By Nature's self in white array'd, She bade thee shun the vulgar eye, Smit with those charms, that must decay, Unpitying frosts and Autumn's power From morning suns and evening dews HUMAN FRAILTY. DISASTERS on disasters grow, And those which are not sent we make; The good we rarely find below, Or, in the search, the road mistake. The object of our fancied joys With eager eye we keep in view: Possession, when acquired, destroys The object, and the passion too. The hat that hid Belinda's hair Was once the darling of her eye; 'Tis now dismiss'd, she knows not where; Is laid aside, she knows not why. Life is to most a nauseous pill, A treat for which they dearly pay: Let's take the good, avoid the ill, Discharge the debt, and walk away. THE PROSPECT OF PEACE. THOUGH clad in winter's gloomy dress To greet our western shore, No more the vales, no more the plains Peace guards our doors, impels our swains From distant climes, no longer foes, (Their years of misery past,) Nations arrive, to find repose In these domains at last. And, if a more delightful scene Where clouds nor darkness intervene, On freedom's soil those fabrics plann'd, That make secure our native land, Ambitious aims and pride severe, Would you at distance keep, O, still may health her balmy wings While commerce from all climates brings Through toiling care and lengthen'd views, Gay, smiling hope her heaven pursues, The darkness of the days to come She brightens with her ray, TO A NIGHT-FLY, APPROACHING A CANDLE. ATTRACTED by the taper's rays, Already you have scorch'd your wings: Thus folly, with ambition join'd, Thus, power has charms which all admire, If you are wise, in time retire. JOHN TRUMBULL. [Born 1750. Died 1831.] JOHN TRUMBULL, LL.D., the author of "McFingal," was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, on the twenty-fourth day of April, 1750. His father was a Congregational clergyman, and for many years one of the trustees of Yale College. He early instructed his son in the elementary branches of education, and was induced by the extraordinary vigour of his intellect, and his unremitted devotion to study, to give him lessons in the Greek and Latin languages before he was six years old. At the age of seven, after a careful examination, young TRUMBULL was declared to be sufficiently advanced to merit admission into Yale College. On account of his extreme youth, however, at that time, and his subsequent ill health, he was not sent to reside at New Haven until 1763, when he was in his thirteenth year. His college life was a continued series of successes. His superior genius, attainments and industry enabled him in every trial to surpass his competitors for academic honours; and such of his collegiate exercises as have been printed evince a discipline of thought and style rarely discernible in more advanced years, and after greater opportunities of improvement. He was graduated in 1767, but remained in the college three years longer, devoting his attention principally to the study of polite letters. In this period he became acquainted with DWIGHT, then a member of one of the younger classes, who had attracted considerable attention by translating in a very creditable manner two of the finest odes of Horace, and contracted with him a lasting friendship. On the resignation of two of the tutors in the college in 1771, TRUMBULL and DWIGHT were elected to fill the vacancies, and exerted all their energies for several years to introduce an improved course of study and system of discipline into the seminary. At this period the ancient languages, scholastic theology, logic, and mathematics were dignified with the title of "solid learning," and the study of belles lettres was decried as useless and an unjustifiable waste of time. The two friends were exposed to a torrent of censure and ridicule, but they persevered, and in the end were successful. TRUMBULL Wrote many humorous prose and poetical essays while he was a tutor, which were published in the gazettes of Connecticut and Massachusetts, and with DwIGHT produced a series in the manner of the " Spectator," which extended to more than forty numbers. The quaintance with rhetoric and belles lettres, then obtained more generally than now, and dunces had but to remain four years in the neighbourhood | of a university to be admitted to the fellowship of scholars and the ministers of religion. In the satire, TOM BRAINLESS, a country clown, too || indolent to follow the plough, is sent by his weak- | minded parents to college, where a degree is gained by residence, and soon after appears as a full-wigged parson, half-fanatic, half-fool, to do his share toward bringing