the same year THOMAS MAKIN, who nearly half a century before had been an usher in the school kept by the famous GEORGE KEITH, dedicated to JAMES LOGAN a Latin poem called "Encomium Pennsylvaniæ," and in the year following another, "In laudes Pennsylvania," of both of which PROUD, the historian, gives specimens and translations. Among FRANKLIN's more intimate associates, was JAMES RALPH, a young printer, characterized by him as "ingenious, genteel in his manners, and extremely eloquent." He had been a schoolmaster in Maryland, and a clerk in Philadelphia, and now had such confidence in his literary abilities that he was disposed to abandon the pursuit of printing entirely for that of authorship. CHARLES OSBORNE, another acquaintance, endeavoured to dissuade him from attempting a literary life, assuring him that his capacities were better suited for his trade; but it was in vain, and FRANKLIN soon after assisted in a little scheme of deception, the result of which confirmed him in all the suggestions of his vanity. FRANKLIN, RALPH, OSBORNE, and JOSEPH WATSON, agreed to write verses for each other's criticism, as a means of mutual improvement; and as FRANKLIN had no inclination for the business, he was persuaded to offer as his own a piece by RALPH, who believed that OSBORNE had depreciated his talents from personal envy. The stratagem succeeded; the production was warmly applauded by OSBORNE, and RALPH enjoyed his triumph. RALPH accompanied FRANKLIN to England, and was very badly treated by him there, as FRANKLIN admits. He became a prolific author, in prose and verse. His longest poem, "Zeuma, or the Love of Liberty," was partly written in Philadelphia, and was first published in London, in 1729. A few lines from it will sufficiently display his capacities in this way: "Tlascala's vaunt, great ZAGNAR's martial son, Who print their keenest vengeance on his soul, In the following fifteen years he wrote several plays, some of which were acted at Drury Lane. Among his shorter poems were two called "Cynthia" and "Night, "and a satire in which he abused POPE, SWIFT, and GAY. This procured him the distinction of a notice in "The Dunciad," The poems written by FRANKLIN himself are not very poetical. The best of them is the amusing little piece entitled "Silence, ye wolves! while RALPH to 'Cynthia' howls, And makes Night' hideous: answer him, ye owls!" His book on "The Use and Abuse of Parliaments" was much talked of, and his "History of England during this Reign of William the Third" is praised by HALLAM as "accurate and faithful," and led Fox to refer to him as "a historian of great acuteness and diligence." His last work was "The Case of Authors stated, with regard to Booksellers, the Stage, and the Public." He died on the twenty-fourth of January, 1762. "PAPER. "SOME wit of old-such wits of old there were — "The thought was happy, pertinent, and true; "The wretch whom avarice bids to pinch and spare, "Take next the miser's contrast, who destroys "The retail politician's anxious thought "The hasty gentleman whose blood runs high, "What are the poets, take them as they fall, "Observe the maiden, innocently sweet, "One instance more, and only one, I'll bring; "Tis the great man, who scorns a little thing Whose thoughts. whose deeds, whose maxims are his own, Formed on the feelings of his heart alone: True, genuine royal paper is his breast; Of all the kinds most precious, purest, best." The "General Magazine," published by FRANKLIN, from January to June, in 1741, contained a few original and a much larger number of selected poems, most of the latter being from the 64 Virginia Gazette." The "American Magazine, and Monthly Chronicle for the British Colonies," established by WILLIAM BRADFORD, a nephew of the first printer west of Boston, and published for twelve months, was a periodical of far higher character than FRANKLIN's, or indeed than any that had yet been attempted on the continent. the preface the editor says of his contributors, In "Some are grave and serious, while others are gay and facetious; some have a turn for matters of state and government, while others are led to the study of commerce, agriculture, or the mechanic arts; some indulge themselves in the belles-lettres, and in productions of art and fancy, while others are wrapt up in speculation and wholly beset on the abstruser parts of philosophy and science." The principal poetical contributors to the "American Magazine" were an anonymous writer, of Kent, in Maryland, whose name I have not been able to discover, and JOSEPH SHIPPEN, THOMAS GODFREY, NATHANIEL EVANS, FRANCIS HOPKINSON, and JOHN BEVERIDGE, the professor of ancient languages in the Philadelphia college. The anonymous writer here mentioned was the son of an officer distinguished in the military service, in Ireland, Spain, and Flanders. In early life he had been intimate with MR. POPE, upon whose death, in 1744, he wrote a pastoral, which makes between two and three hundred lines, besides numerous learned notes. Anticipating BISHOP BERKLEY'S famous verses on the prospect of the arts in America, he says in his invocation: "Pierian nymphs that haunt Sicilian plains, Bring me that pipe with which ALEXIS charm'd Haste, lovely nymphs! and quickly reach our shore; He had recommended to Mr. POPE the discovery of printing as a subject worthy of his genius, and when that poet died, without having made use of the suggestion, he wrote from the banks of the Delaware, in 1749, his own "Poem on the Invention of Letters," which is inscribed to Mr. RICHARDSON, "the author of 'Sir Charles Grandison,' and other works for the promotion of religion, vir tue, and polite manners, in