The tide of Empire's fluctuating course;
Here Douglas forms wild Shakspeare into plan,
And Harley1 rouses all the god in man.

When weh-form'd taste, and sparkling wit unite,
With manly lore, or female beauty bright,
(Beauty, where faultless symmetry and grace
Can only charm us in the second place,)
Witness my heart, how oft with panting fear,
As on this night, I've met these judges here!
But still the hope Experience taught to live,
Equal to judge you 're candid to forgive.
No hundred-headed Riot here we meet,
With decency and law beneath his feet,
Nor Insolence assumes fair Freedom's name;
Like Caledonians, you applaud or blame.

O Thou, dread Power! whose empire-giving hand
Has oft been stretch'd to shield the honor'd land,
Strong may she glow with all her ancient fire;
May every son be worthy of his sire;

Firm may she rise with generous disdain
At Tyranny's, or direr Pleasure's chain;
Still self-dependent in her native shore,

Bold may she brave grim Danger's loudest roar,
Till Fate the curtain drop on worlds to be no more.

TRAGIC FRAGMENT.

[The following verses were written when our Poet was in his eighteenth or nineteenth year. It is an exclamation by a great character on meeting with a child of misery.]

ALL devil as I am, a damnéd wretch,

A harden'd, stubborn, unrepenting villain,
Still my heart melts at human wretchedness;
And with sincere tho' unavailing sighs,
I view the helpless children of distress.
With tears indignant I behold th' oppressor
Rejoicing in the honest man's destruction,
Whose unsubmitting heart was all his crime.
Even you, ye helpless crew, I pity you;

1 The Man of Feeling, written by Mr. Mackenzie.

Ye, whom the seeming good think sin to pity:
Ye poor despised, abandon'd vagabonds,
Whom vice, as usual, has turn'd o'er to ruin.
-O, but for kind, tho' ill-requited friends,
I had been driven forth like you forlorn,
The most detested, worthless wretch among you.

REMORSE.-A FRAGMENT.

[These lines were found in a note-book of the Poet's, written in early life.]

Of all the numerous ills that hurt our peace,
That press the soul, or wring the mind with anguish,
Beyond comparison, the worst are those
That to our folly or our guilt we owe.
In every other circumstance, the mind
Has this to say-"It was no deed of mine;"
But when to all the evil of misfortune
This sting is added—“ Blame thy foolish self,"
Or, worser far, the pangs of keen remorse;
The torturing, gnawing consciousness of guilt-
Of guilt, perhaps, where we've involved others;
The young, the innocent, who fondly loved us,
Nay more, that very love, their cause of ruin!
O burning hell! in all thy store of torments,
There not a keener lash!

Lives there a man so firm, who, while his heart
Feels all the bitter horrors of his crime,
Can reason down its agonizing throbs;
And after proper purpose of amendment,
Can firmly force his jarring thoughts to peace?
O happy, happy, enviable man!

O glorious magnanimity of soul!

ODE

ON THE BIRTHDAY OF PRINCE CHARLES EDWARD.

[Burns having been present at a meeting held at Edinburgh, on the 31st Dec., 1787, to celebrate the birth-day of the unfortunate Prince Charles Edward, and being appointed poet-laureate for the occasion, he produced an ode, of which an extract is here presented to the reader.]

False flatterer, Hope, away!

Nor think to lure us as in days of yore;
We solemnize this sorrowing natal day,
To prove our loyal truth-we can no more;
And, owning Heaven's mysterious sway,
Submissive, low, adore.

Ye honor'd, mighty dead!

Who nobly perish'd in the glorious cause,
Your king, your country, and her laws!

From great Dundee, who smiling victory led,
And fell a martyr in her arms,

(What breast of northern ice but warms?)

To bold Balmerino's undying name,

Whose soul of fire lighted at Heaven's high flame, Deserves the proudest wreath departed heroes claim.

