"Jesu-Maria! Madam Bridget, Why, what can the viscountess mean? Cried the square hoods in woful fidget, "The times are alter'd quite and clean! Decorum's turn'd to mere civility;

Her air and all her manners show it:

Commend me to her affability!

Speak to a commoner and poet!"

[Here 500 Stanzas are lost.]

And so God save our noble king,

And guard us from long-winded lubbers,

That to eternity would sing,

And keep my lady from her rubbers.

ALLIANCE OF EDUCATION AND GOVERNMENT

ESSAY I.

A FRAGMENT.

Ποταγ ̓ ᾧ γαθέ; τάν γάρ ἀοιδαν

Οὔτι πω εἰς Αἴδαν γε τὸν ἐκλελαθοντα φυλαξεις.—THEOCRITUS.
As sickly plants betray a niggard earth,
Whose barren bosom starves her gen'rous birth,
Nor genial warmth, nor genial juice retains
Their roots to feed and fill their verdant veins;
And, as in climes where Winter holds his reign,
The soil though fertile will not teem in vain,
Forbids her gems to swell, her shades to rise,
Nor trusts her blossoms to the churlish skies;
So draw mankind in vain the vital airs,
Unform'd, unfriended, by those kindly cares
That health and vigour to the soul impart,
Spread the young thought, and warm the op'ning heart;
So fond instruction on the growing powers
Of nature idly lavishes her stores,
If equal justice with unclouded face
Smile not indulgent on the rising race,
And scatter with a free though frugal hand
Light golden showers of plenty o'er the land:
But tyranny has fix'd her empire there,
To check their tender hopes with chilling fear,
And blast the blooming promise of the year.

This spacious animated scene survey,

From where the rolling orb that gives the day
His sable sons with nearer course surrounds,
To either pole and life's remotest bounds,
How rude soe'er th' exterior form we find,
Howe'er opinion tinge the varied mind,
Alike to all the kind impartial Heaven
The sparks of truth and happiness has given.
With sense to feel, with mem'ry to retain,
They follow pleasure and they fly from pain;

Their judgment mends the plan their fancy draws,
The event presages, and explores the cause;
The soft returns of gratitude they know,
By fraud elude, by force repel the foe;
While mutual wishes mutual woes endear,
The social smile and sympathetic tear.

Say, then, through ages by what fate confined
To different climes seem different souls assign'd?
Here measured laws and philosophic ease
Fix and improve the polish'd arts of peace;
There industry and gain their vigils keep,
Command the winds, and tame th' unwilling deep;
Here force and hardy deeds of blood prevail,
There languid pleasure sighs in every gale.
Oft o'er the trembling nations from afar
Has Scythia breathed the living cloud of war,
And where the deluge bursts with sweepy sway,
Their arms, their kings, their gods, were roll'd away.
As oft have issued, host impelling host,
The blue-eyed myriads from the Baltic coast:
The prostrate south to the destroyer yields
Her boasted titles and he golden fields:
With grim delight the brood of Winter view
A brighter day, and heavens of azure hue,
Scent the new fragrance of the breathing rose,
And quaff the pendant vintage as it grows.
Proud of the yoke, and pliant to the rod,
Why yet does Asia dread a monarch's nod,
While European freedom still withstands

Th' encroaching tide that drowns her less'ning lands,

And sees far off, with an indignant groan,

Her native plains and empires once her own?
Can opener skies and suns of fiercer flame
O'erpower the fire that animates our frame,
As lamps that shed at eve a cheerful ray
Fade and expire beneath the eye of day?
Need we the influence of the northern star
To string our nerves, and steel our hearts to war?

And where the face of nature laughs around,
Must sick'ning Virtue fly the tainted ground
Unmanly thought! what seasons can control,
What fancied zone can circumscribe the soul,
Who conscious of the source from whence it springs
By Reason's light on Resolution's wings,

Spite of her frail companion, dauntless goes
O'er Lybia's deserts and through Zembla's snows?
She bids each slumbering energy awake,

Another touch, another temper take,

Suspends th' inferior laws that rule our day:
The stubborn elements confess her sway,
Their little wants their low desires refine,
And raise the mortal to a height divine.

Not but the human fabric from the birth
Imbibes a flavour of its parent earth:
As various tracks enforce a various toil,
The manners speak the idiom of their soil.
An iron race the mountain-cliffs maintain,
Foes to the gentler genius of the plain;
For where unwearied sinews must be found
With sidelong plough to quell the flinty ground,
To turn the torrent's swift descending flood,
To brave the savage rushing from the wood,
What wonder if to patient valour train'd,

They guard with spirit what by strength they gain'd
And while their rocky ramparts round they see,
The rough abode of want and liberty
(As lawless force from confidence will grow),
Insult the plenty of the vales below?

What wonder in the sultry climes that spread
Where Nile redundant o'er his summer-bed
From his broad bosom life and verdure flings,
And broods o'er Egypt with his wat'ry wings,
If with adventurous oar and ready sail
The dusky people drive before the gale,
Or on frail floats to neighbouring cities ride,
That rise and glitter o'er the ambient tide?

THE TRAGEDY OF "AGRIPPINA:" A FRAGMENT.

ACT I. SCENE I.

PERSONS.-Agrippina, the Empress-Mother, and Aceronia, her confidante.

AGRIPPINA.

'Tis well, begone! your errand is perform'd:

[Speaks as to Anicetus entering

The message needs no comment. Tell your master

His mother shall obey him. Say you saw her
Yielding due reverence to his high command:
Alone, unguarded, and without a lictor,
As fits the daughter of Germanicus,

Say, she retired to Antium, there to tend

Her household cares, a woman's best employment.

What if you add, how she turn'd pale, and trembled;

You think you spied a tear stand in her eye,

And would have dropp'd, but that her pride restrain'd it? (Go! you can paint it well) 'twill profit you

And please the stripling. Yet 'twould dash his joy

To hear the spirit of Britannicus

Yet walks on earth: at least, there are who know
Without a spell to raise, and bid it fire

A thousand haughty hearts, unused to shake
When a boy frowns, nor to be lured with smiles,
To taste of hollow kindness, or partake

His hospitable board: they ate, aware
Of the unpledged bowl-they love not aconite.

ACERONIA.

He's gone; and much I hope these walls alone And the mute air are privy to your passion. Forgive your servant's fears, who sees the danger Which fierce resentment cannot fail to raise

In haughty youth, and irritated power.