You came a wooing to his daughter, John.

Thou perfect pattern of thy slander'd sex, Do you remember,

Whom miseries of mine could never alienate, With what a coy reserve and seldom speech, Nor change of fortune shake; whom injuries, (Young maidens must be chary of their speech) And slights (the worst of injuries) which moved I kept the honors of my maiden pride?

Thy nature to return scorn with like scorn, I was your favourite then.

Then when you left in virtuous pride this house, John. O Margaret, Margaret!

Could not so separate, but now in this These your submissions to my low estate,

My day of shame, when all the world forsake, And cleaving to the fates of sunken Woodvil, You only visit me, love, and forgive me. Write bitter things 'gainst my unworthiness.

JAMES MONTGOMERY.

And realized his waking dreams.

His name has perished from the earth,
Soon from those waking dreams he woke,

This truth survives alone: -
The fairy spell of fancy broke;
In vain he breathed a soul of fire,

That joy and grief, and hope and fear
Through every chord that strung his lyre.

Alternate triumph'd in his breast; No friendly echo cheer'd his tongue,

His bliss and woe,-a smile, a tear! Amidst the wilderness he sung;

-Oblivion hides the rest. Louder and bolder bards were crown'd,

The bounding pulse, the languid limb, Whose dissonance his music drown'd:

The changing spirits' rise and fall; The public ear, the public voice,

We know that these were felt by him,
Despised his song, denied his choice,

For these are felt by all.
Denied a name,-a life in death,
Denied-a bubble and a breath.

He suffer'd,—but his pangs are o'er;
Stript of his fondest, dearest claim,

Enjoy'd,—but his delights are fled; And disinherited of fame,

Had friends,-his friends are now no more;
To thee, O Pillow! thee alone,

And foes,-his foes are dead.
He made his silent anguish known;
His haughty spirit scorn’d the blow

He loved,

but whom he loved, the grave That laid his high ambition low;

Hath lost in its unconscious womb: But ah! his looks assumed in vain

O she was fair!—but nought could save A cold ineffable disdain,

Her beauty from the tomb. While deep he cherished in his breast

He saw whatever thou hast seen; The scorpion that consumed his rest.

Encounter'd all that troubles thee; Yet other secret griefs had he,

He was—whatever thou hast been;
O Pillow! only told to thee:

He is—what thou shalt be.
Say, did not hopeless love intrude
On his poor bosom's solitude ?

The rolling seasons, day and night,
Perhaps on thy soft lap reclined,

Sun, moon, and stars, the earth and main, In dreams the cruel fair was kind,

Erewhile his portion, life and light,
That more intensely he might know

To him exist in vain.
The bitterness of waking woe.
Whate'er those pangs from me conceald,

The clouds and sunbeams, o'er his eye
To thee in midnight groans reveal'd;

That once their shades and glory threw, They stung remembrance to despair;

Have left in yonder silent sky “ A wounded spirit who can bear!"

No vestige where they flew. Meanwhile disease, with slow decay,

The annals of the human race, Moulder'd his feeble frame away!

Their ruins since the world began, And as his evening sun declined,

Of him afford no other trace
The shadows deepen'd o'er his mind.

Than this,—THERE LIVED A MAN!
What doubts and terrors then possess'd
The dark dominion of his breast!
How did delirious fancy dwell

DEATH OF ADAM AND EVE. On madness, suicide, and hell!

-666 Leave me not, Adam! leave me not below; There was on earth no power to save:

With thee I tarry, or with thee I go,'-But, as he shudder'd o'er the grave,

She said, and yielding to his faint embrace, He saw from realms of light descend The friend of him who has no friend,

Clung round his neck, and wept upon his face.

Alarming recollection soon return'd, Religion !-her almighty breath

His fever'd frame with growing anguish burn’d: Rebuked the winds and waves of death; She bade the storm of frenzy cease,

Ah! then, as Nature's tenderest impulse wrought, And smiled a calm, and whisper'd peace:

With fond solicitude of love she sought

To soothe his limbs upon their grassy bed,
Amidst that calm of sweet repose,
To Heaven his gentle spirit rose.

And make the pillow easy to his head;
She wiped his reeking temples with her hair;

She shook the leaves to stir the sleeping air;
THE COMMON LOT.

Moisten'd his lips with kisses: with her breath Once in the flight of ages past

Vainly essay'd to quell the fire of death, There lived a man :--and who was ve?

That ran and revelled through his swollen veins -Mortal! howe'er thy lot be cast,

With quicker pulses, and severer pains. That man resembled thee.

