SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.

PUBLISHED MONTHLY AT FIVE DOLLARS PER ANNUM-THOMAS W. WHITE, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR.

FOL. VI.

RICHMOND, JANUARY, 1810 Febma

THE DYING EAGLE.

BY WILLIAM WALLACE.

Bird of the Storm!-why liest thou here-
With closing eye and drooping plume?
Is it the coward pang of fear

Which chains thee to this earthly tomb?
No: the red lightnings, in thy sphere

Of tempest-midnight-cloud and gloom,
Scorched these bold wings, that dared to soar
Where thunders burst before.

Lord of the Air!--thy mighty heart
No longer revels in that pride
Which made the dark-plumed monarch dart
Where whirlwinds rage and dash aside
The mountain-mist, that man's poor art
Ever in vain attempts to stride.
Our eyes no more shall mark thy form,
The rider of the storm.

So sinks the glorious bird!-and so
The high of spirit ever fall!-
They soar above-the envious blow
Like thee, poor Eagle, strikes them all!
Rest, warrior-bird! Autumn will throw
Her dead leaves o'er thee-and thy pall,
Like mine as I would wish, shall be
Of Nature's Ministry.

Louisville.

THE NEW YEAR. When, nearly six years ago, the plan of this Magazine was formed, how few of its friends believed that it would live to this day! How surely did they presage not only a speedy death to the work, but ruin to its undertaker!

NO. 1.

more clearly than he.
liar plan of his work, and in the measures he meant
to adopt for its support, he discerned probabilities of
success which had not belonged to his precursors.
He made the venture-took his course-and has
pursued it, until this commencement of a sixth year;
so that the MESSENGER may now be considered as
established. He has no expressions of triumph now
to utter. The good, which his labors may have
done-the varied talent, to which they may have
given scope and exercise-the virtuous principles
they may have cherished-the soothing they may
have administered to political or to sectional animo-
sity-the scourgings they have caused to folly and
vice-together with the praises they have won-
shall not now form any part of his theme. There
are other topics, to which he anxiously invokes
public attention.

But in the somewhat pecu

By failures of subscribers to pay what they owe him, he has lost not less than three thousand dollars.

By the necessity to which mainly their tardiness has subjected him, of employing collectors at a ruinous commission of 12, 15, and 17 per cent., he has lost some thousands more.

By the difference of exchange, alone, he has lost at least two thousand more. And, since much of this loss was upon arrears, which should have been paid before these disastrous times came on,-so much, of this also, is chargeable to the tardiness of subscribers.

He has not he never had—any large property, or pecuniary resources except in his own skill as a printer; and he is of a delicate frame. Thus situated, he may perhaps justifiably allude to his In truth, it seemed a rash and perilous enterprize. own energy and good management in having acThe editor's ALL, of fortune and of credit, was em-complished what he has done-not for the purbarked. Nay more-he devoted himself, in the ad-pose of self-glorification, but in order to ask, if he venture, to toils and cares, which by their minute- does not merit a better return, than the loss of so ness and complexity, their weight and unceasingness, many thousands? threatened, as they have proved to be, worrying and The Messenger, indeed, is established: and the exhausting beyond all proportion to his humble lot new and costly dress of the present number evinand lowly pretensions.-All Southern experience, ces the editor's confidence, that he can sustain it. too, warned him of the hazard he was running. No But if he can, it will be solely through the literary periodical on our side of Mason's and Dix-success of this appeal. It will be, because former on's line, had been able to survive a sickly infancy-subscribers will make their patronage real and benesickly, in respect of pecuniary aliment, but not always ficial to him—instead of a mockery and a detriment. so, intellectually. A Review had existed for two or It will be, because new ones, attracted by the imthree years in South-Carolina, teeming with articles provements visible from time to time in both the of a power no where surpassed; or surpassed only garb and contents of his Magazine,-animated by by the best of the Edinburg Review. Notwithstand- a wish to aid the sole effort that has given tokens ing its merits, the Southern Review; alike with the of permanent success, in the cause of Southern various host of kindred attempts, had sunk into a pre- Literature, and resolved to make their help solid mature grave. With such evidences of an ungenial and well-timed, not illusory and destructive,-will climate before his eyes, how could the Editor of come forward to the rescue. But for his confidence the Messenger hope to escape the universal doom? that all this will be, he could not apply the word No one saw these discouraging circumstances established,' to his work. He may be vainly and

VOL. VI-1

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