Then joins the closer fight on Hudson's banks;
Troops strive with troops; ranks bending press on ranks;
O'er slipp'ry plains the struggling legions reel;
Then livid lead and Bayonne's glittering steel,
With dark-red wounds their mangled bosoms bore;
While furious coursers, snorting foam and gore,
Bear wild their riders o'er the carnaged plain,
And, falling, roll them headlong on the slain.
To ranks consumed, another rank succeeds;
Fresh victims fall; afresh the battle bleeds;
And nought of blood can staunch the opened sluice,
Till night, o'ershadowing, brings a grateful truce!
Thus will the veteran tell the tale of wars,
Disclose his breast, to count his glorious scars;
In mute amazement hold the list'ning swains;
Make freezing horror creep through all their veins;
Or oft, at Freedom's name, their souls inspire
With patriot ardor and heroic fire.

SONNET,

Addressed to his Royal Highness, the Prince of Brazil, on taking leave of the Court of Lisbon, July, 1797.

Farewell, ye flowery fields! where nature's hand
Profusely sheds her vegetable store,
Nurtured by genial suns and zephyrs bland!
Farewell, thou Tagus! and thy friendly shore :
Long shall my soul thy lost retreats deplore,
Thy haunts where shades of heroes met my eyes—
As oft I mused where CAMOENS trod before,

I saw the godlike form of GAMA rise,
With chiefs renowned beneath your eastern skies.

Oh, long may peace and glory crown thy scene!
Farewell, just Prince! no sycophantic lay

Insults thy ear-be what thy sires have been,
Thy great progenitors! who oped the way
Through seas unsailed before to climes of orient day.

THE IMMORTALITY OF VIRTUE.*

"Let all creation fail," the prophets sung, While holy rapture trembled on their tongue; "Let rocks dissolve, seas roar, and mountains nod, And all things tremble to the throne of GOD; Matter and motion cease from nature's course, Her laws controlled by some superior force; To final ruin, stars and comets rush,

Suns suns consume, and systems systems crush;
These heavens stretched visible, together roll
Inflamed, and vanish like a burning scroll:
Though death, and night, and chaos rule the ball,
Though nature's self decay-the soul, o'er all,
Survives the wrecks of matter and of time,
Shrined in immortal youth and beauty's prime ;
High o'er the bounds of this diurnal sphere,
To bloom and bask in HEAVEN's eternal year."
Where uncreated light no sun requires,
And other splendors beam unborrowed fires;
On our loved chief, long tried in virtue's toils,
With bliss ineffable the Godhead smiles;
In the full blaze of day, his angel-frame
For ever shines another and the same.

Heroic chiefs! who, fighting by his side,
Lived for your country, for your country died—
If ye behold us from the holy place,
"Angels and spirits, ministers of grace,"
And sainted forms, who erst incarnate strove,
Through thorny paths to reach the bliss above!
Protect our orphaned land, propitious still,
To virtue guide us and avert from ill!

ANCIENT OF DAYS! unutterable name!

At whose command all worlds from nothing came;
Beneath whose frown the nations cease to be-
Preserve, as thou hast made, our nation free!
To guard from harms send forth thy hallowed band;
Be thou a wall of fire around our land,

From the "Poem on the Death of General WASHINGTON."

Above the frail assaults of flesh and sense!
And in the midst our glory and defence!

Open, ye gates, instinct with vital force,
That earth with heaven may hold high intercourse!
Open, ye portals of eternal day!

Through worlds of light prepare the glorious way!
Come, sons of bliss, in bright'ning clouds revealed!
Myriads of angels throng th' aërial field!

Come, sainted hosts! and from thy happier home,
Thou, WASHINGTON, our better angel, come!
And, lo! what vision bursts upon my sight,
Robed in th' unclouded majesty of light?
"T is he-and hark! I hear, or seem to hear,
A more than mortal voice invade my ear;
"To me," the vision cries, "to speak is given,
Mortals! attend the warning voice of HEAVEN;
Your likeness love! adore the Power divine!
So shall your days be blest, your end like mine!
So will OMNIPOTENCE your freedom guard,
And bliss unbounded be your great reward!"

SONNET-THE SOUL.

My heaven-born soul! by body unconfined,
Leave that low tenement, and roam abroad:
Forestall the time, when, left each clog behind,

Thy flight shall mount where never mortal trod.
Ev'n now, methinks, upborne in trancéd dreams,
The disencumbered essence tries its wings;
Sees better planets, basks in brighter beams,
To purer sight mysterious symbols brings,
Of unconceived, unutterable things.

