ful were I to omit mentioning, that, even then, on the shores of those far lakes, the title of "Poet," however unworthily in that instance bestowed, bespoke a kind and distinguishing welcome for its wearer; and that the captain who commanded the packet in which I crossed Lake Ontario,* in addition to other marks of courtesy, begged, on parting with me, to be allowed to decline payment for my passage. When we arrived, at length, at the inn, in the neighborhood of the Falls, it was too late to think of visiting them that evening; and I lay awake almost the whole night with the sound of the cataract in my ears. The day following I consider as a sort of era in my life; and the first glimpse I caught of that wonderful cataract gave me a feeling which nothing in this world can ever awaken again.† It was through an opening among the trees, as we approached the spot where the full view of the Falls was to burst upon us, that I caught this glimpse of the mighty mass of waters folding smoothly over the edge of the precipice; and so overwhelming was the notion it gave me of the awful spectacle I was approaching, that, during the short interval that followed, imagination had far outrun the reality; and, vast and wonderful as was the scene that then opened upon me, my first feeling was that of disappointment. It would have been impossible, indeed, for any thing real to come up to the vision I had, in these few seconds, formed of it; and those awful scriptural words, "The fountains of the great deep were broken up," can alone give any notion of the vague wonders for which I was prepared. can in any respect be associated with the grand vision I have just been describing; and, however different the nature of their appeals to the imagination, I should find it difficult to say on which occasion I felt most deeply affected, when looking on the Falls of Niagara, or when standing by moonlight among the ruins of the Coliseum. Some changes, I understand, injurious to the beauty of the scene, have taken place in the shape of the Falls since the time of my visit to them; and among these is the total disappearance, by the graduai crumbling away of the rock, of the small leafy island which then stood near the edge of the Great Fall, and whose tranquillity and unapproachableness, in the midst of so much turmoil, lent it an interest which I thus tried to avail myself of, in a Song of the Spirit of that region :‡ There, amid the island-sedge, Lone I sit at close of day, &c. &c. Another characteristic feature of the vicinity of the Falls, which, I understand, no longer exists, was the interesting settlement of the Tuscarora Indians. With the gallant Brock, who then commanded at Fort George, I passed the greater part of my time during the few weeks I remained at Niagara; and a visit I paid to these Indians, in company with him and his brother officers, on his going to distribute among them the customary presents and prizes, was not the least curious of the many new scenes I witnessed. These people received But, i spite of the start thus got by imagin- us in all their ancient costume. The young ation, the triumph of reality was, in the end, men exhibited for our amusement in the rrce, but the greater; for the gradual glory of the the bat-game, and other sports, while the old scene that opened upon me soon took posses- and the women sat in groups under the sursion of my whole mind; presenting, from day rounding trees; and the whole scene was as to day, some new beauty or wonder, and, like picturesque and beautiful as it was new to me. all that is most sublime in nature or art, awa- It is said that West, the American painter, kening sad as well as elevating thoughts. I when he first saw the Apollo, at Rome, exretain in my memory but one other dream-claimed instantly, "A young Indian warrior!" for such do events so long past appear-which—and, however startling the association may The Commodore of the Lakes, as he is styled. ↑ The two first sentences of the above paragraph, as well as a passage that occurs in the subsequent column, stood originally as part of the Notes on one of the American Poems. Introduced in the Epistle to Lady Charlotte Rawdon, p. 184 of this edition. This brave and amiable officer was killed at Queenston, in Upper Canada, soon after the commencement of the war with America, in the year 1812. He was in the act of cheering on his men when he fell. The inscription on the monumeht raised to his memory, on Queenston Heights, does but due honor to his manly character. appear, some of the graceful and agile forms which I saw that day among the Tuscaroras were such as would account for its arising in the young painter's mind. After crossing "the fresh-water ocean" of Ontario, I passed down the St. Lawrence to Montreal and Quebec, staying for a short time at each of these places; and this part of my journey, as well as my voyage on from Quebec to Halifax, is sufficiently traceable through the few pieces of poetry that were suggested to me by scenes and events on the way. And here I must again venture to avail myself of the valuable testimony of Captain Hall to the truth of my descriptions of some of those scenes through which his more practised eye followed me ;taking the liberty to omit in my