272
LXXXIV. Obedience the beft Charter; or
Law the only Sanction of Liberty, in a Letter
to Dr. Price. Is. 6d. Richardfon.

Review and Lift of New Publications.

This author adopts the exploded notions of defpotifm and paifive obedience-retails the common topics on the difpute with America -and deals plentifully in vague furmifes, uncharitable cenfures, and opprobrious names. LXXXV. Familiar Dialogues between Americus and Britannicus; in which the exploded Doctrines of Infallibility, Paffive Obedience, and Non-Refifiance, with the leading Sentiments of Dr. Price on Civil Liberty, are particularly confidered. By John Martin. 1s. Wilkie.

This writer hath mistaken his talents. But as it was popular to write against Dr. Price, he must be in the fashion.

LXXXVI. Maffacbufettenfis: or a Series of Letters, containing a faithful State of many important and friking Facts, which laid the Foundation of the prefent Troubles in the Provinces of the Maffacbufett's Bay. By a Perfen of Honour upon the Spot. 25. Bew.

In the preceding article, we had a Martin attempting to peck at an Eagle-here we have a perfon of honour" condescending to teach taylors, chimney (weepers, and handicrafts of all kinds, the caufe of the difpute with America. The honourable perfon is faid to have belonged to the Admiralty court at Bofton, and whofe chief fupport arofe from condemning the American fhips as prizes. Some allowances must therefore be made, and this faithful fate is evidently much tinctured with difappointment, prejudice, and refent

ment.

LXXXVII. A Matter of Moment. Dedicated to the Lord High Chancellor of GreatBritain. 6d. Corrall.

This matter is worthy the Chancellor's attention-pointing out feveral neceffary alterations in the Chancery proceedings.

LXXXVIII. Six English Country Dances for the prefent Year, the Mufic with a Tborough Bafs for the Harpficord, the Figures entirely new, explained and demonftrated by Cards. With an additional inftructive Plate, fhewing the five Pofitions, the Figure of a Minuct, the Right and Left, &c. By Matthew Welch. 5s. Welch.

The chief defign of this publication is to leffen the intricacy of this kind of dancing, and to render it fo very plain at the first view as to be understood by the meaneft capacity, in which he hath happily fucceeded. There are alfo fome good obiervations on the punctilios which ought to be obferved in all genteel company.

LXXXIX. A Scriptural Poem on the Blef fed Trinity, of infinite Importance to the Cbriftian World: And a Prelude to the Converfion of the Jews; intitled Priesthood Detected. By Nathaniel Walker. 4d. Bladon.

Very few perfons will embrace the author's opinion of the excellence and importance of

his Poem.

May

PUBLICATIONS THIS MONTH

Befides thofe that have been reviewed. AMERICAN AFFAIRS and POLITICAL. Profpect of the Confequences of the

A prefent Conduct of Great-Britain to

wards America. Is. 6. Almon.

The Plea of the Colonies, on the Charges brought against them by Lord Md and

others.

Is. Almon.

Lord Chm's Prophecy, an Ode: addreffed to Lieutenant General G-ge. With Is. Almon. Explanatory and Critical Notes.

Hypocrify Unmasked; or, a fhort Enquiry into the religious Complaints of our American Colonies. To which is added, A Word on the Laws against Popery in GreatBritain and Ireland. 28. Nicoll.

The Honour of the University of Oxford defended, against the illiberal Afperfions of Ed Be, Efq. with pertinent Ob

fervations on the prefent Rebellion in Ame

rica.

Is. Kearly.

HISTORY.

A Tour in Scotland. By Thomas Pennant, Efq. Being the Second Part of the Year 1772, 1. 175. 6d. White.

The Border Hiftory of England and Scotland, deduced from the earliest Times, to the Union of the Two Crowns. By Mr. G. Ridpath. 11. 1s. Cadell.

Letters from Edinburgh in the Years 1774, and 1775, containing fome Obfervations on the Diverfions, Cuftoms, &c. of the Scotch Nation. 5s. Dedley.

