Yield to fate. BACCHUS reigns! while far away, One of GODFREY's most intimate friends was NATHANIEL EVANS, a native of Philadelphia, admitted to holy orders by the Bishop of London in 1765. He died in October, 1767, in the twentysixth year of his age, and his poems, few of which had been printed in his lifetime, were soon afterward by his direction collected and published under the editorial supervision of the Reverend WILLIAM SMITH, and Miss ELIZABETH GREME, subsequently so well known as Mrs. FERGUSON. EVANS was preparing a collection of his poems for the press, and had written part of the preface, in which, after having referred to the unhappy fortunes of many men of genius, he said: "Sometimes, alas! the iron hand of death cuts them suddenly off, as their beauties are just budding into existence, and leaves but the fair promise of future excellences." These were his last words; and Doctor SMITH suggests that they were so applicable to his case that he should have feared to publish them as from the mind of the deceased poet, if he had neglected to preserve the autograph to show that they had not been accommodated to that event. The most carefully finished of the pieces by EVANS is an "Ode on the Prospect of Peace," written in 1761, but several in a lighter vein were more pleasing. In the following, we have a glimpse of our great philosopher, in his middle age: "TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ESQ., LL.D. "ON HEARING HIM PLAY ON THE HARMONICA. "Is grateful wonder lost, long had we view'd Each gen'rous act thy patriot-soul pursued; Our little state resounds thy just applause, And, pleased, from thee new fame and honour draws; That form the true preeminence of mind. The lambent lightnings innocently play; And down thy rods beheld the dreaded fire In a swift flame descend and then expire; The noble province of the sapient mind! For this the soul's best faculties were given, To trace great nature's laws from earth to heaven. "Yet not these themes alone thy thoughts command; Each softer science owns thy fostering hand; Aided by thee, UBANIA's heavenly art Hark! the soft warblings, sounding smooth and clear, A tide of melting music to the soul; And sure if aught of mortal-moving stralu, Can touch with joy the high angelic train, Tis this enchanting instrument of thine, Which speaks in accents more than half divine!" Among some trifles inscribed to Miss GREME, who had rallied him on his indisposition to marry, was a new version of the story of "ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE. The fiends, who listening round him stood, Who once from wedlock's noose gets free; Has most prodigious luck indeed!" A portrait of EVANS, by his young friend WEST, is preserved in Philadelphia. Among the subscribers for his volume of poems, was Dr. GOLDSMITH, with whom he had probably become acquainted while visiting London for ordination. The celebrated wit, lawyer, and statesman, FRANCIS HOPKINSON, born in 1737, made his first appearance as a poet in BRADFORD'S "American Magazine," one of his earlier contributions to which was a tribute to the genius of WOLLASTON, the painter, then living in Philadelphia fron which the following is an extract: "To you, famed WOLLASTON, these straius belong, And be your praise the subject of my song When your soft pencil bids the canvas shine With mimic life, with elegance divine, The enraptured muse, fond to partake thy fin, With equal sweetness strives to sweep the lyre, With equal justice fain would paint your praise, And by your name immortalize her lays. "Ofttimes with wonder and delight I stand To view the amazing conduct of your hand. At first unlabored sketches lightly trace The glimmering outlines of a human face, Then, by degrees, the liquid life o'erflows Each rising feature-the rich canvas glows With heightened charms-the forehead rises fairIn glossy ringlets twines the nut-brown hair, And sparkling eyes give meaning to the whole, "Nor let the muse forget thy name, O. WEST! This poem is not reprinted in the collection of HOPKINSON'S Works, published in Philadelphia in 1793. His "Battle of the Kegs," a satirical ballad, is the most celebrated of his productions; and several pieces of humorous prose, written by him before the revolution, are among the familiar and popular examples of early American literature. JOHN BEVERIDGE, the author of numerous Latin poems in the "American Magazine" and other miscellanies of that period, was a native of Scotland, and had studied under the great RUDDIMAN" in Edinburgh. He emigrated in 1752 to New England, where he remained five years, and became intimate with Doctor JONATHAN MAYHEW and other scholars. In 1757 he proceeded to Philadelphia, and was appointed professor of languages in the college there. An entertaining account of him is given in Captain ALEXANDER GRAYDON's admirably written “Memoirs of a Life passed chiefly in Pennsylvania." In 1765 he published by subscription his volume entitled "Epistolæ Familiares et alia quædam Miscellanea," several of which were translated by ALEXANDER