The host moves like a deep sea-wave,
Where rise no rocks its pride to brave,
High swelling, dark, and slow.
The lake is pass'd, and now they gain
A narrow and a broken plain,
Before the Trosach's rugged jaws;
And here the horse and spearman pause,
While, to explore the dangerous glen,
Dive through the pass the archer men.

XVII.

At once there rose so wild a yell
Within that dark and narrow dell,
As all the fiends, from heaven that fell,
Had peal'd the banner cry of hell!
Forth from the pass in tumult driven,
Like chaff before the wind of heaven,
The archery appear:

For life! for life! their flight they ply-
And shriek, and shout, and battle cry,
And plaids and bonnets waving high,
And broadswords flashing to the sky,
Are maddening in the rear.
Onward they drive in dreadful race,
Pursuers and pursued;

Before that tide of flight and chase,
How shall it keep its rooted place,

The spearmen's twilight wood?

-"Down, down," cried Mar, "your lances down!
Bear back both friend and foe !"

Like reeds before the tempest's frown,
That serried grove of lances brown
At once lay level'd low!

And closely shouldering, side by side,
The bristling ranks the onset bide.

*

*

*

*

Professor Wilson ranks Scott far above Byron, in point < genius. His remarks, in substance, are as follows:

We shall never say that Scott is Shakspeare; but we shall say that he has conceived and created-you know the meaning of these words-a far greater number of characters of real living, flesh-and-blood human beings-and that more naturally, truly, and consistently, than Shakspeare, who was sometimes transcendently great in pictures of the passions; but out of their range, which surely does not comprehend all rational being, was-nay, do not threaten to murder us-a confused and irregular delineator of humar life. The genius of Sir Walter Scott, it will not be denied

is pretty national, and so are the subjects of all his noblest works, be they poems, or novels and romances by the author of "Waverley." Up to the era of Sir Walter, living people had some vague, general, indistinct notion about dead people mouldering away to nothing centuries ago, in regular kirk-yards and chance burial-places, "mang muirs and mosses many O," somewhere or other in that difficultly distinguished and very debateable district called the Borders. All at once he touched their tombs with a divining rod, and the turf streamed out ghosts. Some in woodman's dresses-most in warrior's mail-green archers leaped for with yew bows and quivers, and giants stalked, shaking spears. The gray chronicler smiled, and, taking up his pen, wrote in lines of light the annals of the chivalrous and heroic days of auld feudal Scotland. The nation then, for the first time, knew the character of its ancestors; for those were not spectres-not they, indeed-nor phantoms of the brain-but gaunt flesh and blood, or glad and glorious; baseborn cottage-churls of the olden time, because Scottish, became familiar to the love of the nation's heart, and so to its pride did the high-born lineage of palace kings. His themes in prose or numerous verse are still "knights, and lords, and mighty earls," and their lady-loves-chiefly Scottishof kings that fought for fame or freedom-of fatal Flodden and bright Bannockburn of the Deliverer. If that be not national to the teeth, Homer was no Ionian, Tyrtæus not sprung from Sparta, and Christopher North a Cockney. Let Abbotsford, then, be cognomened by those that choose it, the Ariosto of the North-we shall continue to call him plain, simple, immortal Sir Walter.

There is a long catalogue of other poets, of more or less note, for an account of whom we can, with great pleasure, only refer to Chambers's "History of English Literature," from which we have freely selected and copied, in making out these sketches and selections. To the same work would we refer the student for satisfactory and able record of the Prose-writers of Great Britain, that have flourished since the beginning of English literature.

PART VII.

AMERICAN LITERATURE.

CHAPTER I.

AMERICAN POETS.

SECTION I.

POETS OF OUR REVOLUTIONARY FERIOD.

[It is suggested to teachers, in the use of the Seventh as well as the Sixth Part, to examine their pupils upon the characteristics of each author, and to require them to read, before their class, the specimens of each poet with a view to literary criticism.]

MR. GRISWOLD, in his Collection of American Poetry, remarks that before the Revolution, before the time when the spirit of freedom began to influence the national character, very little verse worthy of preservation was produced in America, and that the POETRY OF THE COLONIES was without originality, energy, feeling, or correctness of diction.

(1.) Of the Revolutionary times PHILIP FRENEAU was the most distinguished poet-the room-mate, while in Princeton College, of James Madison.

