when he sees the forms of government change with the disposition of the people; and the affectation of ignorance and illiberality assumed by the higher orders at home, in their dress, manners, and conversation? We readily grant a propensity in the inferior orders to imitate the actions of their superiors; but is not imitation the height of flattery? and does not a readiness to receive and copy the depraved manners of a superior order, suppose a previous depravity in the people?

Perhaps the only true criterion of the utility or dangerous tendency of this passion, is the disposition of the times; for the same spirit which in a more corrupt period carries the enthusiast for it to the height of excess and extravagance, would, in an era of more simple manners, have produced the exact

reverse;

Lucullus, when frugality could charm,
Had roasted turnips in his sabine farm.

And Cincinnatus, had he lived in a period less disposed to honour a virtuous poverty, might probably have changed the frugality of his simple meal, for the luxury of the Apollo.

The present path to glory, and consequently that which its votaries pursue, is faction; and even in this lesser world the observer may discover a demagogue in embryo, distinguished perhaps only for stronger powers of vociferation. But here, as upon all other occasions, the MICROCOSMOPOLITAN would wish to avoid misapprehension, and while he reprobates a turbulence of behaviour, does not wish his readers entirely to discard their judgment and free-will, and to degrade themselves to the rank of nonentities, or, according to a more accepted phrase, ciphers. The great increase of the abovementioned species calls for attention; whether it proceeds from a prevailing idea that an individual,

like a numerical figure, is made of more consequence by the addition of a cipher, or from a fear in its promoters, of a discovery of their own weakness; as the cruel policy of Semiramis had its origin in an apprehension, that her sex might be discovered by an unprecedented want of beard. From whatever cause the present increase of this species arises, it is now grown to so formidable a height, as to require the attention of the public, and more particularly of the MICROCOSMOPOLITAN.

I would wish to present to the perusal of my readers, the following lines, not entirely foreign from some part of this essay; and at the same time admonish them, that the smile of Melpomene at the birth of a poet is useless, without that of his readers on his publication.

I.

Within the sounding quiver's hollow womb
Repose the darts of praise and harmony;
Goddess, draw forth the chosen shaft; at whom
Shall the swift arrows of the muses fly?
By the great Almighty Mind,
For man's highly-favoured race,
Various blessings were design'd,
Bounties of superior grace;
Here the fat and fertile ground
Waves the flood of harvest round,
Or fervid wine's extatic juice
Cluster-curved vines produce;
A sullen land of lazy lakes

Rhine slowly winding to the ocean makes,
This rescued from the eager wave

Human art has dar'd to save,

While o'er each foggy pool and cheerless fen
Hums the busy buz of men.

A warlike nation bent on deathful deeds

From daring actions safety seeks, and fame,
Rush thro' the ranks, where'er the battle bleeds,

Or whirl their neighing coursers thro' the flame.

Before time was, before the day
Shot thro' the skies his golden ray,
A sightless mass, a wasteful wild
Tumultuous gulf, was all this fair creation,
Till you the shapeless chaos reconcil'd,
Each part commanding to its proper station!
Then hills upheav'd their verdant head,
Above a purer sky was spread,
And ocean floated in his ample bed :
Then first creeping to the main
Rivers drew their tortuous train;

Then from her fertile womb the earth
Brought forth at one ample birth,
All that through the waste of sky
Borne on oary pinions fly,

Or thro' the deep's dark caverns roam,
And wallowing dash the sea to foam;
Tutor❜d by your guiding sway,

The planets trace their pathless way,
The seasons in their order'd dance
In grateful interchange advance!
But when, O Goddess, wilt thou deign,
O'er favour'd man to stretch thy reign?
Then shall sedition's tempest cease,
The dashing storm be hush'd to peace,

The angry seas no longer roar,

But gently rolling kiss the shore,

While from the wave-worn rock the troubled waters pour.

IV.

When pois'd athwart the lurid air,

The sword of vengeance pours a sanguine ray,
Or comets from their stream of blazing hair

Shake the blue pestilence, and adverse sway
Of refluous battle, o'er some high vic'd land;
Thro' the sick air the power of poison flies,
By gentler breezes now no longer fann'd,
Sultry and still; the native breathes and dies.
Yet often free from selfish fear,

The son attends his father's bed,
Nor will disdain the social tear,

In pleasing painful mood to shed.

When chilling pine and cheerless penury,

Stretch o'er some needy house their wither'd hand
Where modest want alone retires to die,

Yet social love has shed her influence bland,
To cheer the sullen gloom of poverty.
For 'tis decreed, that every social joy,

In its partition should be multiplied,

Still be the same, nor know the least alloy,
Tho' sympathy to thousands should divide
Our pleasures; but when urg'd by dire distress,
The grief by others felt is made the less.

ར·

Not so the ills Sedition sows,

Midst sever'd friends and kindred foes;
When the horrid joy of all,

Imbitters ev'ry private fall.

Creeping from her secret source

Sedition holds her silent course,

With wat'ry weeds and sordid sedge
Skirting under unnoted edge,

Till scorning all her former bounds

She sweeps along the fertile grounds;

And as in sullen solemn state she glides,

Receives into her train the tributary tides;

Then rushing headlong from some craggy steep

She pours impetuous down and hurries to the deep.
Ah! luckless he, who o'er the tide

Shall hope his fragile, bark to guide;

While secure his sail is spread,
The waves shall thunder o'er his head;
But if, long-tempest-tost, once more
His crazy bark regain the shore,
There shall he sit and long lament
His youthful vigour vainly spent ;
And others warn, but warn, alas in vain,
In unambitious safety to remain.
Then happy he! who to the gale
Nor trusts too much the varying sail,
Nor rashly launching forth amain,
Attempts the terrors of the wat'ry plain;
But watchful, wary, when he sees
The ocean black beneath the breeze,
The cheerless sky with clouds o'erspread,,
And darkness gath'ring round his head,
Trusts not too far, but hastes to seek
The shelter of some winding creek;

Thence sees the waves by whirlwinds tost,
And rash ambition's vessel lost;

Hears the mad pilot late deplore,

The shifting sail, the faithless oar,

And bears the shriek of death, the shriek that's heard no

more.

No 5. MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1786.

D.

Animo umbris rerum satisfacere.

BACON, de Augm. Scien.

To satisfy the mind with speculation.

Oppida quodam tempore florentissima, nunc prostrata et diruta ante oculos jacent.--SULP. ad Cic.

The ruins of cities, formerly flourishing and powerful, now lie scattered before my eyes.

As I am naturally of a thoughtful and speculative turn of mind, it is a favourite amusement with me, not only to traverse the well-known regions of Ancient History, but to launch into the wider ocean of conjecture, and explore in fancy, the