Statesmen and Heroines whom this age adores,

Though plainer times would call them Rogues and
Whores.

See LOUVET, patriot, pamphleteer, and sage,
Tempering with amorous fire his virtuous rage.
Form'd for all tasks, his various talents see,
The luscious Novel, the severe Decree.
Then mark him welt'ring in his nasty sty,
Bare his lewd transports to the public eye.
Not his the love in silent groves that strays,
Quits the rude world, and shuns the vulgar gaze.
In LODOISKA's full possession blest,
One craving void still aches within his breast;
Plunged in the filth and fondness of her arms,
Not to himself alone he stints her charms;
Clasp'd in each other's foul embrace they lie,
But know no joy, unless the World stands by.
The fool of vanity, for her alone

He lives, loves, writes, and dies but to be known.

His widow'd mourner flies to poison's aid,
Eager to join her LOUVET's parted shade
In those bright realms where sainted lovers stray,
But harsh emetics tear that hope away.*

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were read, might, we should hope, be accounted for upon principles of mere curiosity (as we read the Newgate Calendar, and the history of the Buccaneers), not from any interest in favour of a set of wretches infinitely more detestable than all the robbers and pirates that ever existed.

Every lover of modern French literature, and admirer of modern French characters, must remember the rout which was made about LoUVET's death and LODOISKA's poison. The attempt at self-slaughter, and the process of the recovery, the arsenic and the castor oil, were served up in daily messes from the French papers, till the public absolutely sickened.

Yet hapless LoUVET! where thy bones are laid,
The easy nymphs shall consecrate the shade.*
There in the laughing morn of genial spring,
Unwedded pairs shall tender couplets sing;
Eringoes o'er the hallow'd spot shall bloom,
And flies of Spain buzz softly round the tomb.t

But hold, severer virtue claims the Muse-
ROLAND the just, with ribands in his shoes-
And ROLAND'S spouse, who paints with chaste delight
The doubtful conflict of her nuptial night ;-
Her virgin charms what fierce attacks assail'd,
And how the rigid Minister § prevail'd.

And ah! what verse can grace thy stately mien,
Guide of the world, preferment's golden queen,
NECKAR'S fair daughter, -STAEL the Epicene!
Bright o'er whose flaming cheek and pumple || nose
The bloom of young desire unceasing glows!
Fain would the Muse-but ah! she dares no more,
A mournful voice from lone Guyana's shore, T

+ See Anthologia, passim.

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*Faciles Napec. Such was the strictness of this minister's principles, that he positively refused to go to Court in shoe-buckles. Dumouriez's Memoirs.

See

§ See MADAME ROLAND'S Memoirs.—“ Rigide Ministre,” Brissot à ses Commettans.

The "pumple" nosed attorney of Furnival's Inn.-Congreve's Way of the World." [... When you liv'd with honest Pumple Nose, the attorney of Furnival's Inn. Act 3, sc. 1.]— ED.

¶ These lines contain the Secret History of QUATREMER'S deportation. He presumed in the Council of Five Hundred to arraign MADAME DE STAEL'S conduct, and even to hint a doubt of her sex. He was sent to Guyana. The transaction naturally brings to one's mind the dialogue between Falstaff and Hostess Quickly in Shakespeare's Henry IV.

Sad QUATREMER--the bold presumption checks,
Forbid to question thy ambiguous sex.

To thee, proud BARRAS bows;-thy charms control
REWBELL'S brute rage, and MERLIN'S subtle soul;
Rais'd by thy hands, and fashion'd to thy will,
Thy power, thy guiding influence, governs still,
Where at the blood-stain'd board expert he plies,
The lame artificer of fraud and lies;

He with the mitred head and cloven heel ;—
Doom'd the coarse edge of REWBELL's jests to feel;
To stand the playful buffet, and to hear

The frequent ink-stand whizzing past his ear;
While all the five Directors laugh to see

"The limping priest so deft at his new ministry".+
Last of th' ANOINTED FIVE behold, and least,
The Directorial LAMA, Sovereign Priest,-
LEPAUX ;-whom atheists worship;-at whose nod
Bow their meek heads the Men without a God.‡

*

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Fal. Thou art neither fish nor flesh-a man cannot tell where to have thee.

Quick. Thou art an unjust man for saying so-thou or any man knows where to have me.

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*For instance, in the course of a political discussion REWBELL observed to the EX-BISHOP [TALLEYRAND], that his understanding was as crooked as his legs"-" Vil Emigré, tu n'as pas le sens plus droit que les pieds "-and therewith threw an inkstand at him. It whizzed along, as we have been informed, like the fragment of a rock from the hand of one of Ossian's heroes; but the wily apostate shrunk beneath the table, and the weapon passed over him innocuous, and guiltless of his blood or brains.

† See Homer's description of Vulcan. First Iliad.

Inextinguibilis vero exoriebatur risus beatis numinibus
Ut viderunt Vulcanum per domos ministrantem.

The Men without a God-one of the new sects. Their religion is intended to consist in the adoration of a Great Book,

Ere long, perhaps, to this astonish'd isle,
Fresh from the shores of subjugated Nile,
Shall BUONAPARTE's victor fleet protect
The genuine Theo-Philanthropic sect,—
The sect of MARAT, MIRABEAU, Voltaire,-
Led by their Pontiff, good LA RÉVEILLÈRE.
Rejoiced our CLUBS shall greet him, and install
The holy Hunchback in thy dome, St. Paul !
While countless votaries, thronging in his train,
Wave their red caps, and hymn this jocund strain:—
"Couriers and Stars, Sedition's evening host,
Thou Morning Chronicle and Morning Post,
Whether ye make the Rights of Man your theme,
Your country libel, and your God blaspheme,
Or dirt on private worth and virtue throw,
Still, blasphemous or blackguard, praise LEPAUX !
"And ye five other wandering bards, that move
In sweet accord of harmony and love,
COLERIDGE and SOUTHEY, LLOYD, and LAMB & Co.
Tune all your mystic harps to praise LEPAUX!
"PRIESTLEY and WAKEFIELD, humble, holy men,
Give praises to his name with tongue and pen!

"THELWALL, and ye that lecture as ye go,
And for your pains get pelted, praise LEPAUX!
"Praise him each Jacobin, or Fool, or Knave,
And your cropp'd heads in sign of worship wave!

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in which all the virtuous actions of the society are to be entered and registered. "In times of civil commotion they are to come forward to exhort the citizens to unanimity, and to read them a chapter out of the Great Book. When oppressed or proscribed, they are to retire to a burying-ground, to wrap themselves up in their great-coats, and wait the approach of death," &c.