Though dust returned to dust the worms devour,
Thee can dread death annihilate or bind?
There, King of Terrors! stops thy dreaded power;
The bright assurgent from all dross refined,

High o'er th' immense of space regains the world of mind.

JOEL BARLOW, LL. D.

[Born 1755. Died 1812.]

JOEL BARLOW, LL. D., was born at Reading, in Fairfield county, in 1755. His father was a farmer, in moderate circumstances, who died while the subject of our sketch was yet a boy, leaving him, however, sufficient patrimony to provide for his liberal education. After pursuing the necessary preparatory studies, young BARLOW was placed by his guardians at Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, in 1774. Here he remained for a short time only, when he was transferred to Yale College, where he completed his academic course. While in this institution, he shared the intimate society of DWIGHT, then a tutor in the college, whose notice he had attracted by his poetical talents, and formed the acquaintance also of TRUMBull, then a practising lawyer of New Haven, and of HUMPHREYS, who had been graduated a few years before. During BARLOW's collegiate days the war of the Revolution began, and the heart of the student yearned for the hazards of the camp, where four of his brothers were already in arms in the cause of their country. He entered as a volunteer the ranks of the militia of his native state; and while he still applied himself during the sessions of college faithfully to his classical pursuits, he employed his vacations in fighting the battles of freedom. He shared in various engagements with the enemy, and is said to have borne a part in the severe contest at White Plains. In 1778, he received the degree of Bachelor of Arts, and on this occasion delivered an original poem "On the Prospect of Peace," the first specimen of his verse which he offered to the public. The poem possessed much merit-and is preserved in the volume of "American Poems," printed at Litchfield, in 1793. An extract from it, comprising its conclusion, will be found among the selections which succeed this sketch.

After completing his academic course, BARLOW applied himself for a short time to the study of the law. But upon the earnest solicitation of his friends that he should qualify himself for the office of chaplain in the army, he commenced the study of theology. After a preparation of six weeks he received a license, and repaired immediately to the camp. He entered upon the duties of his new office with much ardor, and remained in the army until the close of the war. In the performance of his professional services he gave general satisfaction, and further aided the cause of freedom by composing in

concert with his old friends DWIGHT, now a chaplain also, and Col. HUMPHREYS, various patriotic songs and addresses, which were supposed to exert a highly favorable influence upon the minds of the soldiery. He commenced also, during his connection with the army, "The Vision of Columbus," which afterward formed the basis of his great national epic, "The Columbiad."

In 1781, BARLOW received the degree of Master of Arts, on which occasion he delivered another poem, afterward embodied in his "Vision of Columbus." About this period he married a daughter of the Hon. ABRAHAM BALDWIN, then a resident of New Haven, who subsequently removed to the state of Georgia, and was for many years a distinguished member of Congress. After the peace, in 1783, our author, being out of employment, resolved to resume his legal studies. He had assumed the clerical profession only with a view to a chaplaincy, and now felt no scruple in relinquishing it, in favor of his former choice. With this view he removed to Hartford, and settled, as he supposed, for life. To add to his income he established a weekly gazette, entitled "The American Mercury," which gained for him much reputation by his able editorial management. In 1785 he was admitted to the bar, and during the same year was requested by the clergy of the "General Association" of the Congregational Church in Connecticut to prepare a revised edition of Dr. WATTS' Psalms. Many of the Psalms in that version were "locally appropriated;" and it was deemed desirable by the " Association" that they should be altered and applied to the state of the Christian Church in general. Some other alterations in the phraseology were thought expedient: and furthermore, twelve of the Psalms of David had been omitted in Dr. WATTS' version. BARLOW readily assumed the task thus imposed upon him, and prepared a revised version of the work. The supposed inaccuracies in the language were corrected; the portions which had been "locally appropriated" were re-written; and the omitted Psalms were supplied by the editor and his poetical friends. Of these, the one hundred and thirty-seventh, from the pen of BARLOW, has been deemed one of the most elegant versions ever afforded of that pathetic song of captivity. Some controversy has lately arisen, touching its authorship. But a letter of Judge TRUMBULL, in which he distinctly declares that it was the work of BARLOW, sets the question at rest. In addition to these above-mentioned improvements, our editor appended to his volume a collection of hymns, several of which were written by himself; and the "Psalms" thus revised, received the full sanction of those at whose request the work had been undertaken. It was published during the year 1785, and for many years was used as the authorized version of the Congregational churches.

The connection of our author with the literary club for which