Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat With stripes, that mercy with a bleeding heart Weeps when the fees inflicted on a beat. Then what is man? And what man feeing this, And having human feelings, does not blush And hang his head, to think himself a man? I would not have a flave to till my ground, To carry me, to fan me while I sleep, And tremble when I wake, for all the wealth That finews bought and fold have ever earn'd. No: dear as freedom is, and in my heart's Juft eftimation priz'd above all price, I had much rather be myself the flave,
And wear the bonds, than fasten them on him. We have no flaves at home-Then why abroad? And they themselves once ferried o'er the wave, That parts us, are emancipate and loos'd. Slaves cannot breathe in England; if their lungs Receive our air, that moment they are free, They touch our country, and their thackles fall, That's noble, and bespeaks a nation proud And jealous of the blefling. Spread it then, And let it circulate through ev'ry vein
Of all your empire. That where Britain's power Is felt, mankind may feel her mercy too.
[From the fame Poem.]
LAS for Sicily! rude fragments now
A Lie fcatter'd where the shapely column food.
Her palaces are duft. In all her fireets
The voice of finging and the fprightly chord Are filent Revelry, and dance, and how Suffer a fyncope and folemn pause,
While God performs upon the trembling stage
Of his own works, his dreadful part alone.
How does the earth receive him ?-With what figns Of gratulation and delight, her king?
Pours the not all her choiceft fruits abroad, Her sweetest flow'rs, her aromatic gums, Difclofing paradife where'er he treads?
She quakes at his approach. Her hollow womb, Conceiving thunders through a thousand deeps And fiery caverns, roars beneath his foot. The hills move lightly and the mountains fmoke,
For he has touch'd them. From th' extremeft point Of elevation down into th' abyfs,
Achaian models too I've frequent trac'd, Where genius blazes in the grand defign; The structure with Corinthian columns grac'd, Where Attic taste and harmony combine.
Where the high roof attracts the studious eye, The roof with Bodley's rev'rend name infcrib'd; Where num'rous tomes in claffic order lie,
And plenteous ftores of knowledge are imbib'd: How oft, well pleas'd, I've turned the varied page, My mind detach'd from ev'ry futile joy, From giddy vanities that life engage,
Follies that vex, and forrows that annoy. Forgot each bufy care of active life,
Forgot the turmoils of the public fcene, Forgot all envy, pride, and jealous ftrife, The starts of paffion, and the fits of spleen! Adieu, ye groves, where erst I wont to roam, Where health attends the clear falubrious air; Retirement left, I feek a diff'rent home,
And to the gay metropolis repair.
To understand and chufe thee for their own. But foolish man foregoes his proper blifs Ev'n as his first progenitor, and quits, Though placed in paradife (for earth has ftill Some traces of her youthful beauty left) Substantial happiness for tranfient joy. Scenes form'd for contemplation, and to nurfe The growing feeds of wisdom; that fuggeft, By ev'ry pleafing image they prefent, Reflections fuch as meliorate the heart, Compofe the paffions, and exalt the mind; Scenes fuch as thefe, 'tis his fupreme delight To fill with riot and defile with blood. Should fome contagion kind to the poor brutes. We perfecute, annihilate the tribes
That draw the fportfman over hill and dale Fearless, and rapt away from all his cares; Should never game-fowl hatch her eggs again, Nor baited hook deceive the fishes eye; Could pageantry, and dance, and feaft and fong Be quell'd in all our fummer-month retreats; How many felf-deiuded nymphs and fwains, Who dream they have a tafle for fields and groves, Would find them hideous nurs'ries of the spleen, And crowd the roads, impatient for the town! They love the country, and none elfe, who seek For their own fake its filence and its flade. Delights which who would leave, that has a heart Sufceptible of pity, or a mind
Cultured and capable of fober thought, For all the favage din of the fwift pack And clamours of the field? detefted sport, That owes its pleasures to another's pain, That feeds upon the fobs and dying fhrieks Of harmless nature, dumb, but yet endued With eloquence that agonies infpire Of filent tears and heart-diftending fighs! Vain tears, alas! and fighs that never find A correfponding tone in jovial fouls.
Well-one at leaft is fafe. One fhelter'd hare Has never heard the fanguinary yell Of cruel man, exulting in her woes. Innocent partner of my peaceful home, Whom ten long years experience of my care Has made at laft familiar, fhe has loft Much of her vigilant instinctive dread, Not needful here, beneath a roof like mine. Yes-thou mayeft eat thy bread, and lick the hand That feeds thee; thou may'ft frolic on the floor At evening, and at night retire fecure
To thy ftraw couch, and flumber unalarm'd. For I have gain'd thy confidence, have pledg'd All that is human in me, to protect Thine unfufpecting gratitude and love. If I furvive thee I will dig thy grave, And when I place thee in it, fighing fay, I knew at least one hare that had a friend.
