Where blest he woos some black Aspasia's grace, Of weak barbarians, swarming o'er its breast, Were none but brutes to call that soil their home, In fancy now, beneath the twilight gloom, Where none but demi-gods should dare to roam ? Come, let me lead thee o'er this modern Rome!2 Or worse, thou mighty world! oh! doubly worse, Where tribunes rule, where dusky Davi bow, Did Heaven design thy lordly land to nurse And what was Goose-Creek once is Tiber now !3— The motly dregs of every distant clime, This fam'd metropolis, where fancy sees Each blast of anarchy and taint of crime Squares in morasses, obelisks in trees; Which Europe shakes from her perturbed sphere, Which travelling fools and gazetteers adorn In full malignity to rankle here? With shrines unbuilt, and heroes yet unborn, Though nought but wood4 and ******** they see, But hush !-observe that little mount of pines, Where streets should run, and sages ought to be! Where the breeze murmurs, and the fire-fly shines, There let thy fancy raise, in bold relief, And look, how soft in yonder radiant wave, The sculptur'd image of that veteran chief," The dying sun prepares his golden grave ! Who lost the rebel's in the hero's name, Oh great Potomac! oh you banks of shade! And stept o'er prostrate loyalty to fame; You mighty scenes, in nature's morning made, Beneath whose sword Columbia's patriot train While still, in rich magnificence of prime, Cast off their monarch, that the mob might reign! She pour’d her wonders, lavishly sublime, How shall we rank thee upon glory's page ? Nor yet had learn'd to stoop with humbler care, Thou more than soldier, and just less than sage ! From grand to soft, from wonderful to fair! Too form’d for peace to act a conqueror's part, Say, were your towering hills, your boundless floods, Too train'd in camps to learn a statesman's artYour rich savannas, and majestic woods, Nature design'd thee for a hero's mould, Where bards should meditate, and heroes rove, But ere she cast thee, let the stuff grow cold! And woman charm, and man deserve her love! While warmer souls command, nay, make their fate, Oh! was a world so bright but born to grace Thy fate made thee, and forc'd thee to be great. Its own half-organiz'd, half-minded race' Yet Fortune, who so oft, so blindly sheds 1 The “black Aspasia” of the present ********* of the Her brightest halo round the weakest heads, United States, “inter Avernales haud ignotissima nymphas” Found thee undazzled, tranquil as before, has given rise to much pleasantry among the anti-democrat Proud to be useful, scorning to be more; wits in America. 2 "On the original location of the ground now allotted Less prompt at glory’s than at duty's claim, for the seat of the Federal City (says Mr. Weld,) the iden- Renown the meed, but self-applause the aim ; tical spot on which the capitol now stands was called Rome. All thou hast been reflects less fame on thee, This anecdote is related by many as a certain prognostic of the future magnificence of this city, which is to be, as it Far less, than all thou hast forborne to be! were, a second Rome.”— Weld's Travels, Letter iv. 3 A little stream that runs through the city, which with Now turn thine eye where faint the moonlight falls intolerable affectation, they have styled the Tiber. It was On yonder dome-and in those princely halls, originally called Goose-Creek. 4 "To be under the necessity of going through a deep If thou canst hate, as, oh! that soul must hate, wood for one or two miles, perhaps, in order to see a next Which loves the virtuous, and reveres the great, door neighbour, and in the same city, is a curious, and I be- If thou canst loathe and execrate with me lieve a novel circumstance."—Weld, Letter iv. The Federal City (if it must be called a city,) has not That Gallic garbage of philosophy, been much increased since Mr. Weld visited it. Most of the That nauseous slaver of these frantic times, public buildings, which were then in some degree of forward. With which false liberty dilutes her crimes ! ness, have been since utterly suspended. The Hotel is already a ruin; a great part of its roof has fallen in, and the If thou hast got within thy free-born breast, rooms are left to be occupied gratuitously by the miserable One pulse that beats more proudly than the rest, Scotch and Irish emigrants. I'he President's House, a very With honest scorn for that inglorious soul, noble structure, is by no means suited to the philosophical humility of its present possessor, who inhabits but a corner of Which creeps and winds beneath a mob’s control, the mansion himself, and abandons the rest to a state