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certainty of the present state. Grant, however, that such sorrows have been never met, that life has been prosperous and happy, sooner or later it must have an end. The list of deaths, accordingly, presents us with the last remembrance of the great and good, of the wise and learned, of the highest rank, and the most conspicuous talent. Some we see cut off in the blossom of their days, while others continue to flourish till the winter of age brings their natural decay: but to all it comes at last, nor can rank, or talent, or wisdom, or virtue, defer the period when it has once arrived. The only object in human life, combining certainty with futurity, is its termination: all else is uncertain as the gamester's throw, with the exception merely of its brevity: but though the space between birth and death is generally short, it is not often filled as it should be. In the language of the poet,

To be born and die

Of rich and poor makes all the history;"

and it would, indeed, be well, if we could more frequently say with truth, in the words of the next couplet,

66

That virtue fill'd the space between,

Prov'd by the ends of being, to have been."

The last part of a Newspaper to which allusion will be made, is that which is the last in all such publications, namely, the Printer's Address at the end. The announcement itself shews little; the reason of it, much. From the course of human life, it was seen, that persons who wielded an engine of such immense power as the press, could not, with safety to society, repose under the protection of secrecy. Such are the infirmities of human nature, and such is the propensity to expose and ridicule them, that society would not be fit to live in, if irresponsible individuals had the power of publishing with impunity whatever their malice, their avarice, or their wantonness, might induce them to disseminate abroad. It may, indeed, here be asked, what must that life be, that would not bear exposure? and what must be the dispositions of those, whom nothing but punishment could restrain? Let the question suffice for the present; and let the heart of every individual furnish the requisite reply. Human Life, then, as exhibited in the Contents of a Newspaper,-does, upon the whole, by no means appear in the most favourable light; yet its general accuracy can hardly be disputed. Let this reflection lessen the pride of those, who are fond of dilating on the dignity of human nature, and stimulate all to the pursuit of those virtues, by which human life may be rendered an object more worthy of admiration.

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ASTREA: A POE M.

ADDRESSED TO MYRA.

"Astrea's altar burned

With holy incense."

The action of this Poem may be placed between the years 1194 and 1645.

THE FIRST CANTO.

"The Cretan soil,"

the wild Dictean cave

Where Jove was born, the ever verdant meads of Ida."

I.

AKENSIDE.

A VOICE came to me in my youth-“ Aspire !”
It thrilled my veins, it swathed my soul in fire.
Lo! Emulation walked before my sight,
With flowing vest, and visage passing bright;
Her step unequal; and her piercing eye,
Bent never, held high commerce with the sky,
Disdaining to affect less height; and oft,
Incentive, lifted she her hand aloft,

To where the Muses nine blent many a tone;
And radiant Fame sate on her glorious throne
Of meteors, blazing on a tablet high,

Where, graved in letters of eternity,

Meed is recorded of those sons of soul,*

Whose thoughts have been ethereal as their goal.

CANDIA! mild clime swayed by the temperate year,
Where storm and winter seldom dare appear,
And summer is but spring with warmer glow;
Where Gargara never felt the gelid snow,
Nor arid heat broke the parched ground below:
The earth one emerald, and the sky but one
Eternal sapphire, and a softened sun-
Land of the legislating sage-the wise-
Jove's confidant-the favourite of the skies-
To whom the eternal arbiters of Fate
Awarded, after his terrestrious date,

"Such bliss to one alone

Of all the sons of soul was known."-COLLINS.

The Judgment-seat of Hell-that Judge severe,
Round whom the dead await with awful fear,
While he the urn of doom impartial rolls,
And metes the changeless destiny to souls—
Sea-ambient Isle, by Amalthea crowned,
The general commerce to the nations round,
Where wine and oil in rich abundance flow,
And corn and fruitage loads the trading prow-
Candia! of thee, th' untutored Muse would sing,
And thence the honey-store of fancy bring,
For Love's great altar, a pure offering;-
MYRA will smile on verses such as these,
And for the poet's sake, their faults will please.

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FULL-RICHLY, on the royal Banquet-board,
Into the wine-cup is the malmsey* poured—
And why neglected thus? For that, the gods
Would half resign their nectar and abodes-
Ye courtiers, why neglect the luscious draught?
More luscious than the grape by Bacchus quaffed!
Fame stays their hands, and bids their bosoms swell,
Ambitious of SABINA's praise to tell :
Suffused in the superior cloudless ray

Of virtue, which around her sheds the day,
E'en Envy's changed to emulous Esteem ;-

(Though glows each courtier with the charming theme,
And culls such flowers from Fancy's procreant store
That never Muse gave favoured poet more).
Thus, day by day, the syren tale prevails,
And, though oft told, description never fails:
The story pleased the monarch, and he felt
His amorous heart with rising passion melt,
To see the peerless fair ;-the wild control
Of fancy soon resolved his ardent soul,
But for awhile he sate in silent thought,
And o'er his brow were deeper circles wrought:
The Lyrist of the Court-(of whom the Muse
Ere long will further tell)-his Master views;
And waked the music of his lyre to cheer
The deep intensity discovered there.

ODE.

1.

CUPID! who may scorn thy sway?
All the wise, the good, the great,
Gods and men thy rule obey,
Beauty thine ethereal mate.

*Candia is plentifully covered with corn and fruit-trees. The neighbouring hills are overspread with vineyards, which produce the malmsey

of Mount Ida.

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11.

Down the beach, and in the sea

Dives the desperate maid- and now,
Defies her memory,

Goddess-virgin of the bow!

12.

Who may then defy thy power?
Mightiest Love! since Minos, held
Wisest, mightiest, in one hour,

By a single shaft was quelled!

III.

The lyrist ceased: -Now cleared the monarch's brow,
And with his eye his aspect brightened now;
And round the board he turns his doubtful view,
As on strange quest, and strict enquiry too.
Anon, it glanced upon the nearest guest,
That courtier on his right-and fixed to rest-
Of courtiers he the chief, the slave of gold,
By whom his sovereign's smile was basely sold.
Well was he skilled in every quaint deceit,
To make a bad deed to the conscience sweet;
His master's favourite-but of every peer
MENESTHUS was at once the scorn and fear.
Apart with him the monarch communed-" Well-
Think'st thou, my friend, that Fame, who loves to swelt

Each object of her blazon, and for sport

Confound distinction in her vague report,

Exalt the humble, and abase the high,
Beauty denude, and gloss deformity,
Hath not more lavish in her lustre been,

Than what the subject warrants, were it seen?"

"My sovereign, were she seen, would soon confess
Fame hath no power to paint her loveliness,
More bright, more varied, less to be pourtrayed
Than Iris' own inimitable braid.

ARISTES' humble bed enjoys the dame

Whom Nature never meant for mortal flame;
But for the starry court of heaven designed

Such beauty, virtue, majesty combined.

Some with these spells would challenge wealth and power,
She finds content within the fragrant bower;
Their greatest wealth is in their blissful lot,
And mutual love reigns-revels in their cot.
No woman e'er was found so fair and true,
One thought of change her bosom never knew ;
And aye, wherever nuptial faith is famed,
There, as a proverb, is Sabina named."

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