To live a life that might free us
To swear, and lie, and to be drunk,
To carry tales that may do hurt
To live in such hypocrisy,
Although our hearts within are full
All these, and many evils more,
But to repent, and to reform,

from acts of righteousness;
to backbite one another;
and mischief to our brother;
as men may think us good,
of evil and of blood.
are easy for to do;

we have no strength thereto."

To the almanac, printed by W. Brattle, in 1682, we find an advertisement annexed, that "there are suitable verses, dedicated to the memory of the ingenious mathematician and printer, Mr. John Foster; price 2d." Perhaps the poem, here intended, was that of Joseph Capen, afterwards Minister of Topsfield, whose elegy concluded with the following lines:

"Thy body, which no activeness did lack,
Now's laid aside, like an old almanack;
But for the present only's out of date,

'Twill have, at length, a far more active state.
Yea, though with dust thy body soiled be,
Yet, at the resurrection, we shall see

A fair edition, and of matchless worth,
Free from erratas, new in heaven set forth;
'Tis but a word from God, the great Creator,
It shall be done when he saith Imprimatur."

These lines have a striking resemblance to the epitaph of Franklin.

It would be idle to attempt to enumerate all, who, in any way, contributed to preserve the rhyming art among us. Even Roger Williams assuaged the sorrows of his exile, by writing works in which verses are interspersed; and the great men of those days were not suffered to die "without the aid of some melodious tear." Michael Wigglesworth, a minister, a physician, and, when illness checked his active career, a poet, must have pleased his own generation; for his poetical description of the last judgment passed rapidly through five editions-a degree of success which no poet of our times has gained. We have not succeeded in getting a copy of any of his works. John Danforth, of Dorchester, son of the Samuel Danforth, mentioned above, was a great mathematician, and a poet withal. The only specimen of his efforts, which we have seen, is too poor to be quoted. There was published, in Boston, in 1723, a poem, entitled "Gloria Britannorum, or the British Worthies; an essay on the character of the most illustrious persons in camp or cabinet, since the glorious Revolution to the present time, by a lover of the present happy constitution." There is added to it an ode on His Majesty's Coronation; and there is also an elegy on the death of the Duke of Marlborough. The poetry is pretty fair, but contains no striking passages. The Boston loyalty of those days is sound. Cambridge is addressed:

"And you bright sons of Harvard, where the Nine

And great Apollo consecrate their shrine,

For wisdom famed," &c. &c.

We have not been able to ascertain the author of these poetic effusions of royalty.

Nathaniel Pitcher, Pastor of the North Church in Scituate, born 1684, died 1724, was a writer of verse. We have not been able to find any traces of his works. His death was celebrated by an uncommon effort-Pitchero Threnodia, printed in Boston in 1724. This elegiac poem "on the Prophet Pitcher, whose sacred Pitcher the gloomy fates had arraigned," is a long, and quite a learned performance. Greek is quoted, and passages from Persius, Ovid, Horace, sparkle in the numerous notes. The name of its author is to us unknown; it is, on the whole, poor stuff.

Thomas Makin, of Philadelphia, published in 1728 and 1729, two Latin poems, "Encomium Pennsylvaniæ," and "In laudes Pennsylvaniæ." Whether he was an adventurer in English verse we do not know. Extracts of his poems are to be found in Proud's History of Pennsylvania.

John Osborn, of Sandwich, who wrote about this time, and died in misery about 1755, went to nature for his inspiration; and, though we cannot give him very high praise, there is still something of a poetic spirit about him. His whaling song has been recalled to notice by Judge Davis of Boston; and, it is said, is still heard on the Pacific. We regret that we cannot give extracts from it. When at college in 1735, he addressed a consolatory poetical letter to his sister, on the death of another of his sisters. We quote the conclusion of it, from Mr. Knapp's Sketches. The whole may be found in the Boston Mirror of January

1809.

