LITERARY TASTE. 141 



llty 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 midnight 

 rainbow, whose refulgence outshone the iris of 

 the dav. 



This master-piece of the great orator and states- 

 man ~who wrote it, can only be excelled by the 

 poet quoted by Dryden, when he says — 



Now when the wiuter's keener breath began 

 To chrystalize the Baltic ocean, 

 To glaze the Lakes, to bridle up the floods, 

 And periwig with snow the bald pate woods. 



Or perhaps it is exceeded by the following e . 

 logiurn of a country school-nutter on General 

 Wolfe. 



<• eat General Wolfe without any fearg| 



Led on his brayc grrnadiiT.-.', 



And what i^ most mira ami particular, 



He climb"d up rocks ihat were perpend.ii 



