Not starred and spangled courts,

Where low-bred baseness wafts perfume to pride;
No-men, high-minded men,

With powers as far above dull brutes endued,
In forest, brake, or den,

As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rude:

Men, who their duties know,

But know their rights; and, knowing, dare maintain;
Prevent the long-aimed blow,

And crush the tyrant, while they rend the chain.
These constitute a State;

And sovereign Law,' that state's collected will,

O'er thrones and globes elate,

Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.

Smit by her sacred frown,

The fiend Dissension like a vapour sinks;

And e'en the all-dazzling Crown

Hides his faint rays, and at her bidding shrinks.

Sir Wm. Jones.

(1) It may not be inappropriate to quote here Hooker's eulogy on Law ("Ecclesiastical Polity," book i.) "Of law there can be no less acknowledged than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world; all things in heaven and earth do her homage, the very least as feeling her care, and the greatest as not exempted from her power."

(2) The quiet beauty of these lines well befits their subject, and reminds us of the similar tone of Campbell's" Rainbow" (see p. 7), and Montgomery's "Daisy" (see "Select Poetry for Children," p. 220).

The sight of that young crescent brings,
Thoughts of all fair and youthful things-
The hopes of early years;

And childhood's purity and grace,
And joys that like a rainbow chase
The passing shower of tears.

The captive yields him to the dream
Of freedom, when that virgin beam
Comes out upon the air;

And painfully the sick man tries
To fix his dim and burning eyes
On the soft promise there.

And there do thoughtful men behold
A type of errors, loved of old,
Forsaken and forgiven;

And thoughts and wishes not of earth,
Just opening in their early birth,
Like that new light in heaven.

Bryant.

EPISTLE TO JOSEPH HILL, ESQ.2
DEAR Joseph-five and twenty years ago—
Alas, how time escapes!-'tis even so-
With frequent intercourse, and always sweet,
And always friendly, we were wont to cheat
A tedious hour-and now we never meet!
As some grave gentleman in Terence says,
('Twas therefore much the same in ancient days)
Good lack, we know not what to-morrow brings-
Strange fluctuation of all human things!
True. Changes will befal, and friends may part,
But distance only cannot change the heart;
And, were I called to prove the assertion true,
One proof should serve a reference to you.
Whence comes it then, that, in the wane of life,
Though nothing have occurred to kindle strife,
We find the friends we fancied we had won,
Though numerous once, reduced to few or none?

(1) A type, &c.-The new moon is a type of purification and restoration.

(2) "The epistle to Hill is quite Horatian."-Quarterly Review. Horace's epistles are characterised by freedom and ease of style, liveliness of tone, and apt delineation of character.

Can gold grow worthless that has stood the touch?
No; gold they seemed, but they were never such.
Horatio's servant once, with bow and cringe,
Swinging the parlour-door upon its hinge,
Dreading a negative, and overawed

Lest he should trespass, begged to go abroad.
"Go, fellow!-whither ?"-turning short about-
'Nay-stay at home-you're always going out.".
""Tis but a step, Sir, just at the street's end."-
'For what ?". "An't1 please you, Sir, to see a friend."-
"A friend!" Horatio cried, and seemed to start-
"Yea, marry shalt thou, and with all my heart.
And fetch my cloak; for, though the night be raw,
I'll see him too-the first I ever saw!"

I knew the man, and knew his nature mild,
And was his plaything often when a child;
But somewhat at that moment pinched him close,
Else he was seldom bitter or morose.

Perhaps his confidence just then betrayed,

His grief might prompt him with the speech he made;
Perhaps 'twas mere good-humour gave it birth,
The harmless play of pleasantry and mirth:
Howe'er it was, his language, in my mind,
Bespoke at least a man that knew mankind.
But not to moralize too much, and strain
To prove an evil of which all complain;
(I hate long arguments verbosely spun)
One story more, dear Hill, and I have done.
Once on a time an emperor, a wise man,
No matter where, in China or Japan,
Decreed, that whosoever should offend
Against the well-known duties of a friend,
Convicted once should ever after wear
But half a coat, and show his bosom bare;
The punishment importing this, no doubt,
That all was naught within, and all found out.
O happy Britain! we have not to fear
Such hard and arbitrary measures here;
Else could a law like that which I relate,
Once have the sanction of our triple state,

(1) An't-for an it, which is an obsolete expression for if it.

(2) Marry—a corruption of the word Mary, formerly employed as a kind of oath," By Mary." It is used above in the sense of indeed, to be sure.

Some few that I have known in days of old
Would stand most dreadful risk of catching cold;
While you, my friend, whatever wind should blow,
Might traverse England safely to and fro,
An honest man, close-buttoned to the chin,
Broad-cloth without, and a warm heart within.

Cowper.

EPITAPHS.

I. ON A YOUNG LADY.

UNDERNEATH this stone doth lie
As much virtue as could die;
Which when alive did vigour give

To as much beauty as could live.

Ben Jonson.

II. ON THE COUNTESS OF PEMBROKE.1
UNDERNEATH this marble hearse
Lies the subject of all verse,
Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother;
Death! ere thou hast slain another,
Learned and fair and good as she,
Time shall throw his dart at thee!

Ben Jonson.

III. INTENDED FOR SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

NATURE and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.

IV. FOR THE TOMB OF MR. HAMILTON.

PAUSE here, and think: a monitory rhyme
Demands one moment of thy fleeting time.
Consult life's silent clock, thy bounding vein;
Seems it to say "Health here has long to reign?"
Hast thou the vigour of thy youth? an eye
That beams delight? a heart untaught to sigh?
Yet fear. Youth, ofttimes healthful and at ease,
Anticipates a day it never sees;

And many a tomb, like Hamilton's, aloud
Exclaims, "Prepare thee for an early shroud!"

Pope.

Cowper.

(1) This accomplished lady was the sister of Sir Philip Sidney, who has been styled by Coleridge "the star of serenest brilliancy in the glorious constellation of Elizabeth's court."

THE EMIGRANTS.

WHERE the remote Bermudas ride
In ocean's bosom unespied,

From a small boat that rowed along,
The listening winds received this song:-
"What should we do but sing His praise,
That led us through the watery maze,
Unto an isle so long unknown,
And yet far kinder than our own!
"Where He the huge sea-monsters racks,
That lift the deep upon their backs,
He lands us on a grassy stage,
Safe from the storm and prelates'1 rage.

"He gives us this eternal spring,
Which here enamels everything;
And sends the fowls to us, in care,
On daily visits through the air.

He hangs in shades the orange bright,
Like golden lamps in a green night,
And does in the pomegranate close3
Jewels more rich than Ormus shows.

"He makes the figs our mouths to meet,
And throws the melons at our feet;
With cedars chosen by His hand,
From Lebanon, He stores the land.

"He cast-of which we rather boast-
The Gospel's pearl upon our coast,
And, in these rocks, for us did frame,
A temple where to sound His name.
"Oh! let our voice His praise exalt,
Till it arrive at heaven's vault,
Which thence perhaps resounding, may
Echo beyond the Mexique bay."

(1) Prelates' rage-See note 4 below.

(2) Like golden, &c.-No one can have seen an orangery, even in our own country, who will not acknowledge the truth and beauty of this line.

(3) Close-enclose.

(4) Gospel's pearl, &c-The emigrant's had left their country to avoid persecution for their religious opinions;-hence their thankfulness that here they would be unmolested.