Eternity," passed through six editions in this country, and was reprinted in London. A few verses will show its style— Still was the night, serene and bright, The evening before. After the "sheep" have received their reward, the several classes of "goats" are arraigned before the judgment-seat, and, in turn, begin to excuse themselves. When the infants object to damnation on the ground that Adam is set free And saved from his trespass, Whose sinful fall hath spilt them all, And brought them to this pass, the puritan theologist does not sustain his doctrine very well, nor quite to his own satisfaction even; and the judge, admitting the palliating circumstances, decides that although in bliss They may not hope to dwell, At length the general sentence is pronounced, and the condemned begin to wring their hands, their caitiff-hands, And gnash their teeth for terror; They cry, they roar for anguish sore, But get away without delay, CHRIST pities not your cry: WIGGLESWORTH died in 1705. The Reverend BENJAMIN COLMAN, D. D. "married in succession three widows, and wrote three poems;" but though his diction was more elegant than that of most of his contemporaries, he had less originality. His only daughter, Mrs. JANE TURELL, Wrote verses which were much praised by the critics of her time.. The "Poems of the Reverend JOHN ADAMS, M.A.," were published in Boston in 1745, four years after the author's death. The volume contains paraphrases of the Psalms of David, the Book of Revelation in heroic verse, translations from HORACE, and four original compositions, of which the longest is a "Poem on Society," in three cantos. The following picture of parental love is from the first canto. The parent, warm with nature's tender fire, But when succeeding years have fix'd his growth, But now the Muse in softer measure flows, The waving ringlets of the flowing hair, The snowy bosom, and the killing air; And fixing in our easy-wounded hearts, A frown will gather, and discharge a storm: Be all distraction, or all artifice ? True love does flattery as much disdain As, of its own perfections, to be vain. The heart can feel whate'er the lips reveal, Nor Syren's smiles the destined death conceal. Esteem and virtue feed the just desire; Where honour leads the way it ever moves, Unless contempt or hatred quench the fire. ADAMS died on the twenty-second of January, 1740. I copy from the "Boston Weekly Newsletter," printed the day after his interment, the following letter from a correspondent at Cambridge, which shows the estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries : "Last Wednesday morning expired in this place, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, and this day was interred with a just solemnity and respect, the reverend and learned JOHN ADAMS, M. A., only son of the Honourable JOHN ADAMS, Esquire. "The corpse was carried and placed in the *This was the first newspaper published in America. It was established in 1604, and the first sheet that was printed was taken damp from the press by Chief Justice SEWEL, to exhibit as a curiosity to President WILLARD, of Harvard University. The "Newsletter" was continued seventy-two years. center of the college hall; from whence, after a portion of Holy Scripture, and a prayer very suitable to the occasion, by the learned head of that society, it was taken and deposited within sight of the place of his own education. The pall was supported by the fellows of the college, the professor of mathematics, and another master of arts. And, next to a number of sorrowful relatives, the remains of this great man were followed by his honour the lieutenant-governor, with some of his majesty's council and justices; who, with the reverend the president, the professor of divinity, and several gentlemen of distinction from this and the neighbouring towns, together with all the members and students of the college, composed the train that attended in an orderly procession, to the place that had been appointed for his mournful interment. "The character of this excellent person is too great to be comprised within the limits of a paper of intelligence. It deserves to be engraven in letters of gold on a monument of marble, or rather to appear and shine forth from the works of some genius, of an uncommon sublimity, and equal to his own. But sufficient to perpetuate his memory to the latest posterity, are the immortal writings and composures of this departed gentleman; who, for his genius, his learning, and his piety, ought to be enrolled in the highest class in the catalogue of Fame." The only American immortalized in "The Dunciad" was JAMES RALPH, who went to England with FRANKLIN. POPE exclaims— Silence, ye wolves! while RALPH to Cynthia howls, And makes night hideous; answer him, ye owls! RALPH wrote a long "poem" entitled “Zeuma, or the Love of Liberty," which appeared in London in 1729; "Night," and "Sawney," a satire, in which I suppose