WILLIAM CLIFFTON. [Born 1772. Died 1799.] a THE father of WILLIAM CLIFFTON was wealthy member of the society of Friends, in Philadelphia. The poet, from his childhood, had little physical strength, and was generally a sufferer from disease; but his mind was vigorous and carefully educated, and had he lived to a mature age, he would probably have won an enduring reputation as an author. His life was marked by few incidents. He made himself acquainted with the classical studies pursued in the universities, and with music, painting, and such field-sports as he supposed he could indulge in with most advantage to his health. He was considered an amiable and accomplished gentleman, and his society was courted alike by the fashionable and the learned. He died in December, 1799, in the twenty-seventh year of his age. The poetry of CLIFFTON has more energy of thought and diction, and is generally more correct and harmonious, than any which had been previously written in this country. Much of it is satirical, and relates to persons and events of the period in which he lived; and the small volume of his writings published after his death doubtless contains some pieces which would have been excluded from an edition prepared by himself, for this reason, and because they were unfinished and not originally intended to meet the eye of the world. TO WILLIAM GIFFORD, ESQ.* Is these cold shades, beneath these shifting skies, There still are found a few to whom belong While this delirious age enchanted seems As now, when love-lorn ladies light verse frame, And every rebus-weaver talks of Fame. When Truth in classic majesty appear'd, And Greece, on high, the dome of science rear'd, Patience and perseverance, care and pain Alone the steep, the rough ascent could gain: None but the great the sun-clad summit found; The weak were baffled, and the strong were crown'd. *Prefixed to WILLIAM COBBETT's edition of the "Baviad and Mæviad," published in Philadelphia, in 1799. The tardy transcript's nigh-wrought page confined Then, if some thoughtless BAVIUS dared appear, Still, as from famed Ilyssus' classic shore, To Mincius' banks, the muse her laurel bore, The sacred plant to hands divine was given, And deathless MARO nursed the boon of Heaven Exalted bard! to hear thy gentler voice, The valleys listen, and their swains rejoice; 73 But when, on some wild mountain's awful form, We hear thy spirit chanting to the storm, Of battling chiefs, and armies laid in gore, We rage, we sigh, we wonder, and adore. Thus Rome with Greece in rival splendour shone, But claim'd immortal satire for her own; While HORACE pierced, full oft, the wanton breast With sportive censure, and resistless jest; And that Etrurian, whose indignant lay Thy kindred genius can so well display, With many a well-aim'd thought, and pointed line, Drove the bold villain from his black design. For, as those mighty masters of the lyre, With temper'd dignity, or quenchless ire, Through all the various paths of science trod, Their school was NATURE and their teacher God. Nor did the muse decline till, o'er her head, The savage tempest of the north was spread; Till arm'd with desolation's bolt it came, And wrapp'd her temple in funereal flame. But soon the arts once more a dawn diffuse, He laugh'd at toil, with health and vigour bless'd, No love to foster, no dear friend to wrong, Wild as the mountain flood, they drive along: And sweep, remorseless, every social bloom To the dark level of an endless tomb. By arms assail'd we still can arms oppose, And rescue learning from her brutal foes; But when those foes to friendship make pretence, And tempt the judgment with the baits of sense, Carouse with passion, laugh at Gon's control, And sack the little empire of the soul, What warning voice can save? Alas! 'tis o'er, The age of virtue will return no more; The doating world, its manly vigour flown, Wanders in mind, and dreams on folly's throne. Come then, sweet bard, again the cause defend, Be still the muses' and religion's friend; Again the banner of thy wrath display, And save the world from DARWIN'S tinsel lay. A soul like thine no listless pause should know; Truth bids thee strike, and virtue guides the blow From every conquest still more dreadful come, Till dulness fly, and folly's self be dumb. ROBERT TREAT PAINE. [Born, 1773. Died, 1811] Tuis writer was once ranked by our American critics among the great masters of English verse; and it was believed that his reputation would endure as long as the language in which he wrote. The absurd estimate of his abilities shows the wretched condition of taste in his time, and perhaps caused some of the faults in his later works. ROBERT TREAT