"TWAS in the glad season of spring,
Asleep at the dawn of the day,
I dream'd what I cannot but sing,
Sc pleasant it seem'd as 1 lay.
I dream'd, that, on ocean afloat,
Far hence to the westward I sail'd,
While the billows high-lifted the boat,
And the fresh blowing breeze never fail'd.
In the steerage a woman I saw,
Such at least was the form that she wore, Whose beauty impress'd me with awe, Ne'er taught me by woman before. She sat, and a shield at her side
Shed light, like a sun on the waves, And, smiling divinely, she cried
'I go to make freemen of slaves.'
Then raising her voice to a strain
The sweetest that ear ever heard,
She sung of the slave's broken chain,
Wherever her glory appeared.
Some clouds which had over us hung,
Fled, chas'd by her melody clear,
And methought while she liberty sung,
'Twas liberty only to hear.
Thus swiftly dividing the flood,
To a slave-cultur'd island we came,
Where a demon, her enemy, stood-
Oppression his terrible name.
In his hand, as the sign of his sway,
A scourge hung with lashes he bore,
And stood looking out for his prey
From Africa's sorrowful shore.
346 THE NIGHTINGALE AND GLOW-WORM.
But soon as approaching the land
That goddess-like woman he viewed,
The scourge he let fall from his hand,
With blood of his subjects imbrued.
I saw him both sicken and die,
And the moment the monster expir'd,
Heard shouts that ascended the sky,
From thousands with rapture inspir'd.
Awaking, how could I but muse
At what such a dream should betide?
But soon my ear caught the glad news,
Which serv'd my weak thought for a guide-
That Britannia, renown'd o'er the waves
For the hatred she ever has shown
To the black-sceptred rulers of slaves,
Resolves to have none of her own.
NIGHTINGALE AND GLOW-WORM.
A NIGHTINGALE, that all day long
Had cheer'd the village with his song,
Nor yet at eve his note suspended,
Nor yet when eventide was ended,
Began to feel, as well he might,
The keen demands of appetite;
When looking eagerly around,
He spied far off, upon the ground,
A something shining in the dark,
And knew the glow-worm by his spark;
So, stooping down from hawthorn top,
He thought to put him in his crop.
The worm, aware of his intent,
Harangued him thus, right eloquent-
Did you admire my lamp, quoth he,
As much I your minstrelsy,
You would abhor to do me wrong,
A much as I to spoil your song;
For 'twas the self-same power divine
Taught you to sing, and me to shine;
That you with music I with light,
Might beautify and cheer the night.
The songster heard his short oration,
And, warbling out his approbation,
Releas'd him, as my story tells,
And found a supper somewhere else.
Hence jarring sectaries may learn
Their real int'rest to discern;
That brother should not war with brother,
And worry and devour each other;
But sing and shine by sweet consent,
Till life's poor transient night is spent,
Respecting in each other's case
The gifts of nature and of grace.
Those Christians best deserve the name,
Who studiously make peace their aim:
Peace both the duty and the prize
Of him that creeps and him that flies.
RECORDED IN THE BIOGRAPHIA BRITANNICA.
Он, fond attempt to give a deathless lot
To names ignoble, born to be forgot!
In vain, recorded in historic page,
They court the notice of a future age:
Those twinkling tiny lustres of the land
Drop one by one from Fame's neglecting hand;
Lethæan gulfs receive them as they fall,
And dark oblivion soon absorbs them all.
So when a child, as playful children use,
Has burnt to tinder a stale last year's news,
The flame extinct, he views the roving fire-
There goes my lady, and there goes the squire!
There goes the parson, oh, illustrious spark;
And there, scarce less illustrious, goes the clerk!
OF AN ADJUDGED CASE, NOT TO BE FOUND IN ANY OF THE BOOKS.
BETWEEN Nose and Eyes a strange contest arose,
The spectacles set them unhappily wrong;
The point in dispute was, as all the world knows,
To which the said spectacles ought to belong.
So tongue was the lawyer, and argued the cause
With a great deal of skill, and a wig full of learning
While chief baron Ear sat to balance the laws,
So fam'd for his talent in nicely discerning.
In behalf of the Nose it will quickly appear,
And your lordship, he said, will undoubtly find. That the nose has had spectacles always in wear, Which amounts to possession time out of mind.
Then holding the spectacles up to the court-
Your lordship observes they are made with a straddle,
As wide as the ridge of the nose is; in short,
Design'd to sit close to it, just like a saddle.
Again, would your lordship a moment suppose
('Tis a case that has happen'd, and may be again)
That the visage or countenance had not a nose,
Pray who would, or who could, wear spectacles then?
On the whole it appears, and my argument shows, With a reasoning the court will never condemn, That the spectacles plainly were made for the Nose, And the Nose was as plainly intended for them.
Then shifting his side (as a lawyer knows how,
He pleaded again in behalf of the Eyes;
But what were his arguments few people know,
For the court did not think they were equally wise,
So his lordship decreed, with a grave solemn tone,
Decisive and clear, without one if or but--
That, whenever the Nose put his spectacles on,
By daylight or candlelight-Eyes should be shut!
LORD MANSFIELD'S LIBRARY,
TOCETHER WITH HIS MSS. BY THE MOB, IN THE MONTH OF JUNE, 1730.
So then the Vandals of our isle,
Sworn foes to sense and law.
Have burnt to dust a nobler pile
Than ever Roman saw !
And MURRAY sighs o'er Pope and Swift,
And many a treasure more,
The well-judg'd purchase, and the gift,
That graced his letter'd store.
Their pages mangled, burn't and torn,
The loss was his alone,
But ages yet to come shall mourn
The burning of his own.
WHEN wit and genius meet their door
In all-devouring flame,
They tell us of the fate of Rome,
And bid us fear the same.
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