ty, lends

Ah ! 'tis not, believe me, when brilliant. With its endearing circle of family ly beaming,

and friends. That beauty's bright eye can

so Perchance some centuries ago, they, sweetly endear,

As we, in life and vigour blest, have As when through the sun-shine of pity

visited this spot, soft gleaming

Have haird its lonely loveliness, 'Tis gracefully deck'd with compas- And with the self-same thoughts sion's mild tear.

(Perusing the sad mementos of still As the rain-drops of Heav'n, 'midst

earlier fate) summer's heat given

Thus oft have ponder'd o'er its pleasTo soften man's toil while he labours ing gloom. below;

Oh! give me but one hour in this blest So is sympathy's tear sent our sorrow

retreat to cheer,

When Cynthia with her borrow'd beauAnd to lighten the heart of its burden of woe.

To this hallow'd scene, a still more N.

hallow'd shade, And I would number more happy mo.

ments

In that brief period of bliss, than in Thoughts on visiting the village

an age Church Yard of Teynton,

Spent at gay folly, intrigue, and fashinear Benford.

ons' shrine. Spirit of solitude and peace!

How preponderates thy scale, oh! loveNature here her pristine loveliness re- ly Teynton, tains

Peaceful and retired, And imagination hails it as thy blest Weighed against the City's ceaseless abode

din Might I condition with the bonds of And vast assemblage of unpleasing fate

soundsWhere to rest, when this life's pil. And oh! how softening to the soul grimage is o'er,

Far removed from the jar and bustle of I would be laid beneath the dark un

the world social shade

Silently to contemplate, Of yonder spreading yew! there, un- The beauties of this silent scene; disturbid,

Blest abode of purity and peace ! Save by the chirping of the feather'd May all who slumber ’neath thy gras

tribe, Or casual visitant,

The sleep of death, The votary of solitude and peace, Arise thro' all-redeeming love, to share Await the Omnific Summons from The blissful happiness of eternal above!

Heaven !Here the mould'ring stone rudely in- C. C. Oxford,

M. C. forms of those

July 22, 1824. Who long have slept the peaceful sleep of death ;

ARGUMENTS AGAINST SUICIDE. The reflectiog mind, by revertive fanc If you in happiness would wish to live, aided,

Accept the friendly hints I mean to Quickly paints their once lov'd home give;

sy sod

bliss annoy,

best;

ly see,

Should no rude storms in life your likewise been proposed by me to

several others, and also inserted Live, and let others taste what you in many Newspapers, and, among enjoy ;

others, in the “Oxford Herald,” If by your folly you are led astray, Still live, and shew the world a better of (I believe) November last, but

in vain. way ;

Perhaps some of your If you are helpless, poor, and indigent, readers may be able to explain it. Still live, a change may give you more

I remain, Sir, content;

Your's, &c. And if with worldly riches you are

Oron,

NICHOLAS. blest,

July 30, 1824. Still live, and with it learn to do your

CHARADE, And if you should have injured any “If you and I quarrel, my first we man,

shall be, Live, and make some atonement if My second is found in a shell; you can;

My whole in a Ball-room we frequentAnd should another strive you to defame,

The pride of the Beau and the Still live, the crime will tell him he's Belle."

to blame; If time by you has uselessly been spent,

IMPROMPTU Still live, and shew the world that you

In return for a brace of Snipes. repent ; If you have real friends do not neglect My thanks I'll no longer delay, them,

For birds which you've shot with

such skill, Still live, and let your aim be to protect them;

For though there was nothing to pay: If foes should slander you on wrong

Yet each of them brought in a Bill. pretence,

I mean not, my friend, to complain, Still live, and smile at their malevo- The matter was perfectly right;

And when bills such as these come If you a life of infamy have led

again, Live, and repent each night when on I'll always accept them at sight.

JUVENIS.
thy bed.
If you think lightly of a future state,
Live, and repent before it is too late.

MR. EDITOR,
If you have immortality in view,
Live, but a virtuous path you must

If a pair of spectacles pursue.

could speak, what Latin author Oxford.

E. H.
would they name ?

SANCHO, To the Editor of the Oxford Entertaining Miscellany.

TO CORRESPONDENTS. Sir, The following Charade,

Numerous Communications have been was proposed for my solution, by received since our last, which will meet a lady some years ago, and has with early attention.

lence ;

who was minister of that place Select Biography.

was but little known beyond the “No part of History is more in-narrow limits of his co-presbyters, structive and delightful than the Lives and to a few gentlemen in the of great and worthy Men.”

neighbourhood. BURNETT.

The rising genius of our young

poet was noticed by many; and LIFE OF JAMES THOMSON. amongst them Sir William Bennet, “ He wants no advocate his cause to well known for his gay humour plead ;

and ready poetical wit; he used You will yourselves be patrons of the

to invite young Thomson to pass dead.

the summer vacations at his counNo party his benevolence confin'd, No sect-alike it fow'd to all mankind. try seat. Such was the man the poet well you

After the usual course of school know,

education, under an able master at Oft has he touch'd your hearts with Jedburgh, Mr. Thomson was sent tender woe;

to the University of Edinburgh. In For his chaste Muse employ'd her Heav'n-taught lyre

his first pieces, “ The Seasons,” we None but the noblest passions to in- see hiin at once assume the majesspire:

tic freedom of an Eastern writer, Not immoral, one corrupted seizing the grand images as they thought,

rise, cloathing them in his own One line which, dying, he could wish

expressive language, and preservto blot.”

