The New-York Weekly Magazine, or Miscellaneous Repository Part 169

NEW-YORK April 28th, 1797.

_For the +New-York Weekly Magazine+._

LINES, ON THE DESTRUCTION OF LISBON.

O may G.o.d's hand still hover o'er my head, 'Twixt me and earthquakes may thy fingers spread; When ocean rises, and when mountains fall, Still shield my temples with that five-fold wall.

Then when huge tons of bursting hills are hurl'd, My feet may stand amidst a reeling world; In hours unguarded, when I slumber most, Be thou my keeper and protect the post: So shall thy servant like Elijah stand, Beneath the palm of thy Almighty hand.

J. D.

THE APPROACH OF SPRING.

Come, lovely Flora, aid me to pourtray The rising beauties of the vernal day, The grateful season that fresh life inspires, Wakes the dull spirits, and resumes their fires; That bids dead nature gaudy colours wear, And paints with every hue th' unfolding year!

As when from sombre shades, and gloomy night, Joyous we rise, and hail the new born light, Shake off the chains of lethargy to hear Harmonious music charm the ravish'd ear, By sleep refresh'd, by rest again made strong, Mix in the scene, and join the busy throng; Thus view Creation's wide-extended plain, Where sullen Winter held in dreary reign, Where frost and snow deform'd each fertile vale, The driving tempest, and the rattling hail.

Now spring the flowers, now teems the verdant ground, And the gay landscape brightens all around; Each plant resumes its native form and dye, Some ting'd with red, some emulate the sky: All in their native elegance of dress, Welcome the Spring, its power benign confess!

The morn how sweet, how fair the rising dawn!

Gay shines the sun athwart the enamell'd lawn, The new cloath'd earth drinks bibulous his ray, And Nature glories in his equal sway.

Creation's hymns ascend the source of light, Whose golden splendors chase the brumal night; Whose genial warmth o'erpowers the frigid north, Pours plenty down, and calls fresh beauties forth.

Deep, deep, I hear each object swell the strain, Exulting in auspicious Phbus' reign; E'en things inanimate their incense raise, And what was mute, grows vocal in his praise; While ancient deities are all forgot, Sleep in contempt, and unmolested rot.

When Jupiter enrag'd can storm no more, Nor Neptune roll his billows to the sh.o.r.e; When Egypt's dogs no linen-priests surround, And leeks unhonour'd cloath her fertile ground*; Wise Persia's G.o.d majestic keeps his sphere, Whom rolling worlds with all their tribes revere.

Be calm, ye storms; ye tempests, rage no more, Nor waste your fury on the rugged sh.o.r.e; Mild flow, ye waves; ye winds, no longer sweep, With awful madness, o'er th' expanded deep, Nor dare to lift the towering surges high, Foaming resistless to the lofty sky: Avaunt, nor cloud the l.u.s.tre of the day; A milder reign succeeds, a gentler sway!

Come, beauteous Spring! come, hasten with my train, Gentle and lovely, to a.s.sume thy reign; The fairest flowers that early Nature yields, That rise spontaneous in the fertile fields, Or grace the banks of pure meand'ring rills, Or love the sunshine on the sloping hills; With richest gems shall thy bright crown adorn, Empearl'd with dew-drops from the pointed thorn; Though eastern monarchs boast their regal state, On whom unnumber'd slaves obsequious wait, Though deck'd with all that fills the flaming mine, How mean their splendor, when compar'd with thine!

For thee again the birds resume their song, Raise high their notes, and the glad strains prolong; Their soft descant they teach the neighbouring grove, And each close shade bears witness to their love.

Nor these alone; through wide Creation's s.p.a.ce, From the low insect to the human race, All hail thy influence, bless thy genial power, Thou best enlivener of each chearful hour!

While aromatic plants perfume the air, And flowers and shrubs are deck'd supremely fair.

As o'er their heads the balmy zephyrs play, And gently fan them all the live-long day, The sons of age feet happier days return, With joys renew'd and fresh emotions burn; Shake off the gloom contracted by their years, As round their temples wave their h.o.a.ry hairs.

