"Have I offended? is my fault so great,

"That truth and friendship cannot change thy hate?
"Then tell me, Cain, O tell me all thy care;
"O cease thy grief, or let thy Abel share!"
No tears prevail: his passions stronger rise;
Increasing fury flashes from his eyes;

At once, each fiend around his heartstrings twines,-
At once, all hell within his soul combines,
"Ah serpent!"-At the word he fiercely sprung,
Caught th' accursed weapon, brandish'd, swung,
And smote! the stroke descended on his brow;
The suppliant victim sunk beneath the blow:
The streaming blood distain'd his locks with gore-
Those beauteous tresses, that were gold before:
Nor could his lips a deep-drawn sigh restrain,
Not for himself he sigh'd-he sigh'd for Cain:
His dying eyes a look of pity cast,

And beam'd forgiveness, ere they closed their last.
The murderer view'd him with a vacant stare,-
Each thought was anguish, and each look despair.
"Abel, awake; arise!" he trembling cried;
"Abel, my brother!"--but no voice replied.
At every call more madly wild he grew,
Paler than he, whom late in rage he slew.
In frightful silence o'er the corse he stood,
And chain'd in terror, wonder'd at the blood.
"Awake! yet oh! no voice, no smile, no breath!
"O God, support me! O, should this be death!

"O thought most dreadful! how my blood congeals! "How every vein increasing horror feels!

"How faint his visage, and how droops his head!
"O God, he's gone !-and I have done the deed !"
Pierced with the thought, the fatal spot he flies,
And, plunged in darkness, seeks a vain disguise.
Eve, hapless Eve! 'twas thine these woes to see,
To weep thy own, thy children's misery!
She, all unconscious, with her husband stray'd
To meet her sons beneath their favourite shade :
To them the choicest fruits of all her store,
Delightful task! a pleasing load she bore.
While with maternal love she look'd around-
Lo! Abel, breathless, weltering on the ground!
She shriek'd his name-'twas all that she could say,
Then sunk, and lifeless as her Abel lay.
Not long the trance could all her senses seal,
She woke too soon returning woe to feel.

Those lips, that once gave rapture to her breast,
Now cold in death, the afflicted mother press'd.
Fix'd in the silent agony of woe,

The father stood, nor comfort could bestow.
Weep, wretched father! hopeless mother, weep!
A long, long slumber Abel's doom'd to sleep!
Wrapt in the tangling horrors of the wood,
The murderer sought to fly himself and God.
Night closed her welcome shades around his head,
But angry conscience lash'd him as he fled.

"Here stretch thy limbs, thou wretch! O may this blast

"Bear death, and may this moment be thy last! "May blackest night eternal hold her reign;

"And may the sun forget to light the plain !

"Ye shades, surround me! darkness hide my sin! ""Tis dark without, but darker still within.

"O Abel! O my brother! could not all

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Thy love for me preserve thee from thy fall!

Why did not Heaven avert that deadly blow, "That dreadful, hated wound, that laid thee low! "O I'm in hell! each breath, each blast alarms, "And every maddening demon is in arms: "The voice of God, the curse of Heaven I hear; "The name of murder'd Abel strikes my ear, "Rolls in the thunder, rustles in the trees, "And Abel! Abel! murmurs in the breeze. "Still fancy scares me with his dying groan, "And clothes each scene in horrors not its own. "Curst be that day, the harbinger of woes, "When first my mother felt a mother's throes; "When sweetly smiling on my infant face, "She blest the firstling of a future race.

"O Death! thou hidden, thou mysterious bane! "Can all thy terrors equal living pain ?—

"Yet still there lies a world beyond the grave,

"From whence no death, no subterfuge can save.

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Thou, God of Vengeance! these my sufferings see,— "To all the God of Mercy, but to me!

"O soothe the tortures of my guilty state,―
"Great is thy vengeance, but thy mercy great.

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My brother! thou canst see how deep I grieve; "Look down, thou injured angel, and forgive! "Far hence, a wretched fugitive, I roam,

"The earth my bed, the wilderness my home. "Far hence I stray from these delightful seats, "To solitary tracts, and drear retreats.

"Yet ah! the very beasts will shun my sight, "Will fly my bloody footsteps with affright. "No brother they, no faithful friend have slain, "Detested only for that crime is Cain. "Had I but lull'd each fury of my soul, "Had held each rebel passion in control, "To nature and to God had faithful proved, "And loved a brother as a brother loved,-"Then had I sunk into a grave of rest, "And Cain had breathed his last on Abel's breast!"

The following juvenile exercises (composed amidst the hurry of public examinations, and within the short time allowed on such occasions) were thought to give fair promise of future excellence in Latin versification. Some of the best verses which he wrote have been lost; and he never applied himself afterwards to the cultivation of his talents in that way.

GRÆCIA CAPTA FERUM VICTOREM CEPIT.

Intenta bellis, et rudis artium,
Victrix juventus ingruit Atticæ,
Sedesque doctrinæ dicatas,
Imperio subigit superbo :

Sed non Camœnas; hæ placido domant,

Hæ sæva cultu pectora molliunt,
Gratasque Romanûm vaganti
Ingenio injiciunt habenas :
Victas Athenas en juvenum cohors,
Victas Athenas Ausonium petit
Examen; in campos Pelasgos

Roma ferox Latiumque fluxit.
Hinc mutuatur gymnasio forum
Torrentis æstus eloquii, et gravis
Demosthenis gustavit acer
Rhetoricum Cicero fluentum.

Raptâ sonori Mæonidis tubâ,

Dignos magistro dat numeros Maro;

Audaxque clangorem strepentem
Increpat, attonitusque cantat.
Chordam in Latinas Æolicam lyras
Modumque Flaccus transtulit aureum, et

Mel dulce libavit, Poetæ

Aonii labiis caducum.