a corrupted age," whom "These lays, ye Great! to RICHARDSON belong; Colonel JOSEPH SHIPPEN, who in 1759 wrote "The Glooms of Ligonier," an amatory song much in vogue for a quarter of a century, was the author of the following early recognition of the genius of BENJAMIN WEST :* "ON SEEING A PORTRAIT OF MISS, BY MR. WEST. Could form and animate so sweet a face, Her polish'd cheeks with deep vermilion glow; The soft expression of the perfect whole, The pride of beauty and the bloom of youth. "Haste, ye mortals! leave your sorrow; *In the "American Magazine" for February, 1758, 00curs, probably, the first paragraph ever printed in commen dation of the genius of WEST. The editor says, introducing the above poem on one of his portraits: "We are glad of this opportunity of making known to the world the name of so extraordinary a genius as Mr. WEST. He was born in Chester county in this province, and without the assistance of any master, has acquired such a delicacy and correctness of expression in his paintings, joined to such a laudable thirst of improvement, that we are persuaded, when he shall have obtained more experience and proper opportunities of viewing the productions of able masters, he will become truly eminent in his profession." Yield to fate. Join the universal chorusBACCHUS reigns, ever greatBACCHUS reigns, ever gloriousHark! the joyful groves rebound, Sporting breezes catch the sound, And tell to hill and dale around, BACCHUS reigns! while far away, The busy echoes die away." One of GODFREY's most intimate friends was NATHANIEL EVANS, a native of Philadelphia, admitted to holy orders by the Bishop of London in 1765. He died in October, 1767, in the twentysixth year of his age, and his poems, few of which had been printed in his lifetime, were soon afterward by his direction collected and published under the editorial supervision of the Reverend WILLIAM SMITH, and Miss ELIZABETH GREME, subsequently so well known as Mrs. FERGUSON. EVANS was preparing a collection of his poems for the press, and had written part of the preface, in which, after having referred to the unhappy fortunes of many men of genius, he said: "Sometimes, alas! the iron hand of death cuts them suddenly off, as their beauties are just budding into existence, and leaves but the fair promise of future excellences." These were his last words; and Doctor SMITH suggests that they were so applicable to his case that he should have feared to publish them as from the mind of the deceased poet, if he had neglected to preserve the autograph to show that they had not been accommodated to that event. The most carefully finished of the pieces by EVANS is an "Ode on the Prospect of Peace," written in 1761, but several in a lighter vein were more pleasing. In the following, we have a glimpse of our great philosopher, in his middle age: "TO BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, ESQ., LL.D. And, pleased, from thee new fame and honour draws; That form the true preeminence of mind. The Lambent lightnings innocently play; And down thy rods beheld the dreaded fire In a swift flame descend and then expire; While the red thunders, roaring loud around, Burst the black clouds, and harmless smote the ground. Blest use of art! applied to serve mankind The noble province of the sapient mind! For this the soul's best faculties were given, To trace great nature's laws from earth to heaven. "Yet not these themes alone thy thoughts command; Each softer science owns thy fostering hand; Aided by thee, URANIA'S heavenly art, With finer raptures charms the feeling heart; Fresh transports kindle, and new joys inspire. Hark! the soft warblings, sounding smooth and clear, And sure if aught of mortal-moving strain, Tis this enchanting instrument of thine, Which speaks in accents more than half divine!” Among some trifles inscribed to Miss GREME, "ORPHEUS AND EURYDICE. The fiends, who listening round him stood, Soon the fond fool turns back his head- Who once from wedlock's noose gets free; Has most prodigious luck indeed!" A portrait of EVANS, by his young friend WEST, is preserved in Philadelphia. Among the subscribers for his volume of poems, was Dr. GOLDSMITH, with whom he had probably become acquainted while visiting London for ordination. The celebrated wit, lawyer, and statesman, FRANCIS HOPKINSON, born in 1737, made his first appearance as a poet in BRADFORD'S "American Magazine," one of his earlier contributions to which was a tribute to the genius of WOLLASTON, the painter, then living in Philadelphia, from which the following is an extract: "To you, famed WOLLASTON, these strains belong, In glossy ringlets twines the nut-brown hair, WOLLASTON is honorably mentioned in HORACE WALPOLE'S "Anecdotes." The finest of his known American who had rallied him on his indisposition to marry, portraits is that of MARTHA DANDRIDGE, afterward the wife was a new version of the story of of WASHINGTON. And sparkling eyes give meaning to the whole, "Nor let the muse forget thy name, O, WEST! This poem is not reprinted in the collection of HOPKINSON'S Works, published in Philadelphia in 1793. His "Battle of the Kegs," a satirical ballad, is the most celebrated of his productions; and several pieces of humorous prose, written by him before the revolution, are among the familiar and popular examples of early American literature. JOHN BEVERIDGE, the author of numerous Latin poems in the "American Magazine” and other miscellanies of that period, was a native of Scotland, and had studied under "the great RUDDIMAN" in Edinburgh. He emigrated in 1752 to New England, where he remained five years, and became intimate with Doctor JONATHAN