CONTENTMENT; OR, IF YOU PLEASE, CON-
FESSION.

To Mrs. Barlow, on her pleasantly telling the author, that after writing against the superstition of the Scripture religion, he was setting up a religion capable of more bigotry and enthusiasm, and more dangerous to its votaries—that of making a religion of Love.

O could we always live and love,

And always be sincere,

I would not wish for heaven above,
My heaven would be here.

Though many countries I have seen,
And more may chance to see,
My Little Corner of the World®
Is half the world to me;

The other half, as you may guess,
America contains ;

And thus, between them, I possess
The whole world for my pains.

I'm then contented with my lot,
I can no happier be;

For neither world, I'm sure, has got

So rich a man as me.

Then send no fiery chariot down
To take me off from hence,
But leave me on my heavenly ground-
This prayer is common-sense.

Let others choose another plan,
I mean no fault to find;

The true theology of man
Is happiness of mind.

Lady Smith

LINES EXTEMPORE. July, 1808.

Quick as the lightning's vivid flash,
The poet's eye o'er Europe rolls;
Sees battles rage-hears tempests crash,
And dims at horror's threat'ning scowls.

Mark ambition's ruthless king,

With crimson'd banners scath the globe; While trailing after conquest's wing,

Man's fest'ring wounds his demons probe.

Pall'd with streams of reeking gore,

That stain the proud imperial day;

He turns to view the western shore,

Where freedom holds her boundless sway.

'Tis here her sage triumphant sways,
An empire in the people's love,
'Tis here the sovereign will obeys,
No KING but He who rules above.

LETTER

ΤΟ

GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Paris, August 3, 1796.

As censure is but awkwardly softened by apology, I shall offer you no apology for this letter. The eventful crisis to which your double politics have conducted the affairs of your country, requires an investigation uncramped by ceremony.

There was a time when the fame of America, moral and political, stood fair and high in the world. The lustre of her revolution extended itself to every individual, and to be a citizen of America gave a title to respect in Europe. Neither meanness nor ingratitude had been mingled in the composition of her character. Her resistance to the attempted tyranny of England left her unsuspected of the one, and her open acknowledgment of the aid she received from France precluded all suspicion of the other. The politics of Washington had not then appeared.

At the time I left America (April 1787) the Continental Convention, that formed the federal constitution, was on the point of meeting. Since that time new schemes of politics, and new distinctions of parties, have arisen. The term Anti-federalist has been applied to all those who combated the defects of that constitution, or opposed the measures of your administration. It was only to the absolute necessity of establishing some federal authority, extending equally over all the States, that an instrument so inconsistent as the present federal constitution is, obtained a suffrage. I would have voted for it myself, had I been in America, or even for a worse rather than