FAMINE. Wisdom comes with lack of food. SLAUGHTER. They shall tear him limb from limb! FIRE. O thankless beldames and untrue! An eight years' work ?-Away! away! Cling to him everlastingly. THE DEVIL'S THOUGHTS. 1796. L FROM his brimstone bed at break of day To visit his snug little farm the Earth, II. Over the hill and over the dale, And he went over the plain, And backward and forward he switched his long tail As a gentleman switches his cane. III. And how then was the Devil drest? Oh! he was in his Sunday's best: His jacket was red and his breeches were blue, And there was a hole where the tail came through. IV. He saw a Lawyer killing a viper On a dunghill hard by his own stable; V. He saw an Apothecary on a white horse And the Devil thought of his old friend VI. He saw a cottage with a double coach-house, And the Devil did grin, for his darling sin VII. He peeped into a rich bookseller's shop, *And all amid them stood the tree of life High eminent, blooming ambrosial fruit Of vegetable gold (query paper money :) and next to Life So clomb this first grand thief Thence up he flew, and on the tree of life Sat like a cormorant. Par. Lost, iv. The allegory here is so apt, that in a catalogue of various readings obtained from collating the MSS. one might expect to find it noted. VIII. Down the river did glide, with wind and with tide, A pig with vast celerity; And the Devil look'd wise as he saw how the while, It cut its own throat. "There!" quoth he with a smile, "Goes England's commercial prosperity." IX. As he went through Cold-Bath Fields he saw A solitary cell; And the Devil was pleased, for it gave him a hint X. He saw a Turnkey in a trice Fetter a troublesome blade; "Nimbly," quoth he, "do the fingers move If a man be but used to his trade." XI. He saw the same Turnkey unfetter a man Which put him in mind of the long debate On the Slave-trade abolition. that for "life" Cod. quid. habent, "trade." Though indeed the trade, i.e. the bibliopolic, so called zar' óxny, may be regarded as Life sensu eminentiori; a suggestion, which I owe to a young retailer in the hosiery line, who on hearing a description of the net profits, dinner parties, country houses, &c. of the trade, exclaimed, "Ay! that's what I call Life now!"-This "Life, our Death," is thus happily contrasted with the fruits of authorship-Sic nos non nobis mellificamus apes. Of this poem, which with the Fire, Famine, and Slaughter, first appeared in the Morning Post, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 9th, and 16th stanzas were dictated by Mr. Southey. See Apologetic Preface. If any one should ask who General meant, the Author begs leave to inform him, that he did once see a red-faced person in a dream whom by the dress he took for a General; but he might have been mistaken, and most certainly he did not hear any names mentioned. In simple verity, the author never meant any one, or indeed any thing but to put a concluding stanza to his doggerel. XII. He saw an old acquaintance As he passed by a Methodist meeting;She holds a consecrated key, And the Devil nods her a greeting. She turned XIII. up her nose, and said, "Avaunt! my name's Religion," And she looked to Mr. And leered like a love-sick pigeon. The Devil quoted Genesis, Like a very learned clerk, How "Noah and his creeping things Went up into the Ark." XVI. He took from the poor, And he gave to the rich,. And he shook hands with a Scotchman, For he was not afraid of the He saw with consternation, And back to hell his way did he take, For the Devil thought by a slight mistake Sep. 6, 1799 II.-LOVE POEMS. Quas humilis tenero stylus olim effudit in ævo, Frons alia est, moresque alii, nova mentis imago, Pectore nunc gelido calidos miseremur amantes, PETRARCHI. LEWTI, OR THE CIRCASSIAN LOVE-CHAUNT. AT midnight by the stream I roved, Image of Lewti! from my mind Depart for Lewti is not kind. : The Moon was nigh, the moonlight gleam But the rock shone brighter far, |