Stopp'd is the voice by Fate-and ah again
The shouts of Triumph echo from their train.
O mourn the youth that led our native band!
O rise, and curse with him the deadly hand!
For this, where'er your savage troops ye lead,
'Mid your own groves, or on the martial mead,
May Discord meet you on the haunted plain,
Point the lost maid, and shew the parent slain!
For this, whene'er ye tempt some fatal field
Whose happier sons the conquering sword shall wield,
May Rutren lead his vengeful host along,
And loose his furies on your bleeding throng.

SONG.

OH! let not suspense, with its fetters of ice,
The free-flowing current of pleasure enslave;
The winter of age will be here in a trice,

And death freeze us for good in the grave.

How long shall each touch with a tongue be inspir'd, How long shall my eyes roll their language in vain, With each eloquent pulse when will Jessy be fir'd, And interpret what Jessy alone can explain!

But, because it may deepen the rose on her cheek, Should my charmer the fond explanation decline; Let me, sparing a trial so delicate, seek,

And be told from her eyes what she gathers from mine.

R. FENTON, ESQ.

THE GOLDEN AGE*,

A Poetical Epistle from Erasmus Dn, M. D. to Thomas Beddoes, M. D.

BY THE AUTHOR OF TWO HEROIC EPISTLES TO DR. PRIESTLEY.

The French, that most injured and most enlightened people upon earth, within these few years (since Despotism has been overawed by Liberty) have improved Science more than all other Nations put together. BEDDOES'S REASONS, &c.

May we not, by regulating the vegetable functions, teach our Woods and Hedges to supply us with Butter and Tallow?

BEDDOES'S OBSERVATIONS ON CALCULUS, SCURVY, &c. p. 29

BOAST of proud Shropshire, Oxford's lasting shame,
Whom none but coxcombs scorn, but fools defame,
Eternal war with dulness born to wage,
Thou Paracelsus of this wondrous age;
By sage M. D.'s and LL. D.'s approved,

+ By Great SOC.'s praised, by little soc.'s beloved,
BEDDOES, the philosophic chymist's guide,
The bigot's scourge, of democrats the pride,

*First published in 1794.

† Dr. Beddoes not only ranks among his intimate friends one or two Gentlemen of the University of Oxford, who at present can only be characterized as the little fellows of a little College, but likewise many illustrious Members of various Literary Societies, particularly the celebrated Dr. Priestley, whose splendid titles (even as modestly abridged by himself) are, LL. D. F. R. S. Ac. Imp. Petrop. R. Paris. Holm. Taurin. Aurel. Med. Paris. Harlem, Cantab. Americ. & Philad. Sec.

Accept this lay; and to thy brother, friend,
Ór name more dear, a Sans Culotte attend,
While in Rhyme's Galligaskins I enclose
The broad posteriors of thy brawny prose,
And sing, brimful of thee in tuneful strain,
The blest return of Saturn's golden reign!
Oh had I, silly swain, the rage and fire
Of some, whom Frenchmen's bloody deeds inspire }
Could I, ascending on the wing of sound,
Pleas'd with the grand, the lofty, and profound,
Soar above mortal ken in rapturous glow,
Leaving poor pursy Sense to pant below;
Could I, for ever studious to refine,

Prank with my pearly phrase each pretty line,
Or like an empty bottle, deep immers'd,
Whence bubbles after bubbles bustling burst,
Amus'd to view my noisy nothings swell,
In the sweet vanity of thought excel;
Now rising o'er the bounds of vulgar rhyme,
Gracefully great and terribly sublime;
Trolling in full-toned melody along

With all the clattering clang of modern song;
I'd hail the progress of those blissful days,
When fair Philosophy's meridian rays.

Shall brighten Nature's face, shall drive the moles
Of blinking Error to their secret holes,

Disperse the darkness of primæval night,

And bid a new Creation rise to light!

