But he at length beholds me-" Ah! my friend! "And have thy pleasures this unlucky end?'

"Too sure," he said, and smiling as he sigh'd; "I went astray, though prudence seem'd my guide; "All she proposed I in my heart approved,

"And she was honour'd, but my pleasure loved"Pleasure, the mistress to whose arms I fled, "From wife-like lectures angry prudence read. "Why speak the madness of a life like mine, "The powers of beauty, novelty, and wine?

'Why paint the wanton smile, the venal vow, "Or friends whose worth I can appreciate now? "Oft I perceived my fate, and then would say, "I'll think to-morrow, I must live to-day: "So am I here-I own the laws are just

"And here, where thought is painful, think I must: "But speech is pleasant, this discourse with thee

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Brings to my mind the sweets of liberty,

"Breaks on the sameness of the place, and gives
"The doubtful heart conviction that it lives.
"Let me describe my anguish in the hour
"When law detain'd me and I felt its power.

“When in that shipwreck, this I found my shore, "And join'd the wretched, who were wreck'd before; "When I perceived each feature in the face, "Pinch'd through neglect or turbid by disgrace;

"When in these wasting forms affliction stood
"In my afflicted view, it chill'd my blood;-
"And forth I rush'd, a quick retreat to make,
"Till a loud laugh proclaim'd the dire mistake:
"But when the groan had settled to a sigh,
"When gloom became familiar to the
eye,
"When I perceive how others seem to rest,
"With every evil rankling in my breast,―
"Led by example, I put on the man,

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Sing off my sighs, and trifle as I can.

"Homer! nay Pope! (for never will I seek "Applause for learning-nought have I with Greek) "Gives us the secrets of his pagan hell,

"Where ghost with ghost in sad communion dwell; "Where shade meets shade, and round the gloomy meads "They glide and speak of old heroic deeds,"What fields they conquer'd, and what foes they slew "And sent to join the melancholy crew.

"When a new spirit in that world was found, "A thousand shadowy forms came flitting round; "Those who had known him, fond inquiries made,"Of all we left, inform us, gentle shade, "Now as we lead thee in our realms to dwell, "Our twilight groves, and meads of asphodel.'

"What paints the poet, is our station here, "Where we like ghosts and flitting shades appear:

"This is the hell he sings, and here we meet, "And former deeds to new-made friends repeat; "Heroic deeds, which here obtain us fame, "And are in fact the causes why we came : "Yes! this dim region is old Homer's hell, "Abate but groves and meads of asphodel. "Here, when a stranger from your world we spy, "We gather round him and for news apply; "He hears unheeding, nor can speech endure, "But shivering gazes on the vast obscure: "We smiling pity, and by kindness show "We felt his feelings and his terrors know; "Then speak of comfort-time will give him sight, "Where now 'tis dark; where now 'tis wo-delight.

"Have hope,' we say, 'and soon the place to thee "Shall not a prison but a castle be:

"When to the wretch whom care and guilt confound, "The world's a prison, with a wider bound; "Go where he may, he feels himself confined, "And wears the fetters of an abject mind.' "But now adieu! those giant-keys appear, "Thou art not worthy to be inmate here: "Go to thy world, and to the young declare "What we, our spirits and employments, are; "Tell them how we the ills of life endure, "Our empire stable, and our state secure;

"Our dress, our diet, for their use describe,
"And bid them haste to join the gen'rous tribe:
"Go to thy world, and leave us here to dwell,
"Who to its joys and comforts bid farewell."
Farewell to these; but other scenes I view,
And other griefs, and guilt of deeper hue;
Where conscience gives to outward ills her pain,
Gloom to the night, and pressure to the chain:
Here separate cells awhile in misery keep
Two doom'd to suffer: there they strive for sleep;
By day indulged, in larger space they range,
Their bondage certain, but their bounds have change.
One was a female, who had grievous ill

Wrought in revenge, and she enjoy'd it still:
With death before her, and her fate in view,
Unsated vengeance in her bosom grew:
Sullen she was and threat'ning; in her eye
Glared the stern triumph that she dared to die:
But first a being in the world must leave→
'Twas once reproach; 'twas now a short reprieve.
She was a pauper bound, who early gave
Her mind to vice and doubly was a slave;
Upbraided, beaten, held by rough control,
Revenge sustain'd, inspired, and fill'd her soul:
She fired a full-stored barn, confess'd the fact,
And laugh'd at law and justified the act:

Our gentle vicar tried his powers in vain, She answer'd not, or answer'd with disdain; Th'approaching fate she heard without a sigh, And neither cared to live nor fear'd to die. Not so he felt, who with her was to pay The forfeit, life—with dread he view'd the day, And that short space which yet for him remain'd, Till with his limbs his faculties were chain'd: He paced his narrow bounds some ease to find, But found it not,-no comfort reach'd his mind: Each sense was palsied; when he tasted food, He sigh'd and said, "Enough-'tis very good." Since his dread sentence, nothing seem'd to be As once it was-1 s—he seeing could not see, Nor hearing, hear aright;-when first I came Within his view, I fancied there was shame, I judged resentment; I mistook the air,These fainter passions live not with despair; Or but exist and die :-Hope, fear, and love, Joy, doubt, and hate, may other spirits move, But touch not his, who every waking hour Has one fix'd dread, and always feels its power. "But will not mercy?"-No! she cannot plead For such an outrage ;-'twas a cruel deed: He stopp'd a timid traveller ;-to his breast, • With oaths and curses, was the danger press'd: