The works, in verse and prose, of the late Robert Treat Paine, Jun. Esq ::

The natural world, by Heaven's stupendous plan,
Is formed an emblem of the life of man.
Vain is the wish, that Spring's Favonian reign,
With Autumn's golden stores, should crown the plain;
And vain the hope, in life's first dawn, to find
Those nerves of thought, that grace the ripened mind.
Nature, too proud in one poor garb to appear,
Varies her livery with the varying year.
Her laws, unchanged by Time's insidious power,
Unravel centuries or revolve an hour;

Her stated order, to the seasons given,
Rolls round with equal ease the stars of heaven.
Clothed from the wardrobe, blooms the roseate spring,
And warbling birds and harmless poets sing.
Prompted by her, the Muse, with doating eyes,
Beholds her callow plumes, and pants to rise;
With half-formed hopes, and fears ne'er felt before,
She spreads her fluttering wings, but dreads to soar.
But while old Autumn, on the fertile plain,
Totters and groans beneath the weight of grain;
While grateful peasants reap the bearded ear,
And golden Plenty crowns the fading year;
While Harvard's sons, whom Fame with smiles surveys,
Throng to the harvest of their well-earned praise;
May not the Muse, ambitious of a name,
Put in her sickle for one “sheaf” of fame?

Far from Pieria's sacred stream remote,
On half-strung lyre, she tunes her lisping note;
The rise of manners from their fount to trace,
From savage life, transformed, to social grace;
Till the rough diamond of the human mind,
By care assiduous, and by skill refined,
From all the blemish of its native stone,
In varied beams of polished brilliance shone.
This be her theme, and should her numbers fail,
So great a theme will prove a friendly veil.

The mind of man by gradual rise improves;
Ambition's noblest spring his bosom moves.
This prompts the soul with ardour to excel,
In thinking rightly or in acting well;

But when dark clouds the savage mind o'erspread,
Refinement droops, and Friendship's self is dead.
No more bright Reason in her zenith shines;
Down to the west the mental sun declines;
And sunk to vile debasement's lowest grade,
Man lives “with beast, joint tenant of the shade.”

Created life was formed for some great end;
A centre must be, where its motions tend.
As high as heaven its azure arch sustains,
Deep as the gloom, where dreary Chaos reigns,
Sublimely awful, and immensely great,
Is raised the firm, perennial wall of fate;
On the dark frontiers of creation laid,
Where boundless space extends a rayless shade.
Here Time's destroying arm in vain has strove,
The mighty fabrick from its base to move;
Here angels too, rebellious sons of light,
Once rose in arms to raze the bounds of night;
The solid rock resists their raging power,
The battering Aries, and the thundering ore;
Against the wall their harmless weapons break;
What God has raised, not earth and heaven can shake.

Two mighty barriers bound this transient span,
Barriers, too lofty for the stride of man;
Lucina here, sits smiling at his birth,
There Death, triumphant o'er the bleeding earth.
Lo! on the cradle's down the infant sleeps;
Lo! on its urn the tender parent weeps!
No human force can brave the assaults of age;
No strength of mind can shield the hoary sage;

The world is swept by time's impetuous wave,
And man flouts downward to the common grave.

To fill this fleeting hour, this narrow space,
With actions, worthy an immortal race;
To teach the rapid moments, as they fly,
Beyond the utmost ken of mortal eye,
To assume the smile of Virtue's placid mien;
With social pleasures sweeten every scene;
To form the manners, quell proud War's alarms,
And, wide extending Friendship's open arms,
With generous love to clasp in one embrace
The mighty household of the human race;
This is the task, the pleasing task of man;
The great perfection of Jehovah's plan;
This is the gate to Paradise below,
A safe asylum from each mortal woe.