of un- Which courts the rabble's smile, the rabble's nod, cleanly desolation, which those who are not philosophers And makes, like Egypt, every beast its god! cannot look at without regret. This grand edifice is encircled by a very rude pale, through which a common rustic There, in those walls—but, burning tongue, forbear! stile introduces the visitors of the first man in America. Rank must be reverenc'd, even the rank that's there: With respect to all that is in the house, I shall imitate the So here I pause—and now, my Hume! we part; prudent forbearance of Herodotus, and say, Tą d= 8V 470p But oh! full oft, in magic dreams of heart, The private buildings exhibit the same characteristic dis- Thus let us meet, and mingle converse dear play of arrogant speculation and premature ruin, and the By Thames at home, or by Potomac here ! few ranges of honses which were begun some years ago, have remained so long waste and unfinished, that they are O'er lake and marsh, through fevers and through fogs, now for the most part dilapidated. Midst bears and yankees, democrats and frogs, 5 The picture which Buffon and De Pauw have drawn of the American Indian, though very humiliating, is, as far Thy foot shall follow me, thy heart and eyes as I can judge, much more correct than the flattering repre. With me shall wonder, and with me despise !2 sentations which Mr. Jefferson has given us. See the Notes on Virginia, where this gentleman endeavours to disprove in general, the opinion mainiained so strongly by some phi- 1 On a small hill near the capitol, there is to be an equeslosophers, that nature (as Mr. Jefferson expresses it,) belit-trian statue of General Washington. tles her productions in the western world. M. de Pauw 2 In the ferment which the French revolution excited attributes the imperfection of animal life in America to the among the democrats of America, and the licentious symravages of a very recent deluge, from who-e effec's upon its pathy with which they shared in the wildest excesses of soil and atmosphere it has not yet sufliciently recovered. jacobinism, we may find one source of that vulgarity of See his Recherches sur les Americains, Part i. tom. i. p. 102. Ivice, that hostility to all the graces of life, which distin . ρητω. While I, as oft, in witching thought shall rove THE SNAKE. 1801. My love and I, the other day, Within a myrtle arbour lay, When near us from a rosy bed, A little Snake put forth its head. “ See,” said the maid, with laughing eyes“ Yonder the fatal emblem lies! Who could expect such hidden harm Beneath the rose's velvet charm? Never did mortal thought occur In more unlucky hour than this ; To talk of love and think of bliss. Flash'd from her eyelid, as she said it“ Under the rose, or in the dark, One might, perhaps, have cause to dread it; But when its wicked eyes appear, And when we know for what they wink so, One must be very simple, dear, To let it sting one-don't you think so ?” Nor long did the soul of the stranger remain Unbless'd by the smile he had languish'd to meet : Though scarce did he hope it would soothe him again, Till the threshold of home had been kiss'd by his feet! But the lays of his boy-hood had stol'n to their ear, And they lov'd what they knew of so humble a name, And they told him, with flattery welcome and dear, That they found in his heart something sweeter than fame! Nor did woman-oh, womın! whose form and whose soul If woman be there, there is happiness too! That magic his heart had relinquish'd so long, Like them did it soften and weep at his song. Oh! bless'd be the tear, and in memory oft May its sparkle be shed o'er his wandering dream! As free from a pang, ever mellow its beam! known, As he stray'd by the wave of the Schuylkill alone! LINES, THE FALL OF HEBE. A DITHYRAMBIC ODE.' 'Twas on a day The bowl At Nature's dawning hour, τηνδε την πολιν φιλως Ειπων επαξια γαρ. Sophocl. Edip. Colon v. 758. ALONE by the Schuylkill a wanderer rov'd, 1 Though I call this a Dithyrambic Ode, I cannot presume to say that it possesses, in any degree, the characteristics of And bright were its flowery banks to his eye; that species of poetry. The nature of the ancient DithyBut far, very far were the friends that he lov'd, rambic is very imperfectly known. According to M. BuAnd he gaz'd on its flowery banks with a sigh! rette, a licentious irregularity of metre, an extravagant research of thought and expression, and a rude embarrassed Oh, nature ! though blessed and bright are thy rays, construction, are among its most distinguishing features. He adds, “Ces caractères des dityrambes se font sentir à O'er the