Christianity into contempt. Another principal person is DICK HAIRBRAIN, an impudent fop, who is made a master of arts in the same way; and in the third part is introduced a character of the same description, belonging to the other sex. During the last years of his residence at College, TRUMBULL paid as much attention as his other avocations would permit to the study of the law, and in 1773 resigned his tutorship and was admitted to the bar of Connecticut. He did not seek business in the courts, however, but went immediately to Boston, and entered as a student the office of JOHN ADAMS, afterward President of the United States, and at that time an eminent advocate and counsellor. He was now in the focus of American politics. The controversy with Great Britain was rapidly approaching a crisis, and he entered with characteristic ardour into all the discussions of the time, employing his leisure hours in writing for the gazettes and in partisan correspondence. In 1774, he published anonymously his " Essay on the Times," and soon after returned to New Haven, and with the most flattering prospects commenced the practice of his profession. The first gun of the revolution echoed along the continent in the following year, and private pursuits were abandoned in the general devotion to the cause of liberty. TRUMBULL wrote the first part of << McFingal," which was immediately printed in Philadelphia, where the Congress was then in session, and soon after republished in numerous editions in different parts of this country and in England. It was not finished until 1782, when it was issued complete in three cantos at Hartford, to which place TRUMBULL had removed in the preceding year. McFingal" is in the Hudibrastic vein, and much the best imitation of the great satire of BUTLER that has been written. The hero is a Scotish justice of the peace residing in the vicinity of Boston at the beginning of the revolution, and the first two cantos are principally occupied with a discussion between him and one HONORIUS on the course of the British government, in which MCFINGAL, an unyielding loyalist, endeavours to make proselytes, while all his arguments are directed against himself. His zeal and his logic are together irresistibly ludicrous, but there is nothing in the character unnatural, as it is common for men who read more than they think, or attempt to discuss questions they do not understand, to use arguments which refute the positions they wish to defend. The meeting ends with a riot, in which MCFINGAL is seized, tried by the mob, convicted of violent toryism, and tarred and feathered. On being set at liberty, he assembles his friends around him in his cellar, and harangues them until they are dispersed by the whigs, when he escapes to Boston, and the poem closes. These are all the important incidents of the story, yet it is never tedious, and few commence reading it who do not follow it to the end and regret its termination. Throughout the three cantos the wit is never separated from the character of the hero. After the removal of TRUMBULL to Hartford a social club was established in that city, of which BARLOW, Colonel HUMPHRIES, Doctor LEMUEL HOPKINS, and our author, were members. They produced numerous essays on literary, moral, and political subjects, none of which attracted more applause than a series of papers in imitation of the Rolliad," (a popular English work, ascribed to Fox, SHERIDAN, and their associates,) entitled "American Antiquities" and "Extracts from the Anarchiad," originally printed in the New Haven Gazette for 1786 and 1787. These papers have never been collected, but they were republished from one end of the country to the other in the periodicals of the time, and were supposed to have had considerable influence on public taste and opinions, and by the boldness of their satire to have kept in abeyance the leaders of political disorganization and infidel philosophy. TRUMBULL also aided BARLOW in the preparation of his edition of WATTS's version of the Psalms, and wrote the paraphrase of the fifty-second psalm* in that work, which has been generally attributed to the author of the "Columbiad." TRUMBULL was a popular lawyer, and was appointed to various honourable offices by the people and the government. From 1795, in consequence of ill health, he declined all public employment, and was for several years an invalid. At length, recovering his customary vigour, in 1800 he was elected a member of the legislature, and in the year following a judge of the Superior Court. In 1808 he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of Errors, and held the office until 1819, when