Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

PRISON ECLOGUE.

PRIESTLEY and COOPER.

Priestley.

AT ease reclining on thy truckle bed,
Bolts at thy door, and brandy in thy head, (a)
Thou, Cooper, may'st the imprisoned muses court, ⚫
If to a prison muses deign resort. (b)

I, wretched wight! have left my native plains,
The smoky workshops and the swarthy swains, (c)
Where joining chemic with religion's hate,
I try'd to decompose the Church and State;
Spurning the bounds to diff'rent studies fixt,
Poison with preaching fearlessly I mixt;
Sedition into Deism's service prest-
(The treason gave dull controversy zest).
But thou, secure in this sequestered seat, (d)
The hungry felon's desperate retreat,

May'st give thy pent-up spleen its utmost scope;
(A convict-what hast thou to do with hope?)
Dip thy advent'rous pen in ranker gall,
Lash Lawyers, Judges, Jurymen and all;
Make them e'en here the press's freedom feel,
And give poor Nicholson another meal.*

Cooper.

(e) O gentle Doctor, were my sceptic mind
To heav'n or heav'nly thoughts at all inclin'd,
Some god has deign'd (almost I could believe)
This precious leisure to my prayers to give, (ƒ)

(a) Tityre, tu patule recubans sub tegmine fagi. (b) Musam meditáris avená.

(c) Nos

dulcia linquimus arva; Nos patriam fugimus; (d) tu Tityre,

(e) O Melibaa. (f) Deus nobis hæc otra fecit. Namque erit ille mihi semper Deus.

Ille meas errare boves,, ut cernis, et ipsum

Ludere, quae vellem, calamo permisit agresti.

Alluding to a paper called The Daily Repast, published in

the Philadelphia prison.

That,

My god he shall be, oft to him shall flow
This black libation, for to him I owe
That, as you see, my flocks securely roam,
Nor simple dream of wand'ring far from home;
To him, that armed with this envenom'd quill,
I can blaspheme, or libel, as I will.

Priestley.

(g) I envy not thy happiness, I own:
I wonder more that thou art here alone.
Sedition stalks so boldly through the State,,
Lampoons distract, and libels irritate.
Adjourn'd the Senate, braving see Duane
Sneaks into town, and heads his Greens again;
The ribald Callender can hardly meet
A prison's shelter (for the wretch must eat)
And I, who've still for persecution pray'd,
* Attack in vain the idol I had made,
My younglings see, with unavailing rage, (b)
Hope of my stock, and solace of my age,
Unheeded meet the stupid peasant's eye,
Abortive fall, 'midst woods and wilds to die.
(i) A beast (I now remember) had of old
In accents harsh and piercing, thus foretold.
Well I remember now his boding croak,
And quills erect, which bristled as he spoke,t
(k) But give me, dearest friend, this god to know.

Cooper.

(7) I thought (ah! simpleton for thinking so)
I thought this seat of mild fraicrnal love,
Where all in just equality should move,

(g) Non tamen invideo: miror magis.

(b) Spem gregis, ab! silice in nuca connixa reliquit. (i) Sæpe malum boc nobis, si meas non læva fuisset De colo tactas memini predicere quercus

(Sæpe sinistra cava prædixit ab ilice cornix) (k) Sed tamen, iste Deus qui sit, da, Tityre, nebis. (1) Urbem, quam dicunt Romam-putavi

Stultus, ego huic nostre similem

Sic canibus catulos similes

Noram

* Alluding to Dr. Priestley's attack on the federal constitu tion, in his Letters to the inhabitants of Northumberland, which fell almost still born.

† Porcupine.

I 2

Was

Was like the city* where our artful song
So often led the giddy multitude along.
Thus tygers' whelps I knew were like their sire,
Thus ruthless Jacobins (their borrowed fire
Still nourish'd from the Gallic parent flame)
Were blood-stained murderers, every where the same.
Priestley.

But what to Philadelphia turned thy flight?

Cooper:

(m) Sweet liberty," that goddess heavenly bright;"
Late though she cast on me a side-long glance,
Such as inflames her madd'ning sons in France.
She came, and me her fondest vot'ry found,
When the bleach'd cotton ceas'd to clothe my ground: +
When flimsy projects had devour'd my pelf,
And left me nought to care but for herself.
(n) By poverty, by disappointment stung,
(Such causes loose the noisy patriot's tongue)
(0) Hither I came, and first beheld the sage,
His locks by wisdom whiten'd and by age.
A place! I cried, and own'd a present God;
(p) A place! he echo'd with a gracious nod.
See yon white wall, yon grated windows see.
The fittest place for such philosophy!