brow of creation enchantingly thrown, ceux qui lisent attentivement les odes de Pindare." MeYet faint are they all to the lustre that plays moires de l'Acad. vol. x. p. 306. And the same opinion may be collected from Schmidt's dissertation upon the subject. In a smile from the heart that is dearly our own! But I think if the Dithyrambics of Pindar were in our pos session, we should find, that, however wild and fanciful, they were by no means the tasteless jargon they are repreguishes the present demagogues of the United States, and sented, and that even their irregularity was what Boileau has become indeed too generally the characteristic of their calls un beau désordre.” Chiabrera, who has been styled " countrymen. But there is another cause of the corruption the Pindar of Italy, and from whom all its poetry upon the of private morals, which, encouraged as it is by the govern-Greek model was called Chiabreresco (as Crescimbeni inment, and identified with the interests of the community, forms us, Lib. i. cap. 12.) has given amongst his Vendemseems to threaten the decay of all honest principle in Ame- mie, a Dithyrambic, " all'uso de' Greci:” it is full of those rica. I allude to those fraudulent violations of neutrality to which they are indebted for the most lucrative part of compound epithets which, we are told, were a chief charactheir commerce, and by which they have so long infringed Bosos;) such as ter of the style (συνθετους δε λεξεις εποιουν. Βσιο Διθυραμ: and counteracted the maritime rights and advantages of this country. This unwarrautable irade is necessarily abet Briglindorato Pegaso ted by such a system of collusion, imposture, and perjury, Nubicalpestator. As cannot fail to spread rapid contamination around it. But I cannot suppose that Pindar, even amidst all the li R Stor'd the rich fluid of ethereal soul !! The Olympian cup Burn'd in the hands Up (Where they have bathed them in the orient ray, The empyreal mount, And still, As the resplendent rill Flamed o'er the goblet with a mantling heat, Her graceful care Would cool its heavenly fire In gelid waves of snowy-feather'd air, Such as the children of the pole respire, In those enchanted lands2 Where life is all a spring and north winds never blow! Shot into brilliant leafy shapes, But oh! Sweet Hebe, what a tear And what a blush were thine, When, as the breath of every Grace Wafted thy fleet career Cull'd from the gardens of the galaxy! Along the studded sphere, Upon his bosom Cytherea's head With a rich cup for Jove himself to drink, Lay lovely, as when first the Syrens sung Some star, that glitter'd in the way, Raising its amorous head To kiss so exquisite a tread, Check'd thy impatient pace! And all IIcaven's host of eyes Saw those luxuriant beauties sink In lapse of loveliness, along the azure skies !3 Upon whose starry plain they lay, Like a young blossom on our meads of gold, And, while her zone resign'd its every charm, Shed from a vernal thorn To shade his burning eyes her hand in dalliance stole; Amid the liquid sparkles of the morn! Or, as in temples of the Paphian shade, The myrtled votaries of the queen behold An image of their rosy idol, laid Upon a diamond shrine ! The wanton wind, Which had pursued the flying fair, And sweetly twin'd Its spirit with the breathing rings Of her ambrosial hair, 1 Heraclitus (Physicus) held the soul to be a spark of the stellar essence. “Scintilla stellaris essentiæ.”—Macrobius, Like a sweet crocus flower, in Somn. Scip. Lib. i. cap. 14. Whose sunny leaves, at evening hour, 2 The country of the Hyperboreans; they were supposed With roses of Cyrene blending,2 to be placed so far north, that the north wind could not affect them; they lived longer than any other mortals ; passed their whole time in music and dancing, etc. etc. But the cense of dithyrambics, would ever have descended to ballad- most extravagant fiction related of them is that to which the language like the following: two lines preceding allude. It was imagined, that instead Bella Filli, e bella Clori of our vulgar atmosphere, the Hyperboreans breathed Non piu dar pregio a tue bellezze e taci, nothing but feathers! According to Herodotus and Pliny, Che se Bacco fa vezzi alle mie labbra this idea was suggested by the quantity of snow which was observed to fall in those regions; thus the former: Txes Fo le fiche al vostri baci. πτερα εικαζοντας την χιονα τους Σκυθας τε και τους τεesser vorrei Coppier, E se troppo desiro proixous somew asysou.