The plague variolous!* as Hercules
The spotted snakes defeating, transport flush'd Alcmena's glowing cheek, so over thine
I see the kindled radiance. Whether born In Ethiopic wilds, or mid the sands
Of parch'd Arabia, or where spread the shores Girding the Caspian; from his natal place Pursuing Mahomet's wide wasting arms
The monster* rush'd on Europe, pale Dismay, Horror, and Death rapacious in his train. For many a century without control When raged his fury, by pernicious skies Aroused or propagated far and wide By fell Contagion he destroyed mankind. The cities groaned; the matron o'er her babe In unavailing trance of anguish hung. The lover offer'd up his fruitless vows, And wearied heaven, importunately fond, To save the beauty which his soul ador❜d. The babe, the mother's self became his prey; The youth and virgin sunk into the tomb. If life were granted, beauty was effaced;
Each decent feature tumid and enlarg'd,
Roughen'd or dented with unseemly scars.
Med'cine was whelm'd with shame, the Roman page Was silent, nor the Grecian could afford
An antidote for evils Grecia's sons
Had ne'er imagined. Rhazes wrote in vain; And even Sydenham's efforts had their bounds. For the cold lymph with prejudice was shunn'd; And Sydenham, though he oft by freer air
Tam'd the devouring heat, and shook the throne Of learned ignorance, declaring war
Against its regimen, adverse to life,
And compounds teeming with destructive fire, Alexipharmic poisons; could not change The rank malignant nature of the pest:
'Which still, when favouring constitutions reign'd And in peculiar habits, all his art Baffled invincible; his art, beyond All mortals else and only not divine.
Inoculation next by Montagu
Cherish'd and introduced, appear'd to quell The spotted plague; but later times have prov'd, That, spreading far and wide contagion dire It aggravated what it seem'd to check, And added fuel to the raging flame.†
The triumph was reserved for Jenner's hands: Thine was the deed, illustrious friend of man! What Physic ne'er conjectur'd, what describ'd Seem'd to Philosophy an idle tale,
Or curious only, He by patriot love
Inspir'd, his country rising on his view,
Prov'd as a truth, and prov'd it on her sons.
Yet this is he whom Envy's poison'd lines Hath dar'd to censure, (flowing through the quills Of false observers.) He hath been the cause
Of heart-felt joy to thousands, thousands live,
And still shall live through him. Their labours please None but the sceptic or the darkling crew
Whom neither Science nor Hygeia owns ;
While he, the sage with generous aim unlock'd The springs of Satisfaction and Delight, And with perennial comfort bless'd the world.
Let me then urge this duty; nor to fear Or Superstition yielding, let thy child Encounter in his hideous shape the fiend,§ And brave his violence. For whither, say,
To what sequestered haunt canst thou retreat Where he will not pursue? How vain thy flight!
How sure thy victory, if as Art directs
And wise Experience, thou anticipatell
† Dr. Heberden has proved that the number of deaths from SmallPox, in Great-Britain, has increased since the introduction of inoculation, as it necessarily tends to spread the contagion.
Drs. Rowley and Mosely, of London, have written against vaccination with all the asperity of prejudice, and have treated Dr. Jenner with the greatest illiberality. They have been to Jenner what Zoilus was to Homer.
It appears to be the opinion of some ingenious and experienced physicians, that the Cow-Pox is a milder species of Small-Pex, and by proper attention may be preserved and perpetuated in this mild and effectual state.
Jam nova progenies calo dimittitur alto.
His threaten'd blow! So when the Patriarch's arm Was stretch'd to wound his son, an angel came, And sav'd the victim from impending death. Gentle and harmless we may call the power Of genuine Vaccination, which regards Nor times, nor seasons, nor disturbs the child If to dentition's wonted state arriv'd; Though then the lab'ring frame can ill endure Variolous infection, whose success
Demands a nice selection of the time Propitious to its pow'r, lest spasms dire By the contagious vapour rais'd, invade Sudden the precincts warm of light and life. This too the cold of winter bids us shun, Potent the vessels to contract, increase Their tonic force, and in the system stir Fierce inflammation. And the summer heat; By which all putrid ferments are sublim'd, And render'd doubly fatal. These extremes Avoided, in the temperate months alone Each prudent matron ventur'd to resolve To obey the calls of duty and of love.
