AN EPISTLE TO JOSEPH HILL, Esq. DEAR JOSEPH-five-and-twenty y'ears ago- True. Changes will befa'll, and friends may p'art, Whence comes it the'n, th`at/ in the waˇne-of-life, (Though nothing have occur'red to kindle str'ife,) We find the friends/ we fancied we had wo'n, Though numerous o'nce, reduced to fe'w or no'ne ? Le'st he should tre'spass, begged to go abro'ad. * Too much care cannot be paid to the pronunciation of the last word of every line in rhyming poetry, especially when there is no printer's punctuation after it, as in "cheat," where the unskilful reader is almost certain to make no pause, and hastens to run "We were wont to cheat" into the next line, thereby at once injuring both the elocution and the verse ;-now, be it remembered, that every such line, though without a point, requires a considerable pause, and, in general, the rising inflection. And fetch my clo'ak; fo'r/ though the night be ra'w, I knew the ma'n, and knew his nature mild, Perhaps his con'fidence just then betrayed, His grief might prom'pt him/ to the speech he m'ade; While you (my friend), whatever wi`nd should blo'w, An honest ma'n, close buttoned to the chin', * We see here the power of emphasis! If "cold" had not required a peculiarly significant turn of the voice (the falling circumflex) it would, agreeably to rule, have had the rising inflection. LINES ON THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE RUSHTON. WHAT is life, but an o`cean, precarious as th'ose/ On our pas'sage-to-da`y/ may be mild and serene, While to-morrow/ fierce tempests may blac'ken the sc ́ene, On life's rosy mo'rn (with a prosperous bre'eze,) With a cloudless horizon/ may sweep at our e'ase, And, the su'n of our be'ing (all cheerless and p'ale) Experience (when bound o'er the turbulent waves) And with se'dulous car'e (er'e the danger he braves) So you on life's o'cean (with provident m'inds) With whi'ch (in despite of adversity's wi'nds) * When the pronoun you occurs in the nominative case, it is pronounced full and open, so as to rhyme with new; but when in the accusative case, and unemphatic, it must be pronounced as if spelt ye. This observation is likewise applicable to the possessive pronoun your. When in the nominative case, it is pronounced so as to rhyme with fewer; if in the accusative, and unemphatic, it is pronounced as if written yur. This sound of the possessive pronoun your always takes place when it is used to signify any particular species of persons or things, as, your men of the world," &c. &c. My, too, when unemphatic, runs into the familiar sound of me. The personal pronoun you should likewise, when unemphatic, be pronounced as in the accusative case, when coming after the auxiliary verbs are, were, shall, may, can, &c. When the strong arm of w'inter/ uplifts the blue ma'in, The p'oor/ widowed-mourner-the sweet/ pra'ttling-throng, This is "tempering the w'ind/ to the la'mb newly sho'rn," ODE ON THE BURIAL OF SIR JOHN MOORE.* NOT a drum was hea'rd, not a funeral n'ote, This accomplished general has had few equals. Glasgow has the honour of having been the place of his birth. While little more than thirty, he served with distinguished honour under Sir Ralph Abercrombie, in the West Indies, as Brigadier-General. At the close of the disastrous Peninsular campaign of 1808, by the masterly disposition of his troops at Corunna, he repelled the formidable attack of the French army; in which unequal contest a cannon ball deprived him of his valuable life, and his country of one of her best and bravest generals, in the fortyeighth year of his age. Sir John Moore was the son of Dr. Moore, the distinguished tourist and author of "Zeleuka," " Edward," &c., and brother to the admiral, who died at an advanced age in 1844. The highly-gifted and amiable writer of this beautiful Ode, which Lord Byron so eloquently and deservedly panegyrized, (while the author was yet unknown) was born in Dublin, and died, in the thirty-second year of his age, at the Cove of Cork, in 1823. By the struggling moo'n-beams,/ misty light, No useless co'ffin/ inclosed hi^s br'east, Nor in sh ́eet/ nor in shro`ud/ we wound-him; Few and short were the prayers/ we sa'id, That the fo'e and the stran`ger/ would tread o'er his h'ead, Lightly they'll talk of the spi'rit/ that's gone, When the clo`ck/ struck the hour for retiring, Slowly and sa'dly we laid him d'own, (From the field of his fam`e fresh and g'ory) We carved not a lin'e, we raised not a st'one, But we left him alone/ with his glory'. Lower and slower. SCIPIO'S RESTORING THE CAPTIVE LADY TO HER LOVER. THOMSON. .. .. A WHEN, to his glorious/ first essay in war,* New Carthage fe'll; there all the flower oft Spa'in * We have an instance, in this line, of the absolute power of Rhythmus, or, of alternate emphasis and remission:-" Thesis" (4) indicating the heavy pulsation; and "Arsis," (:) the light; by which power the accent in the noun 66 essay" is changed from the first, to the second syllable, as · in the verb. "Of." This preposition is pronounced as if written uv, except when |