"But why should you and I for ever mourn

Our dear relation's death? She's gone

We've wept enough to prove

Our grief, and tender love;

Let joy succeed and smiles appear,

And let us wipe off every tear;

Not always the cold winter lasts,

With snows and storms and northern blasts:

The raging seas with fury tost,

Not always break and roar,

Sometimes their native anger's lost,

And smooth soft waves glide softly to the shore."

The poetry of the Rev. John Adams has been more frequently spoken of, than that of any of our writers of his time. His name is in the list of the graduates of Harvard for the year 1721, and he died aged only 36, in Cambridge, in 1740. For two years he was the clergyman of Newport. His poems were published in a volume in 1745. We discern in them a cultivated mind, pure feeling, and poetic ambition. The preface speaks of their merit in terms of unbounded admiration. They contain an address to the Supreme Being, which is a sort of prayer for assistance as a poet; Hallelujah attempted; Religous poems, on Contentment, on

Joy, on Society, in three cantos; various passages of scripture versified; odes of Horace; a poem on the death of Josiah Winslow; on the death of Cotton Mather; a versification of the book of Revelations. The pieces are of different merit; we will give the reader an opportunity of judging for himself, by an extract from the poem on Cotton Mather, so that we shall at once renew the honour paid to a great name, and show the manner of Adams to good advantage.

"What numerous volumes scattered from his hand,

Lightened his own, and warmed each foreign land?
What pious breathings of a glowing soul

Live in each page, and animate the whole?
The breath of Heaven the savory pages show,
As we Arabia from its spices know.
The beauties of his style are careless strowed,
And learning with a liberal hand bestowed :
So, on the field of Heaven, the seeds of fire,
Thick sown but careless, all the wise admire.
How many pleasures dwelt upon his tongue,
On which transported myriads eager hung?
With reading fraught, and tipped with sacred fire,
What noble passions did its sounds inspire?

When Mather spoke, he hung each silent ear,
Or gained the smile, or spread a serious air;
With deep instruction tinged the virtuous mind,
Scatter'd our sorrows, and our joys refined:
Kindled our thirst for learning's sacred springs,
Rais'd up new fields, and cleared sublimer things.

Ambitious, active, towering was his soul,
But flaming piety inspired the whole,
Time, gliding downwards in a hasty stream,
Was never troubled, but was cleared by him,
His various work its fruitful mirror shows,

Reared on its banks, and pictures as it flows."

"A Collection of poems by several hands," made in Boston in 1744, contains several little pieces of Dr. Mather Byles. His literary merit was such as to introduce him to the notice of Pope, and other English scholars. In what estimation he was held in America, may be seen from the following lines, by a contemporary, whose name is not given.

"Would but Apollo's genial touch inspire

Such sounds as breathe from Byles's warbling lyre,
Then might my notes in melting measures flow,
And make all nature wear the signs of woe."

We have before us a pamphlet containing two short poems: "The Conflagration," and "The God of Tempest and Earthquake." The last is certainly by Byles, and we infer, that the first is, which is "applied to that grand period or catastrophe of our world, when the face of nature is to be changed by a deluge

of fire." We give an extract, as perhaps there is not a second copy of the poem in existence.

"Yet shall ye, Flames, the wasting globe refine,
And bid the skies with purer splendour shine,
The earth which the prolifick fires consume,
To beauty burns, and withers into bloom;
Improving in the fertile flame it lies,
Fades into form, and into vigour dies:
Fresh-dawning glories blush amidst the blaze,
And nature all renews her flowery face.
With endless charms the everlasting year
Rolls round the seasons in a full career;
Spring, ever-blooming, bids the fields rejoice,
And warbling birds try their melodious voice;
Where e'er she treads, lilies unbidden blow,
Quick tulips rise, and sudden roses glow :
Her pencil paints a thousand beauteous scenes,
Where blossoms bud amid immortal greens;
Each stream, in mazes, murmurs as it flows,
And floating forests gently bend their boughs.
Thou, Autumn, too, sitt'st in the fragrant shade,
While the ripe fruits blush all around thy head:
And lavish Nature, with luxuriant hands,

All the soft months, in gay confusions blends."