ALEXANDER, who prefixes some verses on Mr. BEVERIDGE's poetical performances," wherein he says — "If music sweet delight your ravished ear, As to excel MOONIDES in Greek. Here you may view a bard of modern time, While in Boston BEVERIDGE addressed the following epistle to one of his friends in Scotland: "AD REV. JACOB INNESIUM, V.D.M. "Tædium longi maris et viarum, "Atque tranquillus requiesco pace, "Gratior qua sol radiis refulget, Murmurat aura "Dama fæcundis levis errat agris, Piscium puris genus omne rivis, Alites sylvis, aviumque turba Plurima dumis. "Estuet vultu Boreas minaci, "Hic tamen vitæ liceat beatæ "Attamen torquet male nunc, amice, "Cæterum vivunt reliqui valentque, JOHN OSBORN, son of a schoolmaster of Sandwich, in Massachusetts, who was born in 1713 and died in 1753, wrote a " Whaling Song," which was well known in the Pacific for more than half a century. While in college, in 1735, he addressed an elegiac epistle to one of his sisters, on the death of a member of the family, of which the following is a specimen : The following is a translation of the above Ode, by the Reverend Doctor JONATHAN MAYHEW, of Boston: TO THE REVEREND MR. J. INNES, &c. Where Casco's shore, of winding form, Invites the eager lab'rer's toil; Where murmuring zephyrs still I hear And gentle breezes fan the air. "Here the light deer still take their round, Here purer streams alive I find, With angry face, let Boreas storm, A life with nature's bounty blest; "For in these groves, from morn to night, "Exceptlog this, all friends are well. With copious horn, its stores to yield. Nor flowery meads, To me their former joys dispense. Though all their pleasures court my sense, With inward sorrow fill'd, And sigh to every breathing wind." The facetious MATHER BYLES was in his time equally famous as a poet and wit. A contemporary bard exclaims "Would but APOLLO'S genial touch inspire Such sounds as breathe from BYLES's warbling lyre, There's punning BYLES, provokes our smiles, He visits folks to crack his jokes, With strutting gait, and wig so great, And throws out wit, or what's like it, BYLES was graduated at Cambridge in 1725, and ordained the first minister of the church in Hollis street, in 1732. He soon became eminent as a preacher, and King's College at Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of Doctor in Divinity. He was one of the authors of "A Collection of Poems by several Hands," which appeared in 1744, and of numerous essays and metrical compositions in - The New England Weekly Journal," the merit of which was such as to introduce him to the notice of POPE and other English scholars. One of his poems is entitled, "The Conflagration;" and it is applied to that grand catastrophe of our world when the face of nature is to be changed by a deluge of fire." The following lines are from this effusion: Yet shall ye, flames, the wasting globe refine, And bid the skies with purer splendor shine. The earth, which the prolific fires consume, To beauty burns, and withers into bloom; Improving in the fertile flame it lies, Fades into form, and into vigor dies: Fresh-dawning glories blush amidst the blaze, And nature all renews her flowery face. With endless charms the everlasting year Rolls round the seasons in a full career; Spring, ever-blooming, bids the fields rejoice, And warbling birds try their melodious voice; Where'er she treads, lilies unbidden blow, Quick tulips rise, and sudden roses glow: Her pencil paints a thousand beauteous scenes, Where blossoms bud amid immertal greens; Each stream, in mazes, murmurs as it flows, And floating forests gently bend their boughs. Thou, autumn, too. sitt'st in the fragrant shade. While the ripe fruits blush all around thy head: And lavish nature, with luxuriant hands, All the soft months in gay confusion blends." BYLES was earnestly opposed to the revolu tion, and in the spring of 1777 was denounced in the public assemblies as a Tory, and compelled to give bonds for his appearance before a court for trial. In the following June he was convicted of treasonable conversation, and hostility to the country, and sentenced to be imprisoned forty days on board a guard-ship, and at the end of that period to be sent with his family to England. The board of war however took his case into consideration, and commuted the punishment to a short confinement under a guard in his own house; but, though he continued to reside in Boston during the remainder of his life he never again entered a pulpit, nor regained his anterevolutionary popularity. He died in 1788, in the eighty-second year of his age, He was a favorite in every social or convivial circle, and no one was more fond of his society than the colonial governor, BELCHER, on the death of whose wife he wrote an elegy ending with "Meantime my name to thine allied shall stand. Still our warm friendship, mutual flames extend;* The muse shall so survive from age to age, And BELCHER'S name protect his BYLES's page." The doctor had declined an invitation to visit with the governor the province of Maine, and