How various his employments, whom the world Calls idle, and who justly in return
Efteems that bufy world an idler too! Friends, books, a garden, and perhaps his pen, Delightful industry enjoyed at home,
And nature in her cultivated trim
Dreffed to his taite, inviting him abroad- Can he want occupation who has these? Will he be idle who has much t'enjoy? Me, therefore, ftudious of laborious eafe, Not flothful; happy to deceive the time, Not waste it; and aware that human life Is but a loan to be repaid with use, When he shall call his debtors to account, From whom are all our bleffings, bus'nefs finds Ev'n here. While fedulous I feek t'improve, At least neglect not, or leave unemploy'd, The mind he gave me; driving it, though flack Too oft, and much impeded in its work By caufes not to be divulg'd in vain, To its juft point the fervice of mankind.. He that attends to his interior felf,
That has a heart and keeps it: has a mind That hungers, and fupplies it; and who feeks A focial, not a diffipated life,
Has bufinefs. Feels himself engag'd t' atchieve No unimportant, though a filent task.
A life all turbulence and noife, may seem To him that leads it, wife and to be prais'd; But wifdom is a pearl with most fuccefs Sought in ftill water, and beneath clear skies, He that is ever occupied in ftorms, Or dives not for it, or brings up instead, Vainly industrious, a difgraceful prize.
The morning finds the felf-fequefter'd man Fresh for his talk, intend what task he may. Whether inclement feafons recommend His warm but fimple home, where he enjoys With her who fhares his pleafures and his heart, Sweet converfe, fipping calm the fragrant lymph Which neatly fhe prepares; then to his book Well chofen, and not fullenly perused In felfish filence, but imparted oft
Dr. Chelfum's Reply to Mr. Gibbon's Vindication of fome Paffages in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Chapters of the Hiftory of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," we heartily recommend to the friends of truth and Christianity. Keen wit and lively irony are the methods which that fafcinating hiftorian makes ufe of in defending himself, and refuting the plain fo lid reafonings of his antagonists. Dr. Chelfum willingly yields to him the palm of wit and raillery; but his own integrity, and the reprefentations which he had formerly given of Mr. Gibbon's want of candour and proper regard to truth, he vindicates with additional ardor and force. This publication does honour to our author as a gentleman and a fcholar; and when we read his candid acknowledgments of fome inaccuracies into which he had been betrayed, for which he apologizes with becoming modefty, we give full credit to his declaration, that he "never in reality, in any moment, fought for victory or triumph, but for truth only."
Under the head of Biblical Literature, it is with great fatisfaction and pleasure that we can mention the accomplishment of the hope we expreffed in our account of the productions of the last year, by the publication of a valuable work, by Dr. Newcome, bifhop of Waterford, modeftly called by him, "An Attempt towards an improved Verfion, a metrical Arrangement, and an Explanation of the Twelve Minor Prophets." The tafk undertaken by the learned author was a very arduous one; and he hath executed it in a manner which adds greatly to the character for judgment and candor, by which his other writings have di
ftinguifhed him. He follows the example of bishop Lowth in giving to his verfion a metrical form; and in endeavouring to tranflate carefully and literally the words of the original. By these means he hath preferved, as far perhaps as could be done in a tranflation, the grace and beauty of the Hebrew tongue, and rendered his labours moft ufeful to expofitors of fcripture. In the notes likewife, with which he hath enriched his work, as well as in his verfion, he seems faithfully to have kept in view an admirable rule, which, with others, he hath laid down as neceffary to a just and true tranflation of the fcriptures.
"The critical fenfe of paffages fhould be confidered, fays he, and not the opinion of any denomination of Christians whatever. The tranflators should be philologifts, and not controver fialifts." We hope that the laudable efforts of a Lowth, a Blaney, and a Newcome, to refcue the facred writings from the mistakes and imperfections which attend them in their prefent English drefs, will awaken a fimilar fpirit in the breafts of others of our clergy, who are equal to fuch a task; and excite, amongst men of leifure and retirement, a more general attention to oriental literature. Such labours would prove beneficial, in the higheft degree, to the cause of religion, and confer true and lafting honour on thofe engaged in them."
The "Lectures on the Canon of the Scriptures, comprehending a Differtation on the Septuagint Verfion, by the late Rev. John Blair, LL.D. and Prebendary of Westminster," are the production of a man of confiderable reading and abilities; though they do not appear before the world with the advantages which would have re
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