dream. Tribes and grasses are likened to angels, and the truffle is rehearsed as a subterranean empress. His laborious ingenuity in finding comparisons is frequently like that of Harvey in his « Meditations," or of Flavel in his “ Gardening Spiritualized."

If Darwin, however, was not a good poet, it may be owned that he is frequently a bold personifier, and that some of his insulated passages are musical and picturesque. His Botanic Garden once pleased many better judges than his affected biographer, Anna Seward; it fascinated even the taste of Cow, per, who says, in conjunction with Hayley,

“ We, therefore pleas’d, extol thy song,

“ Though various yet complete, “ Rich in embellishment, as strong

« And learned as 'tis sweet.

6 And deem the bard, whoe'er he be,

« And howsoever known,
66 That will not weave a wreath for thee,

6. Unworthy of his own."

VOL, VI.

D D

DESTRUCTION OF CAMBYSES'S ARMY.

FROM THE BOTANIC GARDEN, CANTO II.

Wher Heaven's dread justice smites in crimes

o'ergrown The blood-nursed Tyrant on his purple throne, Gnomes! your bold forms unnumber'd arms out

stretch, And urge the vengeance o'er the guilty wretch. Thus when Cambyses led his barbarous liosts From Persia’s rocks to Egypt's trembling coasts, Defiled each hallowed fane, and sacred wood, And, drunk with fury, swell'd the Nile with blood; Waved his proud banner o'er the Theban states, And pour’d destruction through her hundred gates; In dread divisions march'd the marshal'd bands, And swarming armies blackened all the lands, By Memphis these to Ethiop's sultry plains, And those to Hammon's sand-encircled fanes. Slow as they pass'd; the indignant temples frown'd, Low curses muttering from the vaulted ground; Long aisles of cypress waved their deepén'd glooms, And quivering spectres grinn'd amid the tombs; Prophetic whispers breathed from Sphinx's tongue, And Memnon's lyre with hollow murmurs rung; Burst from each pyramid expiring groans, And darker shadows stretch'd their lengthen'd cones. Day after day their deathful route they steer, Lust in the van, and Rapine in the rear.

Gnomes! as they march’d, you hid the gather'd

fruits,
The bladed grass, sweet grains, and mealy roots ;
Scared the tired quails, that journey'd o'er their heads,
Retain'd the locusts in their earthy beds ;
Bade on your sands no night-born dews distil,
Stay'd with vindictive hands the scanty rill.
Loud o'er the camp the fiend of Famíné shrieks,
Calls all her brood, and champs her hundred beaks;
O’er ten square leagues her pennons broad expand,
And twilight swims upon the shuddering sand;
Perch'd on her crest the griffin Discord clings,
And giant Murder rides between her wings';
Blood from each clotted hair, and horny quill,
And showers of tears in blended streams distil;
High poised in air her spiry neck she bends,
Rolls her keen eye, her dragon claws extends,
Darts from above, and tears at each fell swoop
With iron fangs the decimated troop.
Now o'er their head the whizzing whirlwinds

breathe,
And the live desert pants, and heaves beneath;
Tinged by the crimson sun, vast columns rise
Of eddying sands, and war amid the skies,
In red arcades the billowy plain surround,
And whirling turrets stalk along the ground.

Long ranks in vain their shining blades extend,
To demon-gods their knees unhallow'd bend.
Wheel in wide circle, form in hollow square,
And now they front, and now they fy the war, ,

Pierce the deaf tempest with lamenting cries,
Press their parch'd lips, and close their blood-shot

eyes.
Gnomes! o'er the waste you led your myriad powers,
Climb'd on the whirls, and aim'd the flinty showers !
Onward resistless rolls the infuriate surge,
Clouds follow clouds, and mountains mountains urge;
Wave over wave the driving desert swims,
Bursts o'er their heads, inhumes their struggling

limbs; Man mounts on man, on camels camels rush, Hosts march o'er hosts, and nations nations crush, Wheeling in air the winged islands fall, And one great earthy ocean covers all !— Then ceased the storm,-Night bow'd his Ethiop

brow To earth, and listen'd to the groans below,Grim Horror shook,-awhile the living hill Heaved with convulsive throes,and all was still !

PERSUASION TO MOTHERS TO SUCKLE THEIR OWN

CHILDREN.

FROM CANTO 11.

CONNUBIAL Fair! whom no fond transport warms
To lull your infant in maternal arms;
Who, bless'd in vain with tumid bosoms, hear
His tender wailings with unfeeling ear;

The soothing kiss and milky rill deny,
To the sweet pouting lip, and glistening eye!
Ah! what avails the cradle's damask roof,
The eider bolster, and embroider'd woof!
Oft hears the gilded couch unpity'd plains,
And many a tear the tassel'd cushion stains !
No voice so sweet attunes his cares to rest,
So soft no pillow, as his mother's breast !
Thus charm'd to sweet repose, when twilight hours
Shed their soft influence on celestial bowers,
The cherub, Innocence, with smile divine,
Shuts his white wings, and sleeps on Beauty's shrine.

MIDNIGHT CONFLAGRATION, CATASTROPHE OF THE ! FAMILIES OF WOODMASON AND MOLESWORTH. .

FROM THE SAME. From dome to dome when flames infuriate climb, Sweep the long street, invest the tower sublime; Gild the tall vanes amid the astonish'd night, . And reddening heaven returns the sanguine light ; While with vast strides and bristling hair aloof Pale Danger glides along the falling roof; And giant Terror howling in amaze Moves his dark limbs across the lurid blaze. Nymphs! you first taught the gelid wave to rise, Hurl'd in resplendent arches to the skies ; : In iron cells condensed the airy spring, And imp'd the torrent with unfailing wing;