Then stuck his probe beneath the beard,
And showed them where the leaves appeared;
And raised the patient's drooping spirits,
By praising up the plaster's merits.
Then purged him pale with jalap drastic,
And next applies th' infernal caustic;
Which, gnawing on with fiery pace,
Devoured one broadside of his face;
"Courage 't is done!" the doctor cried,
And quick the incision knife applied,
That with three cuts made such a hole,
Out flew the patient's tortured soul!
Go, readers, gentle, eke and simple,
If you have wart, or corn, or pimple,
To quack infallible apply;
Here's room enough for you to lie.
His skill triumphant still prevails,
For DEATH's a cure that never fails.
See, dim beneath the arctic pole,
Rude Russian hosts of ruffians roll,
A sea-like wave-in barbarous pride
The Poles to conquer and divide!
See FREDERICK aid the base design,
And march his legions from the Rhine!
See KOSCIUSKо rouse the Poles,
While indignation fires their souls,
That tyrants leagued should still essay
To bend their necks to foreign sway!
O son of our great Son of Fame,
May deeds like his exalt thy name!
May fated Poland yet be free,
And find a WASHINGTON in thee!
*These lines, together with the two following selections, are from "New Year's Verses for the Connecticut Courant, January 1, 1795."
ROBESPIERRE.
Nor can the Muse forget the year,
That sealed the fate of ROBESPIERRE;
But 'mid th' aristocratic laugh,
Will here inscribe his epitaph;
Which in some proper time to come,
We hope will grace his mournful tomb.
"Long, luckless chief! thy guileful form
Astride the whirlwind, reined the storm;
That storm, where streams of human blood
Drenched towns and realms like NOAH's flood;
Till, hurled beneath the guillotine,
Where gasped thy nobles, king, and queen,
Where daily swelled thy bounteous store,
Of headless trunks and spouting gore;
Where Science' sons and daughters bled,
And priests by hecatombs fell dead-
Its rushing blade thy members freed,
From sins their tyrant head decreed;
And sent thy ghost to shades of night,
To prove, with DANTON, which of right
Should have in hell the highest seat,
An atheist or a hypocrite."
May HEAVEN Our favorite planet bear
Far, far from Gallia's blazing star;
Ye lights of Europe shun its course,
Or order yields to lawless force,
As though a random-comet hurled,
Should dash at once and melt the world.
GENERAL WAYNE-AND THE WEST.
See next the veteran troops of WAYNE,
March o'er the savage bands of slain,
And scatter far, like noxious air,
Those victors of the famed ST. CLAIR;
While blustering SIMCOE, as required,
To bleak Canadian climes retired,
And let his tawny friends remain,
To sue for proffered peace again.
Here Fame reports, in vast expanse,
A clime extends that balks romance,
Where sea-like rivers wind their way
Through vast savannas to the sea;
Clear lakes extend, huge mountains rise,
And spicy vales perfume the skies;
Whatever earth maternal yields
To deck the groves, or clothe the fields,
All fruits and flowerets flourish here
And bloom like Eden's gorgeous year:
Birds bask in air, the game in woods,
And finny nations crowd the floods.
Here then, Columbians, seek your farms,
When warlike WAYNE shall quell alarms;
But let not speculations vain,
Exhaust the purse and turn the brain,
Nor grudge the roaming Indian rude
To hunt his native wilds for food.
ON THE APPOINTMENT OF WASHINGTON
As Commander-in-Chief of the United States Forces, under the first
President ADAMS.*
Eased now of much incumbent weight,
Proceeds the business of the state.
Raised by the sound of war's alarms,
Our ardent youth all fly to arms,
And from the work-shop and the field,
The active laborers seize the shield;
While on the silvered brow of age,
Relumes the fire of martial rage.
Our veteran chiefs, whose honored scars
Are trophies still of former wars,
Appointed move beneath their SHIELD,
To reap the ripened martial field.
And lo! from Vernon's sacred hill,
Where peaceful spirits love to dwell-
Where twice retired from war's alarms,
Slept and awoke his conquering arms,
From the "Political Green-House," for the year 1798.
The HERO Comes!-whose laurels green,
In bloom eternal shall be seen;
While Gallic ivy fades away,
Before the scorching eye of day.
He comes! he comes! to re-array
Your hosts, ye heroes, for th' affray !
Him for your head-collect from far
The shield, the sword, and plume of war!
Indignant earth rejoicing hears,
Fell insult bristling up your spears,
And joins her hosts to crush the foes
Of virtue and her own repose.
From lines relating to the prevalence of the Yellow Fever in New York, in the Autumn of 1798.*
Learn, then, Columbians, ere too late,
If not to cure, to ward the fate;
For when swart skies find filth beneath,
They breed swift messengers of death.
Let BELGIAN neatness mantle o'er
The marts and towns around your shore;
And ere the dog star's sultry rays
Dawn and decline with solar blaze,
Stretch daily in warm baths your limbs,
Or lave you o'er in tepid streams.
Let no late revels break your rest,
Nor passions rankle in the breast;
The strictest temperance of the board
And glass, can potent aid afford.
From ardent spirits most refrain,
Dire sources of disease and pain.
Ye heirs of wealth! to rural seats
Retire from summer's scorching heats,
And let the virtuous sons of want
Throng glad'ning round the sylvan haunt
On tented plains, and often taste
With you the simple, plain repast.
From the "Political Green-House" for the same year.
DAVID HUMPHREYS, LL. D., was born at Derby, in 1753. He was the son of the Rev. DANIEL HUMPHREYS, a Congregational clergyman, and was favored with good advantages of early instruction. In 1767, he entered Yale College, where he enjoyed the intimate acquaintance of TRUMBULL, DWIGHT, and BARLOW. The friendly association then and there begun was not terminated with their academic connection, but was strengthened and increased by new and more interesting ties in maturer years.
Of the history of HUMPHREYS after leaving college, in 1771, we have no account, until the commencement of the Revolutionary war, when he joined the army under Gen. PARSONS, with the rank of Captain. In 1778, he was attached to the staff of Gen. PUTNAM, with the rank of Major; and in 1780 was appointed aid-de-camp to WASHINGTON. He retained this connection until the close of the war, and particularly distinguished himself at the memorable seige of Yorktown, a service, in acknowledgment of which Congress voted him an elegant sword. He shared the entire confidence and friendship of the Commander-in-chief; and when the army was disbanded, he accompanied his friend and patron to his seat at Mount Vernon, where he resided with him for more than a year. The friendship of WASHINGTON he ever deemed a cause of just pride. The times passed in his society, whether in camp or field, or amid the peaceful shades of the hero's domestic bower, were green spots which his memory loved to dwell upon; and the frequent allusions of his verse bear witness to the feelings of a warm and grateful heart.
In 1784, when FRANKLIN, ADAMS and JEFFERSON were appointed commissioners to negotiate treaties of commerce with foreign powers, Col. HUMPHREYS accompanied them as their secretary of legation. He remained in Europe two years, residing principally in Paris and London. Soon after his return to this country, in 1786, he was chosen to represent his native town in the State Legislature, and was soon after appointed by that body to command a regiment to be raised by order of Congress for the western service. These avocations made him often a resident at Hartford, where he renewed his former intimacy with TRUMBULL and BARLOW. In connection with these, together with Dr. LEMUEL HOPKINS, he formed a literary copartner
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