STANZAS.

WRITTEN UNDER THE FEAR OF BAILIFFS.

Alas! of all the noxious things
That wait upon the poor,
Most cruel is that Felon-Fear

That haunts the "Debtor's Door!"

Saint Sepulchre's begins to toll,

The Sheriffs seek the cell :

So I expect their officers,

And tremble at the bell!

I look for beer, and yet I quake
With fright at every tap;
And dread a double-knock, for o !
I've not a single rap!

SONNET

WRITTEN IN A WORKHOUSE.

Он, blessed ease! no more of heaven I ask :
The overseer is gone-that vandal elf—
And hemp, unpick'd, may go and hang itself,
While I, untask'd, except with Cowper's Task,
In blessed literary leisure bask,

And lose the workhouse, saving in the works
Of Goldsmiths, Johnsons, Sheridans, and Burkes ;
Eat prose
and drink of the Castalian flask ;
The themes of Locke, the anecdotes of Spence,
The humorous of Gay, the Grave of Blair—
Unlearned toil, unletter'd labours hence!
But, hark! I hear the master on the stair
And Thomson's Castle, that of Indolence,
Must be to me a castle in the air.

SONNET.-A SOMNAMBULIST.

"A change came o'er the spirit of my dream."-BYRON

METHOUGHT for Fancy is the strangest gadder When sleep all homely mundane ties hath rivenMethought that I ascended Jacob's ladder,

With heartfelt hope of getting up to Heaven:

Some bell, I knew not whence, was sounding seven
When I set foot upon that long one-pair;

And still I climbed when it had chimed eleven,
Nor yet of landing-place became aware;
Step after step in endless flight seem'd there;

But on, with steadfast hope, I struggled still,

To gain that blessed haven from all care,

Where tears are wiped, and hearts forget their ill, When, lo! I wakened on a sadder stair—

Tramp-tramp-tramp-tramp-upon the Brixton Mill!

FUGITIVE LINES ON PAWNING MY WATCH.

"Aurum pot-a-bile :"-Gold biles the pot.-FREE TRANSLATION.

FAREWELL then, my golden repeater,
We're come to my Uncle's old shop;
And hunger won't be a dumb-waiter,
The Cerberus growls for a sop!

To quit thee, my comrade diurnal,

My feelings will certainly scotch;

But oh! there's a riot internal,

And Famine calls out for the Watch!

Oh! hunger's a terrible trial,

I really must have a relief,

So here goes the plate of your dial
To fetch me some Williams's beef!

As famish'd as any lost seaman,
I've fasted for many a dawn,

And now must play chess with the Demon,
And give it a check with a pawn."

I've fasted, since dining at Buncle's,
Two days with true Perceval zeal-
And now must make up at my Uncle's,
By getting a duplicate meal.

No Peachum it is, or young Lockit,
That rifles my fob with a snatch;
Alas! I must pick my own pocket,

And make gravy-soup of my watch!

The

I was born, I may almost say, an orphan: my Father died three months before I saw the light, and my Mother three hours after-thus I was left in the whole world alone, and an only child, for I had neither Brothers nor Sisters; much of my after-passion for solitude might be ascribed to this cause, for I believe our tendencies date themselves from a much earlier age, or, rather, youth, than is generally imagined. It was remarked that I could go alone at nine months, and I have had an aptitude to going alone all the rest of my life. first words I learnt to say, were "I by myself, I ”—or thou—or he— or she-or it—but I was a long time before I could pronounce any personals in the plural; my little games and habits were equally singular. I was fond of playing at Solitary or at Patience, or another game of cards of my own invention, namely, whist, with three dummies. Of books, my favourite was Robinson Crusoe, especially the first part, for I was not fond of the intrusion of Friday, and thought the natives really were Savages to spoil such a solitude. At ten years of age I was happily placed with the Rev. Mr. Steinkopff, a widower, who took in only the limited number of six pupils, and had only me

to begin with: here I enjoyed myself very much, learning in a first and last class in school hours, and playing in play time at hoop, and other pretty games not requiring partners. My playground was, in short, a garden of Eden, and I did not even sigh for an Eve, but, like Paradise, it was too happy to last. I was removed from Mr. Steinkopff's to the University of Göttingen, and at once the eyes of six hundred pupils, and the pupils of twelve hundred eyes, seem fastened upon me: I felt like an owl forced into day-light; often and often I shamm'd ill, as an excuse for confining myself to my chamber, but some officious would-be friends, insisting on coming to sit with me, as they said, to enliven my solitude, I was forced as a last resource to do that which subjected me, on the principle of Howard's Prison Discipline, to solitary confinement. But even this pleasure did not last; the heads of the College found out that solitary confinement was no punishment, and put another student in the same cell; in this extremity I had no alternative but to endeavour to make him a convert to my principles, and in some days I succeeded in convincing him of the individual independence of man, the solid pleasures of solitude, and the hollow one of society,-in short, he so warmly adopted my views, that in a transport of sympathy we swore an eternal friendship, and agreed to separate for ever, and keep ourselves to ourselves as much as possible. To this end we formed with our blanket a screen across our cell, and that we might not even in thought associate with each other, he soliloquised only in French, of which I was ignorant, and I in English, to which he was equally a stranger. Under this system my wishes were gratified, for I think I felt more intensely lonely than I ever remember when more strictly alone. Of course this condition had a conclusion; we were brought out again unwillingly into the common world, and the firm of Zimmermann, Nobody, and Co., was compelled to admit-six hundred partners.-In this extremity, my fellow prisoner Zingleman and myself had recourse to the persuasions of oratory. We preached solitude, and got quite a congregation, and of the six hundred hearers, four hundred at least became converts to our Unitarian doctrine; every one of these disciples strove to fly to the most obscure recesses, and the little cemetery of the College had always a plenty of those who were trying to make themselves scarce. This of course was afflicting; as in the game of puss in a corner, it was difficult to get a corner unoccupied to be alone in; the defections and desertions from the College were consequently numerous, and for a long time the state gazette contained daily advertisements for missing gentlemen, with a description of their persons and habits, and invariably concluding with this sentence: "of a melancholy turn,-calls himself a Zimmermanian, and affects solitude." In fact, as Schiller's Robbers begot Robbers, so did my solitude beget solitudinarians, but with this difference, that the dramatist's disciples frequented the Highways, and mine the Byeways!

The consequence was what might have been expected, which I had foreseen, and ardently desired. I was expelled from the University