he attempted to repay the debt he owed to POPE, as it is but an abusive tirade against that poet and his friends. I quote a few lines from "Zeuma:" Tlascala's vaunt, great ZAGNAR's martial son, Extended on the rack, no more complains That realms are wanting to employ his sword; But, circled with innumerable ghosts, Who print their keenest vengeance on his soul, For all the wrongs, and slaughters of his reign, Howls out repentance to the deafen'd skies, And shakes hell's concave with continual groans. In Philadelphia, in 1728 and 1729, THOMAS MAKIN published two Latin poems, "Encomium Pennsylvania" and " In laudes Pennsylvaniæ." About the same time appeared in Boston JOHN MAYHEW'S Gallic Perfidy" and Conquest of Louisburg," two smoothly rsified but very dull compositions. 46 THOMAS GODFREY of Philadelphia has been called "the first American dramatic poet," but I believe a play superior to "The Prince of Parthia" had been composed by some students at Cambridge before his time. GODFREY was a son of the inventor of the quadrant claimed in England by HADLEY. He was a lieutenant in the expedition against Fort Du Quesne in 1759, and on the disbanding of the colonial forces went to New Providence, and afterward to North Carolina, where he died, on the third of August, 1763, in the twentyseventh year of his age. His poems were published in Philadelphia in 1765, in a quarto volume of two hundred and thirty pages. "The Prince of Parthia, a Tragedy," contains a few vigorous passages, but not enough to save it from condemnation as the most worthless composition in the dramatic form that has been printed in America. The following lines from the fifth act, might pass for respectable prose O may he never know a father's fondness, High in the midst, raised on her rolling throne, Four snowy swans, proud of the imperial fair, Or whether wildly through the air she flew, One of GODFREY's most intimate friends was the Reverend NATHANIEL EVANS, a native of Philadelphia, admitted to holy orders by the Bishop of London in 1765. He died in October, 1767, in the twenty-sixth year of his age; and his poems, few of which had been printed in his lifetime, were soon afterward, by his direction, collected and published. The "Ode on the Prospect of Peace," written in 1761, is the most carefully finished of his productions. I quote the concluding for more than half a century. While in col verses Thus has Britannia's glory beam'd, And smoothe BELLONA'S haggard brow; Where'er implored by scenes of wo. Banish'd to hell's profoundest shore; And Discord's hideous murmurs sound; And with you bear Ambition wild, and selfish Pride, Thus driven from earth, War's horrid train— And crown with fame each rolling year. Haste thy votaries to cheer! With Art and Science by your side, To fill the soul with glory's blaze; And consecrate the immortal lays- Or such as, Meles, by thy lucid fountains flow'd, Lend, from his flowery banks, a ravish'd ear; lege, in 1735, he addressed an elegiac epistle to one of his sisters, on the death of a member of the family, of which I quote the first partDear sister, see the smiling spring In all its beauties here; The groves a thousand pleasures bring, Salute your eyes, And cover o'er the speckled ground. But, sister, all the sweets that grace The spring and blooming nature's face; Nor murm'ring rills; Nor flowery meads, To me their former joys dispense, Though all their pleasures court my sense, I lonely walk the field, With inward sorrow fill'd, And sigh to every breathing wind. The facetious MATHER BYLES was in his time equally famous as a poet and a wit. A contemporary bard exclaims Would but APOLLO's genial touch inspire Such sounds as breathe from BYLES's warbling lyre, Then might my notes in melting measures flow, And make all nature wear the signs of wo. And his humour is celebrated in a poetical account of the clergy of Boston, quoted by Mr. SAMUEL KETTELL, in his "Specimens of American Poetry," There's punning BYLES, provokes our smiles, A man of stately parts. He visits folks to crack his jokes, Which never mend their hearts. With strutting gait, and wig so great, He walks along the streets; And throws out wit, or what's like it, To every one he meets. BYLES was graduated at Cambridge in 1725, and was ordained the first minister of the church in Hollis street, in 1732. He soon became eminent as a preacher, and the King's College at Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of Doctor of Divinity. He was one of the authors of “A Collection of Poems by several Hands,” which appeared in 1744, and of numerous essays and metrical compositions in "The New England Weekly Journal,” the merit of which was such as to introduce him to the notice of POPE and other English scholars. One of his poems is entitled "The Conflagration;" and it is applied to that grand catastrophe of our world when the face of nature is to be changed 66 Then was a DANIEL in the lion's