And pass'd on banks of bad delight the day,
Free as the gods, and overjoy'd as they."

It is doubtless remembered that the adjustment of differences with France, in 1799, whatever may now be thought of the policy of the measure, was at the time received with great disgust by many generous spirits to whom the honour of their country was dearer than its immediate interests. Among this number was Mr. Clifton. The following lines, alluding to that event, contain a very fine burst of poetical indignation. The simile, "So Satan," &c. will probably recall to the memory some celebrated couplets in Otway's Orphan, which it strongly resembles in spirit and flow of versification. The bitter smile of angry contempt which the poet assumes in the last lines, their mixture of sprightly sarcasm, and lofty indignation, are in the very spirit of Juvenal.

"Infatuate men, ah! what avails your boast,
Your rising navy, and your guarded coast,
Your bosts of patriot youth, in arms array'd;—
"Tis all the wretched shadow of a shade.

For soon the spoiler comes, 'with wanton wiles,

With quips, and cranks, and nods, and wreathed smiles,'
Disarms your vengeance, stays the lifted blow,

And lays your freedom and your honour low.

So the poor girl whose bold seducer flies,

With steps too rude to seize the virgin prize,

Frowns on the wretch who dar'd invade her charms,
And all her injur'd feelings rush to arms:
But soon return'd, he drops an artful tear,
And pours his plaintive sorrows in her ear,
"Till treacherous love admits the wily cheat,
And stamps her ruin and her shame complete.
So Satan once, with diplomatic skill,'
RUSH'D through the tangles of the sacred hill,
Beguil❜d the truth of Adam's honest mind,
And nail'd the yoke of mischief on mankind.
Infatuate men! while clouds invest the air
You fondly dream to-morrow will be fair:
Still careless, on the same dull road you stray,
Nor heed the stormy dangers of the way;

With you the frolick and the feast is found,
The chariot rattles and the glass goes round:
You still can truck your wares, and go to bed
With some new speculation in your head;
Still strut the 'change with haberdasher pride;
Still count the profits, and the gain divide;
Still take the break fast paper, and explore
The advertising columns o'er and o'er ;
And, if the tale should meet your listless glance,
Of some new land, a prey to bloody France,
You still can look at home with vast content,

And underwrite the state for one per cent."

In a little poem entitled "A Flight of Fancy" he appears in pleasing contrast in a very different character. With the exception of one or two stanzas, which are a little tarnished by that Della Cruscan tinsel, which he had himself joined in ridiculing, it is altogether filled with delicate sentiment and some of the sweetest images of rural beauty and domestic happiness. He pictures, with exquisite taste and great gayety of imagination, an imaginary scene of pastoral felicity, where

Spring shall laugh at winter's frown,
And summer blush for gamesome spring,
And autum prank'd in wheaten crown,
His stores to hungry winter bring.

""Tis mine! 'tis mine! this sacred grove,
Where truth and beauty may recline,
The sweet resort of many a love;
Monimia come and make it thine.

"The blush that warms thy maiden cheek,

Thy morning eye's sequester'd tear,
For me, thy kindling passion speak
And chain this subtle vision here.

"Spots of delight, and many a day

Of summer love for me shall shine.
In truth my beating heart is gay,

At sight of that fond smile of thine.

"Come, come my love, away with me,
The morn of life is hast'ning by,
To this dear scene we'll gayly flee,

And sport us 'neath the peaceful sky."

The numberless abortive attempts which have at different times been made in this country in the composition of national and patriotic song, sufficiently evince the difficulty of that species of composition.

A patriotic song, to attain any high degree of permanent popularity, should probably be expressed in simple and perspicuous language, and depend, for its effect, rather upon sentiment than upon imagery. Campbell's magnificent song of "Ye Mariners of England," is, indeed, a noble, but, I believe, almost a solitary exception to the truth of this remark. In the following song Clifton has fallen into the common error of employing a species of poetical diction and ornament, which is better fitted to the ode than to this kind of composition; but its spirit is certainly animated, its language lofty and highly poetical, and its conceptions very noble. The fourth line is imitated from Smollet's Ode to Independence.

"SOUL of Columbia, quenchless spirit, come!

Unroll thy standard to the sullen sky,

Bind on thy war robes, beat the furious drum,

Rouse, rouse thy Lion heart, and fire thy Eagle eye.

"Dost thou not hear the hum of gath'ring war;

Dost thou not know

The insidious foe

Yokes her gaunt wolves, and mounts her midnight car.

"Dost thou not hear thy tortur'd seamen's cries?
Poor hapless souls in dreary dungeons laid;
Towards thee they turn their dim, imploring eyes;
Alas! they sink---and no kind hand to aid.

"Thou dost, and ev'ry son of thine

Shall rest in guilty peace no more
With noble rage they pant to join,

The conflict's heat, the battle's roar.

"Loose to the tempest let thy banner fly,

Rouse, rouse thy Lion heart and fire thy Eagle eye."

It were easy to multiply extracts, but enough have been given to show the variety and extent of Mr. Clifton's poetical talents, and to excite the regret of every one who is anxious for the literary reputation of his country, that he did not live to accomplish some greater and more finished work.

V.

SIR,

To the Editor of the Analectic Magazine.

OBSERVING in your last number an article on meteoric stones, I am induced to send you the following speculations with regard to them. My opinions are not altogether novel, but may, nevertheless, interest some of your readers, as I shall endeavour to remove at least a part of the obscurity which envelopes this very interesting subject.

The descent of these stones is one of those extraordinary phenomena which would be altogether incredible but for the most conclusive evidence, the fact, however, being certain, nothing is left to philosophers but to explain, to the best of their ability, the cause of so wonderful an occurrence. For this purpose four different hypotheses have been proposed; 1st. It has been supposed that these stones have been projected by volcanoes in the moon, beyond the sphere of her attraction, and coming within the influ

ence of the earth, have thus been brought to its surface; 2d. That they have been thrown up by volcanoes in our own planet, and have again fallen; 3d. That they have been detached from small invisible bodies revolving round the earth at no great distance from it. Lastly, it has been thought that they are suddenly formed in the air, their component parts having previously existed in a state of such extreme rarefaction as to float in the atmosphere.

With regard to the first of these conjectures, so great a projec tile force is not required to propel a body beyond the sphere of the moon's attraction as might at first be supposed; for from the diminutive size of that planet, and particularly from her having little or no atmosphere,* a power, which many known agents are capable of exerting, would be perfectly adequate to produce such an effect.†

To this hypothesis several objections might be mentioned; I shall content myself with one, because that is peculiar to it, and at the same time fatal.

If a body were to come from the moon to this earth, on approaching our planet, it would necessarily have an apparent motion from east to west of about 1,900 feet in a second, in consequence of the earth's moving at that rate in the opposite direction. But nothing of this takes place.‡

As to the second conjecture, it is sufficient to say, that no volcanoes exist within many thousand miles of some of the places where these stones have fallen. Moreover, they bear no sort of resemblance to the known products of subterranean fires.

Next, with respect to the supposition that these meteoric substances are parts of larger bodies which revolve round the earth at no great distance from it; in the first place, there is no evidence that any such bodies exist. Next, if there be any such little invisible moons, they must necessarily move at so great a distance from the earth, as to be unaffected by the atmosphere; for otherwise, how great soever their velocity might be, the resistance they

La Place. See his Astronomy, vol. 1. p. 56.

†The Edinburgh reviewers, who incline to this opinion, think a force three times as great as that of a canuon ball sufficient. See their work, vol. 3. p. 400. Am. edit. This remark was, I believe, first made by Mr. Simeon De Witt. VOL. III. New Series.

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