EPISTLE

TO THE AUTHOR OF THE BOTANIC GARDEN.

FOR unknown ages, 'mid his wild abode,

Speechless and rude, the human savage trode;
By slow degrees expressive sounds acquired,
And simple thoughts in words uncouth attired.
As growing wants and varying climes arise,
Excite desire and animate surprize,
Gradual his mind a wider circuit ranged,
His manners soften'd, and his language changed;
And grey experience, wiser than of yore,
Bequeath'd its strange traditionary lore.

Again long ages mark the flight of time,
And lingering toil evolves the Art divine.

Coarse drawings, first, the imperfect thought reveal'd;
Next, barbarous forms the mystic sense conceal'd;
Capricious signs the meaning, then, disclose;
And, last, the infant alphabet arose:

From Nilus' banks adventurous CADMUS errs,
And on his Thebes the peerless boon confers.

Slow spread the sacred art, its use was slow: Whate'er the improvements later times bestow, Still how restrain'd, how circumscrib'd, its power! Years raise the fruit an instant may devour. Fond SCIENCE wept; the uncertain toil she view'd, And, in the evil, half forgot the good. What tho' the sage, and tho' the bard inspired, By truth illumined, and by genius fired, In high discourse the theme divine prolong, And pour the glowing tide of lofty song; To princes limited, to Plutus' sons, Tyrants of mines and heritors of thrones,

The theme, the song, scarce toucht the general mind;
Lost, or secluded from opprest mankind.

Fond SCIENCE wept; how vain her cares she saw,
Subject to Fortune's ever-varying law.

Month after month a single transcript claim'd,
The style perchance, perchance the story, maim'd;-
*The guides to truth corrupted, or destroy'd,
A passage foisted, or a painful void,

The work of ignorance, or of fraud more bold,
To blast a rival, or a scheme uphold;-

Or, in the progress of the long review,
The original perisht as the copy grew;
Or, perfect both, while pilgrim bands admire,
The instant prey of accidental fire.

Fond SCIENCE wept; whate'er of costliest use,
The gift and glory of each favouring Muse;

From every land what genius might select;

What wealth might purchase, and what power protect;
The guides of youth, the comforters of age;
Swept by the besom of barbaric rage,—
Scarce a few fragments scatter'd o'er the field,—
Frantic, in one sad moment, she beheld.
"Nor shall such toil my generous sons subdue;
"Nor waste like this again distress the view!"
She cries: where Harlem's classic groves
Embowering rise, with silent flight she moves;
She marks LAURENTIUS carve the beechen rind,
And darts a new creation on his mind:
A sudden rapture thrills the conscious shades;
The gift remains, the bounteous vision fades.
Homeward, entranced, the Belgic Sire returns;
New hope inspires him, and new ardor burns;
Secret, he meditates his art by day;
By night fair phantoms o'er his fancy stray;
With opening morn they rush upon his soul,
Nor cares, nor duties, banish nor control;
Haunt his sequestered path, his social scene,
And, in his prayers, seductive, intervene;

*The four following lines were supplied by a friend.

Till, shaped to method, simple, and complete,
The filial ear the joyful tidings greet.*

-First, their nice hands the temper'd letter frame,
Alike in height, in width, in depth, the same;
Deep in the matrices secure infold,

And fix within, and justify, the mould;
The red amalgam from the cauldron take,
And flaming pour, and, as they pour it, shake;
On the hard table spread the type congeal'd,
And smooth and polish on its marble field;
While, as his busy fingers either plies,
The embrion parts of future volumes rise,
-Next, with wise care, the slender plate they choose,
Of shining steel, and fit, with harden'd screws,
The shifting sliders, which the varying line
Break into parts, or yet as one confine;
Whence, firmly bound, and fitted for the chase,
Imposed, it rests upon the stony base;

Till, hardly driven, the many-figured quoins
Convert to forms the accumulated lines.

