His ghostly cheek, methinks, to rapture warms, As round Eblana's tow'rs he views

Cherubic Peace her halcyon-calm diffuse,

And the fair city swell with renovated charms.
Oh! long may that blest calm remain !
Oh! long may heav'nly union reign!
From whence surpassing transports spring;
And oh the bloody drops, and impious dust,
Which foul Rebellion flung on Freedom's bust,
May Honour wipe away with taintless wing.
So shall each foreign menace fail :

So hostile hate in vain assail,

Tho' pride may prompt, or wealth allure,
A bulwark in confederate strength secure ;
So rev'ling Nature, in thy partial smiles,
Learning, with pilgrim-step, may come,
Once more, to recognize his ancient home:
Once more, in all his simple state,

Bland Hospitality expand the gate,

Where Welcome oft was wont, with aspect gay,
To woo the weary minstrel from his way;
And Commerce, anchoring on the favour'd coast,
And Truth, and loyal Love, illustrious boast!
Wed in rich kindred the United Isles.

GIBRALTAR.

THE heav'n-rais'd bulwarks of imperial Troy
Still rise in song Meonian; and the muse
Of deathless Maro consecrates to fame
Illustrious Latium!-Shall no lyre resound
A brighter subject, a sublimer lay,

And claim a fresher wreath ?-Spirit of War,
First-born of Freedom, who from Calpe's height
Hurl'd thy indignant thunders, string the chord
To British fortitude, to British fire!

For thou canst tell how dauntless Elliot fought,
Immortal hero! when the labouring main
Groan'd with the huge armada, vengeance-fraught:
How from thy rocky seat the warrior pour'd
An arch of mortal lightnings on the foe.
Discreetly valiant, confidently firm,

Each treach'rous wile he saw, each Spanish mine,
And marked the tempest low'ring in repose,
Anon to burst with a redoubled force.

Though palsy'd Famine stretch'd her meagre hand
O'er all, and Death his withering glances cast,
Still rear'd Britannia's standard o'er the fort,

Purpling the wave below with awful shade, Wave soon to be embued with hostile gore, Drawn from the heart of myriads! methinks, ev'n now, The whizzing bullets stun my startled car, And sulphurous smoke envelopes the grim sky With tenfold horrors! Vain attempt, to scale Gibraltar's giant brow, when marble mounds, And British breasts more stern, defend the place. So strove the haughty pow'r of hell, when fall'n From site celestial to the burning deep, With turms diminish'd by Messiah's hand, To climb the crystal battlements of heav'n; So fell he, vaunting !—The Hispanian crew Wond'ring retire, and eye with envious look The walls impregnable, where Glory sits, Thron'd with her Britons! Like a dreadful row Of gods embattled on Olympus' top, The warriors scowl derision.

Heathfield chief,

The Mars of Albion, stirs the latent spark

Of honour to a blaze, invigorates

Each manly bosom; and the fainting cheers!
So Britons fight, when Liberty calls out

The martial youths, and Justice sounds the trump
Of dreadful onset. Spain's dismounted fleet,
Spain's gasping soldiery, and the chiefs of Spain,
Can testify with tears the Muse's truth.

VOL. I.

N

MILTON'S EPITAPHIUM DAMONIS

TRANSLATED.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THE following translation was the amusement of a few hours, at a time when I felt pretty much the same sorrows with Milton, on account of the death of a youthful and beloved brother. I have often conceived an idea of rendering all his Latin poems into English verse; but, conscious of my own inability to do them justice, must decline the task. Translation too, I apprehend, is not my fort; though no one can feel an higher veneration for the classical productions of the Athenian and the Roman muse. Apollonius Rhodius I admire in particular; and could any author tempt me to a long translation, it would certainly be he.

The Latin poems of Milton can fairly rival the most illustrious performances of the middle, if not of the Augustine age; perspicuity of style, elegant diction, and harmonious measures, are conspicuous through all of them. In my opinion, Strada, Vida, Politian, Buchannan, nay Claudian, are vastly inferior to him in these points. The reader of taste will find sufficient entertainment of the sublimer kind, in the perusal of the following poems; De Idea Platonica, quemadmodum Aristoteles intellexit: which begins with these amazingly beautiful verses:

"DICITE, sacrorum præsides nemorum dex,

Tuque, O noveni perbeata numinis

Memoria mater, quæque in immenso procul

Antro recumbis otiosa Æternitas,

Monumenta servans, et ratas leges Jovis: &c.

that with the title, Naturam non pati senium; Mansus; the cxrvth Psalm in Greek; Ad Patrem; and all his elegies. Mansus, I should have attempted, were it not elegantly versified by Mr. Sterling.

EPITAPHIUM DAMONIS.

ARGUMENT.

THYRSIS and Damon, shepherds in the same village, were united in the same studies from their infancy, and bound in the strictest friendship. Thyrsis, having gone to the city for recreation's sake, receives an account of the death of Damon. Returning home

afterwards, and finding the news true, he bemoans himself and his solitary situation, in the following poem. In the appellation Damon, is understood that of Carolus Diodatus: a person descended from a family of Lucca in Italy, yet in every thing but birth an Englishman; and a youth of the most promising appearance as to wit, learning, and all other conspicuous virtues, while he lived.

SICILIAN nymphs, attend my mournful claim,
And aid my sorrow, by the banks of Thame;
For whilom you o'er Bion's early hearse
Hung the choice garlands of elegiac verse,

ARGUMENTUM.

Thyrsis et Damon, ejusdem viciniæ pastores, eadem studia sequuti, à pueritiâ amici erant, ut qui plurimùm. Thyrsis animi causâ profectus peregrè de obitu Damonis nuncium accepit. Demùm postea reversus, et rem ita esse comperto, se, suamque solitudinem, hoc carmine deplorat. Damonis autem sub personâ hîc intelligitur Carolus Deodatus ex urbe Hetruriæ Lucâ paterno genere oriundus, cætera Anglus; ingenio, doctrinâ, clarissimisque cæteris virtutibus, dum viveret, juvenis egregius.

HIMERIDES nympha (nam vos et Daphnin et Hylan,
Et plorata diu meministis fata Bionis,)