A Collection of Cafes of Privilege of Parliament, from the earliest Records to the Year 1628. 6s. Dodley.

MEDICA

L.

An Examination of the Rev. Mr. John Welley's Primitive Phyfic: Shewing that it is a Publication calculated to do effential In

jury to the Health of thofe Perfons who may place Confidence in it. Interfperfed with Medical Remarks and Practical Obfervations. By W. Hawes. 15. 61. Dodfley.

MISCELLANEOUS. The Philofophy of Rhetoric. By George Campbell, D. D. 2 Vols. 10s. Cadell.

Elements of Fuffilogy; or an Arrange-
ment of Fofils into Claffes, Genera, and
Species; with their Characters. By George
Edwards, E1q. 2s. 6d. White.

NOVEL S.
John Bunch, jun. Gentleman. 35.
Johnson.

Life of the Countefs of G.

5s. Law.

By Gellert.

POETRY.
Edward and fabella. Elegy on the Death

of a Child. 25. White.

An Ode to Mr. Pinchbeck, on his new

vented Patent Candie Snuffers, 1s. Almon. The firft Canto of the Revolution; an Is. 6d. Epic Poem. By C. Crawford.

Becket.

POETICAL ESSAYS.

7ITH the greatest pleasure we infert the following excellent, spirited, sentimental,

we hope for future favours from the ingenious writer, fo we are perfuaded our other poetical correfpondents will gladly excufe the poftponing their pieces to next month, for the fake of having this epiftle entire.

to the Right Hon. the Earl of--,

274

POETICAL ESSAYS in May, 1776.

To borrow fill confufion's fweet difguise,
Meet my coy virtues with dejected eyes;
To fteal their language which no words
impart,

And give me back the image of my heart;
This, this was treachery:--by fuch arts affail'd,
Ifell-great God! what virtue had not fail'd?

Yet unrelenting fill the tyrant cries,
Heedlefs of pity's voice, and beauty's fighs,
That pious frauds, the wifeft, beft, approve,
And heaven but fimiles at perjuries in love.
No; heaven and virtue fcorn the mean pretence!
No; 'tis the villain's, 'tis the flave's defence!
No; 'tis the bafe fenfation cowards feel!
The wretch who trembles at the brave man's
steel,

In woman's rage no daring mifchief fears,
And mocks the feeble arms of fighs and tears.
In vain a fex, by nature taught to rest
Its trembling weakness on your firmer breaft,
Pleads pity: coward man, to woman brave,
Infults the virtue he was born to fave.

What! fhall the lightest promife lips can
feign

Bind man to man in honour's facred chain?
And oaths to us not fanctify th' accord,
Not heaven attefted, nor heaven's awful Lord?
Why various laws for beings form'd the fame?
Equal from one indulgent power we came,
Who, blefling to be bleft, defign'd his race
With manly vigour, temp'ring female grace.
Sequefter'd from our fex, vain man, relate
Your folitary pleafures, fullen ftate!
What tenderjoys fit brooding o'er your ftore?
What flumbers foothe ambition bath'd in gore?
'Tis ours, the focial paflions to control,
To pour the balm that heals the wounded foul;
To lure your fancy with diviner themes
Than wealth, than pow'r's delufive reftlefs
dreams.

Yet frantic man, dissolving bonds fo dear,
Secure from love, his empire founds on fear:
Nor dream'ft thou, traytor, what confirms
thy laws,

Not manly triumph-Blush to hear the caufe!
"Tis female foftnefs-Tyrants elfe might feel
The defperate vengeance of a woman's steel,

Still if you glory in the lion's force,
Come, nobly emulate that lion's courfe!
From guarded herds he vindicates his prey,
Not lurks in thickets from the blaze of day:
While man, not confident in manly atms,
Now offering truce, now founding falfe alarms,
With cuftoms, laws, with terror, fraud, com-
-bin'd,