Morals, like ore extracted from the mine,
Though crude at first, by art are taught to shine.
These to a nation a complexion give,
With these republicks fall, with these they live.
Nations with these in civil power increase,
In strength of war and all the sweets of peace.
To these the softer arts their polish owe,
From this vast fount the streams of science flow.
Here law and justice mutual sources find,
And hence the virtues, that adorn mankind.

But statesmen still o'erlook this mighty cause,
And modern Dracos trump their penal laws;

With lordly edicts rule a groaning state,
And trust that laws will humble souls create;
And, lest old Time should spy such gross defects,
Inverting nature, causes name effects.
When souls depraved the curule chair obtain,
And through the realm, the same great evils reign,
Can feeble laws the publick heart reform,
Exalt the morals and avert the storm?
Behold on high the amber tide of day,
Which rolls refulgent from the solar ray;
Rivers from springs, and seas from rivers flow;
From humble shrubs majestick forests grow;
The rising manners of an infant state
Will be the parent of its future fate.
These, like the living current of the heart,
Through every breast their vital influence dart;
Brace every nerve and man the dauntless soul,
Preserve each member and support the whole.
But when dread Vice, with her infectious stains,
Pollutes the blood, that warms the publick veins,
Corrosive poisons through the vitals roll,
Impair their vigour, and corrupt the soul.
Vice clogs the channels of the sanguine tide;
Virtue refines and bids the currents glide;
These arm with strength, or shrink the trembling nerve,
Destroy the body, or in health preserve.

Years have on years, on ages ages rolled,
But each new sun the same great truth has told;
That morals still a nation's fate comprise,
Sink to the earth, or lift it to the skies;

These swell the page experience has unfurled,
Exalt a throne, or crush a falling world;
Then hear, O Earth; with shouts applausive own
The voice of Time, through History's clarion blown!

When savage Nature her dominion kept,
And each mild Virtue in oblivion slept;
To scourge mankind a group of monsters rose,
And headlong plunged them down the abyss of woes.
Through barbarous hordes, dire War and Horror strode,
And Havock grimly smiled o'er seas of blood.
The dearest scenes of love were stained with gore,
And Peace and Friendship ruled the world no more.

Ferocious clans, whom natural wants provoke,
Whose necks ne'er groaned beneath a galling yoke,
Armed for the horrors of inhuman strife,
Aim the deep wound, and plunge the deadly knife,
Winged by the sweeping gale, their feet resound,
And scarcely print a vestige on the ground;
The dews, that glisten on the spiry grass,
Forget their dread, nor tremble as they pass;
Heaven's rapid steeds, the mighty winds submit,
And own the swifter motions of their feet.
Not with such fury drives the rattling hail,
As when these weapons fill the sounding gale;
O'er floods, o'er hills, their savage vengeance flies,
Like ocean storms, and lightens like the skies.
No fear of death their dauntless souls deplore;
Death is a friend when glory is no more.
Their thundering arms in victory's dazzling car,
Waged with the world a predatory war;

And, with whole rivers of fraternal gore,
Swelled ocean's waves to heights unknown before.
They followed conquest, where their sachems led,
And climbed to fame o'er mountains of the dead.

Still rose unfelled the forest's towering oak;
The plough was then unknown; unknown the yoke.
The soil uncultured gave no harvest birth;
Unlocked remained the granary of the earth.

The human soul, in this unpolished state,
Lay all benighted in the clouds of fate.
Unskilled in useful and instructive art,
A blinded frenzy raved in every heart.
No friendly scene then charmed the smiling eye;
No heart exulted in the social tie.
By wants surrounded, and to slaughter driven,
Lost was each semblance of the parent heaven.
Compared to man in this ferocious age,
Enthralled in darkness and unbridled rage,
Tygers no more a savage nature claim,
And howling wolves in all their wrath are tame;
E'en the fierce lion in his horrid den
Seemed a civilian to the monsters, men.

Such were the scenes, which savage ages saw,
When brutal frenzy waged fraternal war;
Nor modern days from these exemption claim;
Oh! Europe, blush, for thou hast seen the same!