“ The sun, in summer majesty on high, Unknown the region of his birth,

Darted his fierce effulgence down the sky; The land in which he died unknown:

Yet dimm'd and blunted were the dazzling rays, His orb expanded through a dreary haze,

“ Amidst this war of elements, within And, circled with a red portentous zone,

More dreadful grew the sacrifice of sin, He look'd in sickly horror from his throne;

Whose victim on his bed of torture lay,
The vital air was still; the torrid beat

Breathing the slow remains of life away.
Oppress'd our hearts, that labour'd hard to beat. Erewhile, victorious faith sublimer rose
When higher noon had shrunk the lessening shade, Beneath the pressure of collected woes:
Thence to his home our father we convey'd, But now bis spirit waver'd, went and came,
And stretch'd him, pillow'd with his latest sheaves, Like the loose vapour of departing flame,
On a fresh couch of green and fragrant leaves. Till at the point, when comfort seem'd to die
Here, though his sufferings through the glen were For ever in his fix'd unclosing eye,
known,

Bright through the smouldering ashes of the man, We chose to watch his dying bed alone,

The saint brake forth, and Adam thus began:
Eve, Seth, and I.-In vain he sigh'd for rest,
And oft his meek complainings thus express’d:

_“Oye that shudder at this awful strife, - Blow on me, wind! I faint with heat! O bring

This wrestling agony of death and life, Delicious water from the deepest spring;

Think not that He, on whom my soul is cast,

Will leave me thus forsaken to the last;
Your sunless shadows o'er my limbs diffuse,

Nature's infirmity alone you see ;
Ye cedars! wash me cold with midnight dews.
-Cheer me, my friends! with looks of kindness

My chains are breaking, I shall soon be free;
Whisper a word of comfort in mine ear; (cheer;

Though firm in God the spirit holds her trust, Those sorrowing faces fill my soul with gloom;

The flesh is frail, and trembles into dust. This silence is the silence of the tomb.

Horror and anguish seize me;—'tis the hour Thither I hasten; help me on my way;

Of darkness, and I mourn beneath its power; O sing to sooth me, and to strengthen pray!'

The Tempter plies me with his direst art, We sang to sooth him,-hopeless was the

I feel the Serpent coiling round my heart;

song; We pray'd to strengthen him,-he grew not strong.

He stirs the wound he once inflicted there, In vain from every herb, and fruit, and flower,

Instils the deadening poison of despair, Of cordial sweetness, or of healing power,

Belies the truth of God's delaying grace, We press'd the virtue; no terrestrial balm

And bids me curse my Maker to his face.

-I will not curse Him, though his grace delay; Nature's dissolving agony could calm. Thus as the day declined, the fell disease

I will not cease to trust Him, though he slay; Eclipsed the light of life by slow degrees:

Full on his promised mercy I rely, Yet while his pangs grew sharper, more resign'd,

For God hath spoken,-God, who cannot lie. More self-collected, grew the sụfferer's mind;

-Thou, of my faith the Author and the End ! Patient of heart, though rack'd at every pore,

Mine early, late, and everlasting friend!

The joy, that once thy presence gave, restore
The righteous penalty of sin he bore;

Ere I am summon'd hence, and seen no more:
Not his the fortitude that mocks at pains,
But that which feels them most, and yet sustains.

Down to the dust returns this earthly frame, - Tis just, 'tis merciful,' we heard him say;

Receive my spirit, Lord! from whom it came; • Yet wherefore hath he turn’d his face away!

Rebuke the Tempter, shew thy power to save, I see him not; I hear him not; I call;

O let thy glory light me to the grave, My God! my Godl support me, or I fall.'

That these, who witness my departing breath,

May learn to triumph in the grasp of death.' “ The sun went down, amidst an angry glare “ He closed his eyelids with a tranquil smile, Of flushing clouds, that crimson'd all the air;

And seem'd to rest in silent prayer awhile: The winds brake loose; the forest boughs were torn, Around his couch with filial awe we kneeld, And dark aloof the eddying foliage borne;

When suddenly a light from heaven reveal'd Cattle to shelter scudded in affright;

A spirit, that stood within the unopen'd door;The florid evening vanish'd into night:

The sword of God in his right hand he bore; Then burst the hurricane upon the vale,

His countenance was lightning, and his vest In peals of thunder, and thick-vollied hail ;

Like snow at sun-rise on the mountain's crest; Prone rushing rains with torrents whelm'd the land,

Yet so benignly beautiful his form, Our cot amidst a river seem'd to stand;

His

presence still'd the fury of the storm; Around its base, the foamy-crested streams

At once the winds retire, the waters cease; Flash'd through the darkness to the lightning's

His look was love, his salutation, · Peace!' gleams;

[ground, With monstrous throes an earthquake heaved the « Our mother first beheld bim, sore amazed, The rocks were rent, the mountains trembled round; But terror grew to transport, while she gazed: Never since nature into being came,

-'Tis he, the Prince of Seraphim, who drove Had such mysterious motion shook her frame; Our banish'd feet from Eden's happy grove ; We thought, ingulpht in floods, or wrapt in fire, Adam, my life, my spouse, awake!' she cried; The world itself would perisha with our sire. • Return to Paradise ; behold thy guide!

