TO LORD VISCOUNT FORBES.

FROM THE CITY OF WASHINGTON.

ΚΑΙ ΜΗ ΘΑΥΜΑΣΗΣ ΜΗΤ' ΕΙ ΜΑΚΡΟΤΕΡΑΝ ΓΕΓΡΑΦΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΠΙΣΤΟΛΗΝ, ΜΗΔ' ΕΙ ΤΙ ΠΕΡΙΕΡΓΟΤΕΡΟΝ Η ΠΡΕΣΒΥΤΙΚΩΤΕΡΟΝ ΕΙΡΗΚΑΜΕΝ Ε AYTH.-ISOCRAT. Epist. iv.

IF former times had never left a trace
Of human frailty in their shadowy race,
Nor o'er their pathway written, as they ran,
One dark memorial of the crimes of man ;
If every age, in new unconscious prime,
Rose, like a phoenix, from the fires of time,
To wing its way unguided and alone,
The future smiling and the past unknown;
Then ardent man would to himself be new,
Earth at his foot and Heaven within his view,
Well might the novice hope, the sanguine scheme
Of full perfection prompt his daring dream,
Ere cold Experience, with her veteran lore,

Could tell him, fools had dream'd as much be

fore!

But, tracing as we do, through age and clime, The plans of virtue 'midst the deeds of crime, The thinking follies and the reasoning rage

Of man,

at once the idiot and the sage;

When still we see, through every varying frame Of arts and polity, his course the same,

And know that ancient fools but died to make A space on earth for modern fools to take; 'Tis strange, how quickly we the past forget; That Wisdom's self should not be tutor❜d yet, Nor tire of watching for the monstrous birth pure perfection 'midst the sons of earth!

Of

Oh! nothing but that soul which God has given, Could lead us thus to look on earth for Heaven; O'er dross without to shed the flame within, And dream of virtue while we gaze on sin!

Even here, beside the proud Potowmac's stream.
Might sages still pursue the flattering theme
Of days to come, when man shall
conquer Fate,
Rise o'er the level of his mortal state,

Belie the monuments of frailty past,

And stamp perfection on this world at last!

"Here," might they say, "shall Power's divided

"reign

"Evince that patriots have not bled in vain. "Here god-like Liberty's herculean youth, "Cradled in peace, and nurtured up by truth "To full maturity of nerve and mind, "Shall crush the giants that bestride mankind!* "Here shall Religion's pure and balmy draught, "In form no more from cups of state bequaff'd "But flow for all, through nation, rank, and sect, "Free as that Heaven its tranquil waves reflect. "Around the columns of the public shrine "Shall growing arts their gradual wreath entwine, "Nor breathe corruption from their flowering

braid,

"Nor mine that fabric which they bloom to shade. "No longer here shall Justice bound her view, "Or wrong the many, while she rights the few;

* Thus MORSE: "Here the sciences and the arts of civilized life are to receive their highest improvements; here civil and religious liberty are to flourish, unchecked by the cruel hand of civil or ecclesiastical tyranny; here genius, aided by all the improvements of former ages, is to be exerted in humanizing mankind, in expanding and enriching their minds with religious and philosophical knowledge,” etc. etc. p. 569.

"But take her range through all the social frame, "Pure and pervading as that vital flame

"Which warms at once our best and meanest part, "And thrills a hair while it expands a heart!"

Oh golden dream! what soul that loves to scan
The brightness rather than the shades of man,
That owns the good, while smarting with the ill,
And loves the world with all its frailty still-
What ardent bosom does not spring to meet
The generous hope with all that heavenly heat,
Which makes the soul unwilling to resign

The thoughts of growing, even on earth, divine!
Yes, dearest FORBES, I see thee glow to think
The chain of ages yet may boast a link

Of purer texture than the world has known,
And fit to bind us to a Godhead's throne !

But, is it thus? doth even the glorious dream
Borrow from truth that dim uncertain gleam,
Which bids us give such dear delusion scope,
As kills not reason, while it nurses hope?
No, no, believe me, 'tis not so-even now,
While yet upon Columbia's rising brow