are gain.

VAGRANT.

The son came back-he found us wed, Then dreadful was the oath he swore;His way through Blackburn Forest led,His father we beheld no more.

Of all our daring clan not one

Would on the doubtful subject dwell; For all esteem'd the injured son,

And fear'd the tale which he could tell.

But I had mightier cause for fear,

For slow and mournful round my bed I saw a dreadful form appear,

It came when I and Aaron wed.

(Yes! we were wed, I know my crime,We slept beneath the elmin tree; But I was grieving all the time,

And Aaron frown'd my tears to see.

For he not yet had felt the pain

That rankles in a wounded breast; He waked to sin, then slept again, Forsook his God, yet took his rest. But I was forced to feign delight, And joy in mirth and music sought,And memory now recalls the night,

With such surprise and horror fraught,
That reason felt a moment's flight,
And left a mind to madness wrought.)

When waking on my heaving breast
I felt a hand as cold as death;
A sudden fear my voice suppress'd,
A chilling terror stopp'd my breath.-

I seem'd-no words can utter how!
For there my father-husband stood,-
And thus he said :-" Will God allow,
The
great avenger, just and good,
A wife to break her marriage vow?
A son to shed his father's blood?"

I trembled at the dismal sounds,

But vainly strove a word to say;
So, pointing to his bleeding wounds,
The threatening spectre stalk'd away.*

I brought a lovely daughter forth,

His father's child, in Aaron's bed; He took her from me in his wrath, "Where is my child ?"—" Thy child is dead." 'Twas false.-We wander'd far and wide, Through town and country, field and fen, Till Aaron, fighting, fell and died, And I became a wife again.

I then was young-my husband sold
My fancied charms for wicked price;
He gave me oft, for sinful gold,

The slave, but not the friend of vice:-
Behold me. Heaven! my pains behold,
And let them for my sins suffice!

The wretch who lent me thus for gain,
Despised me when my youth was fled,
Then came disease, and brought me pain:—
Come, death, and bear me to the dead'
For though I grieve, my grief is vain,
And fruitless all the tears I shed.

*The state of mind here described will account for a vision of this nature, without having recourse to any su pernatural appearance

True, I was not to virtue train'd,

Yet well I knew my deeds were ill; By each offence my heart was pain'd,

I wept, but I offended still; My better thoughts my life disdain'd, But yet the viler led my will.

My husband died, and now no more
My smile was sought, or ask'd my hand
A widow'd vagrant, vile and poor,

Beneath a vagrant's vile command.

Ceaseless I roved the country round,

To win my bread by fraudful arts, And long a poor subsistence found,

By spreading nets for simple hearts.

Though poor, and abject, and despised; Their fortunes to the crowd I told;

I gave the young the love they prized, And promised wealth to bless the old; Schemes for the doubtful I devised,

And charms for the forsaken sold.

At length for arts like these confined
In prison with a lawless crew,

I soon perceived a kindred mind,
And there my long-lost daughter knew.

His father's child, whom Aaron gave To wander with a distant clan, The miseries of the world to brave,

And be the slave of vice and man.

She knew my name-we met in pain, Our parting pangs can I express? She sail'd a convict o'er the main, And left an heir to her distress.

This is that heir to shame, and pain,
For whom I only could descry
A world of trouble and disdain :

Yet, could I bear to see her die, Or stretch her feeble hands in vain, And, weeping, beg of me supply?

No! though the fate thy mother knew
Was shameful! shameful though thy race
Have wander'd all, a lawless crew,
Outcasts, despised in every place;

Yet as the dark and muddy tide,
When far from its polluted source,
Becomes more pure, and, purified,
Flows in a clear and happy course;―

In thee, dear infant! so may end

Our shame, in thee our sorrows cease! And thy pure course will then extend, In floods of joy, o'er vales of peace.

O! by the God who loves to spare,
Deny me not the boon I crave;
Let this loved child your mercy share,
And let me find a peaceful grave;
Make her yet spotless soul your care,
And let my sins their portion have;
Her for a better fate prepare,

And punish whom 'twere sin to save!