PAINE, junior, was born at Taunton, Massachusetts, on the ninth of December, 1773. His father, an eminent lawyer, held many honourable offices under the state and national governments, and was one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence. The family having removed to Boston, when he was about seven years old, the poet received his early education in that city, and entered Harvard University in 1788. His career here was brilliant and honourable; no member of his class was so familiar with the ancient languages, or with elegant English literature; and his biographer assures us that he was personally popular among his classmates and the officers of the university. When he was graduated, "he was as much distinguished for the opening virtues of his heart, as for the vivacity of his wit, the vigour of his imagination, and the variety of his knowledge. A liberality of sentiment and a contempt of selfishness are usual concomitants, and in him were striking characteristics. Urbanity of manners and a delicacy of feeling imparted a charm to his benignant temper and social disposition." While in college he had won many praises by his poetical" exercises," and on the completion of his education he was anxious to devote himself to literature as a profession. His father, a man of singular austerity, had marked out for him a different career, and obtained for him a clerkship in a mercantile house in Boston. But he was in no way fitted for the pursuits of business; and after a few months he abandoned the counting-room, to rely upon his pen for the means of living. In 1794 he established the "Federal Orrery," a political and literary gazette, and conducted it two years, but without industry or discretion, and therefore without profit. Soon after leaving the university, he had become a constant visiter of the theatre, then recently established in Boston. His intimacy with persons connected with the stage led to his marriage with an actress; and this to his exclusion from fashionable society, and a disagreement with his father, which lasted until his death. He was destitute of true courage, and of that kind of pride which arises from a consciousness of integrity and worth. When, therefore, he found himself unpopular with the town, he no longer endeavoured to deserve regard, but neglected his personal appearance, became intemperate, and abandoned himself to indolence. The office of "master of ceremonies" in the theatre, an anomalous station, created for his benefit, still yielded him a moderate income, and, notwithstanding the irregularity of his habits, he never exerted his poetical abilities without success. For his poems and other productions he obtained prices unparalleled in this country, and rarely equalled by the rewards of the most popular European authors. For the "Invention of Letters," written at the request of the President of Harvard University, he received fifteen hundred dollars, or more than five dollars a line. "The Ruling Passion," a poem recited before the Phi Beta Kappa Society, was little less profitable; and he was paid seven hundred and fifty dollars for a song of half a dozen stanzas, entitled "Adams and Liberty." His habits, in the sunshine, gradually improved, and his friends who adhered to him endeavoured to wean him from dissipation, and to persuade him to study the law, and establish himself in an honourable position in society. They were for a time successful; he entered the office of the Honourable THEOPHILUS PARSONS, of Newburyport; applied himself diligently to his studies; was admitted to the bar, and became a popular advocate. No lawyer ever commenced business with more brilliant prospects; but his indolence and recklessness returned; his business was neglected; his reputa tion decayed; and, broken down and disheartened by poverty, disease, and the neglect of his old associates, the evening of his life presented a melancholy contrast to its morning, when every sign gave promise of a bright career. In his last years, says his biographer, " without a library, wandering from place to place, frequently uncertain whence or whether he could procure a meal, his thirst for knowledge astonishingly increased; neither sickness nor penury abated his love of books and instructive conversation." He died in "an attic chamber of his father's house," on the eleventh of November, 1811, in the thirty-eighth year of his age. Dr. JOHNSON said of DRYDEN, of whom PAINE was a servile but unsuccessful imitator, that "his delight was in wild and daring sallies of sentiment, in the irregular and eccentric violence of wit ;" that he "delighted to tread upon the brink of meaning, where light and darkness begin to mingle; to