Relaxes all the nerves that brace the mind,
Then lordly, favage, rends the trembling heart
Firf gain'd by treachery, and then tam'd by art.
Are thefe reflections then that love inspires?
Is bitter grief the fruit of fair defires?
From whofe example could I dream to find
The mournful privilege to curfe mankind!
Ah, long I ftrove to burst th' enchanting tye,
And form'd refolves that even in forming die:
Too long I linger'd on the fatal coast,
And ey'd the ocean where my wealth was loft;

In filence wept, fcarce venturing to complain:
Still to my heart diffembled half my pain:
Afcrib'd my fufferings to its fears, not you;
Beheld you treach'rous, and then wish'd you

true.

Sooth'd by thofe wishes, by myself deceiv'd,
I fondly hop'd, and hoping, I believ'd.
Cruel! to whom, ah whither can I flee,
Friends, fortune, fame, deferted all for thee?
On whom but thee this aching frame repofe?
With whom but thee depofit all its woes?
To whom, but thee, explain its tied groan,
And live for whom but thee and love alone?
What hand to probe my bleeding heart be
found?

What hand to heal, but his that gave the
wound?

O dreadful chaos! when the ruin'd mind,
Loft to itself, to virtue, human kind,
From earth to heaven, a méteor flaming wide,
Link'd to no fyftem, to no world allied,
Feels all a blank within:-each pregnant
thought

That nature, reason, that experience taught,
Paft, prefent, future, feels alike deftroy'd,
While love alone ufurps the mighty void!
A void how gloomy, when that love is flown!
What shades we grasp,the noble substance gone!
From one ador'd, adoring once, we dream
Of friendship's tenderness-even cold esteem.
Rejected fill the fuppliant fuit advance-
Plead for a last farewell -a moment's glance,
A letter-token-wreck'd in fearch of shore,
We catch the plank of hope, and rife no more.
In that dread moment, when the hovering

flame

Scarce languish'd into life, again you came;
Purfued again a too fuccessful theme,
And dry'd my eyes with yours again to ftream:
When practis'd tears your venial fault confeft,
And half diffembled, half excus'd the reft,
To kindred griefs taught pity by my own,
Sighs Ireturn'd, and answer'd groan for groan;
Your felf reproaches, ftifling mine, approv'd,
And much I credited, for much I lov'd.

Not long the foul this doubtful dream pro-
longs,

Pardoning indeed, but not forgetting wrongs,
It fcorns the traitor, and with confcious pride,
Scorns a bafe felf-deferting to his fide:
Great by misfortune, greater by despair,
It's heaven once loft, difdains an humbler cares
Perhaps too tender, or too fierce, my foul
Difclaiming half the heart, demands the
whole.

I blame thee not, that fickle, as thy race,
New loves invite thee, and the old efface;
That cold, infenfible, thy foul appears
To virtue's fmiles, to virtue's very tears :-
But oh! a heart whofe tenderness you knew,
That held, frail tenure! life itfelf from you;
In fond prefumption that fecurely play'd,
Securely number'd in your friendly shade,
Whofe every weakness, every figh, to share
The powers that haunt the perjur'd, heard
you fwear-

Was

POETICAL ESSAYS in MAY, 1776.

Was this a heart you wantonly refign'd,
Victim to fcorn, to ruin, and mankind?
Was this O traitor that betray'ft no more,
What means thy pity? what can vows restore?
Can vows recall th' autumnal year to bloom?
Or quicken afhes flumb'ring in the tomb ?
Can vows to fmiles relax the brow of care,
Or heal thy fears of anguish, fierce defpair?
Bid virtue's fullied flames again refine?
Or honour vifit a deferted fhrine?

Ah no-nor prayers nor all th' immortal
powers

Back to their once-trod circles win the hours!
Cruel! no more thy Rattering form betrays,
The feeble vifion melts in reafon's rays-
Yet take my pardon in my last farewell-
Daggers, like thofe you planted, never feel,
Fated, like me, to curfe, yet court your fate;
To blend, in dreadful union, love and hate,
Chiding the prefent moment's ling'ring haste,
To dread the future, and deplore the paft;
Like me condemn th' effe&t, the caufe approve,
Renounce the lover, yet retain the love.