Soon as the bird of morn proclaims the dawn, And quits, on fluttering wings, the dewy lawn, Forth rush the swains, regardless of the toil, To break the glebe, and fertilize the soil; With chearful hearts their constant labour ply, Till Sol's bright beams desert the western sky; Then homeward bending, taste unbroken rest, For seldom anguish racks the guiltless breast; Save where fond love attacks the feeling heart, And the soft pa.s.sions generous warmth impart; Save where the lover, pensive and alone, Makes woods and caves re-echo to his moan; And every thought intent on some coy fair, With bitter wailing fills the ambient air.

Almighty Love! say whence those melting fires, Those glowing transports, and those soft desires, That warm the soul; and, every sense refin'd, That humanize the fierce, obdurate mind?

From Nature all--from Nature's G.o.d they flow, Who bade the breast with pure emotions glow: When heaven-born Virtue binds with sacred ties, And smiling beauty fascinates the eyes, He, source of all, adorns the laughing day, And bids the flowers their gaudy tints display; With vernal gales dispenses life around, While love and music through each grove resound.

[* Alluding to the ancient Egyptian form of worship.]

[ The sun was adored by the Persians.]

[[Source:

Original: _Parna.s.sian sprigs: or, poetical miscellanies_, 1777, by William Fordyce Mavor 1758-1837.

"AWAKE my Muse! a.s.sist me to pourtray The striking beauties of the vernal Day, The grateful season that fresh life inspires, Wakes the dull spirits, and relumes their fires,"

Most of the section between "enamell'd lawn" and "Be calm, ye storms!" is missing (6 lines in the original as against 18 in the New-York Weekly).

The section from "sloping hills" to "For thee again" is an imperfect match (7 lines : 6 lines).

Possible source: _Scots Magazine_ 1783, ed. Boswell, has the same footnotes.]]

_NEW-YORK: +Printed by JOHN TIEBOUT, No. 358, Pearl-Street, for THOMAS BURLING, Jun. & Co.+ +Subscriptions+ for this +Magazine+ (at 6s. per quarter) are taken in at the Printing-Office, and at the Circulating Library of Mr. J. FELLOWS, No. 60, Wall-Street._

THE NEW-YORK WEEKLY MAGAZINE; or, Miscellaneous Repository.

+Vol. II.+] +Wednesday, May 10, 1797.+ [+No. 97.+

THE AFRICAN's COMPLAINT.

Phbus had immersed his flaming forehead in the Western main--smoothly glided the wild zephyrs, gently murmuring amongst the resounding foliage--Cynthia in blushing majesty began faintly to gild with silver tints the distant hills--a thousand glittering gems sparkled through the circ.u.mambient hemisphere--Nature seemed smiling to invite to nocturnal contemplation the sons of philosophy:--courted by the enchanting scenes, and enveloped in a pleasing reverie, I walked forth amongst the surrounding shades.----"Happy, ye freeborn sons of Columbia," exclaimed I, "liberty and plenty bless your domestic retirements; war, devastation, and wide-wasting rapine have fled from your peaceful sh.o.r.es--no murderous a.s.sa.s.sin, or night prowling incendiary, carries the hidden dagger of slaughter, or dread torch of destruction to disturb your uninterrupted tranquility; no hostile armies to s.n.a.t.c.h from your tender embrace the son, the husband, the father, or brother--No."

