To sue for chains and own a conquerer.
Why should Rome fall a moment ere her time ?
No-let us draw our term of freedom out
In its full length, and spin it to the last;
So shall we gain still one day's liberty.
And let me perish; but in Cato's judgment,
A day, an hour of virtuous liberty,

Is worth a whole eternity of bondage.

Columbus to Ferdinand.

COLUMBUS was a considerable number of years engaged in solicit. ing the court of Spain to fit him out, in order to discover a new cmtinent, which he imagined existed some where in the we tern parts of the ocean. During his negociations, he is supposed to address king FERDINAND in the following stanzas :

ILLUSTRIOUS monarch of Iberia's soil,
Too long I wait permission to depart
Sick of delays, I beg thy list'ning car-
Shine forth the patron and the prince of art.
While yet Columbus breathes the vital air,
Grant his request to pass the western main:
Reserve this glory for thy native soil,

And what must please thee more-for thy own reign.

Of this huge globe how small a part we know-
Does heaven their worlds to western sons deny?
How disproportion'd to the mighty deep
The lands that yet in human prospect lie!
Does Cynthia, when to western skies arriv'd,
Spend her sweet team upon the barren main,
And ne'er illume with midnight splendor, she,
The native dancing on the lightsome green 2

Should the vast circuit of the world contain
Such wastes of ocean, and such scanty land ?
'Tis reason's voice that bids me think not so;
I think more nobly of the Almighty hand.
Does yon fair lamp trace half the circle round
To light the waves and monsters of the seas ?
No-be there must, beyond the billowy waste,
Islands, and men, and animals and trees.

To seek new lands amidst the barren waves,
Where falling low, the source of da y descends,
And the blue sca his evening visage laves.
Hear, in this tragic lay, Cordova's sage :*
The time shall come when numerous years are
past,

The ocean shall dissolve the band of things,
And an extended region rise at last :

And Typhis shall disclose the mighty land,
Far, far away where none have rov'd before ;
Nor shall the world's remotest regions be
Gibraltar's rock, or Thule's savage shore."
Fir'd at the theme, I languish to depart,
Supply the barque, and bid Columbus sail;
Ile fears no storms upon the untravell'd deep;
Reason shall steer, and skill disarm the gale.
Nor does he dread to lose the intended course,
Though far from land the reeling galley stray,
And skies above, and gulfy seas below
Be the sole object seen for many a day.
Think not that nature has unveil'd in vain
The mystic magnet to the mortal eye,
So late have we the guided needle plann'd
Only to sail beneath our native sky?
Ere this was found the ruling power of all,

Seneca, the poet, native of Cordova, in Spain.

Found for our use au occan in the land,
Its breadth so small we could not wander long,
Nor long be absent from the neighboring strand.
Short was the course, and guided by the stars ;
But stars no more shall point our daring way;
The Bear shall sink, and every guard be drown'e,
And great Arcturus scarce escape the sea.

When southward we shall steer-0 grant my wish.

Supply the barque, and bid Columbus sail;
He dreads no tempest on the untravel'd deep,
Reason shall steer, and skill disarm the gale.

Address to the Deity.

Father of light! exhaustless source of good! Supreme, eternal, self-existent God!

Before the beamy sun dispens'd a ray,
Flam'd in the azure vault, and gave the day,
Before the glimmering moon, with borrow'd light,
Shane queen, amid the silver host of night.
High in the heavens, thou reign'st superior Lord,
By suppliant angels worshipp'd and ador'd.
With the celestial choir then let me join
In cheerful praises to the Power Divine.
To sing thy praise, do thou, O God! inspire
A mortal breast with more than mortal fire.
In dreadful majesty thou sit'st enthron'd,
With light encircled and with glory crown'd :
Through all infinitude extends thy reign,
For thee nor Heaven, nor Heaven of Heavens
contain

But though thy throne is fix'd above the sky,
Thy omnipresence fills immensity.

Saints rob'd in white, to thee their anthems bring,
And radiant martyrs hallelujahs sing ;
Heaven's universal host their voices raise
In one eternal concert to thy praise;
And round thy awful throne, with one accord,
Sing holy, holy, holy is the Lord.

At thy creative voice from ancient night
Sprang smiling beauty, and yon worlds of light:
Thou spak'st-the planetary chorus roll'd,
Stupendous worlds! unmeasur’d and untold!
Let there be light, said God-light instant shonę,
And from the orient burst the golden sun;
Heav'n's gazing hierarchs, with glad surprise,
Saw the first morn invest the recent skies.

And strait th' exulting troops thy throne surround;

With thousand, thousand harps of raptrous sourd
Thrones, powers, dominions (ever shining trains)
Shouted thy praises in triumphant strains:
Great are thy works, they sing, and all around.
Great are thy works, the echoing heav'us resound.
Th' effulgent sun, unsufferably bright,

Is but a ray of thy o'erflowing light;

The tempest is thy breath; the thunder hurl'd Tremendous roars thy vengeance o'er the world; Thou bow'st the Heaven's, the smoking moun

tains nod,

Rocks fall to dust, and nature owns her God!
Pale tyrants shrink, the atheist stands agbast,
And impious kings in horror breathe their last.
To this great God, alternately, I'd pay,
The evening anthem and the morning lay.