With Edward's acts adorn the shining page, Let softer strains ill-fated Henry mourn, And palms eternal flourish round his urn. She saw her sons with purple deaths expire, At length great Anna said, 'Let discord cease!' THE GLORIES Of queen anne'S REIGN. — THAMES, ITS RIVERS ; In that blest moment, from his oozy bed, Old father Thames advanced his reverend head; His tresses dropped with dews, and o'er the stream His shining horns diffused a golden gleam : Graved on his urn appeared the moon, that guides His swelling waters and alternate tides; The figured streams in waves of silver rolled, And on her banks Augusta rose in gold; Around his throne the sea-born brothers stood, Who swelled with tributary urns his flood! First, the famed authors of his ancient name, The winding Isis and the fruitful Thame : The Kennet swift, for silver eels renowned; The Loddon slow, with verdant alders crowned; Cole, whose dark streams his flowery islands lave; And chalky Wey, that rolls a milky wave: The blue, transparent Vandalis appears; The gulfy Lee his sedgy tresses rears; And sullen Mole that hides his diving flood; And silent Darent, stained with Danish blood. High in the midst, upon his urn reclined His sea-green mantle waving with the wind The god appeared: he turned his azure eyes Where Windsor domes and pompous turrets rise! Then bowed, and spoke; the winds forgot to roar, And the hushed waves glide softly to the shore. - SPEECH OF FATHER THAMES; APOSTROPHE TO FEACE; BRITISH WARS; LONDON AND ITS BUILDINGS; THE ARTS. Hail, sacred Peace! hail, long-expected days, That Thames's glory to the stars shall raise! Though Tiber's streams immortal Rome behold, Though foaming Hermus swells with tides of gold, From heaven itself though seven-fold Nilus flows, WINDSOR-FOREST OAKS; SHIP-BUILDING; TRIUMPHS OF BRIT- Thy trees, fair Windsor! now shall leave their woods, And half thy forests rush into the floods, The pearly shell its lucid globe infold, INTERCOURSE WITH THE NEW WORLD; AMERICAN SAVAGES; shore, Till conquest cease, and slavery be no more! Till the freed Indians in their native groves THE POET'S MODEST CLAIMS. Here cease thy flight, nor with unhallowed lays Touch the fair fame of Albion's golden days: Tusser's "August's *THRY fallow1 once ended, go strike by and by Good huswives in summer will save their own seeds, Though parson neglecteth his duty for this, 1 After thry-fallowing (third ploughing) it is best to harrow (strike) the land, to root up weeds, before manure (compas), which would nourish them, is applied. 2 Ferns, or brakes, constitute a light firing, in Norfolk, England; if cut early, the tender grass is allowed to spring up for additional feed. 3 July 22 and Aug. 15. 4 Soller is an upper room. The mowing of barley, if barley do stand, 1 Corn being had down (any way ye allow), Once ended thy harvest, let none be beguiled, child; Thus doing, with alway such help as they can, 1 Corn in England means small grain, particularly wheat; in Scotland, oats; in the United States, maize. Rhymed Lessons for August. BEATTIE'S "HERMIT." Ar the close of the day, when the hamlet is still, And mortals the sweets of forgetfulness prove, When naught but the torrent is heard on the hill, And naught but the nightingale's song in the grove : "T was thus by the cave of the mountain afar, While his harp rung symphonious, a hermit began: No more with himself or with nature at war, He thought as a sage, though he felt as a man. 'Ah! why, all abandoned to darkness and woe, Why, lone Philomela, that languishing fall? For Spring shall return, and a lover bestow, And sorrow no longer thy bosom inthrall: But if pity inspire thee, renew the sad lay, Mourn, sweetest complainer, man calls thee to mourn; O soothe him whose pleasures like thine pass away: She shone, and the planets were lost in her blaze. Roll on, thou fair orb, and with gladness pursue The path that conducts thee to splendor again; But man's faded glory what change shall renew? Ah, fool! to exult in a glory so vain! "Tis night, and the landscape is lovely no more; 'Twas thus, by the glare of false science betrayed, And darkness and doubt are now flying away; The bright and the balmy effulgence of morn. See Truth, Love, and Mercy, in triumph descending, And Nature all glowing in Eden's first bloom! On the cold check of death smiles and roses are blending, And beauty immortal awakes from the tomb. POPE'S "UNIVERSAL ORDER." ALL are but parts of one stupendous whole, Whose body nature is, and God the soul; That changed through all, and yet in all the same, Great in the earth, as in the ethereal frame; Warms in the sun, refreshes in the breeze, Glows in the stars, and blossoms in the trees; Lives through all life, extends through all extent; Spreads undivided, operates unspent ; Breathes in our soul, informs our mortal part, As full, as perfect, in an hair as heart; As full, as perfect, in vile man that mourns, As the rapt seraph that adores and burns: To Him no high, no low, no great, no small; He fills, He bounds, connects, and equals all, Cease, then, nor order imperfection name : Our proper bliss depends on what we blame. Know thy own point: this kind, this due degree Of blindness, weakness, Heaven bestows on thee. Submit. In this, or any other sphere, AUTUMN-SEPTEMBER. THOMSON'S "AUTUMN." ARGUMENT. The subject proposed. Addressed to Mr. Onslow. A prospect of the fields ready for harvest. Reflections in praise of industry raised by that view. Reaping. A tale relative to it. A harvest storm. Shooting and hunting; their barbarity. A ludicrous account of fox-hunting. A view of an orchard. Wall-fruit. A vineyard. A description of fogs, frequent in the latter part of autumn; whence a digression, inquiring into the