Not unrevenged your fate shall be,

It only lags the fatal hour;

Your blood shall with incessant cry
Awake at last th' unsparing power.
As from the cliff, with thundering course,
The snowy ruin smokes along

With doubling speed and gathering force,
Till deep it crashing whelms the cottage in the vale:

So vengeance

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ADDRESS,

Spoken by Miss Fontenelle, on her Benefit Night, Dec. 4, 1795, at the Theatre,

Dumfries.

STILL anxious to secure your partial favor,
And not less anxious, sure, this night than ever,
A Prologue, Epilogue, or some such matter,
'Twould vamp my bill, said I, if nothing better:

So, sought a Poet, roosted near the skies;
Told him I came to feast my curious eyes;
Said, nothing like his works was ever printed:
And last my Prologue-business slily hinted.
"Ma'am, let me tell you," quoth my man of rhymes,
"I know your bent-these are no laughing times:
Can you but Miss, I own I have my fears,-
Dissolve in pause-and sentimental tears,

With laden sighs, and solemn-rounded sentence,
Rouse from his sluggish slumbers fell Repentance;
Paint Vengeance as he takes his horrid stand,
Waving on high the desolating brand,

Calling the storms to bear him o'er a guilty land?"
I could no more-askance the creature eyeing,
D'ye think, said I, this face was made for crying?
I'll laugh, that's poz-nay more, the world shall
know it;

And so, your servant! gloomy Master Poet!

Firm as my creed, sirs, 'tis my fixed belief,
That Misery 's another word for Grief;

I also think-so may I be a bride!
That so much laughter, so much life enjoy'd.
Thou man of crazy care and ceaseless sigh,
Still under bleak Misfortune's blasting eye;
Doom'd to that sorest task of man alive-
To make three guineas do the work of five:
Laugh in Misfortune's face-the beldam witch!
Say, you'll be merry, tho' you can't be rich.

Thou other man of care, the wretch in love, Who long with jiltish arts and airs hast strove; Who, as the boughs all temptingly project, Measur'st in desperate thought-a rope-thy neckOr, where the beetling cliff o'erhangs the deep, Peerest to meditate the healing leap;

Wouldst thou be cured, thou silly, moping elf,
Laugh at her follies-laugh e'en at thyself;
Learn to despise those frowns now so terrific,
And love a kinder-that's your grand specific.
To sum up all, be merry, I advise;
And as we're merry may we still be wise.

THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN:

An Occasional Address spoken by Miss Fontenelle on her Benefit Night.

WHILE Europe's eye is fix'd on mighty things,
The fate of empires and the fall of kings;
While quacks of state must each produce his plan,
And even children lisp the Rights of Man;
Amid this mighty fuss just let me mention,
The Rights of Woman merit some attention.
First, in the sexes' intermix'd connection,
One sacred Right of Woman is protection—
The tender flower that lifts it head elate,
Helpless must fall before the blasts of fate,
Sunk on the earth, defaced its lovely form,
Unless your shelter ward the impending storm.
Our second Right-but needless here is caution,
To keep that right inviolate's the fashion,
Each man of sense has it so full before him,
He'd die before he'd wrong it-'tis decorum.—
There was, indeed, in far less polish'd days,
A time when rough, rude man had naughty ways;
Would swagger, swear, get drunk, kick up a riot,
Nay, even thus invade a lady's quiet:

Now, thank our stars! these Gothic times are fled,
Now, well-bred men-and you are all well-bred-
Most justly think (and we are much the gainers)
Such conduct neither spirit, wit, nor manners.

For Right the third, our last, our best, our dearest,— That right to fluttering female hearts the nearest, Which even the Rights of Kings in low prostration Most humbly own- -'tis dear, dear admiration! In that blest sphere alone we live and move; There taste that life of life-immortal love.Smiles, glances, sighs, tears, fits, flirtations, airs, 'Gainst such an host what flinty savage daresWhen awful Beauty joins with all her charms, Who is so rash as rise in rebel arms?

But truce with kings, and truce with constitutions, With bloody armaments and revolutions;

Let Majesty your first attention summon,
Ah! ça ira! the Majesty of Woman!