—Herodot. lib. iv. cap. 31. Ovid tells the fable otherwise. See Metamorph. lib. xv. Deh fossi io Bottiglier. Mr. O'Halloran, and some other Irish Antiquarians, have Rime del Chiabrera, part ii. p. 352. been at great expense of learning to prove that the strange 1 This is a Platonic fancy; the philosopher supposes, in country, where they took snow for feathers, was Ireland, his Timæus, that, when the Deity had formed the soul of the and that the famous Abaris was an Irish Druid. Mr. Rowworld, he proceeded to the composition of other souls ; in land, however, will have it that Abaris was a Welshman, which process, says Plato, he made use of the same cup, and that his name is only a corruption of Ap Rees! though the ingredients he mingled were not quite so pure as 3 I believe it is Servius who mentions this unlucky trip for the former; and having refined the mixture with a little which Hebe made in her occupation of cup-bearer; and of his own essence, he distributed it amongst the stars which Hoffman tells it after him; “Cum Hebe pocula Jovi admiserved as reservoirs of the fluid. Txut' EITTE X. TH0v nistrans, perque lubricum minus cauté incedens, cecidisset FTV TOV #Potspov xpostup% ev w TAU TOU TAUTOS Yuxnv xs-revolutisque vestibus”-in short, she fell in a very awkward ραννυς εμισγε, κ. τ. λ. manner, and though (as the Encyclopédistes think) it would 2 We learn from Theophrastus, that the roses of Cyrene have amused Jove at any other time, yet, as he happened were particularly fragrant. Evo O MOTATA TA de tu sv Ku- to be out of temper on that day, the poor girl was dismissed piun poda from her employment. Soar'd as she fell, and on its ruffling wings, (Oh wanton wind!) Vafted the robe, whose sacred flow, hadow'd her kindling charms of snow, Pure, as an Eleusinian veil Hangs o'er the mysteries!1 * * * * the brow of Juno flushedLove bless'd the breeze! The Muses blush'd, And every cheek was hid behind a lyre, 1 ile every eye was glancing through the strings. Drops of ethereal dew, That burning gush'd, From Hebe's pearly fingers through the sky! And with a wing of Love The shower Fell glowing through the spheres While all around new tints of bliss, New perfumes of delight, Enrich'd its radiant flow! Now, with a humid kiss, It thrill'd along the beamy wire Of Heaven's illumin'd lyre,3 Stealing the soul of music in its flight! That whisper from the planets as they roll, By all their sighs, meandering stole! Beheld the hill of flame Descending through the waste of night, Thought 'twas a planet, whose stupendous frame Around its fervid axle, and dissolv'd Into a flood so bright! The child of day, Within his twilight bower, Lay sweetly sleeping On the flush'd bosom of a lotos-flower;4 1 The arcane symbols of this ceremony were deposited in e cista, where they lay religiously concealed from the eyes f the profane. They were generally carried in the proces ion by an ass; and hence the proverb, which one may so ften apply in the world, "asinus portat mysteria." See he Divine Legation, Book ii. sect. 4. 2 In the Geoponica, Lib. ii. cap. 17, there is a fable some vhat like this descent of the nectar to earth. Εν ουρανώ των θεων ευωχούμενων, και του νεκταρος πολλού παρακειμέτου, ανασκίρτησαι χορεία τον Ερωτα και συσσεισαι τω πτέρω του κρατήρος την βάσιν, και περιτρέψαι μεν αυτόν TO SE VEXTAP BIG THU YN EXXUTEV, x. T.λ. See Auctor. de Re Rust, edit. Contab. 1704. 3 The constellation Lyra. The astrologers attribute great virtues to this sign in ascendenti, which are enumerated by Pontano, in his Urania: -Ecce novem cum pectine chordas Emodulans, mulcet que novo vaga sidera cantu, Quo captæ nascentum animæ concordia ducunt Pectora, etc. 4 The Egyptians represented the dawn of day by a young boy seated upon a lotos. ETs Ayur pax P ανατολης παίδςον νεογιον γράφοντας επι λωτω καθεζομένον. When round him, in profusion weeping, Steeping The rosy clouds, that curl'd About his infant head, Like myrrh upon the locks of Cupid shed! Waved his exhaling tresses through the sky, The tide divine, All glittering with the vermeil dye And every drop was wine, was heavenly WINE! ΤΟ THAT Wrinkle, when first I espied it, Thou art just in the twilight at present I would sooner, my exquisite mother! Than bask in the noon of another! ANACREONTIC. "She never look'd so kind before Yet why the wanton's smile recall! Thus I said, and, sighing, sipp'd The wine which she had lately tasted; Breath, so long in falsehood wasted. I took the harp, and would have sung Isid. et Osir. Observing that the lotos showed its head This symbol of a youth sitting upon a lotos, is very frequent on the Abraxases, or Basilidian stones. See Montfaucon, Tom. ii. planche 158, and the Supplément. etc. Tom. ii. lib. vii. chap. 5. 