MAYHEW and other scholars. In 1757 he proceeded to Philadelphia, and was appointed professor of languages in the college there. An entertaining account of him is given in Captain ALEXANDER GRAYDON's admirably written "Memoirs of a Life passed chiefly in Pennsylvania." In 1765 he published by subscription his volume entitled "Epistolæ Familiares et alia quædam Miscellanea," several of which were translated by ALEXANDER ALEXANDER, who prefixes some verses "on Mr. BEVERIDGE'S poetical performances," wherein he says. "If music sweet delight your ravished ear, His towering thoughts and soft enchanting lays As to excel MOONIDES in Greek, Here you may view a bard of modern time, While in Boston BEVERIDGE addressed the following epistle to one of his friends in Scotland: "AD REV. JACOB INNESIUM, V.D.M. "Atque tranquillus requiesco pace, "Gratior qua sol radiis refulget, Murmurat aura. "Estuet vultu Boreas minaci, "Hic tamen vitæ liceat beatæ "Nam juvant sylvis operum labores, "Cæterum vivunt reliqui valentque, Carmine FLACCUS."* JOHN OSBORN, son of a schoolmaster of Sandwich, in Massachusetts, who was born in 1713 and died in 1753, wrote a "Whaling Song," which was well known in the Pacific for more than half a century. While in college, in 1735, he addressed an elegiac epistle to one of his sis ters, on the death of a member of the family, of which the following is a specimen : The following is a translation of the above Ode, by the Reverend Doctor JONATHAN MAYHEW, of Boston: "TO THE REVEREND MR. J. INNES, &c. Where Casco's shore, of winding form, Where murmuring zephyrs still I hear And gentle breezes fan the air. "Here the light deer still take their round, "With angry face, let Bores storm, A life with nature's bounty blest; "For in these groves, from morn to night, "Excepting this, all friends are well, Nor lowing herds; Nor flowery meads, To me their former joys dispense. Though all their pleasures court my sense, I lonely walk the field, With inward sorrow fill'd, And sigh to every breathing wind." The facetious MATHER BYLES was in his time equally famous as a poet and wit. A contemporary bard exclaims "Would but APOLLO's genial touch inspire Such sounds as breathe from BYLES's warbling lyre, Then might my notes in melting measures flow, And make all nature wear the signs of wo." And his humor is celebrated in a poetical account of the clergy of Boston, copied by Mr. LORING in his "Hundred Orators of Boston:" "There's punning BYLES, provokes our smiles, A man of stately parts. He visits folks to crack his jokes, Which never mends their hearts. And throws out wit, or what's like it, BYLES was graduated at Cambridge in 1725, and ordained the first minister of the church in Hollis street, in 1732. He soon became eminent as a preacher, and King's College at Aberdeen conferred on him the degree of Doctor in Divinity. He was one of the authors of "A Collection of Poems by several Hands," which appeared in 1744, and of numerous essays and metrical compositions in The New England Weekly Journal," the merit of which was such as to introduce him to the notice of POPE and other English scholars. One of his poems is entitled, "The Conflagration;" and it is "applied to that grand catastrophe of our world when the face of nature is to be changed by a deluge of fire." The following lines are from this effusion: "Yet shall ye, flames, the wasting globe refine, Where'er she treads, lilies unbidden blow, All the soft months in gay confusion blends." BYLES was earnestly opposed to the revolution, and in the spring of 1777 was denounced in the public assemblies as a Tory, and compelled to give bonds for his appearance before a court for trial. In the following June he was convicted of treasonable conversation, and hostility to the country, and sentenced to be imprisoned forty days on board a guard-ship, and at the end of that period to be sent with his family to England. The board of war however took his case into consideration, and commuted the punishment to a short confinement under a guard in his own house; but, though he continued to reside in Boston during the remainder of his life he never again entered a pulpit, nor regained his anterevolutionary popularity. He died in 1788, in the eighty-second year of his age, He was a favorite in every social or convivial circle, and no one was more fond of his society than the colonial governor, BELCHER, on the death of whose wife he wrote an elegy ending with "Meantime my name to thine allied shall stand, Still our warm friendship, mutual flames extend; The muse shall so survive from age to age, And BELCHER's name protect his BYLES's page." The doctor had declined an invitation to visit with the governor the province of Maine, and BELCHER resorted to a stratagem to secure his company. Having persuaded him to drink tea with him on board the Scarborough ship of war, one Sunday afternoon, as soon as they were seated at the table the anchor was weighed, the sails set, and before the punning parson had called for his last cup, the ship was too far at sea for him to think of returning to the shore. As every thing necessary for his comfort had been thoughtfully provided, he was easily reconciled to the voyage. the next Sunday, it was discovered that there was While making preparations for religious services, no hymn-book on board, and he wrote the following lines, which were sung instead of a selection from STERNHOLD and HOPKINS—— "Great Gon, thy works our wonder raise; "Thy power produced this mighty frame, Thy opening hands their joys bestow, "See the broad sun forsake the skies, Glow on the waves, and downward glide; And star-beams tremble o'er the tide. |