Then, as a noisy pack, relentless tear,

With deadly rage, the poor defenceless hare,
They justling strive, all eager for their prey,
And shameless bear another's goods away.
Here GOD's express commandment seems forgot,
The thing which is thy neighbour's covet not.
Here men of years, who, in the world's esteem,
Were strictly just, (O! vain fallacious dream!)
For paltry gain, destroy their honest fame,

And cloud their few remaining days with shame.
Ev❜n some who have espous'd religion's cause,

Seem foremost here to counteract its laws;

Base lust of pillage ev'ry breast pervades,

And God-like man his dignity degrades.

The cottager, a while with wonder seiz❜d,

The strife beholds; and now with hands uprais'd,

While indignation flashes from his eyes,

Against their baseness loudly thus he cries:

"Ungen'rous offspring of my native soil!

"Why seek you thus the hapless stranger's spoil?

"O! foul reproach!...O! shame to Erin's coast!

"Pride, honour, virtue, conscience, all are lost!

"Pretended Christians! boast your faith no more, "Since charity is exil'd from your shore. "In savage climates, where the human mind "Receives no culture, men are found more kind. "The man who rests amidst his wealth secure, "Whose breast soft pity's throe did ne'er endure, "Should any wretch purloin his treasur'd hoard, "Then Justice would unsheath her vengeful sword... "The caitiff every subterfuge might try,

"But all in vain...unpitied would he die :

"And some, no doubt, who meanly pilfer here,

"Would brand his name with censure most severe.

"Tho' none in such a man's defence can plead, "Compar'd with his, your's seems the blackest deed!

"The seaman tossing on tumultuous waves,

"Whose dauntless spirit every danger braves,

"Inur'd to bitter hardship, toil, and pain

"The sport of fortune on the boisterous main

When hurricanes his barque pursue,

angry

"He finds the billows less unkind than you.

"Wreck'd on your shore...his plaint you disregard, «And from him wrest what milder storms have spar'd. "Tho' for his wrongs each feeling bosom bleeds,

"Yet law connives at such atrocious deeds.

"Think how in time to come, some rev'rend sire
"Shall tell his children, by their evening fire,
"When cast away on the Hibernian strand,

"He soon was plunder'd by a ruthless band.
"Forbear my friends!...these deeds of shame forbear."

But famish'd wolves would sooner stop to hear

The voice of woe; or when by hunger prest,
The tyger lodge compasion in his breast,

Or words might easier stop the lightning's course
Than to their callous hearts impart remorse.

He ends...a loud insulting laugh of scorn,

Mix'd with abusive language, they return.
Disgusted, sighing, from th' unfeeling crew
He bends to where the cottage meets his view;
There rude integrity, and honest pride,

In humble life with calm content, reside.

ELEGIAC STANZAS,

ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF A BELOVED BROTHER'S DEATH, MARCH 11, 1808.

"Remembrance wakes with all her busy train,
"Swells at my breast, and turns the past to pain."

And budding flow'rs foretell the reign

Of Summer's queen.

No more by raving tempests torn,
Rejoicing nature smiles around;

Each day some new-born sweets adorn

The verdant ground.

So smiles the convalescent maid,

From fell distemper's fangs rescued

She feels, by health's restoring aid,

Her charms renew'd.

-All living creatures seem to hail

Returning Spring with songs of praise

"The feather'd race make ev'ry vale

Resound their lays.

"What heart but must dilate with joy

And in the song of gladness join?

But, ah! I feel the rising sigh!