Thou canst not now drink dew from flowers,
Nor sport along the traveller's path,
But through the winter's weary hours,
Shall warm thee at my lonely hearth;

And when my lamp's decaying beam,
But dimly shews the letter'd page,
Rich with some ancient poet's dream,
Or wisdom of a purer age,

Then will I listen to thy sound,
And musing o'er the embers pale,
With whitening ashes strewed around,
The forms of memory unveil ;

Recal the many-coloured dreams,
That fancy fondly weaves for youth,
When all the bright illusion seems
The pictured promises of truth.
Perchance, observe the faithful light
Send its faint flashes round the room,
And think some pleasures "feebly bright
May lighten thus life's varied gloom.

I love the quiet midnight hour,
When care and hope and passion sleep,
And reason with untroubled power
Can her late vigils duly keep;

I love the night; and sooth to say,
Before the merry birds, that sing
In all the glare and noise of day,
Prefer the cricket's grating wing.

But see! pale Autumn strews her leaves,
Her withered leaves, o'er nature's grave,
While giant Winter she perceives

Dark rushing from his icy cave ;

And in his train the sleety showers,

That beat upon the barren earth;

Thou, cricket, through these weary hours
Shall warm thee at my lonely hearth.

GENTLEMEN,

For the Monthly Anthology.

Several susceptible youths of your city having been lately employed in making woeful ballads to their mistress' eye-brow, it entered my noddle to at tempt something after their manner upon the interesting object of my tenderest attachments,.... Dolly.

EPISTLE TO DOLLY.

FROM the dark gulf of comfortless despair
Oh suffer me, thou Empress of my soul,
With trembling hand and gizzard" titillating,
And heart that beats in unison with yours,

Like some twin cherry, by sweet zephyr mov'd,
Jostling in concert with its ruby brother,
To write to you, your sex's nonpareil.

Lately discovered.

Those gooseberry eyes with emerald lightnings big,
Beaming sublime like barn-door in the morn,

Have burnt thy Neddy's heart just like, forsooth,
A crisp pork-chop upon a gridiron.

Oh, oh those pouting cherry lips of thine,
Where little cherubim and seraphim

Dance sportive to thy throat's wild melody:
Oh Dolly Dumpling, Dolly Dumpling oh!
Deign, deign to squint one ray of love divine
Into my tender bosom, greenlandiz'd
With cold disdain and Lapland iciness.
Paint to yourself my restless form laid prone
In sheets of linen or of cotton made,

There thinking on thy angel mien I toss in pain,
Turning now on this, and then on t'other side,
My throbbing heart the while with forceful beat
Striving to break my ribs and 'scape to thee.
So have I often seen some hapless goose,
In farmer's yard by cruel coop pent in,
Reckless of life beat hard against the slats,
And strive in vain to gain the gabbling flock.

How pleasant sitting at my cottage door
To view at eve the sun's declining ray,
Soft sliding through the mountain's blushy brow;
To hear. the vacant laugh of honest steed,
The beehive's buzz, and courting pigeon's coo.
When toil is o'er, and stretch'd upon the turf,
How sweet to view our little playful lambs
Bound like grasshoppers in a field of hay;
And when our pretty little brindle cow,
Before the wicker gate with meekest look,
Shall ask our pliant hands her teats to squeeze,
How will your Neddy and his Doily dear,
With each a milking-pail and each a stool,
Express the streams of sweet nectareous dew,
That Gods shall wish to be like I and You.

SELECTIONS.

[We anticipate the smiles and the thanks of our readers for the extracts, which follow from Montgomery's poems. Had it been in our power, the present bouquet should have been enlarged; but we love to be sparing of fragrance and flowers, and, surely, a daisy and snow-drop will suffice for October. There is a harmony in some of his lines, which is exquisite to a musical ear; and his figures and combinations indicate, that he is no copyist. His future productions will entitle him to an honourable rank. He has already written poems, which are consecrated to durable preservation in the brilliant and mighty mass of English poetry. But probably his prophecy is superiour to his fulfilment, and we are willing to believe, that his future greatness will advance beyond the just exactness of present anticipation. He is now a little Iulus; by and by he will reign on the throne of his forefathers. His general merit will be acknowledged by all; but difference of opinion begins with comparison. We do not pretend to decide his relative excellence, or the school, to which he belongs. We love to dwell on the purity of the snow-drop,' which is better than oxslips and wild thyme; and the field flower,' too, has perfume and tints, which are superiour to aromats and dyes from Ethiopia.]

And breathes enchantment thro' the Or on the lap of Autumn bloom,

538

THE BOSTON REVIEW.

OCTOBER, 1806.

Librum tuum legi & quam diligentissime potui annotavi, quæ commutanda, que eximenda, arbitrarer. Nam ego dicere vero assuevi. Neque ulli patientius reprehenduntur, quam qui maxime laudari merentur.-PLINY.

ARTICLE 54.

The Journal of Andrew Ellicott, late commissioner on behalf of the United States, during part of the year 1796, the years 1797, 1798, 1799, and part of the year 1800, for determining the boundary between the United States and the

possessions of his catholick majesty in America, containing occasional remarks on the situation, soil, rivers, natural productions, and diseases of the different countries on the Ohio, Mississippi, and gulf of Mexico; with six maps, compre hending the Ohio, the Mississippi from the mouth of the Ohio to the gulf of Mexico, the whole of W. Florida, and part of E. Florida. To which is added an appendix, containing all the astronomical observations made use of for determining the boundary, with many others made in different parts of the country for settling the geographical positions of some important points, with maps of the boundary on a large scale ; likewise, a great number of thermo

metrical observations made at different times and places. 1 vol.

4to. Philadelphia, Budd & Bar

tram. 1803.

GEOGRAPHY has been so assiduously cultivated of late years, that every work tending to its improvement has been received with more, than common interest. In the pursuit of this science, individuals

have been tempted to brave the rigours of every clime, and their exertions have been protected by hostile governments. If then curiosity could be excited with regard to distant rivers, tracing their courses through savage deserts, with how much interest would they look forward to the attain

ment of an accurate knowledge of the Ohio and Mississippi, rivers extensive in themselves, and the only avenues to the ocean of a ferformer river, and of almost boundtile and flourishing country on the less and unknown regions on the latter? At the moment of publied an additional claim to the concation, the Mississippi had acquirsideration of the American pub lick, by the recent cession of Louisiana. Mr. Ellicott, clothed in an official character, possessed during a period of nearly four years the tion, as would fully have gratified of obtaining such informathe publick expectation. To show how far these advantages have been

means

improved will be the object of the following review.

A journal soon becomes dull, where we are neither instructed

by important facts, nor amused with interesting anecdotes or observations. The reader is soon fatigued with passing over bad roads and down shoal rivers, where he has nothing but these necessary concomitants, teazing accidents, or the state of the weather, to amuse