Joseph Green, a graduate of Harvard, and afterwards a merchant in Boston, was a contemporary of Byles, and famous for his humour. He wrote a burlesque upon Byles's Psalm to be sung at sea. He ridiculed the Freemasons in "Entertainment for a Winter's Evening," published in 1750. We are not aware of any large or serious work, on which his reputation can rest. In his old age, he left the country for England, rather from the infirmities of age, than indifference to the cause of liberty. If we must give a specimen of his humour, it shall be a short one. An honest farmer, knowing Green's reputation as a poet, and wishing to get a first-rate epitaph written for his "help," who had just died, went to Boston, and asked his way to Joe Green's, the poet. He was readily shown to him, and having stated his wants, Green asked what were the qualities of the servant he had lost. The farmer answered, he was excellent in all things, and very dear to him; but was particularly good at raking hay, which he could do faster than any body, present company, of course, added he, being excepted. Green immediately wrote, "Here lies the body of John Cole,

His master loved him like his soul;
He could rake hay, none could rake faster
Except that raking dog, his master."

We rescue, at least for the moment, from oblivion, "Tilden's Miscellaneous Poems, on divers occasions, chiefly to animate and rouse the Soldiers;" printed 1756-the author, sixty-six years old. In these, the British lion is roused, the English soldier encouraged, Braddock's fate deplored, with an incitement

to revenge, and New-England's triumph celebrated, after the success of her arms at Nova Scotia-and all this in very poor

metre.

"The conquest of Louisberg," inspired the Muse of John Maylem, who was graduated at Harvard in 1715. We have also of his, in blank verse, "Gallic Perfidy"-July 13, 1758. This poem contains an account of the horrors perpetrated by the savages, on the defenceless troops, after the capitulation of the garrison of William Henry, August 9, 1757; whereby we are reminded of our American Novelist, who has selected the same scene for description in one of his popular works.

We could give the titles of several poems, published about this time, but are unable to speak of their merits. Dr. Isaiah Thomas, of Worcester, Mass., President of the American Antiquarian Society, once undertook to make a catalogue of all works, printed in the United States, before the year 1775. He advanced far in his plan, and the manuscripts, in an unfinished state, are still preserved in the collections of the Society, in Worcester. From them, we learn, that a poem was published in Philadelphia in 1756, in folio, entitled "Pennsylvania," by a student of the college. At Portsmouth, N. H., a poem was published in 1760, and came to a second edition in 1762, at Boston; Cocking's (George,) War, an heroic poem, from the taking of Minorca by the French, to the reduction of the Havanah, in 8vo. 280 pages. The Portsmouth edition was of 70 pages folio. We hold it unwise to quote further from a catalogue, where we cannot consult the books themselves.

Of Francis Knapp, of Watertown, we know nothing beyond what S. L. Knapp, of Boston, has collected in his "Biographical Sketches." In them, a poem addressed to Pope on his Windsor Forest, is contained. The author had himself been educated in England, and seems to have liked it better than America.

Governor James Bowdoin, is reported to have been the author of a very good "Paraphrase of the Economy of Human Life," dated March 28, 1759. The work is creditable, but not brilliant.

The accession of George III. to the throne, called forth the Pietas et Gratulatio Collegii Cantabrigiensis apud Novanglos, in a quarto volume, of 106 pages. This volume contains several poems, by men who afterwards became distinguished in their country. There are two poems in Greek; the rest in English or Latin. Dr. Samuel Cooper, Dr. Benjamin Church, and Judge Lowell, were among the contributors. Mr. Stephen Sewall, who afterwards translated the first book of Young's Night Thoughts into Latin hexameters, and wrote a Greek poem, on the Last Day, was the author of several Latin and Greek pieces. The best English lines in the volume are those of Church: