A Mastiff pass'd; inflamed with ire,
His eyeballs shot indignant fire.
He foam'd, le raged with thirst of blood.

Spurning the ground, the monarch stood,
And roar'd aloud: "Suspend the fight;
In a whole skin go sleep to-night:
Or tell me, ere the battle rage,
What wrongs provoke thee to engage?
Is it ambition fires thy breast,
Or avarice, that ne'er can rest?
From these alone unjustly springs
The world-destroying wrath of kings.”
The surly Mastiff thus returns:
"Within my bosom glory burns.
Like heroes of eternal name,
Whom poets sing, I fight for fame.
The butcher's spirit-stirring mind
To daily war my youth inclined;
He train'd me to heroic deed,
Taught me to conquer, or to bleed."

"Cursed Dog," the Bull replied, "no more

I wonder at thy thirst of gore;

For thou (beneath a butcher train'd,
Whose hands with cruelty are stain'd,
His daily murders in thy view)

Must, like thy tutor, blood pursue.

Take, then, thy fate." With goring wound At once he lifts him from the ground:

Aloft the sprawling hero flies,

Mangled he falls, he howls, and dies.

THE HARE AND MANY FRIENDS.
Friendship, like love, is but a name,
Unless to one you stint the flame.
The child, whom many fathers share,
Hath seldom known a father's care.
"Tis thus in friendships; who depend
On many, rarely find a friend.

A Hare, who, in a civil way,
Complied with every thing, like Gay,
Was known by all the bestial train
Who haunt the wood, or graze the plain;
Her care was never to offend;
And every creature was her friend.

As forth she went at early dawn,
To taste the dew-besprinkled lawn,
Behind she hears the hunter's cries,
And from the deep-mouth'd thunder flies.
She starts, she stops, she pants for breath
She hears the near advance of death;
She doubles, to mislead the hound,
And measures back her mazy round;
Till, fainting in the public way,
Half-dead with fear, she gasping lay.

What transport in her bosom grew,
When first the Horse appear'd in view!
"Let me," says she, "your back ascend,
And owe my safety to a friend.
You know my feet betray my flight:
To friendship every burden's light."

The horse replied, "Poor honest Puss,
It grieves my heart to see thee thas:
Be comforted, relief is near,
For all your friends are in the rear."

She next the stately Bull implored;
And thus replied the mighty lord:
"Since every beast alive can tell
That I sincerely wish you well,
I may, without offence, pretend
To take the freedom of a friend.

To leave you thus might seem unkind;
But, see, the Goat is just behind."

The Goat remark`d, "her pulse was high,

Her languid head, her heavy eye.

My back," says he, "may do you harm;
The Sheep's at hand, and wool is warm."
The sheep was feeble, aud complain'd
"His sides a load of wool sustain'd;
Said he was slow, confess'd his fears;
For hounds eat sheep as well as hares."
She now the trotting calf address'd,
To save from death a friend distress'd.
"Shall I," says he, "of tender age,
In this important care engage?
Older and abler pass'd you by;
How strong are those! how weak am I!
Should I presume to bear you hence,
Those friends of mine may take offence.
Excuse me, then; you know my heart;
But dearest friends, alas! must part.
How shall we all lament! Adieu;

For see the hounds are just in view."

Gay wrote but little prose, except letters. He was too lazy to be a volu minous correspondent, but his style is easy, natural, and amusing. He had accompanied Pope to the seat of Lord Harcourt in Oxfordshire; and durir g his visit a violent thunder-storm occurred, the fatal effects of which upon two persons he gives in the following beautiful and affecting letter:

THE VILLAGE LOVERS.

Stanton Harcourt. Aug. 19, 1718. The only news that you can expect to have from me here is news from heaven, for I am quite out of the world; and there is scarce any thing can reach me except the voice of thunder, which undoubtedly you have heard too. We have read in old authors of high towers levelled by it to the ground, while the humbler valleys have escaped the only thing that is proof against it is the laurel

:

which, however, I take to be no great security to the brains of modern authors. But to let you see that the contrary to this often happens, I must acquaint you, that the highest and most extravagant heap of towers in the universe which is in this neighborhood, stands still undefaced, while a cock of barley in our next field has been consumed to ashes. Would to God that this heap of barley had been all that perished! for, unhappily, beneath this little shelter sat two much more constant lovers than ever were found in romance under the shade of a beech-tree. John Hewet was a well-set man, of about five-and-twenty; Sarah Drew might be rather called comely than beautiful, and was about the same age. They had passed through the various labors of the year together, with the greatest satisfaction: if she milked, it was his morning and evening care to bring the cows to her hand; it was but last fair that he bought her a present of green silk for her straw hat; and the posie on her silver ring was of his choosing. Their love was the talk of the whole neighborhood. It was that very morning that he had obtained the consent of her parents; and it was but till the next week that they were to wait to be happy. Perhaps, in the intervals of their work, they were now talking of the wedding-clothes; and John was suiting several corts of poppies and field-flowers to her complexion, to choose her a knot for the wedding-day. While they were thus busied, (it was on the last of July, between two and three in the afternoon,) the clouds grew black, and such a storm of thunder and lightning ensued, that all the laborers made the best of their way to what shelter the trees and hedges afforded. Sarah was frightened, and fell down in a swoon on a heap of barley. John, who never separated from her, sat down by her side, having raked together two or three heaps, the better to secure her from the storm. Immediately there was heard so loud a crack, as if heaven had split asunder: every one was now solicitous for the safety of his neighbor, and called to one another throughout the field: no answer being returned to those who called to our lovers, they stepped to the place where they lay; they perceived the barley all in a smoke, and then spied this faithful pair: John with one arm about Sarah's neck, and the other held over her, as to screen her from the lightning. They were struck dead, and stiffened in this tender posture. Sarah's left eyebrow was singed, and there appeared a black spot on her breast: her lover was all over black, but not the least signs of life were found in either. Attended by their melancholy companions, they were conveyed to the town, and the next day were interred in Stanton Harcourt church-yard. My Lord Harcourt, at Mr. Pope's and my request, has caused a stone to be placed over them upon condition that we furnished the epitaph, which is as follows:

