English

FOR THE ST. GEORGE'S SOCIETY AT NEW YORK .

  In early Time, e'er infant Law
From Wisdom's bed
Had rear'd her head,
  The tyrant kept his slaves in awe.
Justice feebly pois'd the scale:
Wisdom only could prevail.

  In vain the aged Matron weeps
  O'er blushing Beauty's rifled charms;
  Her eyes on Heaven in vain she keeps;
 The fainting Virgin fills the Robber's arms,
 Secure he riots o'er his helpless prey,
Mocks all her woes, and bears the prize away!

 The night the century ebbed out, all worn with work and sin,
The night a twentieth century, all fresh with hope, came in,
The children watched, the evening long, the midnight clock to see,
And to wish to one another “A Happy Century!”
They climbed upon my knee, and they tumbled on the floor;
And Bob and Nell came begging me for stories of the War.

 But I told Nell that I would tell no tales but tales of peace,—
God grant that for a hundred years the tales of war might cease!
I told them I would tell them of the blessed Harvest Store,

When we reflect upon our charming Queen,
Her wit, her beauty, her imperial mien,
Majestic Juno in her air we find,
The form of Venus, with Minerva's mind:
Who was so grac'd, she, she was fit alone
With royal James to fill the British throne.

A PASQUINADE STUCK UP AT NEW YORK, AUGUST 12TH, 1780 .

Of Arbuthnot, my friend, pray tell me the news;
What's done by his ships and their brave gallant crews?
Has the old English man shewn old English spunk
And the ships of the French burnt, taken, or sunk?

In truth, my good sir, there has been nothing like it.
'Tis easier to threaten a blow, than to strike it.
No ship has been taken, or frigate, or lugger:
Nor e'en a poor Frenchman for jacktars — — —
Though this was a promise so solemnly made

Heark, vain man, heark, what the Apostle saith,
And do not boast so much of thy great faith;
For though 'twere able mountains to remove,
'Tis nothing worth unless it work by love;
Love is the life of it, 'tis that alone
Which quickens it, or else 'tis dead, 'tis none.
That man who breaths not at the mouth a jot,
Whose heart no motion hath, whose pulse beats not.
We say is dead; the like we may infer
Concerning faith, that's dead which doth not stir:
If it be living, 'twill be active too,

Of the rude Indians, artless and untaught,
So brightest jewels are with trifles bought:
Deceiv'd Ixion's fate revers'd is show'd,
Imperial Juno giv'n for a cloud.

Madam, your lovely muse's late employ
Was read, with wonder, and a pride-mix'd joy:
Fortune, in vain, her batt'ring engines bends,
'Gainst souls, which such a wit-rais'd strength defends!
Secure, within, you outward storms defy,
And look, serenely, on a ruffled sky:
So Philomel , by night, disdaining rest,
Sings, o'er the pointed thorn, which galls her breast.

The busy ghosts, your fancy seems to hear,
Have no design to fright your list'ning ear:

Man is a creature love's society,
And cannot long alone be well,
Hence God made Eve that she
Might with him dwell.

From these two sprung
A numerous family,
That to a city grew ere long,
And that impli'd strength and stability.

But see how soon this city came to nought,
Being destroy'd with its own weight;
And by division brought
To ruine strait.

Then how can we,
A city have that's strong
Or permanent? It cannot be
What's made with hands should e're continue long.

I am no common earth-born Pug ;
My name is Seraphil:
Once, I was fair Liberia 's silph,
And am her servant, still.

With short, sharp, violent lights made vivid,
To southward far as the sight can roam;
Only the swirl of the surges livid,
The seas that climb and the surfs that comb.
Only the crag and the cliff to nor'ward,
And the rocks receding, and reefs flung forward,
And waifs wreck'd seaward and wasted shoreward
On shallows sheeted with flaming foam.

A grim, grey coast and a seaboard ghastly,
And shores trod seldom by feet of men —