BELCHER resorted to a stratagem to secure his. company. Having persuaded him to drink tea with him on board the Scarborough ship of war, one Sunday afternoon, as soon as they were seated at the table the anchor was weighed, the sails set, and before the punning parson had called for his last cup, the ship was too far at sea for him to think of returning to the shore. As every thing necessary for his comfort had been thoughtfully provided, he was easily reconciled to the voyage. While making preparations for religious services, the next Sunday, it was discovered that there was lowing lines, which were sung instead of a selecno hymn-book on board, and he wrote the fol tion from STERNHOLD and HOPKINS "Great Gon, thy works our wonder raise; "Thy power produced this mighty frame, Thy opening hands their joys bestow, "See the broad sun forsake the skies. Glow on the waves, and downward glide. And star-beams tremble o'er the tide "Each various scene, or day or night, LORD! points to thee our nourish'd soul; So the touch'd needle courts the pole. JOSEPH GREEN, a merchant of Boston, who had been a classmate of BYLES at Cambridge, was little less celebrated than the doctor for humour; and some of his poetical compositions were as popular a hundred years ago as more recently have been those of CROAKER & Co.," which In 1750 GREEN published "An Entertain ment for a Winter Evening," in which he ridicules the freemasons; and afterward The Sand Bank," "A True Account of the Celebration of St. JOHN the Baptist," and several shorter pieces, all of which I believe were satirical. His epigrams are the best written in this country before the revolution; and many anecdotes are told to show the readiness of his wit and his skill as an they resemble in spirit and playful ease of versi-improvisator. On one occasion, a country gen fication. The abduction of the Hollis street minister was the cause of not a little merriment in Boston; and GREEN, between whom and BYLES there was some rivalry, as the leaders of opposing social factions, soon after wrote a burlesque account of it: "In DAVID'S Psalms an oversight BYLES found one morning at his tea, Ambitious thoughts at length prevail'd The part wherein the prophet fail'd. To hear it read and sung on board. (Their credit sure we may rely on,) Unless loud fame our faith beguiles, "At first, when he began to read, Their heads the assembly downward hung, And thus he read, and thus they sung. "THE PSALM. "With vast amazement we survey "Fish of all kinds inhabit here, Here haddock, hake, and flounders are, The shining surface seems to be "But when the winds and tempests rise, Giddy as new-dropp'd calves, and reel Amarescoggin tribe to see, And tribe of Penobscot. ⚫BYLES's favorite cat, so named by his friends. tleman, knowing his reputation as a poet, procured an introduction to him, and solicited a first-rate epitaph," for a favorite servant, who had lately died. GREEN asked what were the man's chief qualities, and was told that "COLE excelled in all things, but was particularly good at raking hay, which he could do faster than anybody, the present company, of course, excepted." GREEN wrote immediately: "Here lies the body of Joux Cole, His master loved him like his soul; In his old age he left Boston for England. rather from the infirmities of age, than indif ference to the cause of liberty. The most remarkable book of poems printed in this country during the eighteenth century is the "Pietas et Gratulatio Collegii Cantabrigiensis apud Novanglos," (1761,) in which the president and fellows of Harvard College celebrated the death of GEORGE II. and the accession of his grandson. It was handsomely printed in a quarto of one hundred and six pages, and the copy in my possession, one of two that were sent to the king, is very richly bound, in red morocco, profusely gilt. Dr. HOLYOKE, who was then president of the college, and whose contribution, “Adhortatio Prasidis," which the "Monthly Review" for 1763 praises as truly Horatian, is the first piece in the collection, describes it in a letter to THOMAS HOLLIS as "an attempt of several young gentlemen here with us, and educated in this college, to show their pious sorrow on account of the death of our late glorious king, their attachment to his royal house, the joy they have in the accession of his present majesty to the British throne, and in the prospect they have of the happiness of Britain from the royal progeny which they hope for from his alliance with the illustrious house of Mechlenburg." The "Critical Review" for October, 1763, expresses an opinion that "the verses from Harvard College already seem to bid fair for a rivalship with the productions of Cam and Isis." The prose introduction has been ascribed both to Governor HUTCHINSON and to Governor FRANCIS BERNARD, but was probably from the pen of the latter, who was a very accomplished scholar. Numbers ii. in Latin and xxv. in English were by JOHN LOVELL; iii. xii. xiv. and xxiii. in Latin, xv. and xvi. in Greek, and v. in English, by STEPHEN SEWELL; vii. in