'Tis thine, whose life's a comment on thy page;

Thy happy page! whose periods sweetly flow,

Whose figures charm us, and whose colours glow:

When artless piety pervades the whole,
Refines the genius, and exalts the soul.

For let the witling argue all he can,

It is religion still that makes the man."

"The Fire-side" has always been a favourite. If it be tried by a severe test, it will scarcely be considered as possessing much poetic merit. The cause of its popularity is to be accounted for on other grounds. The poem is essentially English; it presents a picture such as no other country in the world can produce-the social quiet and domestic happiness so peculiarly our own. We have reason to know that. he painted as he experienced and felt; that, when the partner who had for many years participated in his toils and troubles, and shared in his amusements and joys, was removed from him, and his." fire-side" was comparatively desolate, the hopes and feelings he had cherished in her society were his best consolations during the residue of his journey to that "sanctuary" for which he so earnestly longed, and

DEAR Cloe, while the busy crowd,
The vain, the wealthy, and the proud,
In folly's maze advance;
Though singularity and pride
Be call'd our choice, we'll step aside,
Nor join the giddy dance.

From the gay world we'll oft retire
To our own family and fire,

Where love our hours employs;
No noisy neighbour enters here,
No intermeddling stranger near,

If solid happiness we prize,
Within our breast this jewel lies,
And they are fools who roam.
The world hath nothing to bestow,
From our own selves our bliss must flow,
And that dear hut, our home.

Of rest was Noah's dove bereft,
When with impatient wing she left
That safe retreat, the ark;
Giving her vain excursions o'er,
The disappointed bird once more
Explor'd the sacred bark.

Though fools spurn Hymen's gentle powers,
We, who improve his golden hours,

By sweet experience know,
That marriage, rightly understood,
Gives to the tender and the good,
A paradise below.

Our babes shall richest comfort bring;
If tutor'd right, they'll prove a spring
Whence pleasures ever rise;
We'll form their minds with studious care,
To all that's manly, good, and fair,
And train them for the skies.

While they our wisest hours engage,
They'll joy our youth, support our age,
And crown our hoary hairs;
They'll grow in virtue every day,
And thus our fondest loves repay,
And recompense our cares..

No borrow'd joys! they're all our own,
While to the world we live unknown,
Or by the world forgot:

Monarchs! we envy not your state,
We look with pity on the great,
And bless our humble lot.

Our portion is not large, indeed;
But then, how little do we need,

In this the art of living lies,

To want no more than may suffice,
And make that little do.

We'll therefore relish with content
Whate'er kind Providence has sent,
Nor aim beyond our power;
For, if our stock be very small,
'Tis prudence to enjoy it all,
Nor lose the present hour.

To be resign'd when ills betide,
Patient when favours are denied,

And pleas'd with favours given ;
Dear Cloe, this is wisdom's part,
This is that incense of the heart,
Whose fragrance smells to heaven.

We'll ask no long-protracted treat,
Since winter-life is seldom sweet;
But, when our feast is o'er,
Grateful from table we'll arise,
Nor grudge our sons, with envious eyes,
The relics of our store.

Thus hand in hand through life we'll go ;
Its checker'd paths of joy and woe
With cautious steps we'll tread;
Quit its vain scenes without a tear,
Without a trouble, or a fear,

And mingle with the dead.

While conscience, like a faithful friend,
Shall through the gloomy vale attend,
And cheer our dying breath;
Shall, when all other comforts cease,
Like a kind angel whisper peace,
And smooth the bed of death.

184

WILLIAM MASON was born in 1725, at Kingston-upon-Hull; his father was a He received his education at St. John's clergyman of the Established Church. College, Cambridge; and, during his residence at the University, distinguished himself by a "Monody on the Death of Pope." This was soon followed by his poem of "Isis," and his tragedy of "Elfrida," written after the model of the Greek dramathe chorus being "formed by a train of British virgins." It was performed at Covent Garden, but with little success, in 1772. In 1774 he entered into holy orders, and was appointed one of the Chaplains to the King; afterwards he was presented to the valuable living of Aston, and subsequently to the precentorship of York. His odes, "English his elegies-that, especially, addressed to a young nobleman on leaving the University his other and more celebrated drama, "Caractacus," and the Garden," the longest of his works, established his reputation, and his claim to rank high among the poets of the age in which he lived. He died in 1797.

His friendship with Gray commenced early, and continued without interruption until the death of the more highly-gifted bard, whose books and manuscripts he inherited, and to whom was assigned the task of committing his memoirs and letters to the press. Gray pictured Mason, when a young man, as "of much fancy, little judgment, and a good deal of modesty; in simplicity a child, a little vain, but sincere, In mature age he is described as an exemplary clergyinoffensive, and indolent." man, an accomplished scholar, and an enlightened companion; of manners somewhat formal and austere, and as exciting awe rather than affection. One of his contemporaries characterised him as "a buckram man." In politics he was a Whig of the old school, and was among the earliest of our writers who execrated the slave-trade.

The merit of Mason, as a poet, is universally acknowledged; he excelled also in the sister arts; wrote a critical essay on church music; and composed several devotional pieces for the choir of York cathedral. His remarks on painting exhibit taste and judgment, and show that he might not altogether in vain have striven

"To snatch a double wreath

From Fame's unfading laurels."

That he had indeed the "poet's feeling and the painter's eye" is evident; and it is obvious that he knew how valuable is the assistance which the one never fails to render to the other, when both look upon nature, and both possess

"The power to seize, select, and reunite

Her loveliest features."

The happy combination has produced its full effects in his poem of "The English Garden." This production was issued in four parts, at distant intervals.

As a whole it is dull and tedious; but it abounds in passages so original and striking as to bear quotation as examples the most perfect in our language. Thus he speaks of Time, whose

"Gradual touch

Has mouldered into beauty many a tower

Which,, when it frown'd with all its battlements,
Was only terrible."

The great defect of the poem is the want.of that which the subject imperatively
called for-simplicity-" divine Simplicity," whom the Poet invokes, and to whom
he dedicates his "verse," but evidently without estimating her character or appre-
ciating her qualities. The edition of 1796 contains an ample commentary on the four
books, by Dr. Burgh; it is, for the most part, an assemblage of self-evident truths,
and unnecessary as an appendage to the volume, inasmuch as those who read the
poem will but little need the prose explanations of its meaning, and those who do not
cultivate acquaintance with the Poet will not be very likely to court it with his prosaic
friend. This work, however, is not considered the most beneficial to the fame of
Of Gray he was a
Mason; it is founded more upon his two tragedies and his odes.
fervent admirer; and we do not overpraise him, if we say, that the mantle of the
higher genius descended upon the compatriot he loved-at least, Mason is the last of
our poets who successfully studied in the school of which Gray was the great master.