apthe abyss of unideal vacancy." The censure is proach the precipice of absurdity, and hover over more applicable to the copy than the original. There was no freshness in PAINE's writings; his subjects, his characters, his thoughts, were all commonplace and familiar. His mind was fashioned by books, and not by converse with the world. He had a brilliant fancy, and a singular command of language; but he was never content to be simple and natural. He endeavoured to be magnificent and striking; he was perpetually searching for conceits and extravagances; and in the multiplicity of his illustrations and ornaments, he was unintelligible and tawdry. From no other writer could so many instances of the false sublime be selected. He never spoke to the heart in its own language. PAINE wrote with remarkable facility. It is related of him by his biographers, that he had finished Adams and Liberty," and exhibited it to some gentlemen at the house of a friend. His host pronounced it imperfect, as the name of WASHINGTON was omitted, and declared that he should not approach the sideboard, on which bottles of wine had just been placed, until he had written an ad ditional stanza. The poet mused a moment, called for a pen, and wrote the following lines, which are, perhaps, the best in the song: Should the tempest of war overshadow our land, Its bolts could ne'er rend Freedom's temple asunder; For, unmoved, at its portal would Washington stand, And repulse with his breast the assaults of the thunder! His sword from the sleep Of its scabbard would leap, He had agreed to write the "opening address,” on the rebuilding of the Boston Theatre, in 1798. HODGKINSON, the manager, called on him in the evening, before it was to be delivered, and upbraided him for his negligence; the first line of it being yet unwritten. "Pray, do not be angry," said PAINE, who was dining with some literary friends; "sit down and take a glass of wine."-" No, sir," replied the manager; "when you begin to write, I will begin to drink." PAINE took his pen, at a side-table, and in two or three hours finished the address, which is one of the best he ever wrote. ADAMS AND LIBERTY. YE sons of Columbia, who bravely have fought For those rights, which unstain'd from your sires had descended, May you long taste the blessings your valour has bought, And your sons reap the soil which their fathers defended. Mid the reign of mild Peace May your nation increase, With the glory of Rome, and the wisdom of Greece; And ne'er shall the sons of Columbia be slaves, While the earth bears a plant, or the sea rolls its waves. In a clime whose rich vales feed the marts of the world, Whose shores are unshaken by Europe's com motion, The trident of commerce should never be hurl'd, The fame of our arms, of our laws the mild sway, And envelop'd the sun of American glory. But let traitors be told, Who their country have sold, And barter'd their God for his image in gold, While France her huge limbs bathes recumbent in blood, And society's base threats with wide dissolution, May Peace, like the dove who return'd from the flood, Find an ark of abode in our mild constitution. But though peace is our aim, Yet the boon we disclaim, If bought by our sovereignty, justice, or fame. For ne'er shall the sons, &c. "Tis the fire of the flint each American warms: Let Rome's haughty victors beware of collision; Let them bring all the vassals of Europe in arms; We're a world by ourselves, and disdain a division. While, with patriot pride, To our laws we're allied, For ne'er shall the sons, &c. Our mountains are crowned with imperial oak, Whose roots, like our liberties, ages have nour For, unmoved, at its portal would WASHINGTON stand, And repulse, with his breast, the assaults of the thunder! His sword from the sleep Of its scabbard would leap, In vain thy cliffs, Hispania, lift the sky, And conduct with its point every flash to the deep! In vain, with naked breast, the storm defy His heart elate, with modest valour bold, glowing trait from every chief he caught: His equal mind so well could triumph greet, He gave to conquest charms that soothed defeat. The battle done, his brow, with thought o'ercast, Benign as Mercy, smiled on perils past. The death-choked fosse, the batter'd wall, inspired Of furious battle and of piercing sky: Illustrious MOORE, by foe and famine press'd, Yet by each soldier's proud affection bless'd, Unawed by numbers, saw the impending host, With front extending, lengthen down the coast. Charge! Britons, charge!" the exulting chief exclaims: 66 Swift moves the field; the tide of armour flames; And Fate's dark shafts in volley'd shadows flew. Immortal dead! with musing awe thy foes |