VI.

How fleet is a glance of the mind!
Compared with the speed of its flight,
The tempest itself lags behind,

And the swift-winged arrows of light.
When I think of my own native land,
In a moment I seem to be there;
But alas! recollection at hand
Soon hurries me back to despair.

VII.

But the sea-fowl is gone to her nest,
The beast is laid down in his lair;
Even here is a season of rest,

And I to my cabin repair.
There's mercy in every place,
And mercy, encouraging thought!
Gives even affliction a grace,
And reconciles man to his lot.

ON THE PROMOTION

OF EDWARD THURLOW, ESQ.

TO

THE LORD HIGH CHANCELLORSHIP OF

ENGLAND.

I.

ROUND Thurlow's head in early youth

And in his sportive days,

Fair Science pour'd the light of truth,

And Genius shed his rays.

II.

See! with united wonder cried
The experienced and the sage,
Ambition in a boy supplied
With all the skill of age!

III.

Discernment, eloquence, and grace,
Proclaim him born to sway
The balance in the highest place,
And bear the palm away.

IV.

The praise bestow'd was just and wise;
He sprang impetuous forth,
Secure of conquest, where the prize
Attends superior worth.

V.

So the best courser on the plain
Ere yet he starts is known,
And does but at the goal obtain
What all had deem'd his own.

ODE TO PEACE.

I.

COME, peace of mind, delightful guest!

Return, and make thy downy nest
Once more in this sad heart:
Nor riches I nor power pursue,
Nor hold forbidden joys in view;

We therefore need not part.

II.

Where wilt thou dwell, if not with me,
From avarice and ambition free,
And pleasure's fatal wiles?

For whom, alas! dost thou prepare
The sweets that I was wont to share,
The banquet of thy smiles?

III.

The great, the gay, shall they partake
The heaven, that thou alone canst make?
And wilt thou quit the stream,

That murmurs through the dewy mead,
The grove and the sequester'd shed,
To be a guest with them?

IV.

For thee I panted, thee I prized,
For thee I gladly sacrificed

Whate'er I loved before;
And shall I see thee start away,
And helpless, hopeless, hear thee say—
Farewell! we meet no more?

HUMAN FRAILTY.

1.

WEAK and irresolute is man;

The purpose of to-day,

Woven with pains into his plan,

To-morrow rends away.

II.

The bow well bent, and smart the spring,

Vice seems already slain;

But Passion rudely snaps the string,

And it revives again.

III.

Some foe to his upright intent
Finds out his weaker part;
Virtue engages his assent,

But Pleasure wins his heart.

IV.

'Tis here the folly of the wise
Through all his art we view;
And, while his tongue the charge denies,
His conscience owns it true.

V.

Bound on a voyage of awful length

And dangers little known,

A stranger to superior strength,
Man vainly trusts his own.

VI.

But oars alone can ne'er prevail,

To reach the distant coast;

The breath of heaven must swell the sail, Or all the toil is lost.

THE

MODERN PATRIOT.

I.

REBELLION is my theme all day;
I only wish 'twould come

(As who knows but perhaps it may ?)

A little nearer home.

II.

Yon roaring boys who rave and fight
On t'other side th' Atlantic,

I always held them in the right,
But most so when most frantic.

III.

When lawless mobs insult the court,
That man shall be my toast,

If breaking windows be the sport,
Who bravely breaks the most.

IV.

But O! for him my fancy culls
The choicest flowers she bears,

Who constitutionally pulls

Your house about your ears.

V.

Such civil broils are my delight,

Though some folks can't endure them,

Who say the mob are mad outright,
And that a rope must cure them.

VI.

A rope! I wish we patriots had

Such strings for all who need 'emWhat! hang a man for going mad! Then farewell British freedom.