1810.] 
SONNET, 
{WRITTEN AMONG THE RUINS GF 
ROCHESTER CASTLE. 
Y=. moul’dring battlements, which cent’ries 
past, 
In awful grandeur o’er the rapid fond” 
Which winding laves your rocky base, have 
stood, 
Lash’d by the howling wind, and wint’ry 
blast : 
Of lonely wand’ring midst your ruin’d 
walls, 
My fancy mourns the fell eel s 
rage, 
And brings 
age 
When War's loud clamours echoed through 
your halls. 
And, ah, for this I rev’rence your remains : 
That once your towers a tyrant’s hate have 
brav’d 5 
What time young Freedom, strugeling Sith 
her chains, - 
t@ memory each aval 
Her sacred banner-o’er your turrets 
wav'd 5 
When patriot chiefs, i in treach’rous Lackland’s 
reign, 
For the Great Charter na ihe nor fought i in 
vain. ihe ke 
OU 
ODE 
IN PRAISE OF COFFEES. 
QO precious plant, of virtues sare! 
List to the grateful muse’s prayer y 
Who oft has drawn from thee 
Fresh inspiration and delight, 
The beaming day, the blissful night, ° 
When thou set’st fancy free !* 
Oh! may thy foliage, glossyegreen, 
Thy beauteous snow-white leaves between, 
And berries ruby-red, 
Ol ! may thy fairest shrubby form 
Bloom far from chilling northesn storm, 
- ‘Thy cultivation spread ! 
, 
* The flow of imagination oiten caused by 
drinking strong coffee, is certainly not so 
injurious as the tumultueus excitement pro- 
duced by some other stimulants. Yet, 
wiiere its effect is a sleepless night, it cannot 
be supposed altogether ianoxious. This, 
however, generally arises from drinking coffee 
very strong, and withuut a due admixture of 
milk or cream. In the moraing, or even 
after dinner, when duly propertioned to the 
other ingredients, it seldom fails to prove a 
salutary and grateful beverage, far preferable 
to that of England (tea), or that of France 
(wine), in its various states of modification 
But, be it remembered, that coffee drunk 
scalding-hot, and without due assistance frora 
the dairy, must be productive of injury to the 
stomach ; and that injury must necessariiy 
extend itself throughout the system.—No 
gitrore are 60 fatal as errors im diet; for this 
plain reason, that they so frequently recur, 
Original Poetry. 
pend 
Jt 
pot 
Oh! may thy bright infusion steart 
Where’er the sun extends his beam, 
Over all the favour’d earth: nit 
And be thy berry still preterr’d, , 
While, from narcotic tea deterr’d, ot 
The muse shall sing thy mount 
With muscovado, sparkling pure, 
And cream commix’d, thou might?st alluré- 
Olympus’ guests to drink. 
O coffee! tothe weary wight 
Thus mingled, thou impart'st delight, 
Aad all his sorrows smk. 
By thee is. fancy richly fed, 
And languor scar’d, and clear’d the head, 
And quicken’d every sense: 
Thy power impe els the poet’s song 5 
Thou bid'st the strain flow sweet and strong j i 
Then flies each vapour | dense. 
: Ne’ er can the herb of China vie 
With thee; who soon shalt flourish high, 
White Thea fades away: : 
She first excites, then sinks, the strength ; 
Shakes the fine frame, and, ah! at length, 
Deforms the fairest day !* 
Grer fermentation’s deadly draught, 
“(Which ever brought, to him who quafi’d, 
Destruction premature} 
Coifee, *tis thine to rise supreme: 
_ Give me thy salutary stream, 
_ So fragrant, rich, and pure, ~ 
Famaica, Oct. 1809. 
ALR. 
* Tea is powerfully narcotic and stimulant 5 
inducing either of these actions with more 
er less force, according to constitutional cire 
cuimstances, -The effects of tea, when used 
to excess (and it is cifficult to mark the 
boundary) are a debilitated stomach, and an 
irritable disordered state of the whole struc- 
ture: appetite sickens, clouss surround the* 
head, the hand trembles, and the enfeebled 
frame acquires that distressing condition of ale 
ternate terpor and suffering, unsusceptible of 
pleasure but “¢tremblingly alive’ to pain, now 
‘$0 common among all ranks, from the 
haughty duchess to the humble dame who 
at distance imitates her; and known by the 
appellation “#erwous. It is scarcely necessary 
to observe, that the enervating cup of Thea is 
not the only source of this inundation of 
disease: the Fectitioas cravings and varieus 
modes of gratification, eager’y pursued by 
the multitude, high and iow, to supply, 
_ by mere sensation, the place of higher en. 
joyme: at, are unceasingly and successfully 
active in the production of pain and disorga- 
nization. 
Uponthe whole, the effects of the strong 
Be of tea are somewhat similar to these 
alcohol, the produet of fermentation ; of 
ae all ‘the intoxicating liquors in common 
use among hali e:vilized nations, are merely 
modifications... Phe immediace effects, bow- 
ever, of the latte:, are move distressing 5 and 
their remote more Gertalaly and uni- 
versally destructive of lite. 
THE 