rise of fountains and rivers. Birds of season considered, that now shift their habitation. The prodigious number of them that cover the northern and western isles of Scotland. Hence a view of the country. A prospect of the discolored, fading woods. After a gentle, dusky day, moonlight. Autumnal meteors. Morning; to which succeeds a calm, pure, sunshiny day, such as usually shuts up the season. The harvest being gathered in, the country dissolved in joy. The whole concludes with a panegyric on a philosophical country life. THE AUTUMN OF THE YEAR. CROWNED with the sickle and the wheaten sheaf, While Autumn, nodding o'er the yellow plain, Comes jovial on; the Doric reed once more, Well-pleased, I tune. Whate'er the wintry frost Nitrous prepared; the various-blossomed Spring Put in white promise forth; and summer-suns Concocted strong, rush boundless now to view, Full, perfect all, and swell my glorious theme. DEDICATION TO MR. ONSLOW. PATRIOTISM. Onslow the Muse, ambitious of thy name, To grace, inspire, and dignify her song, Would from the public voice thy gentle ear A while engage. Thy noble cares she knows, The patriot virtues that distend thy thought, Spread on thy front, and in thy bosom glow; While listening senates hang upon thy tongue, Devolving through the maze of eloquence A roll of periods, sweeter than her song. But she too pants for public virtue; she, Though weak of power, yet strong in ardent will, Whene'er her country rushes on her heart, Assumes a bolder note, and fondly tries To mix the patriot's with the poet's flame. THE SKY OF AUTUMN, BLUE, COOL, AND GOLDEN. THE RIPE CROP. When the bright Virgin gives the beauteous days, And Libra weighs in equal scales the year; From Heaven's high cope the fierce effulgence shook Of parting Summer, a serener blue, With golden light enlivened, wide invests The happy world. Attempered suns arise, Sweet-beamed, and shedding oft through lucid clouds A pleasing calm; while broad, and brown, below Falls from its poise, and gives the breeze to blow. The clouds fly different; and the sudden sun THE PRAISE OF INDUSTRY, THE CIVILIZER. These are thy blessings, Industry! rough power! Whom labor still attends, and sweat, and pain; Yet the kind source of every gentle art, And all the soft civility of life : THE SAVAGE; EXPOSED; COMFORTLESS; HOMELESS. Still unexerted, in the unconscious breast, Slept the lethargic powers; corruption still, Voracious, swallowed what the liberal hand Of bounty scattered o'er the savage year: And still the sad barbarian, roving, mixed With beasts of prey; or for his acorn-meal Fought the fierce tusky boar; a shivering wretch ! Aghast, and comfortless, when the bleak north, With Winter charged, let the mixed tempest fly, Hail, rain, and snow, and bitter breathing frost : Then to the shelter of the hut he fled; And the wild seasons, sordid, pined away. THE SWEETS OF HOME; PROGRESS OF THE SAVAGE, AIDED BY INDUSTRY, TO ART; AND THROUGH ART TO MODERN CIVILIZATION. For home he had not; home is the resort Of love, of joy, of peace and plenty, where, Supporting and supported, polished friends, And dear relations, mingle into bliss. But this the rugged savage never felt, E'en desolate in crowds; and thus his days Rolled heavy, dark, and unenjoyed along, A waste of time! till Industry approached, And roused him from his miserable sloth; His faculties unfolded; pointed out, Where lavish Nature the directing hand Of Art demanded; showed him how to raise His feeble force by the mechanic powers; To dig the mineral from the vaulted earth; On what to turn the piercing rage of fire, On what the torrent, and the gathered blast; Gave the tall ancient forest to his axe; Taught him to chip the wood, and hew the stone, Till by degrees the finished fabric rose; THE FORMATION OF SOCIETY AND GOVERNMENT; CIVIL LIBEKTY; JUSTICE. — REFINEMENT. CITIES NURSES OF ART. Then gathering men their natural powers comAnd formed a public; to the general good [bined, Submitting, aiming, and conducting all. For this the Patriot-Council met, the full, The free, and fairly represented Whole; For this they planned the holy guardian laws, Distinguished orders, animated arts, And, with joint force Oppression chaining, set Imperial Justice at the helm, yet still To them accountable: nor slavish dreamed That toiling millions must resign their weal, And all the honey of their search, to such As for themselves alone themselves have raised. Hence every form of cultivated life In order set, protected, and inspired, Into perfection wrought. Uniting all, Society grew numerous, high, polite, And happy. Nurse of art! the city reared In beauteous pride her tower-encircled head; And, stretching street on street, by thousands drew, From twining woody haunts, or the tough yew To bows strong-straining, her aspiring sons. COMMERCE; STORES; SHIPS; THE BRITISH NAVY. Then Commerce brought into the public walk The busy merchant; the big warehouse built; Raised the strong crane; choked up the loaded street With foreign plenty; and thy stream, O Thames, Large, gentle, deep, majestic, king of floods! Chose for his grand resort. On either hand, Like a long wintry forest, groves of masts Shot up their spires; the bellying sheet between Possessed the breezy void; the sooty hulk Steered sluggish on; the splendid barge along Rowed, regular, to harmony; around, The boat, light-skimming, stretched its oary wings; While deep the various voice of fervent toil [oak, From bank to bank increased; whence ribbed with To bear the British thunder, black, and bold, The roaring vessel rushed into the main. LUXURY; THE FINE ARTS. Then too the pillared dome, magnific, heaved Its ample roof; and Luxury within Poured out her glittering stores: the canvas smooth, |