extracts, as far as may be done without injury to the style or context, some of that generous surplusage of praise in which friendly criticism delights to indulge. In speaking of an excursion he had made up the river Ottawa,-" a stream," he adds, "which has a classical place in every one's imagination from Moore's Canadian Boat Song," Captain Hall proceeds as follows:-"While the poet above alluded to has retained all that is essentially characteristic and pleasing in these boat songs, and rejected all that is not so, he has contrived to borrow his inspiration from numerous surrounding circumstances, presenting nothing remarkable to the dull senses of ordinary travellers. Yet these highly poetical images, drawn in this way, as it were carelessly and from every hand, he has combined with such graphic-I had almost said geographicaltruth, that the effect is great, even upon those who have never, with their own eyes, seen the Utawa's tide,' nor flown down the Rapids,' or heard the bell of St. Anne's toll its evening chime;' while the same lines give to distant regions, previously consecrated in our imagination, a vividness of interest, when viewed on the spot, of which it is difficult to say how much is due to the magic of the poetry, and how much to the beauty of the real scene."* While on the subject of the Canadian Boat Song, an anecdote connected with that once "It is singularly gratifying," the author adds, "to discover that, to this hour, the Canadian voyageurs never omit their offerings to the shrine of St. Anne, before engaging in any enterprise; and that during its performance, they omit popular ballad may, for my musical rèa least, possess some interest. A few since, while staying in Dublin, I was p ed, at his own request, to a gentlema told me that his family had in their pos a curious relic of my youthful days,—be first notation I had made, in pencilling, air and words of the Canadian Boat while on my way down the St. Lawre and that it was their wish I should a signature to attest the authenticity of th graph. I assured him with truth that wholly forgotten even the existence of memorandum; that it would be as m curiosity to myself as it could be to a else, and that I should feel thankful to lowed to see it. In a day or two af request was complied with, and the fol is the history of this musical "relic." In my passage down the St. Lawrence with me two travelling companions, whom, named Harkness, the son of a v Dublin merchant, has been some years To this young friend, on parting with Quebec, I gave, as a keepsake, a volum been reading on the way,-Priestley's L on History; and it was upon a fly-leaf volume I found I had taken down, in pen both the notes and a few of the words original song by which my own boat-gl been suggested. The following is the f my memorandum of the original air : Then follows, as pencilled down at th moment, the first verse of my Canadian Song, with air and words as they are at p From all this it will be perceived, that, own setting of the air, I departed in every respect but the time from the str voyageurs had sung to us, leaving the m the glee nearly as much my own as the no opportunity of keeping up so propitious an inte The flourishing village which surrounds the church 'Green Isle' in question owes its existence and sup tirely to these pious contributions." Yet, how strongly impressed I had become with the notion that this was the identical air sung by the boatmen,-how closely it linked itself in my imagination with the scenes and sounds amidst which it had occurred to me,-may be seen by reference to a note appended to the glee as first published, which will be found in the following pages.* To the few desultory and, perhaps, valueless recollections I have thus called up, respecting the contents of our second volume, I have only to add, that the heavy storm of censure and criticism-some of it, I fear, but too well deserved-which, both in America and in England, the publication of my "Odes and Epistles" drew down upon me, was followed by resuits which have far more than compensated for any pain such attacks at the time may have inflicted. In the most formidable of all my censors, at that period,—the great master of the art of criticism, in our day, I have found ever since one of the most cordial and highly valued of all my friends; while the good-will I have experienced from more than one distinguished American sufficiently assures me that any injustice I may have done to that land of freemen, if not long since wholly forgotten, is now remembered only to be forgiven. As some consolation to me for the onsets of criticism, I received, shortly after the appearance of my volume, a letter from Stockholm, addressed to "the author of Epistles, Odes, and other poems," and informing me that "the Princes, Nobles, and Gentlemen, who composed the General Chapter of the most Illustrious, Equestrian, Secular, and Chapteral Order of St. Joachim," had elected me as a Knight of this Order. Notwithstanding the grave and official style of the letter, I regarded it, I own, at first, as a mere ponderous piece of pleasantry; and even suspected that in the name of St. "Joachim" I could detect the low and irreverent pun of St. Jokehim. On a little inquiry, however, I learned