When eastern lovers feed the funeral fire,
On the same pile the faithful pair expire:
Here pitying Heaven that virtue mutual found,
And blasted both that it might neither wound.
Hearts so sincere, the Almighty saw well pleased,
Sent his own lightning, and the victims seized.

But iny Lord is apprehensive the country people will not under-
stand this; and Mr. Pope says he'll make one with something
of Scripture in it, and with as little of poetry as Hopkins and
Sternhold.
Yours, &c.

BARTON BOOTH, though known in his day chiefly as an actor, deserves uctice in this work for his very beautiful song, entitled,

SWEET ARE THE CHARMS OF HER I LOVE.

Sweet are the charms of her I love,

More fragrant than the damask rose,

Soft as the down of turtle-dove,

Gentle as air when Zephyr blows,
Refreshing as descending rains
To sunburnt climes and thirsty plains.
True as the needle to the pole,
Or as the dial to the sun;
Constant as gliding waters roll,

Whose swelling tides obey the moon;

From every other charmer free,

My life and love shall follow thee.

The lamb the flowery thyme devours,
The dam the tender kid pursues;

Sweet Philomel, in shady bowers

Of verdant spring, her note renews;
All follow what they most admire,
As I pursue my soul's desire.

Nature must change her beauteous face,
And vary as the seasons rise;

As winter to the spring gives place,

Summer th' approach of autumn flies.
No change on love the seasons bring,
Love only knows perpetual spring.
Devouring Time, with stealing pace,

Makes lofty oaks and cedars bow;
And marble towers, and gates of brass,
In his rude march he levels low:
But Time, destroying far and wide,
Love from the soul can ne'er divide.
Death only, with his cruel dart,

The gentle godhead can remove;
And drive him from the bleeding heart
To mingle with the bless'd above,

Where, known to all his kindred train,
He finds a lasting rest from pain.

Love, and his sister fair, the Soul,

Twin-born, from heaven together came:
Love will the universe control,

When dying seasons lose their name;
Divine abodes shall own his power
When time and death shall be no more.

JOHN ARBUTHNOT. Died 1735.

JOHN ARBUTHNOт, the son of a clergyman of the Episcopal church of Scot land, was born at Arbuthnot, near Montrose, not long after the Restoration. Having at a proper age entered the University of Aberdeen, he applied himself with diligence to his studies. After taking his doctor's degree in medi cine, he resolved to push his fortunes in London. He began by teaching mathematics as a means of subsistence; and in 1697 he published "An Examination of Dr. Woodward's Account of the Deluge." This was considered a very learned performance, in the then infancy of geology; and his practice increasing with his profession, he became known to the most celebrated men of his day, and was, in 1704, elected a fellow of the Royal Society. The intimate friend and associate of Pope, Swift, Gay, Addison, Parnell, and other leading minds of that bright period of English literature, he was inferior to neither in learning or in wit, while in the versatility of his powers he was decidedly pre-eminent.

In 1714 the celebrated "Scriblerus Club" was formed, consisting of test of the greatest wits and statesmen of the times. In this brilliant collection of learning and genius, no one was better qualified than Dr. Arbuthnot, both in point of wit and erudition, to promote the object of the society, which was "to ridicule all the false tastes in learning under the character of a man of capacity enough, that had dipped into every art and science, but injudiciously in each." One of the productions of this club was the "Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus," written conjointly by Pope, Swift, and Arbuthnot, though the latter doubtless wrote the greater part of it. It is a severe satire upon the follies of mankind; and for keen wit, cutting sarcasm, and genuine humor, has not, perhaps, its superior in the language; but disfigured, as occasionally is, by a coarseness and vulgarity which the manners of the age readily tolerated. it is now but little read.

Dr. Arbuthnot died on the 27th February, 1735. As a wit and a scholar the character in which he is best known to us, he may be justly ranked among the most eminent men of an age distinguished by a high cultivation of intel lect and an almost exuberant display of wit and genius. "His good morals,' Pope used to say, "were equal to any man's, but his wit and humor superios to all mankind." "He has more wit than we all have," said Dean Swift te a lady, "and his humanity is equal to his wit." In addition to these brilham qualities, the higher praise of benevolence and goodness is most deservedly due to him. His warmth of heart and cheerfulness of temper rendered him much beloved by his family and friends, towards whom he displayed the most constant affection and attachment.1

1 Read an arti.le in Retrospective Review, viii 285.