Yes, love! even now, in this ill-fated hour,
An exile from thy joys, I feel thy power.
Yon orient fun, once lovely to my fight,
Bathing in vernal dews his youthful light,
Congenial to my griefs, now fullen glows:
The ftreams that murmur, yet not court re-
pole,

The breezes fick'ning with my mind's disease,
And vailies laughing to all eyes but thefe,
Proclaim thy ablence, love! whofe beam alone
Lighted my morn with glories not its own!
Ah! nobleft paffion lite and youth impart,
Soon as thy flame fhot rapture to my heart,
A new creation brighten'd on my view;
Nurs'd in thy fmiles the feoial paffions grew:
New ftrung, th' harmonious nerves, the
thrilling veins,

Beat in fweet unifon, to others pains.
The blood, to partial currents once confin'd,
Now fwell'd an ocean, and embrac'd mankind.
The foul, once cent'ring in itself the blaze,
Now wide diffus'd benevolence's rays,
Kindling on earth, purfu'd th' ætherial road,
In hallowed flames afcending to its God.

Ah love!-in vain a blafting hand destroys
Thy fwelling bloffoms of expected joys;
Converts to poifon what for food was given,
Thy manna dropping from its native heaven,
Victorious ftill thou triumph'ft, ftill confeft
The pureft tranfport that can warm the breaft:
Yes traitor, yes:-my heart, to nature true,
Adores the paffion, and detefts but you.

For he was the pride of the plain,
The garden, the grove, and the field,
loft is the paftoral ftrain"
Since he no more beauties can yield.

But

II.

275

Ye warblers that bill on each spray,
Ye lambkins that wantonly roam,
Come round and attend to the lay,
Then bleat and your mafter bemoan."
For a tender good thepherd was he,

So true and fo kind to his trust,
With mildnefs he e'er painted thee,
No fwain fure was ever fo juft.
III.

His manner how foft and ferene!

How pleafing his fhape and his air!
No mortal like him ne'er was feen,
No mortal with him cou'd compare.
For he was fo gentle and kind,

That birds clufter'd round in a throng,
And all in full harmony join'd,
Whenever he echo'd his fong.

IV.

But ah! the dear Colin is gone,

No longer he fings thro' the grove,
No longer beneath the gay thorn*,

He pours forth his odours of love.
Then farewel-O! favourite bard!
Adieu! my dear Colin, adieu!
That merit I e'er shall regard,

To thy fame I will ever be true.

*Mr. Cunningham would frequently lie about in the fields, under an bedge or a tree, in which fituation be wrote many of his pafto rals.

MAY-DAY: A POEM.

THE

HE grey-ey'd morn peeps o'er the hill,
The drunkard recls to reft;
The fount fupplies the rippling rill,
The fky-lark leaves her neft.

Aloft the foars, and greets the heaven,
And hails the rifing day;
Grateful for all the beflings given,
She pays them with her lay.
The fun majeftic lifts his head,

In luftre all his own,
While beams of new-born radiance fpread
Their splendors round his throne.
The hawthorn-bufh its annual flow'r
In gay luxuriance shows,
Prophetic of the genial pow'r

That fhall produce the rofe..
The maid, the youth, in trim array,
Explore the fragrant grove,
And celebrate the new-born May
In vows of lafting love.

Nature infpires the tales they tell ;
(Was Nature ever wrong?)
Shefills the hermit's lonely cell,
And fwells the poet's long.

NA 2

She

F

The MONTHLY CHRONOLOGER.

She bids the verfe fpontaneous flow
That celebrates this day,
And bids our wishes warmly glow,

To hail the fift of May.

Among whom he wrought a good understand

THE MONTHLY CHRONOLOGER.