that there actually existed such an order of knighthood; that the title, insignia, &c., conferred by it had, in the instances of Lord Nelson, the Duke of Bouillon, and Colonel Imhoff, who were all Knights of St. Joachim, been authorized by the British court; but that since then, * Page 183 of this edition this sanction of the order had been withdrawn. Of course, to the reduction thus caused in the value of the honor was owing its descent in the scale of distinction to "such small deer" of Parnassus as myself. I wrote a letter, however, full of grateful acknowledgment, to Monsieur Hansson, the Vice-Chancellor of the Order, saying that I was unconscious of having entitled myself, by any public service, to a reward due only to the benefactors of mankind; and therefore begged leave most respectfully to decline it. PREFACE ΤΟ THE THIRD VOLUME. THE three satirical Poems, with which this volume commences, were published originally without the author's name; Corruption" and "Intolerance" in the year 1808, and "The Skeptic" in the year following. The political opinions adopted in the first of these Satires-the Poem on Corruption-were chiefly caught up, as is intimated in the original Preface, from the writings of Bolingbroke, Sir William Wyndham, and other statesmen of that factious period, when the same sort of alliance took place between Toryism and what is now called Radicalism, which is always likely to ensue on the ejection of the Tory party from power.† In the somewhat rash effusion, it will be seen that neither of the two great English parties is handled with much respect; and I remember being taken to task, by one of the few of my Whig acquaintances that ever looked into the poem, for the following allusion to the silencing effects of official station on certain orators : As bees, on flowers alighting, cease their hum, But these attempts of mine in the stately, Juvenalian style of satire, met with but little success,-never having attained, I believe, even the honors of a second edition; and I found that lighter form of weapon, to which I † Bolingbroke himself acknowledges that "both parties were become factions, in the strict sense of the word." afterwards betook myself, not only more easy to wield, but, from its very lightness, perhaps, more sure to reach its mark. It would almost seem, too, as if the same unembittered spirit, the same freedom from all real malice with which, in most instances, this sort of squib warfare has been waged by me, was felt, in some degree, even by those who were themselves the objects of it ;-so generously forgiving have I, in most instances, found them. Even the high personage against whom the earliest and perhaps most successful of my lighter missiles were launched, could refer to and quote them, as I learn from an incident mentioned in the Life of Sir Walter Scott,* with a degree of good-humor and playfulness which was creditable alike to his temper and good sense. At a memorable dinner given by the Regent to Sir Walter in the year 1815, Scott, among other stories with which his royal host was much amused, told of a sentence passed by an old friend of his, the Lord Justice Clerk Braxfield, attended by circumstances in which the cruelty of this waggish judge was even more conspicuous than his humor. "The Regent laughed heartily," says the biographer, 'at this specimen of Braxfield's brutal humor; and, 'I' faith, Walter,' said he,' this old bigwig seems to have taken things as coolly as my tyrannical self. Don't you remember Tom Moore's description of me at breakfast ?— 66 "The table spread with tea and toast, In reference to this, and other less exalted instances, of the good-humored spirit in which my "innocui sales" have in general been taken, I shall venture to cite here a few flattering sentences which, coming as they did from a political adversary and a stranger, touched me far more by their generosity than even by their praise. In speaking of the pension which had just then been conferred upon me, and expressing, in warm terms, his approval of the grant, the editor of a leading Tory journal† erally expresses himself:-"We kn some will blame us for our prejudiceprejudice, in favore Mr. Moore; but not help it.. As he tells us himself, 'Wit a diamond brings That cuts its bright way through' the most obdurate political antipathies We do not believe that any one was by libels so witty as those of Mr. M great privilege of wit, which renders sible even for those whose enemies wi hate them!" To return to the period of the Reg In the numerous attacks from the gov press, which my occasional volleys of s against the Court used to draw down it was constantly alleged, as an aggra my misdeeds, that I had been indebte Royal personage thus assailed by me kind and substantial services. Luc list of the benefits showered upon me high quarter may be dispatched in a tences. At the request of the Earl of M of my earliest and best friends, his Roy ness graciously permitted me to dedica my Translation of the Odes of Anacreo twice, I think, admitted to the honor at Carlton House; and when the Prin being made Regent in 1811, gave his ble fête, I was one of the crowd-ab I believe, in number-who enjoyed t lege of being his guests on the occasi There occur some