(2.) JOHN TRUMBULL, LL.D., born in Connecticut, 1750, died in 1831, having distinguished himself as the author of M'Fingal, a burlesque poem, directed against the enemies of American liberty. It is written in Hudibrastic strain, and is said to be the best imitation of the great satire of Butler that was ever written. He was author of another poem written in the same style, entitled the "Progress of Dullness," which was eagerly read during the Revolution. From his description of the fop of those days we extract the following lines: Then, lest religion he should need,

Of pious Hume he'll learn his creed;
By strongest demonstration shown,
Evince that nothing can be known;
Take arguments convey'd by doubt,
On Voltaire's trust, or go without;
'Gainst Scripture rail in modern lore,
As thousand fools have rail'd before;

Calls piety the parson's trade;

*

Cries out, 'tis shame, past all abiding,
The world should still be so priest-ridden;
Applauds free thought that scorns control,
And generous nobleness of soul,

That acts its pleasure, good or evil,
And fears nor Deity nor devil."

(3.) TIMOTHY DWIGHT, LL.D., D.D., born 1752, died 1817, has been pronounced the father of American poetry, of the higher order, though his poetry is inferior to the productions of the best English writers, and also of the best American poets that have follow ed him. The "Conquest of Canaan," and "Greenfield Hill," are his principal productions, exhibiting splendor, gravity, and an exuberant fancy.

(4.) Dr. LEMUEL HOPKINS, Colonel HUMPHREYS, and some others, acquired celebrity by satirical pieces composed during the war. JOEL BARLOW, also, is known, but not very favorably, as author of the "Columbiad." He was more happy in his preparation of the " Hasty Pudding," and some other humorous pieces. It may gratify some to understand the origin of the name; he thus gives it:

"Thee the soft nations round the warm Levant Polanta call; the French, of course, Polante.

E'en in thy native regions how I blush

To hear the Pennsylvanians call thee Mush!
On Hudson's banks, while men of Belgic spawn
Insult and eat thee by the name Suppawn.
All spurious appellations, void of truth;
I've better known thee from my earliest youth;
Thy name is Hasty Pudding! thus our sires
Were wont to greet thee fuming from their fires.
And while they argued in thy just defense
With logic clear, they thus explain'd the sense:
In haste the boiling caldron, o'er the blaze,
Receives and cooks the ready-powder'd maize
In haste 'tis served, and then, in equal haste,
With cooling milk we make the sweet repast.
No carving to be done, no knife to grate
The tender ear and wound the stony plate:
A A

But the smooth spoon just fitted to the lip,
And taught with art the yielding mass to dip,
By frequent journeys to the bowl well stored,
Performs the hasty honors of the board.
Such is thy name, significant and clear,
A name, a sound, to every Yankee dear."

(5.) A few years later appeared WILLIAM CLIFFTON, of Pennsylvania; ROBERT TREAT PAINE, of Massachusetts; and THOMAS G. FESSENDEN, of New-Hampshire. Their writings form what is called the transitive state of American poetry. Hitherto our poets had imita. ted too closely Dryden and Pope, but now began to pursue a more original and independent course. Their writings consist generally of short pieces, for the simple reason that poetry was not their business, but their recreation, their time being chiefly devoted to other pursuits. The period is approaching, however, wher poems of a more elaborate and finished character may be expected.

SECTION II.

(1.) JAMES K. PAULDING, better known as a novelis than a poet, has, however, written some good pieces. Among his prose works the most popular have been Salmagundi, which was written by him in connection with Washington Irving; John Bull and Brother Jonathan; The Dutchman's Fireside, and Westward Ho !

(2.) JOHN PIERPONT, of Boston, Massachusetts; a charming writer. He has composed in almost every metre, and many of his hymns, odes, and other brief poems, are remarkable for melody and spirit. His ear lier poems have generally been composed with more care than the later. Many of them relate to moral and religious enterprises of the present day, of which he has shown himself a most eloquent and powerful advocate. It would be gratifying to multiply extracts from this generous poet; but we must restrict our selves to a few. The first is from his " Airs of Palestine," the result of his observations while traveling abroad in 1835 and 1836:

"Greece and her charms I leave for Palestine.

There purer streams through happier valleys flow,
And sweeter flowers on holier mountains blow