Which discord, in her maddest fit,
Hath made outrageous fiends commit;
Who, eager to enjoy the fpoils,
Involve the land in endless broils.

Where Roman greatness once bore sway.
The hills are green, the fields are gay;
The garden blooms in many a hue,
A thousand temples rife to view,
Rich palaces of costly mould,
Blaze to the fun in burnifh'd gold;
But fuperftition's ghaftly face
Thefe fcenes of luxury disgrace.

And fee! where Greece in ruin lies!
Fair Greece, the mighty and the wife;
Where claffick Athens rofe fublime,
Whose learning o'er the wreck of time
Spreads science to each diftant fhore,
To live when Athens is no more;
Now held in flav'ry's baseft chains,
Proud ignorance in triumph reigns.
Behold! on Perfia's golden coast,
Her ancient wealth and fplendour loft,
Her lofty domes in ashes laid,
Her richest cities long decay'd;
Thofe groves where once her magick
ftray'd

The rude barbarians now invade,
And void of law, a people's guide,
Dire outrage lords its far and wide.

If we to Indian groves repair,
Care's meagre form will meet us there:
Amidft Arabia's spicy vales
Devouring peftilence prevails,
And though on fair Columbia's coast,
Rich Mexico her mines can boast,
Her folid hills of richest ore
Cannot the bloom of health restore.
Where will the boundless search extend?
Where will the painful labour end?
Bright reafon wifely whifpers, " Care,
"Weak man, will haunt thee every
where !"

Content alone can boaft the charm,
That can the bufy fiend disarm;
And care will ever fly the cell,
Where innocence and virtue dwell.

THE CHURCH PORCH. (Continued.)

THY friend put in thy bofome: wear his eyes

Still in thy heart, that he may fee what's there.

If caufe require, thou art his facrifice; Thy drops of bloud muft pay down all his fear:

In thy discourse, if thou defire to please, All fuch is courteous, ufefull, new, or wittie.

Usefulneffe comes by labour, wit by ease;

Courtefie grows in court; news in the citie.

Get a good stock of these, then draw the card:

That fuits him beft, of whom thy fpeech is heard.

Entice all neatly to what they know best;

For fo thou doft thy felf and him a pleasure :

(But a proud ignorance will lofe his rest, Rather than fhew his cards) steal from his treasure

What to ask further. Doubts well rais'd do lock

The fpeaker to thee, and preferve thy

stock.

If thou be Master-gunner, fpend not all That thou canft fpeak, at once; but husband it,

And give men turns of fpeech: do not forestall

By lavishneffe thine own and others wit,

As if thou mad'ft thy will. A civil gueft

Will no more talk all, then eat all the feast.

A grain of glorie mixt with humbleneffe

Cures both a fever and lethargickneffe.

where,

And when, and how the bufinesse may be done.

Slackneffe breeds worms; but the fure traveller,

Though he alight fometimes, still goeth

Whether thy ftock of credit fwell, or fall.

Who fay, I care not, thofe I give for loft;

And to inftruct them, 'twill not quit the coft.

Scorn no mans love, though of a mean degree;

Much leffe make any one thine enemie. As gunnes destroy, so may a little fling. The cunning workman never doth

refufe

The meanest tool, that he may chance to use.

All forrain wisdome doth amount to this, To take all that is given; whether wealth,

Or love, or language; nothing comes amiffe:

A good digestion turneth all to health: And then, as farre as fair behaviour

ARTICLE. 7.

Letters of Shahcoolen, a Hindu philofopher, refiding in Philadelphia, to his friend El Haffan, an inhabitant of Delhi. Bofton, printed by Ruffell & Cutler, proprietors of the work. 1802.

THESE letters are reprefented in the publifhers' advertisement, as "fuccessful imitations" "of the oriental ftyle," If this be fo, the Perfian Letters of Littleton, and Goldfmith's Citizen of the World, have been greatly mifconceived; there is not the smallest affinity fubfifting between these produc tions and the Letters of Shahcoolen. These occafional effays were first published in the NewYork Commercial Advertiser, and it evidently appears from the author's preface, and the letters themselves, they were never calculated to meet the publick eye in their present form. But fuch is the rage for book-making, that every "ephemeral" contributor to the columns of a newfpaper, after a time, comes forth "ftitched in blue" or "bound in calf." So that a library, composed of modern publications, will foon exceed the ancient Roman laws, which, according to Livy, tam immenfus aliarum fuper alias acervatarum legum cumulus, that they were computed to be the burthen of many camels. This is one of the evils incident to the early state of literature in all countries, and which

can only be alleviated by time and experience. It was not till three centuries after the taking of Rome by the Gauls, that publick fchools were erected, or learning engaged their attention. So rude were they at that period, that a nail was annually driven up with great pomp and ceremony in the temple of Jupiter Capitolinus, in order to afflift the common people in reckoning the years. At prefent there feem to be more writers than readers in this country; but as we advance, the numbers of the former will be leffened, and thofe of the latter increafed; the multitude of fine-bound books will ceafe to accumulate ; the eye will become weary with the baubles of literature, and the ear fated with their found.

The little volume, in review, comprifes fourteen letters; they are of a local nature, and the juvenile writer does not feem to have looked beyond the city from which he indites. The four first letters contain "a general account of the new philofophy and the practical influence of Mary Wolftonecraft's writings in the United States." In his remarks on this fubject the writer is unwarrantably fevere. The publications of Mifs Wolstonecraft have had little effect, comparatively, with the author's statement. In fome of the warmer fouthern states fhe may have found votaries to whom her notions were congenial,