brows, would but poorly compensate for the execration which the blackness of his heart would attract. Perhaps, further, a discovery of his name would enhance the public opinion of his malignity. Perhaps it might shed strong light upon some circumstance which would more fully evince the baseness of the writer-some sacred confidences infamously violated, some important favours perfidiously repaid with outrageous malice. He did not choose to sacrifice his heart to his head. This, I trust, plausibly enough accounts for his long concealment. His prudence is as much the object of my admiration as his virulence is of my abhorrence.

"A word at parting" on the subject of his talents. I believe they have had more than their due share of veneration. I have never seen or heard any remarks on the length of time which was spent upon the letters of Junius. Yet this appears a proper subject of consideration, and must, to a certain degree, affect a just estimate of the abilities of the writer. Suppose two works of exactly equal merit to be produced by A and B. Suppose A to employ three hours upon his, and B to require three weeks for exactly the same quantity. I think it can hardly be doubted, that in a distribution of the palm for intellectual powers, the claim of A would very far outweigh that of B.

Let us try Junius's claims with a little reference to this position, and I think it cannot fail to sink him considerably in public estimation. There are in the collection sixty-nine letters. Five are signed by William Draper, three by John Horne, sixteen by Philo Junius, and forty-four by Junius. The time embraced in the publication is exactly three years, as will appear by the annexed statement.

To those even moderately conversant with literary labours, it is unnecessary to state how elegantly a writer of even mediocre talents may polish and refine his productions, when he devotes to a column or two of a newspaper the labour of one, two, three, or four weeks. It is not to be wondered at, that with so much of the lima labor as Junius bestowed upon them, they remain models of the elegance, force, and refinement of the English language.

I have the less diffidence in writing thus of Junius, because I am happy to find that one of the most elegant of the modern English historians, Belsham, a most unequivocal advocate and friend of Liberty, has pronounced sentence upon this writer in these words: “When a man brings forward anonymous accusations of this nature, and basely shrinks from the subsequent investigation, he stands recorded to all future times a liar, an assassin, and a coward."-History of Great Britain, vol. v. p. 290.

Theophrastus.

A STORY is told of Theophrastus, from which an inference has been drawn, that it does not appear to me to warrant. I submit my objections to the reader.

The story is, that Theophrastus, who imagined he spoke the Attic dialect in its utmost purity, went into a market place in Athens, and accosting one of the women there stationed, mispronounced some word, whereby she directly, to his surprise, pronounced him a foreigner. It has always been thence presumed that even the lowest of the Athenian populace were so well educated as to be minutely acquainted with all the niceties of the language.

This, like thousands of other ancient stories, is entirely fallacious. Let us test it by our own market women. Suppose a Cockney was to ask a market woman for a peck of happles, an Irishman for a pound of buthther, a Scotchman for a pund or twa of beef, a New Englander for some keeow's milk, or a Virginian to hollor for some tobaccor, she would directly pronounce them all foreigners; nor would it be fair to deduce from her accurate knowledge on this point, that she had received a refined education, or even ever gone to school.

ORIGINAL POETRY-FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

MEPHITIS; OR CITY POLICE.

IN TWO CANTOS.

"The green mantle of the standing pool."-Shak.

BY PHYSIGNATHUS, OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

ADVERTISEMENT.

In the following piece, some of the gasses of modern chymistry have been personified; with what effect it is left to the reader to determine. The author believes that such a machinery is novel, but the science from which it is taken not being generally understood, he does not expect that it will be much relished. The neglect of police, in some of the towns of that State where he resides, first suggested to him the idea of writing poetry.

CANTO L-A city evening.

CONTENTS.

The Muse invoked in the old style. She instructs the bard. Hydrogen and Mephitis. The air balloon. Curious insects. City evening recreations. The caution. The frog concert.

The stagnant pool. Exhalations.
Limnades, or nymphs of the pool.

