*

For, on this microscopic plan,
Is form'd the wise and useful man.
Let him a taste for books inspire;
While you, to nurse the young desire,
A social library procure,

And open knowledge to the poor.
This useful taste imbibed, your eyes
Shall see a thousand blessings rise.
From haunts and comrades vile secure,
Where gilded baits to vice allure,
No more your sons abroad shall roam,
But pleased, their evenings spend at home;
Allurements more engaging find,

And feast, with pure delight, the mind.
The realms of earth their thoughts shall scan,
And learn the works and ways of man;

See, from the savage, to the sage,
How nations ripen, age by age;

How states, and men, by virtue rise;
How both to ruin sink, by vice;

How through the world's great prison-bounds,
While one wide clank of chains resounds,

Men slaves, while angels weep to see,

Some wise, and brave, and bless'd, are free.
Through moral scenes shall stretch their sight;
Discern the bounds of wrong and right;
That loathe; this love; and, plcased, pursue
Whate'er from man to man is due;
And, from the page of heaven derive

The motives, and the means, to live.

"In this new world, life's changing round In three descents, is often found.

The first, firm, busy, plodding, poor,
Earns, saves, and daily swells, his store:
By farthings first, and pence, it grows;
In shillings next, and pounds, it flows;
Then spread his widening farms, abroad;
His forests wave; his harvests nod;
Fattening, his numerous cattle play,
And debtors dread his reckoning day.
Ambitious then t' adorn with knowledge
His son, he places him at college;
And sends, in smart attire, and neat,
To travel, through each neighboring state;
Builds him a handsome house, or buys,
Sees him a gentleman, and dies.

*

"The second, born to wealth, and ease, And taught to think, converse, and please, Ambitious, with his lady-wife,

Aims at a higher walk of life.

Yet, in those wholesome habits train'd,
By which his wealth and weight were gain'd
Bids care in hand with pleasure go,

And blends economy with show.
His houses, fences, garden, dress,
The neat and thrifty man confess.
Improved, but with improvement plain,
Intent on office, as on gain,
Exploring, useful sweets to spy,
To public life he turns his eye.
A townsman first; a justice soon;
A member of the house anon;
Perhaps to board, or bench, invited,
He sees the state, and subjects, righted;
And, raptured with politic life,
Consigns his children to his wife.
Of household cares amid the round,
For her, too hard the task is found.
At first she struggles, and contends;
Then doubts, desponds, laments, and bends;
Her sons pursue the sad defeat,
And shout their victory complete;
Rejoicing, see their father roam,
And riot, rake, and reign, at home.
Too late he sees, and sees to mourn,
His race of every hope forlorn,
Abroad, for comfort, turns his eyes,
Bewails his dire mistakes, and dies.

"His heir, train'd only to enjoy,
Untaught, his mind or hands t' employ,
Conscious of wealth enough for life,
With business, care, and worth, at strife,
By prudence, conscience, unrestrain❜d,
And none, but pleasure's habits, gain'd,
Whirls on the wild career of sense,
Nor danger marks, nor heeds expense.
Soon ended is the giddy round;
And soon the fatal goal is found.
His lands, secured for borrow'd gold,
His houses, horses, herds, are sold.
And now, no more for wealth respected,
He sinks, by all his friends neglected;

*

Friends, who, before, his vices flatter'd,
And lived upon the loaves he scatter'd.
Unacted every worthy part,

And pining with a broken heart,
To dirtiest company he flies,
He gambles, turns a sot, and dies.
His children, born to fairer doom,
In rags, pursue him to the tomb.

66

Apprenticed then to masters stern, Some real good the orphans learn ; Are bred to toil, and hardy fare, And grow to usefulness, and care; And, following their great-grandsire's plan, Each slow becomes a useful man.

"But should contentions rise, and grudges, Which call for arbitrating judges, Still shun the law, that gulf of woe, Whose waves without a bottom flow; That gulf, by storms for ever toss'd, Where all, that's once afloat, is lost;

Where friends, embark'd, are friends no more, And neither finds a peaceful shore:

While thousand wrecks, as warnings, lie,

The victims of an angry sky.

