of Dr. Webster's large Dictionary, and not long after this he published a corrected translation of Malte-Brun's Geography. In 1835, he was appointed, in connection with Professor C. U. Shepard, to make a survey of the geological and mineralogical resources of the State of Connecticut. Dr. Percival took charge of the geological part, and his report thereon was published in 1842. In 1843 appeared, at New Haven, his last published volume of miscellaneous poetry, entitled The Dream of Day, and other Poems. In 1854, he was appointed State Geologist of Wisconsin, and his first report on that survey was published in January, 1855. The larger part of this year he spent in the field. While preparing his second report, his health gave way, and, after a gentle decline, he expired on the 2d of May, 1856, at Hazel Green, Wisconsin.

However much distinguished Mr. Percival may be for his classical learning, and for his varied attainments in philology and general science, he will be chiefly known to posterity as one of the most eminent of our poets, for the richness of his fancy, the copiousness and beauty of his language, his life-like descriptions, his sweet and touching pathos, as well as, at times, his spirited and soul-stirring measures.'

ODE.-LIBERTY TO ATHENS.2

The flag of freedom floats once more
Around the lofty Parthenon;

It waves, as waved the palm of yore
In days departed long and gone;

As bright a glory, from the skies,

Pours down its light around those towers,

And once again the Greeks arise,

As in their country's noblest hours;
Their swords are girt in virtue's cause,
Minerva's sacred hill is free,-

Oh, may she keep her equal laws,

While man shall live, and time shall be.
The pride of all her shrines went down;
The Goth, the Frank, the Turk, had reft
The laurel from her civic crown;

Her helm by many a sword was cleft:
She lay among her ruins low,—

Where grew the palm, the cypress rose,

"The vein of his poetry is often as rich as any we have ever known. The pieces are not few in number in which the soul of the author, rising as he proceeds, involves itself and the reader in a cloud of delicious enchantment. We are most pleased with his intimate familiarity with classical literature: he has caught from the study of Greek models a certain Attic parity and severity of style conspicuous in some of his best-wrought pieces."-Contributions to Literature, by Samuel Gilman. For a very just view of Dr. Percival's character as a man, read Goodrich's Recollections, vol. ii. pp. 139 and 140: also in the New Englander, May, 1859, an admirable article on Percival's scholarship and character, by Ed. W. Robbins. The Life in Kettell's Specimens was written by Rev. Royal Robbins, of Berlin, Connecticut.

2" In this crowded, classical, and animated picture, the occasional resemblance to Lord Byron ought not to be called an imitation so much as a successful attempt at rivalry." Read articles on his poetry, in the 14th, 16th, and 22d volumes of the "North American Review," and 2d of the "American Quarterly Review."

And, crush'd and bruised by many a blow,
She cower'd beneath her savage foes:
But now again she springs from earth,
Her loud, awakening trumpet speaks;
She rises in a brighter birth,

And sounds redemption to the Greeks.
It is the classic jubilee,-

Their servile years have roll'd away;
The clouds that hover'd o'er them flee,
They hail the dawn of freedom's day;
From heaven the golden light descends,
The times of old are on the wing,
And glory there her pinion bends,

And beauty wakes a fairer spring;
The hills of Greece, her rocks, her waves,
Are all in triumph's pomp array'd;
A light that points their tyrants' graves
Plays round each bold Athenian's blade.

The Parthenon, the sacred shrine,

Where wisdom held her pure abode :
The hill of Mars, where light divine
Proclaim'd the true but unknown God;
Where justice held unyielding sway,
And trampled all corruption down,
And onward took her lofty way

To reach at truth's unfading crown:
The rock, where liberty was full,

Where eloquence her torrents roll'd,
And loud, against the despot's rule,
A knell the patriot's fury toll'd:
The stage, whereon the drama spake

In tones that seem'd the words of Heaven,
Which made the wretch in terror shake,
As by avenging furies driven:
The groves and gardens, where the fire
Of wisdom, as a fountain, burn'd,
And every eye, that dared aspire

To truth, has long in worship turn'd:
The halls and porticos, where trod
The moral sage, severe, unstain'd,
And where the intellectual God

In all the light of science reign'd:
The schools, where rose in symmetry
The simple, but majestic pile,
Where marble threw its roughness by,
To glow, to frown, to weep, to smile,
Where colors made the canvas live,

Where music roll'd her flood along,
And all the charms that art can give,
Were blent with beauty, love, and song:
The port, from whose capacious womb
Her navies took their conquering road:
The heralds of an awful doom

To all who would not kiss her rod:- .

On these a dawn of glory springs,
These trophies of her brightest fame;
Away the long-chain'd city flings

Her weeds, her shackles, and her shame;
Again her ancient souls awake,

Harmodius bears anew his sword;

Her sons in wrath their fetters break,
And freedom is their only lord.

CONSUMPTION.

