much as meditate an invasion of the Carnatic. All were unanimous that the troops fhould proceed.' (To be continued.). their difpofitions, the felfifhrefs of their views, their unconcern about the public welfare, their difregard to military preparation, an their boasts that Hyder-Ally durst not fo A Poem. By Timothy Dwight. 1785. 12mo. (Concluded from p. 178.) The Conqueft of Canäan. THE Second Book opens with an af fembly of the Gibeonites met to worfhip the Sun, in which Mina, a virgin, refufes to join. (See the Argument in our laft.) This Book concludes with' the following lines: The monarch fpoke; and o'er the circling throng Bright fmiles broke forth, and pleas'd ap plaufes rung; A beauteous femblance of the fields around, Starr'd with young flowers, and with gay verdure crown'd, Where airy fongs, foft proof of raptur'd love, Wav'd on the gale, and echo'd thro' the grove; While the clear fun, rejoicing still to rife, Here again is ftrange confufion of idea and language. In profe it is exactly thus: Bright Smiles and pleafed applaufes broke forth from the circling hong; a beauteous femblance of the fields, ftarred with young flowers, and crowned with verdure, where (alias, gay among which) airy fongs, the foft proofs of raptured love, waved on the gale, and echoed through the grove, while the clear fun, &c. Indeed, indeed, Mr. Dwight, fuch jumble will never pals for poetry on this' fide of the Atlantic. The Third Book opens with defcribing various characters. The converfation of the two lovers, Irad and Selima, on the juftice of the war, deferves particular notice. Selima expreffes herself according to the tenderness of her fex. As now through well-known paths retir'd I Bray, And feek accustom❜d beauties round my way, At every turn, the feeming trump alarms, Pale corfes rife, and groans, and clashing arms; From my pain'd bofom heaves th' unbidden But not alike are all from virtue driven; Some, more than others, claim the sword of Heaven; Yet undiftinguish'd falls the general doom, The beft, the worst, we deftine to the tomb. Where Hazor's hundred towers majestic rife, Frown o'er her plains, and dare avenging skies; In all that elegance of artless charms, Which prompts mild love, and rival hate alarms; In that fweet union of ferene defires, Which blows with fragrant breath unmingled fires; Young, beauteous fair-ones, through her reOutvie the maid thou lov ft to call thy own, gions known, To thefe bright virgins chosen Irads bow, Lefs wife, lefs virtuous, and lefs fair than thou; • Should't thou, when war to Salem drives For fad Canäan's youth this generous love. her course, But once as fair, as young, as foft as they, Seize the keen steel, and join the conquering As white with innocence, with fmiles as gay, force, While thy bold breast with glory's warmth Were those black throngs, whofe crimes as beats high, And wreaths well twin'd approach thy ravish'd eye, To fome lone hamlet loosely wandering come, Where simple swains had built their peaceful home, Where care in filence fmoothly pass'd away, And home-bred happiness deceiv'd the day; Should there fweet, helpless children meet thy view, Fair as young rosebuds look thro' early dew, With infant wonder on thine armour gaze, And point, with artle's hands, the fteely blaze; Say, could thy heart one angry purpose know, Or doom fuch cherubs to a single woe? Charm'd by foft fmiles, 1 fee thy heart retire, And mild compaffion breathe a gentler fire; Thy love paternal o'er them kindly yearn, Prompt pleafing hope, and all their wifhes learn; Thy bounteous hand each needed blifs beftow, And in the angel lose th' intended foe. Yet fhould dread war o'er these fair regions fly, Unnumber'd virgins bright as these must die; To flames unnumber'd babes refign their breath, And ere life bloffoms meet untimely death. To thee, O Prince! without a blush I own, Such woes tremendous freeze my heart to ftone. Ere Irad's arm fuch precious lives destroy, Let me, far guiltier, ceafe from every joy; Quick to the dreary grave my form descend, Our love all vanish, and our union end. The Prince replied: Blefs'd gentleness of mind! The grace, the glory of a heart refin'd ! mountains rife, And wipe out pity from th' all-bounteous fkies. As eggs innoxious, oft in meadows strew'd, Break into afps, and pour the viper's brood, Nurs'd in rank foils, to ftrength the reptiles grow, Refound the hifs, the