allusions, indee Twopenny Post-Bag, to the absurd 1 played in the ornaments of the Roya table at that fête ; and this violationto a certain extent, I allow it to hav of the reverence due to the rights of pitable Jove, which, whether admini prince or peasant, ought to be sac such exposure, I am by no means di defend. But, whatever may be thoug (It being rather hard to raise And gudgeons (so V-ns-tt-t told "Ante fores stabat Jovis Hospitis ara." taste or prudence of some of these satires, there exists no longer, I apprehend, much difference of opinion respecting the character of the Royal personage against whom they were aimed. Already, indeed, has the stern verdict which the voice of History cannot but pronounce upon him, been in some degree anticipated, in a sketch of the domestic events of his reign, supposed to have proceeded from the pen of one who was himself an actor in some of its most painful scenes, and who, from his professional position, commanded a near insight into the character of that exalted individual, both as husband and father. To the same high authority I must refer for an account of the mysterious "Book," to which allusion is more than once made in the following pages. One of the earliest and most successful of the numerous trifles I wrote at that period, was the Parody on the Regent's celebrated Letter, announcing to the world that he "had no predilections," &c. This very opportune squib was, at first, circulated privately; my friend, Mr. Perry, having for some time hesitated to publish it. He got some copies of it, however, printed off for me, which I sent round to several members of the Whig party; and, having to meet a number of them at dinner immediately after, found it no easy matter to keep my countenance while they were discussing among them the merits of the Parody. One of the party, I recollect, having quoted to me the following description of the state of both King and Regent, at that moment,— *Edinburgh Review, No. cxxxv., George the Fourth and Queen Caroline.-"When the Prince entered upon public life he was found to have exhausted the resources of a career of pleasure; to have gained followers without making friends; to have acquired much envy and some admiration among the anthinking multitude of polished society; but not to command in any quarter either respect or esteem. *** The portrait which we have painted of him is undoubtedly one of the darkest shade and most repulsive form." ↑ "There is no doubt whatever that The Book, written by Mr. Perceval, and privately printed at his house, under Lord Eidon's ruperintendence and his own, was prepared in concert with the King, and was intended to sound the alarm against Carlton House and the Whigs."—Ed. Review, ib. Tropenny Post-Bag, pp. 153, 155. I avail myself of the mention here of this latter squib, to recant a correction which I too hastily made in the two following lines of it :"And, though statesmen may glory in being unbought, la an author, we think, sir, that's rather a fault." Forgetting that Pope's ear was satisfied with the sort of rhyme here used, I foolishly altered (and spoiled) the whole couplet to get nd of it. "A strait waistcoat on him, and restrictions on me, A more limited monarchy could not well be," grew rather provoked with me for not enjoying the fun of the parody as much as himself. While thus the excitement of party feeling lent to the political trifles contained in this volume a relish and pungency not their own, an effect has been attributed to two squibs, wholly unconnected with politics-the Letters from the Dowager Countess of Cork, and from Messrs. Lackington and Co.‡-of which I had myself not the slightest notion till I found it thus alluded o in Mr. Lockhart's Life of Sir Walter Scott. In speaking of the causes which were supposed to have contributed to the comparative failure of the Poem of "Rokeby," the biographer says, "It is fair to add, that, among the London circles, at least, some sarcastic flings, in Mr. Moore's Twopenny Post-Bag, must have had an unfavorable influence on this occasion." Among the translations that have appeared on the Continent, of the greater part of my poetical works, there has been no attempt, as far as I can learn, to give a version of any of my satirical writings, with the single exception of a squib contained in this volume, entitled "Little Man and Little Soul,"|| of which there is a translation into German verse, by the late distinguished oriental scholar, Professor Von Bohlen. Though unskilled, myself, in German, I can yet perceive-sufficiently to marvel at it-the dexterity and ease with which the Old Ballad metre of the original is "See, for instance," says Mr. Lockhart, "the Epistle of Lady Cork; or that of Messrs. Lackington, booksellers, to one of their dandy authors : "Should you feel any touch of poetical glow, We've a scheme to suggest:-Mr. Sc-tt, you must know, (Who, we're sorry to say it, now works for the Row,1) Having quitted the Borders, to seek new renown, Is coming, by long Quarto stages, to Town; And beginning with Rokeby (the job's sure to pay Means to do all the Gentlemen's Seats on the way. Now, the scheme is (though none of our hackneys can beat him) To start a fresh Poet through Highgate to meet him; 1 Paternoster Row. |