I would have proceeded, but a voice that seemed to pierce through my inmost soul issued from the adjacent shades; despair and anguish vibrated on the fleeting sounds--my soliloquy was broken.--"Farewell every pleasure," it exclaimed in a voice rendered almost inarticulate by grief. "Adieu, ye native skies! No more shall the unhappy Corymbo rest beneath the spreading arbors of Congo--No more shall the charms of the lovely Yonka give pleasure and delight to a bosom racked with the most excruciating pains; Oh, ye aged parents! what were your feelings, how did your bosoms heave, when your child, your Corymbo, was torn from you by the cruel unfeeling Christian--forced into a floating dungeon more terrible than death itself--bartered as a slave--exposed to contempt and scorn--unjustly marked with the whip of tyranny--his labour unjustly extorted from him--denied the common necessaries of life--trampled on by a monster, whose avaricious heart outvies the adamant, unsusceptible of the tender feelings of lost humanity! Oh! thou invisible being, who sustains the universe! why dost thou suffer thy votaries to perpetrate such barbarity under the sanction of thy venerable name?--Hold. Why do I upbraid heaven? Death will ere long liberate my distracted soul. Oh! how ineffable glows my breast--the delectable view showers some drops of comfort into my tortured mind. Flow swift ye intervening moments! come thou welcome hour! when my spirit shall quit this sinking frame, and wafted on the wings of wind, shall fearless dart across the Atlantic and again embrace those tender, once dear, but now distant companions of my youth.--But why do I linger. My master is now waiting to receive an account of my labour--perhaps the torturing lash." Here came back, like an inundation, the remembrance of his slavery, which only for a moment fled to give room for a beam of comfort, which soon subsided and left more acute sensations than before. Sobs and inarticulate expressions were all that he could utter, whilst in hasty steps he wandered from my hearing. For some moments I remained stupid, petrified to the spot; still, methought, I heard the sounds of misery echoing amongst the lonely shades. "Ungrateful countrymen," I exclaimed, "why do ye deny those inestimable blessings, to your fellow men that heaven has so eminently dignified you with? Or, why so callous to tender pity as to lacerate the flesh of the innocent? Oh, ye votaries of christianity! how can ye reconcile your execrable conduct with the precepts of the divine, the exalted and elevated maxims of the great founder of your system."

MIXED COMPANY.

The mind of each s.e.x has some natural kind of bias, which const.i.tutes a distinction of character, and the happiness of both depends, in a great measure, on the preservation and observance of this distinction. For where would be the superior pleasure and satisfaction resulting from mixed conversation, if this difference was abolished?

If the qualities of both were invariably and exactly the same, no benefit or entertainment would arise from the tedious and insipid uniformity of such an intercourse; whereas considerable are the advantages reaped from a select society of both s.e.xes.

The rough angles and asperities of male manners are imperceptibly filed and gradually worn smooth, by the polishing of female conversation, and the refining of female taste: while the ideas of women acquire strength and solidity by their a.s.sociating with sensible, intelligent, and judicious men.

The _WANDERINGS_ of the IMAGINATION.

_BY MRS. GOOCH._

(Continued from page 347.)

Captain S---- had married in early youth the woman of his heart. Her fortune was very small; nor did he possess any other independance than that which arose from his commission. He was allied to many n.o.ble families, and had received an education more suitable to his connections than his expectations. His Lady was not in any respect his equal; she was the only child of a poor, but honest, curate in Wales, where she became acquainted with the Captain, at that time an Ensign in a marching regiment, quartered at Glamorgan: he saw, became enamoured, and married her. They lived with economy and comfort about five years, in which time she bore him a son. This event seemed to operate in their favour, as a distant relation of his mother's, whom he had hitherto known only by name, wrote to him on hearing of it, and in consequence of the good character which had answered his enquiries, he had deposited in the hands of Mess. c.o.x and Greenwood a sufficient sum of money, to enable him to purchase a company on the first occasion that might offer.

Our young adventurer no sooner received this unexpected letter, than he solicited and obtained leave of absence, and hastened to London, when he immediately waited on the gentlemen above-mentioned; and hearing that the commission was prepared for him, and that the money deposited in their hands exceeded by some hundreds it's purchase, he resolved on joining his company without delay. Little time was required to settle his affairs: he wrote to Mrs. S----, and to his father, strongly recommending to the latter those dear relatives he committed to his protection; and inclosing bills to nearly the whole amount of the money which remained in his hands, he soon after embarked in the first ship to join the new regiment to which he belonged, and which was at that time stationed in Jamaica.

Imagine not, gentle reader, that Captain S---- thus quitted all he held dear without a pang. His heart was the receptacle of the surest feelings of humanity; and if he avoided taking a long, perhaps a last, farewell, it was order to avoid the too powerful temptation of a change in his resolution. He figured to himself the tears and intreaties of an affectionate wife, the winning smiles of an infant boy: and to their future welfare he gladly sacrificed every selfish idea of present felicity. These reflections accompanied him throughout a long and perilous voyage, which was at last completed without any material occurrence.