ORIGINAL POETRY.

LETTER TO A FRIEND.
WRITTEN FROM JAMAICA.

WHILE you, my friend, in perfect cafe,
Ride, walk, or ramble, where you pleafe,
Saunter to coffee-house or play,
And careless frolic through the day;
'Tis mine, beyond th' Atlantic main,
To combat each degree of pain;
Stranger to blifs, or change of scene,
Victim of dullness, and the fpleen.

Here Phoebus darts his fierceft rays,
And all creation feems to blaze;
Fainting, we bear the fultry heat,
And with, in vain, for cool retreat:
Nor cool retreat, nor pleasing fhade,
Afford their much defired aid;
His beams, refiftlefs, force their way,
And nature fickens with decay.

When Sol, at length, retires to rest,
And veils his glories in the weft;
When ev'ning comes, all mild, and fair,
And breezes fan the fultry air;
Affliction ftill retains her pow'r,
And plagues attend each paffing hour:
A buzzing infect * hovers round,
And darts full many a piercing wound;
Keeps his fell flation near the bed,
And fleep denies to weary head.

Despair here lifts her baleful hand,
While fell Disease pervades the land;
And meagre Death near couching lies,
To fnatch the wretched, deftin'd prize :
Thefe, and a thousand evils more,
Alas! are here reserv'd in ftore,
To blaft our joys, and render life
One tragic scene of pain and ftrife.

In this dull ifle, no blooming fair,
With sweet attraction, foothes our care;
No foft refinements gild their charms,
No elegance in language warms;
Strangers to each persuasive art,
To gain admiffion to the heart.

Here Afric's fable race deplore
Their bondage on this hoftile fhore;
Where, crush'd beneath the galling chain,
The voice of pity pleads in vain :
Relentless defpots hold the fway,
And rigid laws devote their prey
Each agonizing pang to find,
Each racking torture of the mind.

my

reft,

Ye gods! what tranfports once I knew!
How swift the fleeting moments flew !
No anxious disturb'd
pangs
But all was peace within my breaft;
Blythefome I paffed each jocund day,
While vary'd pleasures ftrew'd my way.
When with Eliza oft I stray'd,
And heard and faw the lovely maid;
Heard her, with eloquence divine,
Declare her heart was only mine;
While Truth fat beaming in her eye,
And Virtue stood all radiant by;
Then, ye blest powers! then did I prove
The nameless joys that wait on love!

*Muskito. MONTHLY MAG. No. VI,

Ah me! those blissful scenes are o'er;
Far banished from my natal fhore,
I droop, and pine with fullen care,
Victim of forrow and defpair :
O, let your pity ftill attend

Your once, once happy cheerful friend!
Let me ftill live within your mind,
So fhall my foul fome comfort find;
And think, when yielding up my breath,
Friendship allays the pangs of death.

SACRED MUSIC.

AN ODE,

FROM THE GERMAN OF KLOPSTOCK,

DEAR dream, which I must ne'er behold
fulfill'd,

Thou beamy form, more fair than orient day,
Float back and hover yet
Before my fwimming fight.

Do they wear crowns in vain, that they forbear
To realize the heavenly portraiture?

Shall marble hearse them all,

Ere the bright change be wrought ?,
Hail, chofen ruler of a freer world!
For thee fhall bloom the never- fading fong-
Who bid'at it be! To thee
Religion's honours rise.

Yes-could the grave allow-of thee I'd fing:
For once would Infpiration ftring the lyre-
The streaming tide of joy,

My pledge for loftier verfe.

Great is thy deed, my wish. He has not

known

What 'tis to melt in blifs, who never felt
Devotion's raptures rife
On facred mufic's wing:

Ne'er fweetly trembled, when adoring choirs
Mingle their hallow'd forgs of folemn praife;
And, at each aweful pause,
The unfeen choirs above.

Long float around my forehead, blissful dream!
I hear a Chriftian people hymn their God,
And thoufands kneel at once,
Jehovah, Lord, to thee.

The people fing their Saviour, fing the Son;
Their fimple fong according with the heart,
Yet lotty, fuch as lifts

Th' afpiring foul from earth.

On the rais'd eye-lafh, on the burning cheek,
The young tear quivers; for they view the
goal

Where fhines the golden crown,
Where angels wave the palm.

Hufh! the clear fong fwells forth. Now flows

along

Mufic, as if pour'd artless from the breast;
For fo the mafer will'd

To lead its channel'd courfe.

Deep, ftrong, it feizes on the fwelling heart,
Scorning what knows not to call down the tear,
Or fhroud the foul in gloom,
Or fleep in holy awe.

3 R

Borna

Illa dum cœlo tacito niteret, Audiit noftræ gemitum querelæ ; He Sæpe non fictæ fuit illa flammæ

1796.]

