How often have I paused on every charm! The sheltered cot, the cultivated farm; The never-failing brook, the busy mill, The decent church that topped the neighbouring hill; When toil remitting lent its turn to play; Succeeding sports the mirthful band inspired; By holding out to tire each other down; The matron's glance that would those looks reprove― Sweet was the sound, when oft, at evening's close, There as I passed, with careless steps and slow, A man he was to all the country dear, And passing rich with forty pounds a year; Nor e'er had changed, nor wished to change his place; By doctrines fashioned to the varying hour; More bent to raise the wretched than to rise. His house was known to all the vagrant train; The broken soldier, kindly bade to stay, Wept o'er his wounds, or tales of sorrow done, Shouldered his crutch, and showed how fields were won. And quite forgot their vices in their woe; His pity gave ere charity began. Thus to relieve the wretched was his pride, He watched and wept, he prayed and felt for all; Beside the bed where parting life was laid, At church, with meek and unaffected grace, With ready zeal, each honest rustic ran; Even children followed with endearing wile, And plucked his gown, to share the good man's smile; But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven. As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form, Beside yon straggling fence that skirts the way With blossomed furze unprofitably gay, There, in his noisy mansion skilled to rule, I knew him well, and every truant knew. Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace Lands he could measure, terms and tides presage; And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, Where many a time he triumphed, is forgot. Another sweet poem of Goldsmith's, the ballad of Edwin and Angelina, might claim particular attention; but we can only refer to it as a production unsurpassed in ease and simplicity, and touching pathos. Lecture the Chirty-Ninth. WILLIAM FALCONER-JOHN CUNNINGHAM-JOHN SCOTT-SAMUEL BISHOP-ROBERT LLOYD- CHARLES CHURCHILL -JOHN LANGHORNE- SIR WILLIAM JONESTHOMAS CHATTERTON-ALEXANDER ROSS-JOHN SKINNER JOHN LOWEROBERT CRAWFORD-SIR GILBERT ELLIOT-ROBERT FERGUSSON. FALC ALCONER, the poet to whom our attention is next to be directed, must be regarded as a very remarkable man. Born in obscurity, and reared without education, he yet, in comparatively early life, produced a poem which has won for itself a permanent place in English literature. The terrific circumstances attending a shipwreck had been, before the appearance of his work, often described by poets, both ient and modern, but never with any attempt at professional accuracy or minuteness of detail. It was reserved for a genuine sailor to disclose, in correct and harmonious verse, the 'secrets of the deep,' and to enlist the sympathies of the general reader in favor of the daily life and occupations of his brother seamen. The ocean, which is the scene of the poem, naturally excites sublime poetical aspirations; but its interest soon wanders from this source, and centres in the stately ship and her crew-the gallant resistance the men made to the fury of the storm-their calm and deliberate courage—the various resources of their skill and ingenuity-their consultations and resolutions as the ship labors in distress-and the brave, unselfish piety and generosity with which they met their fate, when at last The crashing ribs divide She loosens, parts, and spreads in ruin o'er the tide. Such a subject Falconer justly considered as 'new to epic lore;' but it possessed strong attractions to the English public, whose national pride and honor are so closely identified with the sea, and so many of whom have 'some friend, some brother there.' WILLIAM FALCONER was the son of a poor Edinburgh barber, and was born in that city, in 1730. He left his home in his childhood, and went to VOL. II.-2B |