1 The ancients esteemed those flowers and trees tho sweetest upon which the rainbow had appeared to rest; and the wood they chiefly burned in sacrifices, was that which the smile of Iris had consecrated.-Plutarch Sympos. Lib. iv. cap. 2, where (as Vossius remarks) x8, instead of xxλ80, is undoubtedly the genuine reading. See Vossius, for some curious particularities of the rainbow, De Origin. et Progress, Idololat. Lib. iii. cap. 13. But still the notes on Lamia hung On whom but LAMIA could they hang ! That kiss, for which, if worlds were mine, A world for every kiss I'd give her; Those floating eyes, that floating shine Like diamonds in an eastern river ! That mould so fine, so pearly bright, Of which luxurious Heaven hath cast her, Through which her soul doth beam as white As flame through lamps of alabaster! Of these I sung, and notes and words Were sweet as if 'twas Lamia's hair That lay upon my lute for chords, And Lamia's lip that warbled there! But when, alas ! I turn'd the theme, And when of vows and oaths I spoke, The chord beneath my finger broke! Are lutes too frail and maids too willing; Can learn to wake their wildest thrilling ! And when that thrill is most awake, And when you think heaven's joys await you, The nymph will change, the chord will break Oh Love! oh Music ! how I hate you ! No more to Tempé's distant vale In holy musings shall we roam, Through summer's glow, and winter's gale, To bear the mystic chaplets home !! 'Twas then my soul's expanding zeal, By nature warm'd and led by thee, The breathings of a deity! Thy looks, thy words, are still my ownI see thee raising from the dew, Some laurel, by the wind o'erthrown, And hear thee say, “This humble bough Was planted for a doom divine, And, though it weep in languor now, Shall flourish on the Delphic shrine! Thus, in the vale of earthly sense, Though sunk awhile the spirit lies, A viewless hand shall cull it thence, To bloom immortal in the skies !" Thy words had such a melting flow, And spoke of truth‘so sweetly well, They dropp'd like heaven's serenest snow, And all was brightness where they fell ! Fond soother of my infant tear! Fond sharer of my infant joy! Am I not still thy soul's employ? When, meeting on the sacred mount, Our nymphs awak'd the choral lay, And danc'd around Cassotis' fount; As then, 'twas all thy wish and care, That mine should be the simplest mien, My lyre and voice the sweetest there, My foot the lightest o'er the green; So still, each little grace to mould, Around my form thine eyes are shed, Arranging every snowy fold, And guiding every mazy tread ! And, when I lead the hymning choir, Thy spirit still, unseen and free, Hovers between my lip and lyre, And weds them into harmony! Flow, Plistus, flow! thy murmuring wave Shall never drop its silv'ry tear Upon so pure, so blest a grave, To memory so divinely dear! TO MRS. ON SOME CALUMNIES AGAINST HER CHARACTER. Is not thy mind a gentle mind? Is not thy heart a heart refin'd? Hast thou not every blameless grace, That man should love, or Heaven can trace ? And oh! art thou a shrine for Sin To hold her hateful worship in ? No, no, be happy-dry that tearThough some thy heart hath harbour'd near May now repay its love with blame! Though man, who ought to shield thy fame, Ungenerous man, be first to wound thee! Though the whole world may freeze around thee, Oh! thou'lt be like that lucid tear," Which, bright, within the crystal's sphere In liquid purity was found, Though all had grown congeal'd around; Floating in frost, it mock'd the chill, Was pure, was soft, was brilliant still. RINGS AND SEALS. Ωσπερ σφραγιδες τα φιλη ματα. HYMN OF A VIRGIN OF DELPHI, Achilles Tatius, Lib. Ü. AT THE TOMB OF HER MOTHER. OH! lost, for ever lost !-no more “Go!" said the angry weeping maid, Shall Vesper light our dewy way “The charm is broken !-once betray'd, Along the rocks of Crissa's shore, To hymn the fading fires of day! a rarity as this that I saw at Vendôme in France, which they there pretend is a tear that our Saviour shed over La zarus, and was gathered up by an angel, who put it in a little 1 This alludes to a curious gem, upon which Claudian crystal vial and made a present of it to Mary Magdalene." has left us some pointless epigrams. It was a drop of pure - Addison's Remarks on several Parts of Italy. water inclosed within a piece of crystal. See Claudian. 1 The laurel, for the common uses of the temple, for Epigram. de Chrystallo cui aqua inerat. Addison men- adorning the altars and sweeping the pavement, was sup: tione a curiosity of this kind at Milan. He says, “It is such |plied by a tree near the fountain of Castalia. But upon al TO |