English by JOHN LOWELL; x. in English by SAmuel Deane; xi. by Doctor BENJAMIN CHURCH; xiii. by Doctor SAMUEL COOPER; xviii. in Greek, xix. a Latin translation of it, xx. the same in English, and xxi. in Latin, by Governor BERNARD; Xxvi in Latin, and xxii., an English version of it, by Doctor JOHN WINTHROP; and xxix. by THOMAS OLIVER, afterwards lieutenant-governor. A writer in the Monthly Anthology" for 1809 gives the authorship of these pieces from Ms. notes in a copy which had been owned by Mr. SEWELL, and believes, from internal evidence, that xxviii., an English lyric, was by Doctor COOPER. Mr. KETTELL, says Governor JAMES BOWDOIN, was also a contributor. The best English poem in the Pietas et Gratulatio is that of the celebrated Doctor BENJAMIN CHURCH. He was born in Boston in 1739, and graduated at Cambridge when in the sixteenth year of his age. After finishing his professional education, he established himself as a physician in his native city, and soon became eminent by his literary and political writings. At the commencement of the revolutionary troubles he was chosen a member of the Massachusetts legislature, and after the battle of Lexington was appointed surgeon-general of the army. In the autumn of 1775 he was suspected of treasonable correspondence with the enemy, arrested by order of the commander-in-chief, tried by the general court, and found guilty. By direction of the Congress, to whom the subject of his punishment was referred, he was confined in a prison in Connecticut; but after a few months, on account of the condition of his health, was set at liberty; and in the summer of 1776 embarked at Newport for the West Indies, in a ship which was never heard of after the day on which it sailed. The concluding lines of his address to GEORGE III., to which allusion has been made, are as follows: "May one clear calm attend thee to thy close, To calm-brow'd Peace, the maddening world restore, Till nature's utmost bound thy arms restrain, The CHURCH also wrote "The Times," Choice," and "Elegies on GEORGE WHITFIELD and Doctor MAYHEW." He was a man of various and decided talents, but his poetical writings possess only a moderate degree of excellence. WILLIAM LIVINGSTON, a member of the first Congress, and the first republican governor of New Jersey, was born in New York in 1723, and graduated at Yale College in 1741. His " Philosophic Solitude, or the Choice of a Rural Life," written while he was a student, was first printed in 1747. It is in smoothly flowing verse, evinces a careful study of good models, and may be regarded as the most chaste and agreeable poem of considerable length produced in America before the close of the first half of the last century. Its prevailing tone is indicated in the opening lines: "Let ardent heroes seek renown in arms, Far from the painted belle, and white-gloved beau, Mr. LIVINGSTON was an able and manly writer on public affairs before the revolution and during the war, and continued in old age occasionally to indulge his early predilection for poetical com. position. When more than sixty he addressed a poem, marked by generous feeling and good sense, to WASHINGTON, with whom he had maintained the most friendly relations. He died in 1790. ROBERT BOLLING, of Buckingham county, Virginia, born in 1738, wrote with facility in Latin, Italian, and French, and some of his poetical pieces in these languages and in English have been printed. He left in manuscript two volumes of verses, which a writer in the "Colum bian Magazine" for 1787 describes as "Horatian." His poems which have been submitted to the public hardly justify this praise. Another southern poet of the same period was ROWLAND RUGELY. In June, 1782, while MATTHEW CAREY Contemplated the publication of an extensive American Anthology, TRUMBULL, the author of "MacFingal," wrote to him: RUGELY, of South Carolina, is a poet certainly better than EVANS. He published a volume of poems in London near twenty years ago, chiefly in the manner of PRIOR, many of which are well worth preserving; and since that a travestie of the fourth book of Virgil, which for delicacy and true I have exhumor is superior to COTTON'S." amined RUGELY's volume published at Oxford in 1763, and cannot quite concur in Judge TRUMBULL'S estimate of its merits. GULIAN VERPLANCK, of New York, after completing his education, travelled abroad, and while in England, in 1773, wrote the following prophetic lines on the destiny of this country: "Hail, happy Britain, Freedom's blest retreat! And when that time arrives-the lot of all- Vice, a Dr. PRIME, also of New York, finished his professional education in Europe, and on returning applied for a commission in the ariny, but did not succeed in obtaining one. He alludes to his digappointment in an elegy on the death of a friend, Doctor SCUDDEB, who was slain in the skirmish at Shrewsbury in New Jersey: "So bright, bless'd shade! thy deeds of virtue shine: "With great applause hast thou perform'd thy part, Or in the labors of the healing art, Or in fair Liberty's important strife.. |