"Each cause let mutual friends decide,

With common-sense alone to guide :
If right, in silent peace be glad;
If wrong, be neither sour, nor sad:
As oft you'll find full justice done,

As when through twenty terms you've run;
And when, in travel, fees, and cost,
Far more than can be won, is lost.

"Learn, this conclusion whence I draw.
Mark what estates are spent in law!
See men litigious, business fly,
And loungers live, and beggars die !
What anger, hatred, malice fell,

And fierce revenge their bosoms swell!
What frauds, subornings, tamperings rise!
What slanders foul! what shameful lies!
What perjuries, blackening many a tongue!
And what immensity of wrong!

Where peace and kindness dwelt before,
See peace and kindness dwell no more!
Ills to good offices succeed,

And neighbors bid each other bleed!

66

Esop, the merry Phrygian sage,
Worth half the wise men of his age,

Has left to litigants a story,

Which, with your leave, I'll set before you.

666 The bear and lion on the lawn,
Once found the carcase of a fawn.

Both claim'd the dainty; neither gave it;
But each swore roundly he would have it.
They growl'd; they fought; but fought in vain ;
For neither could the prize obtain;

And, while to breathe they both retreated,
The lawyer fox came in, and ate it.'"

*

*

*

*

*

Thus spoke the sage. The crowd around,
Applauding, heard the grateful sound;
Each, deeply musing, homeward went,
T' amend his future life intent;

And, pondering past delays, with sorrow,
Resolved he would begin tomorrow.

COLUMBIA.

COLUMBIA, Columbia, to glory arise,

The queen of the world, and the child of the skies!
Thy genius commands thee; with rapture behold,
While ages on ages thy splendors unfold.
Thy reign is the last, and the noblest of time,
Most fruitful thy soil, most inviting thy clime;
Let the crimes of the east ne'er encrimson thy name,
Be freedom, and science, and virtue thy fame.

To conquest and slaughter let Europe aspire;
Whelm nations in blood, and wrap cities in fire;
Thy heroes the rights of mankind shall defend,
And triumph pursue them, and glory attend.
A world is thy realm: for a world be thy laws,
Enlarged as thine empire, and just as thy cause;
On freedom's broad basis, that empire shall rise,
Extend with the main, and dissolve with the skies.

Fair Science her gates to thy sons shall unbar,
And the east see thy morn hide the beams of her star.
New bards, and new sages, unrivall'd shall soar
To fame unextinguish'd, when time is no more;
To thee, the last refuge of virtue designed,
Shall fly from all nations the best of mankind;
Here, grateful to heaven, with transport shall bring
Their incense, more fragrant than odors of spring.

Nor less shall thy fair ones to glory ascend,
And genius and beauty in harmony blend;
The graces of form shall awake pure desire,
And the charms of the soul ever cherish the fire;
Their sweetness unmingled, their manners refined,
And virtue's bright image, instamp'd on the mind,
With peace, and soft rapture, shall teach life to glow,
And light up a smile in the aspect of woe.

Thy fleets to all regions thy power shall display,
The nations admire, and the ocean obey;

Each shore to thy glory its tribute unfold,

And the east and the south yield their spices and gold.
As the day-spring unbounded, thy splendor shall flow,
And earth's little kingdoms before thee shall bow:
While the ensigns of union, in triumph unfurl'd,
Hush the tumult of war, and give peace to the world.

Thus, as down a lone valley, with cedars o'erspread,
From war's dread confusion I pensively stray'd-
The gloom from the face of fair heaven retired;
The winds ceased to murmur; the thunders expired;
Perfumes, as of Eden, flow'd sweetly along,
And a voice, as of angels, enchantingly sung :
"Columbia, Columbia, to glory arise,

The queen of the world and the child of the skies."

THE CRITICS.

A FABLE.

'Tis said of every dog that's found, Of mongrel, spaniel, cur, and hound, That each sustains a doggish mind, And hates the new, sublime, refined. "T is hence the wretches bay the moon, In beauty throned at highest noon,