-Then, with new toil, the upright frame they shape,

And strict connect it by the solid cap;

The moving head still more the frame combines;

The guiding shelf its humbler tribute joins;
While the stout winter erring change restrains,
And bears the carriage, and the press sustains:

The platten these, and spindle well connect,
Four slender bars support it, and direct,
As the high handle, urging from above,
Downwards and forceful bids its pressure move:
Beneath, with plank the patient carriage spread,
Lifts the smooth marble on its novel bed,
Rides on its wheeled spit in rapid state,
Nor fears to meet the quick-descending weight.
-Last, the wise Sire the ready form supplies,
With cautious hands and scrutinizing eyes;

* Laurentius first confided the secret of his discovery to his son-in-law. The reasons for the subsequent deviations from historical accuracy, will be obvious to the poetic reader.

a

Fits the moist tnpan,-(while the Youth, intent,
With patting balls, applies the sable paint,)
Then lowers the frisket, turns the flying rounce,
And pulls amain the forceful bar at once;
A second turn, a second pressure, gives,
And on the sheet the fair impression lives.
Raptured, the Youth and reverend Sire behold,
Press to their lips and to their bosoms fold;
Mingle their sighs, ecstatic tears descend,
And, face to face, in silent union blend :
Fond SCIENCE triumphs, and rejoicing Fame,
From pole to pole, resounds LAURENTIUS' name.

Hence, doom'd no more to barbarous zeal a prey,
Genius and Taste their treasured stores display;
Nor lords, nor monks, alone, the sweets procure,
But old and young, the humble and the
poor.

Hence, wide diffused, increasing knowlege flies,
And error's shades forsake the jaundiced eyes;
Man knows himself for man, and sees, elate,
The kinder promise of his future fate;
Nations, ashamed, their ancient hate forego,

And find a brother, where they found a foe.

Hence, o'er the world,-(what else perchance conceal'd,

Supprest for ages, or fore'er withheld,

To one small town, or shire, or state, confined,

In merit's spite to long neglect consign'd,

The sport or victim of some envious flame,

Whence care nor art might rescue nor reclaim,)—
Flies the BOTANIC SONG; around

Successive nations catch the enchanting sound,

Glow as they listen, wonder as they gaze,

And pay the instructive page with boundless praise:

For not to Britain's parent isle alone,

Or what the East encircles with her zone,

The bounty flows; but spreads to neighbouring realms, And a new hemisphere with joy o'erwhelms.

Here, read with rapture, studied with delight,
Long shall it charm the taste, the thought excite;
And youths and maids, the parent and the child,
Their minds illumined, and their griefs beguiled,
By all of fancy, all of reason, moved,

Rise from the WORK invigor'd and improved.

Nor only here, nor only now, enjoy'd :-
Where opes the interior desolate and void;
Where Mississippi's turbid waters glide,
And white Missouri pours its rapid tide;
Where vast Superior spreads its inland sea,
And the pale tribes near icy confines stray;
"Where now Alaska lifts its forests rude,
"And Nootka rolls her solitary flood;"
Where the fierce sun with ray severer rains
His floods of light o'er Amazonian plains;
Where, land of horrors! roam the giant brood,
On the bleak margin of the antarctic flood;
In future years, in ages long to come,-
When redient Justice finds again her home;

*

Known, honour'd, studied, graced with nobler fame,
Its charms unfaded, and its worth the same,
To vaster schemes shall light the kindling view,
And lift to heights no earlier era knew.

Some ardent youth, some Fair whose beauties shine,
In mind, as person, only not divine,—

In halls where Montezuma erst sat throned,
Whom thirty princes as their sovereign own'd;-
In bowers where Manco labour'd for Peru,
While the white thread his blest Qëlla drew,—
Where Ataliba met a tyrant's rage,-
Entranced, shall ponder o'er the various page;
Or, where Oregon foams along the West,
And seeks the fond Pacific's tranquil breast,

*This couplet is from an unpublished Poem of my friend Mr. Richard Alsop; a poet who, were his ambition equal to his talents, would appear among the poets of his time "velut inter ignes luna minores.”