MAGISTRATE.

Recall the word, renounce the thought, Command thy heart, and bend thy knee There is to all a pardon brought,

A ransom rich, assured, and free ; "Tis full when found, 'tis found if sought, O! seek it, till 'tis seal'd to thee.

VAGRANT.

But how my pardon shall I know?

MAGISTRATE.

By feeling dread that 'tis not sent, By tears for sin that freely flow,

By grief, that all thy tears are spent, By thoughts on that great debt we owe, With all the mercy God has lent, By suffering what thou canst not show, Yet showing how thine heart is rent, Till thou canst feel thy bosom glow, And say, "My Saviour, I repent!"

WOMAN:

"To a woman I never addressed myself in the language of decency and friendship, without receiving a decent and friendly answer. If I was hungry or thirsty, wet or sick, they did not hesitate, like men, to perform a generous action: in so free and kind a manner did they contribute to my relief, that if I was dry, I drank the sweetest draught; and if hungry, I ate the coarsest morsel with a double relish."-Mr. Ledyard, as quoted by M. Parke in his Travels into Africa.

PLACE the white man on Afric's coast,
Whose swarthy sons in blood delight,
Who of their scorn to Europe boast,

And paint their very demons white:
There, while the sterner sex disdains

To soothe the woes they cannot feel, Woman will strive to heal his pains,

And weep for those she cannot heal; Hers is warm pity's sacred glow;

From all her stores, she bears a part,
And bids the spring of hope re-flow,

That languish'd in the fainting heart.
"What though so pale his haggard face,
So sunk and sad his looks," she cries;
"And far unlike our nobler race,
With crisped locks and rolling eyes;
Yet misery marks him of our kind;
We see him lost, alone, afraid;
And pangs of body, griefs in mind,
Pronounce him man, and ask our aid.

"From some sad land the stranger comes,
Where joys like ours are never found,
Let's soothe him in our happy homes,
Where freedom sits with plenty crown'd

""Tis good the fainting soul to cheer,
To see the famish'd stranger fed;
To milk for him the mother deer,
To smooth for him the furry bed.
The powers above our Lapland bless
With good no other people know;
T'enlarge the joys that we possess

By feeling those that we bestow!"
Thus in extremes of cold and heat,
Where wandering man may trace his kind;
Wherever grief and want retreat,

In woman they compassion find;
She makes the female breast her seat,
And dictates mercy to the mind.

Man may the sterner virtues know,
Determined justice, truth severe :
But female hearts with pity glow,

And woman holds affliction dear;
For guiltless woes her sorrows flow,
And suffering vice compels her tear;
"Tis hers to soothe the ills below,

And bid life's fairer views appear To woman's gentle kind we owe

What comforts and delights us here; They its gay hopes on youth bestow, And care they soothe and age they cheer.

TALE I.

THE DUMB ORATORS; OR, THE BENEFIT OF SOCIETY.

With fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe—

Full of wise saws and modern instances.

As you like it, act ii. sc. 7.

Deep shame hath struck me dumb.

King John, act iv. sc. 2. He gives the bastinado with his tongue, Our ears are cudgell'd.

King John, act iv. sc. 2.

Let's kill all the lawyers;
Now show yourselves men: 'tis for liberty:
We will not leave one lord or gentleman.

Henry VI. part 2, act ii. sc. 7. And thus the whirligig of time brings in his revenges. Twelfth Night, act v. scene last

THAT all men would be cowards if they dare,
Some men we know have courage to declare;
And this the life of many a hero shows,
That like the tide, man's courage ebbs and flows
With friends and gay companions round them, then
Men boldly speak and have the hearts of men;
Who, with opponents seated, miss the aid
Of kind applauding looks, and grow afraid;
Like timid travellers in the night, they fear
Th' assault of foes, when not a friend is near.
In contest mighty, and of conquest proud
Was Justice Bolt, impetuous, warm, and loud;
His fame, his prowess all the country knew,
And disputants, with one so fierce, were few.