THE earth bedew'd with vernal showers,
The verdant woods, the blooming flowers,
The budding oak, the fragrant pine,
The jasmine sweet, and eglantine:
The mock-bird with his mimic note

That near the mansion strains his throat,
The turtle cooing, in the shade,
The partridge whistling, on the glade:

All nature gay, invites to sing,

O Muse! the sweets of rising spring.
"Tempt not, she cries, such idle things,
Twitching my ear, as Maro sings,
To stagnant pools attune thy lyre,
On foul docks pour poetic ire;
At city police, in thy sweep,
And city pastimes take a peep;
But what is written never blot,
So few will read it matters not."
Now first admitted to thy school
Propitious Muse! I sing the pool
Which here on city common seen,
Is always "mantled o'er with green."
VOL. III.

I

The Mantuan swain close by my side,
Reclin'd beneath the India pride
Fast by the pool! not Arethuse
Shall henceforth so delight the Muse.
Let poets sing their grots and shades,
Their crystal fountains, smooth cascades,
Harmonious let their numbers clink
Of flowers lolling on their brink,

And let them dive into the stream

To praise the trout, the perch, and bream.
In stagnant waters we shall find

Such beings of a novel kind,
That poets on Parnassus fixt

Have never dreamt that they exist.
Here, HYDROGEN* of airy form
Is rais'd in clouds to brew the storm;
MEPHITIST too! oft hovers here,
Dank, foul, and low in atmosphere.
The Muse foretels, that these, ere long,
Will be the theme of modern song,
And Truth and Nature thus combin'd
With Fancy, shall improve the mind;
Some bard their wonders shall unfold,
As Homer did his gods of old,
And raise a name, as yet, unknown
That Fame shall proudly call her own.
On Hydrogen, the air balloon
Shall pry into all secrets soon,
Be they aloft in climes of snow,
Or in the chamber down below.
Thus convalescents shall repair
Towards the clouds for change of air,
And wholesome climates quickly find
By easy journies on the wind.

Thus shall the Soph on tempest tost,
Seek Wisdom in the realms of frost ;
And warriors thus shall never fail
O'er cannon, city walls to scale.

• Hydrogen. Inflammable air. "It is lighter than common air. The theory of balloons is founded upon this levity-" Chaptal's Chymistry. Am. Ed. 91, 93, 94.

+ Mephitis, or Azot. Foul air; that which deprives of life. Its proportion to atmospheric air is as 73 to 27: nearly three fourths. When fire is placed in it, it is instantly extinguished without noise. Rees's Cyclopædia, title Azot.

Thus belles, their coaches laid aside,

Like sylphs upon the wind shall glide,
Nor dust, nor prancing horses fear
While lightly flitting on the air.

Bucks too shall thus through windows creep
To gaze at Beauty when asleep,
And in her balmy slumbers scare
The trembling, but unyielding fair.
Such are thy wonders, stagnant flood!
Where others see but filth and mud;
And poets too, in passing by,

Have view'd thee with disdainful eye.
Sure never yet did running stream,
As pools with curious insects teem,
That ever at the close of day,
In airy circles round you play,
And make approaches without fear,
To whisper music in your ear.
Yet half their beauties none descry,
Unless with microscopic eye,

Wings aptly form'd, by Nature's laws,

More fine than Brussel's lace or gauze ;

Bills too with points more sharp and burnish'd
Than cambric needle ever furnish'd.

Can Birmingham, or Soho vend

A work so fitted to its end.

Can Watt and Boulton by their skill,
Form one musquito's wing or bill?
Can Art with Nature e'er contend
The meanest of her works to mend?
In genial spring when songs of love
Echo alike from house and grove,
When Nature loose from winter's seen,
To gad abroad in robes of green;

Then nymphs of pools, for nymphs be there,
Through all the night love-ditties hear;
Green Limnades there with sparkling eyes,*
Are wont to raise their lover's sighs;
Now love can teaze beyond belief,
While song alone affords relief.

* Sparkling eyes.

"Tis said the lark and loathed toad change eyes.”—Shak.