There is a sweetness in woman's decay,
When the light of beauty is fading away,
When the bright enchantment of youth is gone,
And the tint that glow'd, and the eye that shone,
And darted around its glance of power,

And the lip that vied with the sweetest flower
That ever in Pæstum's garden blew,

Or ever was steep'd in fragrant dew,
When all that was bright and fair is fled,
But the loveliness lingering round the dead.
Oh, there is a sweetness in beauty's close,
Like the perfume scenting the wither'd rose;
For a nameless charm around her plays,
And her eyes are kindled with hallow'd rays,
And a veil of spotless purity

Has mantled her cheek with its heavenly dye;
Like a cloud whereon the queen of night
Has pour'd her softest tint of light;
And there is a blending of white and blue,
Where the purple blood is melting through
The snow of her pale and tender cheek;
And there are tones, that sweetly speak
Of a spirit who longs for a purer day,
And is ready to wing her flight away.

In the flush of youth and the spring of feeling,
When life, like a sunny stream, is stealing
Its silent steps through a flowery path,
And all the endearments, that pleasure hath,
Are pour'd from her full, o'erflowing horn,
When the rose of enjoyment conceals no thorn,
In her lightness of heart, to the cheery song
The maiden may trip in the dance along,
And think of the passing moment, that lies,
Like a fairy dream, in her dazzled eyes,
And yield to the present, that charms around
With all that is lovely in sight and sound,
Where a thousand pleasing phantoms flit,
With the voice of mirth, and the burst of wit,
And the music that steals to the bosom's core,
And the heart in its fulness flowing o'er

1 Biferique rosaria Pasti.-VIRGIL, Geor. iv. 119.

With a few big drops, that are soon repress'd,
For short is the stay of grief in her breast:
In this enliven'd and gladsome hour
The spirit may burn with a brighter power;
But dearer the calm and quiet day,
When the heaven-sick soul is stealing away.

And when her sun is low declining,
And life wears out with no repining,
And the whisper, that tells of early death,
Is soft as the west wind's balmy breath,
When it comes at the hour of still repose,
To sleep in the breast of the wooing rose;
And the lip, that swell'd with a living glow,
Is pale as curl of new-fallen snow;
And her cheek, like the Parian stone, is fair,-
But the hectic spot that flushes there,
When the tide of life, from its secret dwelling,
In a sudden gush is deeply swelling,
And giving a tinge to her icy lips,
Like the crimson rose's brightest tips,
As richly red, and as transient too,
As the clouds in autumn's sky of blue,
That seem like a host of glory met
To honor the sun at his golden set:
Oh, then, when the spirit is taking wing,
How fondly her thoughts to her dear one cling,
As if she would blend her soul with his

In a deep and long imprinted kiss!

So fondly the panting camel flies,

Where the glassy vapor cheats his eyes,
And the dove from the falcon seeks her nest,
And the infant shrinks to its mother's breast.
And though her dying voice be mute,
Or faint as the tones of an unstrung lute,
And though the glow from her cheek be fled,
And her pale lips cold as the marble dead,
Her eye still beams unwonted fires

With a woman's love and a saint's desires,
And her last fond, lingering look is given
To the love she leaves, and then to heaven;
As if she would bear that love away
To a purer world and a brighter day.

NIGHT.

Am I not all alone?-The world is still
In passionless slumber,-not a tree but feels
The far-pervading hush, and softer steals
The misty river by.-Yon broad bare hill
Looks coldly up to heaven, and all the stars
Seem eyes deep fix'd in silence, as if bound
By some unearthly spell,- -no other sound
But the owl's unfrequent moan.-Their airy cars
The winds have station'd on the mo ntain-peaks.

Am I not all alone?-A spirit speaks

From the abyss of night, "Not all alone,-
Nature is round thee with her banded powers,
And ancient genius haunts thee in these hours,-
Mind and its kingdom now are all thy own."

LOVE OF STUDY.1

And wherefore does the student trim his lamp,
And watch his lonely taper, when the stars
Are holding their high festival in heaven,
And worshipping around the midnight throne?
And wherefore does he spend so patiently,
In deep and voiceless thought, the blooming hours
Of youth and joyance, when the blood is warm,
And the heart full of buoyancy and fire?
He has his pleasures,-he has his reward:
For there is in the company of books,
The living souls of the departed sage,
And bard and hero; there is in the roll
Of eloquence and history, which speak
The deeds of early and of better days;
In these and in the visions that arise
Sublime in midnight musings, and array
Conceptions of the mighty and the good,
There is an elevating influence,

That snatches us a while from earth, and lifts
The spirit in its strong aspirings, where
Superior beings fill the court of heaven.
And thus his fancy wanders, and has talk
With high imaginings, and pictures out
Communion with the worthies of old time.

With eye upturn'd, watching the many stars,
And ear in deep attention fix'd, he sits,
Communing with himself, and with the world,
The universe around him, and with all

The beings of his memory and his hopes;

Till past becomes reality, and joys,

That beckon in the future, nearer draw,

And ask fruition,-oh, there is a pure,

A hallow'd feeling in these midnight dreams!

They have the light of heaven around them, breathe

The odor of its sanctity, and are

Those moments taken from the sands of life,

Where guilt makes no intrusion, but they bloom

Like islands flowering on Arabia's wild.

And there is pleasure in the utterance

Of pleasant images in pleasant words,

"There are many youths, and some men, who most earnestly devote themselves to solitary studies, from the mere love of the pursuit. I have bere attempted to give some of the causes of a devotion which appears so unaccountable to the stirring world."