520 
Above, with shrouds afoul and gunwales 
mann’d 
Thick halberds clash; and, closing hand to 
hand, i 
The huddling troops, infuriate from despain, 
Tug at the toils of death, and perish there 5 
Grenados, carcasses their fragments spread, 
And pikes and pistols strowthe deckswith dead. 
Wow on the Gallic board the Britons rush, 
‘The intrepid Gauls the rash adventurers crush3 
Andnow, to vengeance stung, with frantic air, 
Back on the British maindeck roll the war. 
There swells the carnage; all the tar-beat floor 
Us clogg’d with spattered brains and glued with 
ore 5 
And Mies the ship’s black waist, fresh brooks 
of blood 
Course o’er their clots and tinge the sable flood. 
Till War, impatient of the lingering'strife 
‘That tires and slackens with the waste of life, 
Opes with engulphing gape the astonish’d 
wave, 
An@ whelms the combat whole, in one vast 
grave. : 
For now the imprisoned powder caught the 
flames, 
And into atoms whirl’d the monstrous frames 
Of both the entangled ships; the vortex wide 
Roars like an Etna thro the belching tide, 
And blazing into heaven, and bursting high, 
Shells, carriages and guns obstruct the sky; 
Cords, timbers, trunks of men the welkin 
sweep, 
And fall on distant ships, or shower along the 
deep. A 
¢¢ The matcht armadas still the fight main- 
tain, 
But cautious, distant; lest the staggering main 
Drive their whole lines afoul, and one dark day 
Glut the proud ocean with too rich a prey. 
At last, where scattering fires the cloud dis- 
close, 
Hulls heave in sight and blood the decks o’er- 
flows ; 
Here from the field tost navies rise to view, 
Prive back to vengeance and the roar renew, 
Yhere shatter’d ships commence their flight 
alur, 
Tow’d thro the smoke, hard struggling from 
the war 5 
And some, half seen amid the gaping wave, 
Plunge in the whirl they make, and gorge 
their grave.” 
The siege of York affords several ex- 
amples of novel description, particularly 
the bombardment during the night, and 
the mining and blowing up of a citadel, 
There is not room*for citations so copi- 
ous as I could wish from the scenes of 
war. The subjects are so various, and 
many of them original, that I shall be 
able to convey but an imperfect idea of 
the work. 
The following hymn to Peace forms 
she overture of the 8th book, 
Observations on the Columbiad. 
7 [Jan. 3, 
¢¢ Hail holy Peace, from thy sublime abode, 
Mid circling saints that grace the throne of 
God. ? 4 
Before his arm, around our embryon earth, 
Stretch’d the dim void, and gave to nature 
birth, 
Ere morning stars his glowing chambers hung, 
Or songs of gladness woke an angel’s tongue, 
Veil’d in the splendors of his beamful mind, 
In blest repose thy placid form reclined, 
Lived in his life, his inward sapience caught, 
And traced and toned his universe of thought. 
Borne thro the expanse with his creating voice 
Thy presence bade the unfolding worlds re~ 
joice, 
Led forth the systems on their bright career, 
Shaped all their curves and fashion’d every 
sphere, 
Spaeed out their suns, and round each radiant 
goal, 
Orb over orb, compell’d their train to roll, 
Bade heaven’s own harmony their force com~ 
bine, 
| Taught all their host symphonious strains to 
Join, 
Gave to seraphic harps their sounding lays, 
Their joys to angels, and to men their praise. | 
<* From scenes of blood, these verdant shores 
that stain, 
From numerous friends in recent battle slain, 
From blazing towns that scorch the purple 
sky, 
From houseless hordes, their smoking walls 
that fly, 
From the black prison ships, those groaning 
graves, 
From warring fleets that vex the gory waves, 
From a storm’d world, long taught thy flight, 
to mourn, 
T rise, deiightful Peaee, and greet thy glad re= 
turn.” 
Tn the 9th book the reader is struck with 
an awful solemnity mixt with abhorrence 
at the initiation to the mysteries of Isis, 
which the author considers as the origia 
of the several monstrous systems of relie 
gion which follow in the samevdescrip- 
tion, 
*¢ Unfold, thou Memphian dungeon ; there 
began 
The lore of Mystery, the mask of man 5 
There Fraud with Science leagued, in early 
times, 
Plann’d a resplendent course of holy crimes, 
Stalk’d o’er the nations with gigantic pace, 
Witb sacred symbols charm’d the cheated 
race, 
Taught them new grades of ignorance to gain, 
And punish truth with more than mortal 
painy— 
Unfold at last thy cope! that man may see 
The mines of mischief he has drawn from 
thee. 
—Wide gapes the porch with hieroglyphics 
hung, 
And mimic zodiacs @erits arehes flung; . 
Efe 
7 