Where sullen Russia's frowning turrets rise,
Bare to the fury of the northern skies,

Suspicion, Cruelty, Revenge resort,
The privy council of a tyrant's court.
At their dread bar a guiltless virgin led,
Fell on the shrine, where many a saint had bled;
Mild, as the evening, as the noon day, bright,
Pure and unblemished, as the stars of light.
The primrose, blushing on the fragrant heath,
Appeared a poppy to her sweeter breath;
The lily's self was blackness to her skin,
It shone reflected from her soul within.
While the full tear hung glistening in her eye,
The tyrant's voice decreed her fate,—to die!
Death at the sound his savage office cursed,
And scarce had heart to execute his trust.

Lo! now the virgin to the scaffold led,
A sweet complacence o'er her features spread!
The ministers of death, though old in blood,
Lost in surprise, in silent wonder, stood;
While she, too fair, too pure for Slander's breath,
Serenely smiled, and hailed the approach of death.
The moment came; on Fate's slow wheel it run;
Time saw, and dropped a tear, and rolled it on!
The moment came, and Death's barbarian crew
The snow-white mantle from her bosom drew.
Pale Fear with many a throb her bosom swelled,
And Hope, our last, our dearest friend, repelled.
Her cheek, which once of Parian marble shone,
Formed of the lily, and the rose full blown,
Now seemed a morning sky, with blushes spread,
Where trickling tears a glistening radiance shed;

While Modesty averts her bashful eye;
The sight would tempt an angel from the sky.

Now to the post her tender wrists are bound;
With cruel chains her body lashed around.
Her tears, her shrieks no hardened breast inspired;
No bosom throbbed; and Pity's self expired.

“I die,” the virgin cries, “without a stain;
“Guiltless I die, by dark injustice slain!”

Stung to the quick, lo! brutal Torture raves;
With foaming rage her iron cordage waves!
Her vengeful arm the horrid knout displays,
And, as exposed the virgin's bosom lays,
With mangling blows provokes the spouting gore,
While tears unseen, and shrieks unheard deplore;
Redoubled strokes the quivering members tear,
Strip off the flesh, and lay the vitals bare!
Ye Heavens! why sleeps the thunder in the sky?
Speak but the word, Barbarity shall die!
Being's great wheel revolves, and now deranged,
Lo! man and brute their rank have interchanged!
A sight so moving, bids no pangs arise
In man's hard breast; he views with smiling eyes;
While savage beasts in sympathy appear,
And roll in silent grief the gushing tear.
Rocks strive in vain their pity to conceal,
And, spite of nature, learn for once to feel.
E'en Heaven itself, when it from high beheld
A nymph, whose form her soul alone excelled,

Bear all the pangs, that Torture could bestow,
Dropped down a gracious tear to end her woe;
The tear descended from the world above,
From that pure region of eternal love,
Down to the blood-stained page of mortal life,
Where glared in crimson hate, revenge, and strife,
Wept, as it fell, the loss of virtuous shame,
And blotted from the scroll the virgin's name!

In this drear age, which ignorance o'erspread,
When Frenzy reared her snake-encircled head,
Mankind long grovelled in their native dust;
On their dark minds no glimpse of reason burst.
A gloomy film was spread o'er mortal eyes,
Like the thick veil, which shrouds the spangled skies,
When, dimly seen, the wandering fires of night
Through heaven's dark glass emit a watery light.
The earth, enveloped in the impervious gloom,
Appeared a dismal, solitary tomb.
Cimmerian Dulness seized the throne of Jove,
Convened her clouds, and thronged the vault above;
Till daring Genius burst surrounding night,
And shone the day-star of returning light;
Till Reason's sun in eastern clime appeared,
From heaven's blue arch the shrouding vapours cleared,
With plastick heat the soul of man illumed,
And all the mental world in verdure bloomed.