fting of vengeance throw, Uprear the creft, inroll the fnaky spire, Light the keen eye-ball with terrific fire, From fields, and forests, death and poison gain, And fcatter wide deftruction round the plain; So, harmless once, by vile affections lur'd, In guilt and years thofe babes alike matur'd; Athirst for fin, all patterns left behind, There the fot réels; the murderer prowls for blood, There the ftarv'd orphan fues in vain for food; For man man burns with Sodom's tainted flame, And the world fickens with inceltuous flame. Ev'n nature's ties their bofom: bind no more, Wives wade in nuptial, fires in filial gore; To howling Moloch blooming babes expire, And mothers round them dance, and light the funeral fire. Should then thefe infants to dread manhood rife, What unheard crimes would fmoke thro' earth and fkies! What hofts of demons fin's dark realm would gain! How Hell gape hideous round Candan's plain ! Min 2 This Thus God be witness'd fin's unchanging foe; Gay clouds fail'd wanton through the kind- But, O unrivall'd maid! the kindest doom Thele babes may deftine to an early tomb. To manhood rifen, their guilt, beyond controul, Would blot their names from life's celestial roll; Now, in fair climes, their fouls, for ever blefs'd, May bloom in youth, and share immortal reft; And hail the boundless grace that fnatch'd its foes From fins unnumber'd, and from lafting woes.' The character of Selima is here well fupported, and Iad's appeal to Divine gift and commandment is in the spirit of Homer and Virgil's epic poetry. But to murder innocent babes by way of fending them to Heaven, by faving them from the guilt of their future lives, has fomething in it unfpeakably shocking, and is truly nonfenfical; for in fome degree it may apply to the whole race of men, and is at every point horrible. Selima's part in the above is our author's principal attempt at the pathetic. We fhall now enable our readers to judge of his powers of defcription. He thus paints the beauties of an evening after a torm. Zimri, one of the Ifraelitith heroes, is contemplating it : To him, deep pondering, blew the ftorm in vain ; Scarce heard the peals, or mark'd the battering rain.' This is rather anti-climax. Our author proceeds: Then gentler fcenes his rapt attention gain'd, Where God's great hand in clear effulgence ́reign'd; The growing beauties of the folemn even, And all the bright fublimities of Heaven. Alove tall western hills, the light of day Shefar the fplendors of his golden ray; Bright from the storm, with tenfold grace he fmil'd, The tumult fofon'd, and the world grew mild, ling air; From fhade to fhade unnumber'd tinctures blend, Unnumber'd forms of wonderous light extend; In pride ftupendous, glittering walls afpire, Grac'd with bright domes, and crown'd withr towers of fire; On cliffs, cliffs burn; o'er mountains, mountains roll; A burft of glory fpreads from pole to pole : Rapt with the fplendor, every fongfter fings, Tops the high bough, and claps his gliftening wings; With new-born green reviving nature blooms, And fweeter fragrance freshening air perfumes. Far fouth the ftorm withdrew its troubled reign; Defcending twilight dimm'd the dusky plain; Black night arofe; her curtains hid the ground; Lefs roar'd, and lefs, the thunder's folema found; The bended lightning shot a brighter stream, Or wrapp'd all Heaven in one wide mantling flame; By turns, o'er plains and woods, and moun. tains spread Faint yellow glimmerings, and a deeper fhade. ment which produces the picturefque; and the two lait lines afford a ftriking inftance of that want of perfpicuity fo often to be met with in our author. By the construction, at first reading, it is God that is borne away from himself, but Mr. Dwight certainly meant Zimri. Then burft the bonds: at once in glory rife Through fields of air at large the wonder flies, O'er flowery beauties plumes of triumph waves, Imbibes their fragrance, and their charms out-braves; For the Fourth Book we refer our readers to the Argument cited at p. 83, only giving a few fpecimens of fome of our author's worlt manner : < Brothers on brothers caft a fide-long The birds his kindred, Heaven his manfion, eye-' • Mid the wide concourfe great Eleazar And fhines and wantons in the noon-day fhone-' And the world wokes beneath th' ap- Where two buge heathens struggling He- Where two fell heathens bore their hap lefs prey→→→ On the fed heathens ftretch'd his ra- O'ertook, and fingly drove the gather'd Three fierce he flew; the reft, in devious ways, Fied o'er the field, and 'cap'd the hero's chace. claims, flames. And, cloth'd in beauty, hopes empyreal plains. Then wing'd with light, the deathlefs mane fhall rife, In the Fifth Book the action of the Oft on the flow'r, embosom'd in per- Thon feeft gay butterflies in beauty blown; And crawl'd to view a hideous, loathfome To creep with toil, his inch-long journey's The ground his manfion, and his food the duft: cloth'd in green; There flept th' expectant, 'till the plaftic Purg'd his vile drofs, and bade his fplendors thro' yon stars, and foar from skies to skies; See Heavens o'er Heavens beneath him leffening roll, And feel the Godhead warm his changing From beauty's fount inhale th' immortal ray, day; 'Mid Morn's fair legions, crown'd with grace, be known, The peer of angels, and of Gom the fon." But this idea is old. The ancients gave the butterfly as the fymbol of the foul. The Sixth Book contains a great deal of buttle and killing, and little or no progrefs of epic action. See the Argument of it in our luft. The Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Books ́ are in the train of the Sixth : a great deal of bustle and killing, and little gradation towards a general catastrophe. The death of Irad, a favourite hero, and the grief and lamentation of Selima, are af festing. The The Tenth Book, which contains 1112 lines, is wholly employed in a vifion fhewed to Joshua by an angel. This confifts of fcriptural history, down to the preaching of the apostles; to which our author adds that of their fucceffors, profpect of America, flavery of the eastern continent, and glory of the western millennium, &c. See the Argument in our laf.) Our author's high and enthufiattic ideas of what America is to be, cannot fail of being a curiofity to our readers. 'Far o'er yon azure main thy view extend, Where feas and fkies in blue confufion blend, Lo, there a mighty realm, by Heaven de- The laft retreat for poor oppress'd mankind! And clothes yon vault where worlds un- No dangers fright; no ills the course delay; 'Tis virtue prompts, and God directs the way. * Speed, speed, ye Sons of Truth! let Heaven befriend, Here fpacious plains in folemn grandeur Let angels waft you, and let peace attend! spread; Here cloudly forefts caft eternal frade Rich vallies wind, the fky tall mountains brave, And inland feas for commerce fpeads the wave; With nobler floods the fea-like rivers roll, The ufeful iron, and the lasting gold And mock the fplendors of the covenant bow: On countless hills, by favage footsteps trod, O fmile, thou sky ferene! ye ftorms retire! fky. See verdant fields the changing waste unfold; 'Mean time, expanding o'er earth's diftant ends, Lo, Slavery's gloom in fable pomp descends! roll, And pour, deep shading, to the fadden'd pole. blast, The plains all wither'd, and the skies o'ercaft! From Speed, Speed, ye Sons of Truth.--Mr. Dwight in a note informs us, that this alludes to "the fettlement of North America by the English, for the enjoyment of religion." But other motives peopled many parts of it. That which chiefly may claim Mr. Dwight's compliment, is New England, and its capital, Bolton. That they left England that they might enjoy their own mode of worship is true, and no people were ever more clamorous against restrictions on the confcience than they were. But that was when they themselves were the objects of it. For no fooner had they formed theje religious and civil establishments at Boston, than they moft crusily perfecured the poor inoffenfive Quakers, hanging many of them for the fole crime of their own claim, the liberty to worthip God according to their confcience. The abfurdity, glaring injuftice, and horrid cruelty of this perfecution, are a deep difgrace to human nature. It was at laft flopped by Charles II. But the apprehenfive Quakers betook themselves to Rhode Island, and Srft peopled it. Nor were the internal religious diffentions of the Boston faints much lefs difhonourable, in imprisoning, fining, and banistiing their once most popular preachers, juft as religious fury impelled the grofs and obstinate multitude. Such were Mr. Dwight's Sons of Truth. But it is the duty of every good man, when proper occafion offers, to execrate the memory of fuch obnoxious zealots. |