But Vaccination no restraints like these
Will own, and bounteous as the light
Of heaven, with freedom spreads its blessings pure To every season and each age alike.
Need we in this our era when mature
And vigorous Reason prospers, groundless fears Oppose by arguments? The groundless fears Of doubt or superstition? In thy mind Nor terror should, nor can with justice dwell. But lest as naturally seen, by art
Unmodified, uncheck'd the stern disease
Should thy young charge assault. If he escape His lot is fortunate. Assaulted thus,
Oft from a hundred only, many die;
From many hundred thousands scarcely one
If rightly vaccinated. Nor believe Kind Providence unfriendly to the deed.
From Providence flows reason to mankind; And reason teaches us to fly from ill,
And covet good. Th' invention, the success, Is the true warrant of approving heaven. Who would not rather cross a shallow truth When first the rising tide begins, than wait Hemm'd in a nook till with impetuous force It sweeps him from his station? Who refuse By Franklin's pointed rod to draw the stream Of lightning on their roofs, because the cloud, Might harmless pass above? thus safe convey'd In unterrific silence to the ground.
For Jenner then again the verse prepare
And bring th' harmonious strain! why through the realms
Of Europe are not votive statues placed
Honouring their benefactor? From the Straits
Of Gades, south, to where the towers ascend
Of fam'd Petropolis? or crossing wide
Th' Atlantic foam, why in the new-found world That more to him than its discoverer owes;
Or mid the varied tribes of Asia's sons, Appears no structure sacred to his praise? Yet shall Imagination rear the dome
And fix th' expressive marble. Hither come, Ye nymphs and swains with flowery garlands deck'd Your polish'd foreheads; grateful hither come
Ye guardian genii! hither, glowing Love, And spotless Beauty! Youth, with radiant eyes,
And blooming Health! while underneath the beech, Or oak, which waves its consecrated shade, Humanity and Wisdom smiling view
The festive throng, mid whom the Graces play, And quitting their proud bowers and lofty hill, The Muses utter notes divinely sweet, Such as of yore they sang, when Gratitude Tun'd to the friends and patrons of mankind The genuine lyre, ennobled by its theme.
O LOVE! Sweet pain! tormenting pleasure! O, anguish pleasing beyond measure! Dipp'd in Near is thy dart,
It wounds, but sweet, O! sweet the smart.
I saw, to guard Cecilia's eye,
Cupid with threat'ning arrows by,
I saw his bow of silver bent, My rapturous gazes to resent; A while my gazes I restrain, But O! could not but look again, Tho' by his threat'ning arrows slain! I saw his chains, prepar❜d to bind My wounded heart; yet had no mind Him to oppose; but gaz'd and sigh'd, While he his silken fetters tied! If I but will to break his chain, In spite of him, I'm free again, But O! I know not why of late, I willing wear the chains I hate! I love, yet curse love's tyranny; I slav'ry choose, yet would be free; I weep my fate, and yet, how strange, Would not with kings my fate exchange! I blame, yet woo; lament, tho' pleas'd, Am sooth'd by Hope; with doubtings teas'd. O! sweetly miserable state!
Give me, kind Heaven, the maniac's fate; That my oblivious, wilder'd brain,
May fancy bliss, and feel not pain!
On the 12th Inst. departed this life Miss HETTY PHILLIPS, in the 46th year of her age.
The merits of this lady were not of a kind to force themselves upon the gaze of the world; for though she possessed, in an eminent degree, the milder virtues of the human heart, yet they were veiled by such
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