he finally retired from public life. His poems were collected and published in 1820, and in 1825 he removed to Detroit, where his daughter, the wife of the Honourable WILLIAM WOODBRIDGE, now a member of the United States Senate for Michigan, was residing, and died there in May, 1831, in the eighty-first year of his age. III. Descend, and, graceful, in thy hand, That in the Elysian land of dreams, Or bowery maze, that shades the purple streams, In more than mortal charms array'd, [song, People the airy vales and revel in thy reign. IV. But drive afar the haggard crew, That haunt the guilt-encrimson'd bed, Or dim before the frenzied view Stalk with slow and sullen tread; While furies, with infernal glare, Wave their pale torches through the troubled air; And deep from Darkness' inmost womb, Sad groans dispart the icy tomb, And bid the sheeted spectre rise, Mid shrieks and fiery shapes and deadly fantasies. * See a note on this subject appended to the Life of BARLOW in this volume. Or call to my transported eyes Lead the rivulet through the glade. Where opening roses taste the honey'd dew, Bid Time's inverted glass return The scenes of bliss, with hope elate, And burst the iron bands of fate Just to her vows and faithful to her fame. VIII. Hymen's torch, with hallow'd fire, Rising beams the auspicious ray. Warbling sweet the nuptial lay; Bid the bright enchantress move, On her glowing breast reclining, I clasp the fair, and, kindling at the view, IX. Hence, false, delusive dreams, Fantastic hopes and mortal passions vain Ascend, my soul, to nobler themes To worlds from every dross terrene refined, From rainbow clouds their strains immortal pour; X. And find that mansion of the blest, Where, rising ceaseless from this lethal stage, Heaven's favourite sons, from earthly chains released, In happier Eden pass the eternal age. The newborn soul beholds the angelic face Of holy sires, that throng the blissful plain, Or meets his consort's loved embrace, Or clasps the son, so lost, so mourn'd in vain. There, charm'd with each endearing wile, Maternal fondness greets her infant's smile; Long-sever'd friends, in transport doubly dear, Unite and join the interminable train I And, hark! a well-known voice I hear spy my sainted friend! I meet my How again! XI. Hail, sacred shade! for not to dust consign'd, Lost in the grave, thine ardent spirit lies, Nor fail'd that warm benevolence of mind To claim the birthright of its native skies. What radiant glory and celestial grace, Immortal meed of piety and praise! Come to my visions, friendly shade, 'Gainst all assaults my wayward weakness arm, Raise my low thoughts, my nobler wishes aid, When passions rage, or vain allurements charm; The pomp of learning and the boast of art, The glow, that fires in genius' boundless range, The pride, that wings the keen, satiric dart, And hails the triumph of revenge. Teach me, like thee, to feel and know Our humble station in this vale of wo, Twilight of life, illumed with feeble ray, The infant dawning of eternal day; With heart expansive, through this scene improve The social soul of harmony and love; To heavenly hopes alone aspire and prize The virtue, knowledge, bliss, and glory of the skies. Rev. JOSEPH Howe, pastor of a church in Boston; some time a fellow-tutor with the author at Yale College. He died in 1775. The conclusion of the ode was varied, by inserting this tribute of affection. THE COUNTRY CLOWN.* BRED in distant woods, the clown Poor DICK! though first thy airs provoke The obstreperous laugh and scornful joke, Doom'd all the ridicule to stand, While each gay dunce shall lend a hand; THE FOP.t How blest the brainless fop, whose praise The lowest dunce, without despairing, For now, by easy rules of trade, From the "Progress of Dulness." To tailors half themselves they owe, On folded skirt, or straiten'd sleeve, And who for beauty need repine, To grace his speech, let France bestow A set of compliments for show. Land of politeness! that affords The treasure of new-fangled words, And endless quantities disburses Of bows and compliments and curses; The soft address, with airs so sweet, That cringes at the ladies' feet; The pert, vivacious, play-house style, That wakes the gay assembly's smile; Jests that his brother beaux may hit, And pass with young coquettes for wit, And prized by fops of true discerning, Outface the pedantry of learning. Yet learning too shall lend its aid To fill the coxcomb's spongy head; And studious oft he shall peruse The labours of the modern muse. From endless loads of novels gain Soft, simpering tales of amorous pain, *This passage alludes to the mode of dress then in fashion. |