Ages of darkness now had rolled away,
Ere man, awakening, hailed the dawn of day;
E'er heaven-descended, soul-refining grace
Shone in the cralde of the human race.

In Ægypt first her youthful charms were seen,
To sport with rusticks on the Memnian green.
Here first her social powers on earth began,
To polish savages, and form the man;
Here first for use, and here for pleasure sought,
The various sources of instructive thought.

Here Agriculture claims her glorious birth;
Here first the ploughshare turned the furrowed earth;
Here bounteous Plenty beamed her infant smile;
And here immerged beneath the pregnant Nile
Her “cornu copiæ,” till it held no more,
And poured luxuriance round the Ægyptian shore.
The hardy swains with joyful hearts appear,
To reap the bounties of the fruitful year,
While waving crowns old Autumn's brows entwine,
The golden orange and the blushing vine.

Such are the blessings of indulgent skies,
When heaven in dews the thirsty glebe supplies;
When cultured furrows swell the implanted grain,
And vegetation crowns the gladsome plain.
From latent seeds the wealthiest harvests rise;
The sun must dawn, before he lights the skies.
Industrious virtue constant bliss enjoys;
For labour recreates, when leisure cloys.

Hail, Ceres! second parent of mankind!
Hail, great restorer of the human mind!
In fame's bright record be enrolled thy birth,
The era of regenerated earth!

Thy arm the tyrant from his throne has hurled,
And roused from slumber the lethargick world;
Thy hand broke off the shackles of control,
And gave new freedom to the imprisoned soul.
To thee the Arts their first existence owe,
And Commerce owns, from thee her sources flow.
Thy voice decreed; in heaven the voice was heard,
And sky-born Virtue on the earth appeared.
Thou bad'st the sightless mind of man to see,
And human nature seems renewed by thee!

Where auburn Ceres o'er the waving plain
Rolls her light car, and spreads her golden reign;
The swains industrious, and inured to toil,
Inclement Sirius, and the rugged soil,
With hope's fond dreams their swift-winged hours beguile,
And view in spring the embryo harvest smile;
Far from the cares, that gorgeous courts molest,
And all the thorns, that pageant pomp infest;
Contentment's wings o'erspread their straw-thatched cot,
And Health and Hymen bless their happy lot.
Day bounds the labour of the teeming soil,
And night unbends the aching nerves of toil.
The hard fatigues, that daily sweat their brows,
Add charms to rest, and raptures to repose;
Labour and Sleep vicissive thrones maintain,
The downy pillow, and the sun-burnt plain.
By mutual wants induced, the rustick band
Soon learn the blessings of a friendly hand.
The rugged hardships of the plough they share,
And soothe ferocious minds by mutual care.

Their social labour social warmth inspires,
And dawning friendship lights her purest fires.
Their generous breasts with growing ardour burn,
And love for love, and heart for heart return.
Thus private friendship forms the social chain,
And links the barbarous tenants of the plain.
Still, like a herd, they rove, with laws unblest,
No civil head to govern o'er the rest;
Till some wise sire, whose silver tresses flow,
And form a mantle of the purest snow,
Quivering with age, and venerably great,
Assumes the sceptre, and the chair of state.
The obedient tribes the palsied sage revere,
Whose wisdom taught them, both to love and fear;
Their filial breasts, unbought by courtly bribes,
With reverence see the father of the tribes;
His voice is fate, and not a lisp could fall,
That was not thought an oracle by all;
With eyes of homage, they beheld his age,
And called their realm the household of the sage.

Pleased with his reign, which met too soon a close,
The tribes beneath elective kings repose.
Now laws are formed to guard the rights of man,
And peace and freedom bless the social plan;
Now art, the offspring of the ingenious mind,
Completes the system and adorns mankind.

University of Virginia Library

THE REFINEMENT OF MANNERS AND PROGRESS OF SOCIETY.