ing, throughout, the grace, the It is commonly said, that the

variety, and dignity, which belong life of a good writer is best read

to a just composition, unhurt by in his works; which can scarce

the stiffness of formal method; for fail to receive a tincture from his

what can be more easy and at the temper, manners, and habits. But

same time more sublime than his however just this observation may opening invocation to spring : be, and although we might safely rest Mr. Thomson's fame, as a Come, gentle Spring! ethereal mildgood man, as well as a man of geni. And from the bosom of yon dropping

pess, come, us, on this sole footing; yet the

cloud, desire which the present enlight. While music wakes around, veild in ened public always shews of being a shower more particularly acquainted with Of shadowing roses, on our plains the history of an eminent anthor,

descend. ought not to be disappointed. Our author's reception, wher

Mr. Thomson was born at Ed-ever he was introduced, emboldennám, in the shire of Roxburgh, ed him to risk the publication of 11th of Sept. 1700. His father, his poem of “ Winter,” which was

'T

one

the man.

published in March, 1720; it was Thy beauty walks, Thy tenderness and

love.-no sooner read than universally

Then comes Thy glory in the Summer admired, those only excepted who

months, had not been used to feel or to With light and heat refulgent.look for any thing in poetry be- Thy bounty shines in Autumi: unconyond a point of satirical or epi

Bn'd, grammatic wit, a smart antithesis And spreads a common feast for all

that lives. richly trimmed with rhyme, or the softness of an elegiac complaint.-

In Winter, awful Thou! with clouds

and storms His digressions, too, the overflow

Around Thee thrown! tempest o'er ings of a tender and benevolent

tempest rollid! heart, charmed the reader no less,

The Poet's caution to the anleaving himn in doubt whether he gler must be pleasing to every

adshould mostadmire the Poet or love

vocate for humanity :

But let not on thy hook the tortur'd worm The publication of his “ Winter”

Convulsive twist in agonizing folds; produced him many friends, and which, by rapacious hunger swallowd in return for the public favour, our deep, Poet's chief care had been to fi- Gives, as "you tear it from the bleednish the plan which their wishes ing breast laid out for him; and the expec

Of the weak, hapless, uncomplaining

wretch, tations which his “ Winter” had

Harsh pain and horror to the tender raised were fully satisfied by

hand.the successive publication of the The fate of the industrious bee other “Seasons” which are crown- is no less beautifully pictured :ed with that sublime Hymn in

Ah! see where robb’d, and murder'd which we view the seasons in their

in that pit natural order; and, in imitation Lies the still heaving hive! at evening of the Hebrew bard, all nature is snatch'd, called forth to do homage to the Beneath the cloud of guilt-concealing

night, Creator, and the reader is left en

And fix'd o'er sulphur : while, not raptured in silent adoration and

dreaming ill, praise. How beautifully does the The happy people in their waxen cells, following part of it shew that our Sat tending public cares, and planning Poet

By thousands, tumble from the honied are those of Sophonisba, Tancred domes,

and Sigismundar, The Mask of Convolved and agonizing in the dust.

Alfred Agamemnon. We cannot help noticing here In 1727, the resentment of our some beautiful pictures of Mr. merchants for the interruption of Kirk, painted from descriptions by their trade by the Spaniards in Thomson, especially a Winter America, running very high, Mr. scene and one in Autumn, viz. Thomson zealously took part in Palemon and Lavinia, both which it, and wrote his poem “Britanwe could recommend to the no- nia” to rouse the nation to revenge. tice of our readers as being a-Whilst our Poet was writing the mongst the many of his beautiful first part of Liberty," he received

“ descriptions. “Winter,” line 276 a severe shock by the death of a -“ Autumn” 177.

noble friend and fellow traveller, We cannot well pass over the which was soon followed by another description of Britain in his as severe, the death of Lord Tal“Summer," line 1445.

bot; which Mr. Thomson so paRich is thy soil, and merciful thy thetically and so justly laments in clime;

the poem dedicated to his memory. Thy streams unfailing in the summer's

6. The Castle of Indolence” was drought ;

his last piece; his tragedy of CorioUnmatch'd thy guardian oaks; thy lanus being only prepared for the valleys float

theatre, when a fatal accident robe With golden waves; and on thy moun

bed the world of one of the best tains, flocks Bleat numberless; while, roving round men and best poets that ever lived their sides,

in it. Bellow the black’ning herds in lusty He took a boat when overheatdroves.

ed, by which he contracted a vioBeneath, thy meadows glow, and rise lent cold, which the means of the unequall'd

most skilful physicians could not Against the mower's scythe, On ev

frustrate, and his valuable career Thy villas shine,

was ended on the 27th of August, Full are thy cities with the sons of art; 1748. And trade and joy, in every busy street, “His descriptions," says Dr. Mingling, are heard.

Johnson, “ of extended scenes and But besides his “Seasons," his general effects, bring before us the Poems and Plays are not less con- whole magnificence of nature, spicuous; his poem to the memory whether pleasing or dreadful. The of Sir I. Newton contains a deserv- gaiety of Spring, the splendor of ed encomium of that incomparable Summer, the tranquillity of Auman, with an account of his chief tumn, and the horror of Winter, discoveries. Amongst his plays take in their turns possession of

ery hand