11

For man,

O let me follow in this dear embrace!'

He call'd the elements, earth, ocean, air, She sank, and on his bosom hid her face.

He callid them when they were not, and they were: Adam look'd up; his visage changed its hue, He look'd through space, and kindling o'er the sky, Transform'd into an angel's at the view:

Sun, moon, and stars came forth to meet his eye: 'I come!' he cried, with faith's full triumph fired, His spirit moved upon the desert earth, And in a sigh of ecstacy expired.

And sudden life through all things swarm’d to birth; The light was vanislı’d, and the vision fled;

Man from the dust he raised to rule the whole; We stood alone, the living with the dead;

He breathed, and man became a living soul : The ruddy embers, glimmering round the room, Through Eden's groves the Lord of Nature trod, Display'd the corpse amidst the solemn gloom; Upright and pure, the image of his God. But o'er the scene a holy calm reposed,

Thus were the heavens and all their host display'd, The gate of heaven had open’d there, and closed. In wisdom thus were earth's foundations laid;

The glorious scene a holy sabbath closed, “Eve's faithfularm still clasp'd her lifeless spouse; Amidst his works the Omnipotent reposed: Gently I shook it, from her trance to rouse ;

And while he view'd, and bless'd them from his seat, She gave no answer; motionless and cold,

All worlds, all beings worshipt at his feet: It fell like clay from my relaxing hold;

The morning stars in choral concert sang, Alarm’d, I lifted up the locks of grey

The rolling deep with hallelujahs rang, That hid her cheek; her soul had pass'd away: Adoring angels from their orbs rejoice, A beauteous corse she graced her partner's side; The voice of music was Creation's voice. Love bound their lives, and death could not divide."

“ • Alone along the lyre of nature sigh'd

The master-chord, to which no chord replied ; THE EFFECT OF MUSIC ON CAIN.

while bliss and beauty reign'd around,

For man alone, no fellowship was found, " I love thee, twilight! as thy shadows roll,

No fond companion, in whose dearer breast, The calm of evening steals upon my soul,

His heart, repining in his own, might rest; Sublimely tender, solemnly serene,

For, born to love, the heart delights to roam,
Still as the hour, enchanting as the scene.

A kindred bosom is its happiest home.
I love thee, twilight! for thy gleams impart On earth's green lap, the father of mankind,
Their dear, their dying influence to my heart, In mild dejection, thoughtfully reclined;
When o'er the harp of thought thy passing wind Soft o'er his eyes a sealing slumber crept,
Awakens all the music of the mind,

And fancy soothed him while reflection slept. And joy and sorrow, as the spirit burns,

ThenGod—who thus would make his counsel known, And hope and memory sweep the chords by turns, Counsel that will'd not man to dwell alone, While contemplation, on seraphic wings,

Created woman with a smile of grace, Mounts with the flame of sacrifice, and sings.

And left the smile that made her on her face. Twilight! I love thee; let thy glooms increase

The patriarch's eyelids open'd on his bride, Till every feeling, every pulse is peace;

- The morn of beauty risen from his side! Slow from the sky the light of day declines, Clearer within the dawn of glory shines,

He gazed with new-born rapture on her charms,

And love's first whispers won her to his arms. Revealing, in the hour of nature's rest,

Then, tuned through all the clords supremely sweet, A world of wonders in the poet's breast :

Exulting nature found her lyre complete, Deeper, O twilight! then thy shadows roll,

And from the key of each harmonious sphere An awful vision opens on my soul.

Struck music worthy of her Maker's ear.' “ On such an evening, so divinely calm,

“ Here Jubal paused; for grim before him lay, The woods all melody, the breezes balm,

Couch'd like a lion watching for his prey,
Down in a vale, where lucid waters stray'd, With blood-red eye of fascinating fire,
And mountain-cedars stretcht their downward Fix'd like the gazing serpent's on the lyre,
shade,

An awful form, that through the gloom appear'd, Jubal, the prince of song (in youth unknown)

Half brute, half human; whose terrific beard, Retired to commune with his harp alone;

And hoary flakes of long dishevell’d hair, For still he nursed it, like a secret thought,

Like eagle's plumage rufled by the air, Long cherish'd and to late perfection wrought,- Veild a sad wreck of grandeur and of grace; And still with cunning hand, and curious ear, Limbs worn and wounded; a majestic face, Enrich'd, ennobled, and enlarged its sphere, Deep-plouglı’d by time, and ghastly pale with woes, Till he had compass’d, in that magic round, That goaded till remorse to madness rose. A soul of harmony, a heaven of sound.

Haunted by phantoms, he had fled his home, Then sang the minstrel, in his laurel bower, With savage beasts in solitude to roam; Of nature's origin, and music's power.

Wild as the waves, and wandering as the wind, - He spake, and it was done ;-Eternal night,

No art could tame him, and chains could bind : At God's command, awaken’d into light;

Already seven disastrous years had shed