LITERARY TASTE. 141 



Yity of mind. In one of my solitary walks, I stop- 

 ped at a farm house for refreshment, and I acci- 

 dentally found an old newspaper which contained 

 an address, from a cidevant governor to a great 

 military commander, on the presentation of a 

 sword. The writer has evidently put his mind 

 into a state of violent exertion, and in striving to 

 be sublime and magnificent, has shown a total in- 

 capacity in thought as well as language. In 

 speaking of a nocturnal battle near the cataract 

 of Niagara, he says that it produced a midiirqht 

 rainbow, whose refulgence outshone the iris of 

 the dav. 



This master-piece of the great orator and st-^tes- 

 man who wrote it, can only be excelled by th^ 

 poet quoted by Dryden, when he says — = 



Now when the winter's keener breath began 

 To chrystalize the Baltic ocean, 

 To glaze the Lakes, to bridle up the floods. 

 And pv^riwig with snow the bald pate woods. 



Or perhaps it is exceeded by the following eu- 

 logium of a country school-master on Genera! 

 Wolfe. 



Great General Wolfe without any fears, 

 Led on his brave grenadiers, 

 And what is most miraculous and particular, 

 He clirab'd up rocks that were perpendicular. 



