INTRODUCTORY EPISTLE.
TO --- ---, ESQ.
August 15.
Misi ad te frivola gerris Siculis vaniora: ut quum agis nihil, hæc legus; et, ne nihil agas, defendas.
AUSON.
Now in the Lion's fiery reign,
The fierce sun drives his ardent wain;
In sultry summer's kindling arch
He holds on high his blazing march;
The rustic quits the glowing fields,
And, fainting, to his influence yields;
To gentler shades, afar, he flies,
While the mown grass ungather'd lies:
Fast, o'er the burning pavement hurl'd,
Th' impatient merchant's car is whirl'd;
From bustling quay, with weary feet,
Escap'd, he seeks his cool retreat:
The student's clouded eyeballs roam,
Bent idly on the ponderous tome:
And pretty lips, with drawling speech,
Complain that they can find no leech,
Whose skill can baffle that disease,
Where conquest's self forgets to please
The minstrel's chords relax'd, in vain
He woos them to a nobler strain;
For, o'er the diapason deep,
His failing fingers tiring, sleep;
The spell-bound mind, in waking slumbers,
Sinks lull'd by the lethargic numbers.
While Morpheus round his wreaths hath strown,
Where Themis nods upon her throne,—
(Wo to the wight whose weal or bale
Hangs trembling in that cumbrous scale!)
While hurrying judges quit the court,
And make e'en—himself grow short—
Whilst thou, my friend, all listless lolling,
Feelst bland oblivion round thee rolling,
Till thou art stretch'd beneath her wand,
The ‘Memory of Man’ beyond—
While master Littleton, supine,
Dreads no ejectment from his shrine—
For e'en John Stiles, beneath such skies,
Wanes in his deathless energies—
While each reporter, in due place,
Need fear no trespass on the case—
Haply the minstrel's idle tale
At such a tide may yet prevail;
May, with one spark of fire of eld,—
When chaos slow her depths unveil'd,
And listening caught the spheral song,
—Thy waking dreams awhile prolong.
Nor deem the crier's hoarse Oyes,
That calls thee to thine honour'd place,
The only melody that e'er
Mounts to Astræa's hallow'd sphere.
If right I read the lore of time,
Far in proud learning's natal clime,
With law and polity began
The Muses' seven-string'd talisman;
The same fleet herald brought them there,
Jove's golden-sandal'd messenger.
Mercury is said to have introduced letters and polity into Egypt.
When Greece, o'er Freedom's sacred tide,
Saw Persia's gorgeous gallies ride,
Whose war-song peal'd along the wave,
Sent craven terror to the slave—
The elegy composed by Solon, to excite the Athenians to retake Salamis, is said to have been sung at the naval engagement which happened afterward near that place.
Awakening every echoing shore
As onward dash'd each gallant prore?
'Twas his—who erst, in milder stole,
Had tam'd the uncouth warrior's soul;
The sage who made Athena free,
And lov'd the songs of minstrelsy.
Awhile unbend thy brow—I fear
No harsher frown or critic sneer,
As the deep student's eye shall rove
O'er a tale of magic, a tale of love.