(9) Tend for six moons the flocks that wait thee there;
Creatures of thine, they merit all thy care.

Priestley.

(r) Thrice happy man! then thou at length hast found A resting place-for thee an ample bound.

What though the walls are bare, though noisome smells
Assail thy nostrils from surrounding cells.

(m) Libertas, quæ sera tamen respexit inertem. (n)-Nec tam presentes alibi cognoscere divos. (0) Hic illum villi

(p) Hic mibi responsum primus dedit ille petenti; (g) Pascite, ut ante, boves

(r) Fortunate senex ?

Non insueta graves tentabunt pabula fætas.

* Manchester.

+ Cooper, while at Manchester, invented a mode of BLEACHING COTTON by the help of INFLAMMABLE AIR. He burnt the cottons, became a bankrupt, turned patriot, and emigrated to America.-A very natural progress towards perfectability.

No

[ocr errors]

No mead untry'd thy cumber'd flock invites,
From neighbouring fold no pestilence affrights.
Thrice happy man! whether with sleep opprest,
Their distant tinklings lull thy soul to rest;
Or, if awake, their ports demand thy care-
Alike regardless of to-morrow's fare.—

(s) Here 'neath the lowly shed, with murmur hoarse,
Shall masons ply the saws dividing force:

Deep on the ear shall pond'rous hammers come,
Nor cease the spinning wheels their drowsy hum.

Cooper.

(t) Sooner shall guilty Jacobins forgive,
Or thou, dear doctor, learn in peace to live;
Sooner shall Tench acquire an honest name,*
M'Kean grow sober, or his wife grow tame; †
Sooner shall Mammoth pay his British debt, ‡
Than I such vast munificence forget.

(s) Hinc alta sub rupe canet frondator—
Nec gemere aeriâ cèssavit turtur ab ulmo-
(t) Ante leves ergo pascentur

He pretended

*TENCH COXE, a most furious Jacobin. great attachment to the royal cause, during the rebellion, and actually went out to meet Sir William Howe, when that general approached Philadelphia; but he has since been remarkable for his enmity to Great Britain, and his devotedness to France.

† M-Kean, the present governor of Pennsylvania.

JEFFERSON (now a candidate for the Presidency), who wrote a foolish account of a monster, which he called MAMMOTH, is one of those who have long owed vast sums to the British merchants.-His father-in-law, Mr. Wales, was an Englishman, who owed his fortune to the triendship of Messrs. Farrel and Jones, of Bristol. Mr. Wales ordered in his will, that previous to any division of his property amongst his sonsin-law, the debt due by him to the heirs of his benefactors should first be discharged; but these pious sons-in-law, instead of obeying the will, retained the amount of the debt, till, in consequence of an iniquitous confiscation law passed in Virginia, they were enabled to pay it into the treasury of that state, in depreciated paper money-Jefferson was one of those sons-in-law. Such is the man who is now VICE PRESIDent, and who will probably be PRESIDENT of the free, enlightened, and happy Republic of America.-And will they yet have the impudence to tell us about the VIRTUES of a Republic?

[blocks in formation]

Priestley.

But I unhappy! whither shall I flee?
Who'll give asylum to a wretch like me?
Shall I on Susquehanna's banks remain,
(v) Or seek, repentant, Britain's shores again?
Haply I may, when long revolving years
Complete an age of penitence and tears,
Hope to approach once more her sea-girt bound,
Kiss her white cliffs, and clasp her sacred ground,
(u)" Admire the cottager's unenvy'd thatch,
"The well glaz'd lattice, and th' unfasten'd latch."
(w) Oh! shall the barb'rous Gauls such fields invade?
For such rude spoilers are our harvests made?
(x) Go, go my books-sedition's darling boast :
No more my pen shall aid the murd'rous host.-

Cooper.

Yet here with me beguile the night, and share
My humble pallet and my homely fare.
Soon shalt thou see with platters spread the board,
(y) With viscid mush and sweet molasses stor❜d.
(z) And hark! the bell announces supper near,
And clanking chains more closely strike the ear,

REPUBLICAN MORALITY,

Published in the London Porcupine, of November 10th, 1800.

We shall here begin the necessary undertaking of detecting the artful and malicious insinuations of the Morning Chronicle, respecting the conduct of his MAJESTY's ships of war in the Atlantic Seas.

(v) -Et penitus toto divisos orbe Britannos.

(u) Pauperis et tuguri congestum cespite culmen (w) Impius bac-miles babebit?

Barbarus bas segetes?

(x) Ite me, quondam felix pecus, ite capelle. (y) -Sunt nobis mitia ponia

(x) Et jam summa procul culmina fumant Majoresque cadunt.

Το

« ForrigeFortsæt »