Proceed, great days! and bring, oh! bring to view

Things strange to tell! Incredible, but true!
Behold, behold, the Golden Age appears:

Skip, skip, ye Mountains! Forests lend your ears!

VOL. VI.

Quo me rapis, tui plenum?

D d

Bee red-capt Laberty from heaven descend,
And real prodigies her steps attend!
* No more immers'd in many a foreign dye
shall British wool be taught to blush and lie;
But all our pastures glow with purple rams,
With scarlet lambkins, and their yellow dams!
↑ No more the lazy ox shall gormandize,
And swell with fattening grass his monstrous size;

* Ne varios discet mentiri lana colores:
Ipse sed in pratis Aries jam sunė rubenti
Murier, jam crocco mutabit vellera luto:
ispoute sus sandys pascentes vestiet agnos.

VIRGIL

The renovation of the world under the benign influence of French Freedors has been long foretold by prophets of every description, by some who manufacture verses, others who manufacture cotton, by maudling Mrs's, and mincing Misses, by enlightened Lawyers and more enlightened Physicians; but by none more fully expected, more ardently longed for, than by Dr. Beddors and Jus Dear Giddy " The great Dr. assures us, that not

ly science in general will shortly advance towards perfection, but that in particular "a new Medicine will arise from the ashes of the old with healing in its wings." How this revolution is to be effected we are informed in the dedication of his Observations on Calculus, &c. p. 4. "We are just beginning to catch a glimpse of the laws of animal Nature; and now when the human mind seems in so many countries about to be roused from that torpor, by which it has so long been benumbed, we may reasonably indulge the expectation of a rapid progress in this the most beneficial of all the

An infinitely small portion of genius has hitherto been exerted to diminish the sum of our painful sensations; and the force of society has been exclusively at the disposal of Despots and Juntos, the great Artificers of human Evil. Should an entire change An these two respects any where take place, every member of society might soon expect to experience in his own person the consequence of so

• A Gentleman of Pembroke College, Oxford, to whom Dr. Beddoes addresses a late elaborate work by this familiar appel-Nation

No more trot round and round the groaning field,
But tons of beef our loaded thickets yield!
The patient dairy-maid no more shall learn
With tedious toil to whirl the frothy churn;
But from the hedges shall her dairy fill,
As pounds of butter in big drops distil!
The sottish Jews, who in a God believ❜d,
And sometimes blessings, oftener plagues receiv'd,
Shouted a miracle, when on the ground
Their boasted bread the greedy grumblers found:
By no dry crusts shall infidels be fed,

Our soil producing butter to our bread!

* See reverend Thames, who God of Rivers reigns,
And winds meand'ring through our richest plains,
To treat the Cits, that many a sixpence give
Once in a week like Gentlemen to live,
Resign his majesty of mud, and stream
O'er strawberry beds in deluges of cream!

happy an innovation; and should the example be generally followed, there is no improvement in the condition of the World, for which we might not hope from the bloodless rivalship of nations." But we are told, that the same influence of Liberty and Genius will not only in other respects effect equal wonders, but produce greater blessings. "We know," exclaims this egregious Chymist," that vege tables are capable of forming oils either exactly the same as those of animals, or very nearly resembling them. Thus we have the suet of the Croton Sebiferum, the butter of the Phoenix Dactylifera and of the Butyrum Cacao. When, from a more intimate acquaintance with them, we shall be better able to apply the Laws of organic bodies to the accommodation as well as preservation of Life, may we not, by regulating the vegetable functions, teach our woods and bedges to supply us with butter and tallow?" Observations on Cal culus, &c. p. 109.

* Το παλαιον απαντ ̓ ἦν αλφίτων και αλευρων πληρη, καθάπερ και ναν κονέως· και πρηναι δ' ερρεον, αι μεν ύδατος γαλακτος δ' αλλαι και ομοιος ας με μελιτος αι δ' οινε, τινες δ' ελαιε.

Calanus Indus apud Strabon. lib. 1:5.