As forth she went at early dawn, And from the deep-mouthed thunder flies⚫ Half dead with fear she gasping lay: For all your friends are in the rear. She next the stately bull implored, The Goat remarked her pulse was high, Her languid head, her heavy eye; The Sheep was feeble, and complained His sides a load of wool sustained: Said he was slow, confessed his fears, For hounds eat sheep as well as hares. She now the trotting Calf addressed, To save from death a friend distressed. Shall I, says he, of tender age, In this important care engage? Older and abler passed you by ; How strong are those, how weak am I! Should I presume to bear you hence, Those friends of mine may take offence. Excuse me, then. You know my heart; But dearest friends, alas! must part. How shall we all lament! Adieu! For, see, the hounds are just in view! AMBROSE PHILLIPS. (1671-1749.) WINTER SCENE IN COPENHAGEN. And yet but lately have I seen, even here, For every shrub, and every blade of grass, And every pointed thorn, seemed wrought in glass; Sees crystal branches on his forehead rise: The spreading oak, the beech, and towering pine The frighted birds the rattling branches shun, (261) BISHOP BERKLEY. (1684-1753.) VERSES ON THE PROSPECT OF PLANTING Arts and LEARNING IN AMERICA. THE Muse, disgusted at an age and clime In distant lands now waits a better time, In happy climes, where from the genial sun In happy climes, the seat of innocence, There shall be sung another golden age, Not such as Europe breeds in her decay; Westward the course of empire takes its way; A fifth shall close the drama with the day; Time's noblest offspring is the last. JOHNSON. "THE fifty-three years between 1727 and 1780, comprehending the reign of George II., and a portion of that of George III., produced more men of letters, as well as more men of science, than any epoch of similar extent in the literary history of England. It was also a time during which greater progress was made in diffusing literature among the people at large, than had been made, perhaps, throughout all the ages that went before it. Yet while letters, and the cultivators of letters, were thus abundant, it must be allowed that, if we keep out of view the rise of the species of fiction called the novel (including the delineation of character, and not merely incidents), the age was not by any means marked by such striking features of originality or vigour as some of the preceding eras. "For about a third of this period Pope lived, and his name continued to be the greatest in English poetry. The most distinguished of his contemporaries, however, adopted styles of their own, or at least departed widely from that of their illustrious master. Thomson (who survived Pope only four years) made no attempt to enter the school of polished satire and pungent wit. His enthusiastic descriptions of nature, and his warm poetical feeling, seemed to revive the spirit of the elder muse, and to assert the dignity of genuine inspiration. Young, in his best performances his startling denunciations of death and judgment, his solemn appeals, his piety, and his epigram-was |