THE HEI.ICONIAD. 561 



Ere yet the world had been compell'd to weep 



O'er tlie wide waste of the poetic deep. 



Or Caledonia yet remained free 



To dedicate her native pen to thee; 



Ere bards preferr'd the palace to the cot, 



Or death had seized our Ariosto — Scott, 



Thou didst gaze down, and, smiling, cast around 



The inspiration of thine art profound; 



The bard invoked — Calliope inspired. 



And those whose pens now rant remain'd unlyred. 



But now the worm is crush'd — the reign o'erthrown, 



Scott's spirit's fled, and Byron's spell has flown!* 



One poet's epic, six tmposer's sheets. 



And loads from B — and L Britain greets ; 



" Ten thousand authors" M yearly pledges, 



With tours of lakes, f — biographies of Brydges. 

 Thus, Muse, the ballast does itself weigh down. 

 His head the poet crushes with — his crown. 



Urania, 

 Fraught with ideas of riches (which exist 

 The Lord knows where, Urania too, I wist) 

 The moon-struck idiot, on the wings of hope. 

 Welcomes from heav'n his hobby — telescope. 

 Not Bedlam's inmate, who would rant and roar 

 His now excited ravings to the floor ; 

 Not the poor Zoic-born poet in the attic. 

 Who raves as if himself were half lunatic ; 

 Not soft Urania, who herself might dread. 

 Lest globes, and stars, and planets turn her head ; 

 Not fierce Medea, who herself forswore. 

 Ere skill'd themselves in so absurd a lore 

 As he who sifts the air, and hopes a boon — 

 For what ? Some golden mountains in the moon ! 



To you, ye sires of astronomic art. 



Whose brains are luckless as a lunar chart ; 



To you, ye younger tribes, who only strain 



'J'he budding sense to scan an endless plain 



Of shining stars, beyond whose spheres you're told 



Of silver rivulets, and mounts of gold ; 



To you, ye female fair astronomers. 



All whom a matchless gallantry reveres ; 



To you, ye fruits of matrimonial science. 



Begot in astronomical alliance ; 



To you, ye single worthies, who aspire 



To some new stultum sidus to be sire 



(As inclination, or the love of praise 



May influence the study of your days) ; 



Urania comes at night, globe full of fame.l 



Your heads and hearts (by turning them) to claim. 



• " riic spell is broke, the charm is flown !" — Bt/rnn. 



t While IIk? press (and the public) are overloaded with tours of T,akes, &r., an ho- 

 iiuurable member of "Our Father's" ushers in with great pomp (eke advcrlisemcnls) A 

 Memoir on .Suspension bridges. 



t Uy the expression " fame" I bep my readers not to be misled into the idoa that 1 

 speak sli(;htin(;ly of so valuable an actiuisition, and one which men so frequently work 

 their senses to their wit's ends (never) to obtain. I would merely in 'he expression rc- 

 fet to the last paragraph, which mentions the existence of hills, dales, and — men upon 

 that sphcri' which we call moon. 



M.M.— No fi. 2 II 