den, "Love, love the LAMB, the LAMB!" in whom he dies. MATHER died on the thirteenth of February, 1724, in the sixty-fifth year of his age. ROGER WOLCOTT, a major-general at the capture of Louisburg, and afterward governor of Connecticut, published a volume of verses at New London, in 1725. His principal work is "A Brief Account of the Agency of the Honourable JOHN WINTHROP, Esquire, in the Court of King CHARLES the Second, Anno Domini 1662, when he obtained a Charter for the Colony of Connecticut." In this he describes a miracle by one of WINTHROP's company, on the return voyage. The winds awhile Are courteous, and conduct them on their way, The cloudy chariots threatening take the plains; "Now all from safe recumbency arise: Still more gigantic births spring from the clouds, Which tore the tatter'd canvass from the shrouds, And dreadful balls of lightning fill the air, Those in the cabin heard the sailors screech; He with a faith sure bottom'd on the word In a speech to the king, descriptive of the met his amorous dame, In the next page he describes the rising of the sun By this AURORA doth with gold adorn WOLCOTT retired from public life, after having held many honourable offices, in 1755, and died in May, 1767, in the eighty-ninth year of his age. The next American verse-writer of much reputation was the Reverend MICHAEL WIGGLESWORTH. He was born in 1631, and graduated at Harvard College soon after entering upon his twentieth year. When rendered unable to preach, by an affection of the lungs, In costly verse and most laborious rhymes, He dish'd up truths right worthy our regard. His principal work, "The Day of Doom, or a Poetical Description of the Great and Last Judgment, with a Short Discourse about Eternity," passed through six editions in this country, and was reprinted in London. A few verses will show its style Still was the night, serene and bright, The evening before. After the "sheep" have received their reward, the several classes of "goats" are arraigned before the judgment-seat, and, in turn, begin to excuse themselves. When the infants object to damnation on the ground that Adam is set free And saved from his trespass, Whose sinful fall hath spilt them all, And brought them to this pass, the puritan theologist does not sustain his doctrine very well, nor quite to his own satisfaction even; and the judge, admitting the palliating circumstances, decides that although in bliss They may not hope to dwell, At length the general sentence is pronounced, and the condemned begin to wring their hands, their caitiff-hands, And gnash their teeth for terror; But get away without delay, CHRIST pities not your cry: WIGGLESWORTH died in 1705. The Reverend BENJAMIN COLMAN, D. D. "married in succession three widows, and wrote three poems;" but though his diction was more elegant than that of most of his contemporaries, he had less originality. His only daughter, Mrs. JANE TURELL, wrote verses which were much praised by the critics of her time.. The "Poems of the Reverend JOHN ADAMS, M.A.," were published in Boston in 1745, four years after the author's death. The volume contains paraphrases of the Psalms of David, the Book of Revelation in heroic verse, translations from HORACE, and four original compositions, of which the longest is a "Poem on Society," in three cantos. The following picture of parental love is from the first canto. The parent, warm with nature's tender fire, But when succeeding years have fix'd his growth, But now the Muse in softer measure flows, The waving ringlets of the flowing hair, The snowy bosom, and the killing air; Their sable brows in beauteous arches bent, The darts which from their vivid eyes are sent, And fixing in our easy-wounded hearts, Be all distraction, or all artifice? True love does flattery as much disdain As, of its own perfections, to be vain. The heart can feel whate'er the lips reveal, Nor Syren's smiles the destined death conceal. Love is a noble and a generous fire, Esteem and virtue feed the just desire; Where honour leads the way it ever moves, Unless contempt or hatred quench the fire. ADAMS died on the twenty-second of January, 1740. I copy from the "Boston Weekly Newsletter," printed the day after his interment, the following letter from a correspondent at Cambridge, which shows the estimation in which he was held by his contemporaries: 66 Last Wednesday morning expired in this place, in the thirty-sixth year of his age, and this day was interred with a just solemnity and respect, the reverend and learned JOHN ADAMS, M. A., only son of the Honourable JOHN ADAMS, Esquire. "The corpse was carried and placed in the *This was the first newspaper published in America. It was established in 1601, and the first sheet that was printed was taken damp from the press by Chief Justice SEWEL, to exhibit as a curiosity to President WILLARD, of Harvard University. The "Newsletter" was continued seventy-two years. |