Notice of Works in Hand.

To have its proper effect, it requires the accompaniment of good performers on the violin and violoncello

Two Sonatas, by the fame Author, 55. Op. 30. A grand S.nata, for two Performers on one Piano Forte. Ditto. Corri and Co.

We cannot boast of any remarkable novelties in these two works; and, in our opinion, they are, in several respects, inferior to many of Mr. Pleyel's former publications.

Three Sonatas for the Piano Forte, with Acompaniments for a Violin and Violoncello, ad libitum. By Muzio Clementi, Op. 35. 86.

Prefton and Son

This work, like fome others by the fame compofer, is diftinguished for the fingularity and correctness of its style. Though written in an eafy manner, for the accommodation of performers in general, it fill poffeffes the masterly manner for which Mr. Clementi is well known to the English public.

Six Sonatas for the Harpfichord or Piano Forte, with an Accompaniment for a Violin. Composed by C. R. Mulenaer, 75. 6d. Longman and Broderip.

The pleasing and easy ftyle of these fonatas cannot fail to introduce them as favourites of the public.

Three Duets for two Flutes.-Three ditto for two Violins.-Three ditto for two Violins and Tenor. By Ignace Pleyel, 5s. each fet. Corri

and Co.

Thefe duets are fimply arranged from the Harpsichord Sonatas, op. 30, and the Grand Duet for two performers, both of which we have noticed above.

Amè tutte le belle, 3s. and Io parte mio bene, Is. 6d. with Harp Accompaniments. Sung by Viganoni. Corri and Co.

Thefe fongs met with a very popular reception in their public performance at the Opera. Their own merit was, doubtless, increafed in its effect by the excellent manner of finging them by Mr. Viganoni.

[The mufical world have this month to lament the death of Dr. THOMAS SAUNDERS Duruis, organist and compofer to his Majetty. Of this gentleman's merit and character we have fpoken more at length in our Obituary.]

LITERARY NOTICES.

493

lume, in a German dress, and, from the elegant tafte of the tranflator, it suffers as little as poffible in the change. Surely, a work of the fame kind would receive encouragement in England. The Attic writers deserve to be introduced, as they fair fex in England, inftead of being are in Germany, to the toilettes of the confined to the mufty precincts of a college.

Mr. SOUTHEY, of Bristol, author of the poem of Joan of Arc, has in the prefs a volume of Letters from Spain and Portugal.

ZWOEGA, at Rome, is preparing for the prefs a confiderable work on Obelifks and their Hieroglyphs. From his diftinguished talents, much light, it is prefumed, will be thrown on this hitherto very dark part of antiquity.

Mr. JOHN IRELAND, author of Hogarth Illuftrated, is about to present another treat to the admirers of that great artist. In the course of the prefent year, he propofes to publish, by fubfcription, a fupplementary volume to his Hogarth Illuftrated, compiled from papers in the hand-writing of Hogarth, with new prints. Mr. Ireland informs Lewis, of Chifwick, a relation and exus in his profpectus, that it is to Mrs. ecutrix to Mrs. Hogarth, that the public are indebted for the prefent valuable addition to Hogarth's Works, as author and an artift. The original MSS. &c. may be feen at Mr. Ireland's houfe, No. 3, Poet's-corner, Palace-yard.

an

Mr. PRATT, the author of Emma Corbet, and of other well known works, is preparing for the prefs a work, under the title of "Family Secrets, interperfed with Converfations on the Ufe

and Abuse of Modern Romance."

In Euclid's time, the method was generally known of conftructing, geometrically, triangles, quadrilateral figures, pentagons, hexagons, quindecagons, or any figures with double the number of [The very extenfive circulation of the fides in the above figures: but the other Monthly Magazine, abroad as well as at regular figures have been fuppofed to be without the limits of the art. A Student, bome, rendering thefe Notices of confidsrable utility to authors engaged in the proat Goettingin, has announced his intentions of making public a method of je&tion of any new and original work, the Editor vibes this article to be confi conftructing many other figures with seven, eleven, thirteen fides each, geomedered as being freely open to the notificatrically. This method is deduced from tions of the learned world.]

WIELAND has published a fpecimen of what we may expect from his Attifches Mufeum. He propofes to give to Germany a full and accurate knowledge, as far as tranflation can, of the manners, customs, and celebrated works of the Greeks. The panegyric of Ifocrates appears, in the first part of his first vo

the corollary to a theorem of very great

extent. The mathematician who has made this difcovery, is a MR. GAUSS, of Brunfwick, to whofe proficiency in philofophical and claffical studies, profeffor Zimmerman bears honourable teftimony.

A popular Introduction to the Study of Botany, according to the late profeffor Sibthorpe's Simplification of the

Linnean