Again, in the shade of retirement, he feeks repofe; but is called, by unanimous voice, to be the firft magif. trate of the United States. Scarce are the wheels of government in motion, when he is ftruck by the view of that enormous revolution which ftill torments and terrifies the earth. The flames of war were spread throughout Europe, and threatened to waste the globe. The delegated incendiaries found America filled with inflammable matter. All the bad paffions, with some that were good, ftimulated her to engage in the conteft. But the Prefident, ftill calm, difcerning, and true to your truest interest, proclaimed, obferved, and maintained an exact neutrality. In vain was he affailed from abroad; in vain folicited, excited, urged, by thofe around him. He stood immoveable! Vain alfo were the clamours of mistaken zeal, the dark efforts of infidious faction, and the foul voice of mercenary flander. You have all lately feen his firm administration, and all now enjoy the rich refult of his inflexible wisdom.

Though he still turned with fond defire towards his domestic shade, he never left the helm during the fury of the storm; but remained till he had the well-founded expectation, that America might enjoy PEACE, FREEDOM, and SAFETY; and then at last he claims the right of age. A venerable veteran, in all honourable fervice, having confecrated to his country the fpirit of youth, the strength of manhood, and the ripe experience of laborious years, he asks repofe. His body, broken with toil, must rest-No. He is called forth again; again must he gird on his fword, and prepare for the battle! And fee! fresh in renewed vigour, he decks his hoary head with nodding plumes of war, and mounts the barbed fteed. With countenance erect and firm, his eagle eye measures the lengthened file. Wonderful man! he feems immortal-----O no, no, no! this our pride, our glory, is gone; he is gone forever!

But yet his fpirit liveth. Hail, happy fhade! The broad fhield of death is thrown before thy fame. Nev

er fhall the polluted breath of flander blow upon thine ashes. We will watch with pious care the laurels which fhade thy urn, and wear thy name engraven on our hearts. O! yet protect thy country!-Save her! She is an orphan-Her father is mingled with the dust. No! HE LIVETH HE SHALL LIVE FOREVER! And when the latest of your children's children shall pronounce his dear, his facred name, their eyes fhall be fuffufed with the tear of GRATITUDE and LOVE,

An Eulogy

ON THE LIFE OF GENERAL GEORGE WASHINGTON.

Written at the Request of the Citizens of NEWBURYPORT, and delivered at the first Presbyterian Meeting-House in that Town, JANUARY 2, 1800,

BY THOMAS PAINE, A. M.

"O for a muse of fire, that would afcend
The brightest heaven of invention !

An empire for a stage, heroes to act,

And angels to behold the fwelling scene!

Then should the MIGHTY SHADE again affume
His local habitation, and his name,

Mantling our fphere with his fupernal glory!

Virtue and Fame fhould pioneer his way

Through planets wonder-ftruck; while at his heels
Valour and Victory (leafht in like hounds)
Crouch for employment !"

AMERICANS,

THE faviour of your country has obtained his laft victory. Having reached the fummit of human perfection, he has quitted the region of human glory. CONQUEROR OF TIME, he has triumphed over mortality; LEGATE OF HEAVEN, he has returned with the tidings of his miffion; FATHER OF HIS PEOPLE, he has afcended to advocate their caufe in the bofom of I his GOD. Solemn, "as it were a pause in nature," was his tranfit to eternity; thronged by the fhades of heroes, his approach to the confines of blifs; pæaned by the fong of angels, his journey beyond the stars!

The voice of a grateful and afflicted people has pronounced the eulogium of their departed hero-"first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of his countrymen."

That this exalted tribute is justly due to his memory, the fcar-honoured veteran, who has fought under the banners of his glory, the enraptured statesman, who has bowed to the dominion of his eloquence, the hardy cultivator, whofe foil has been defended by the prodigies of his valour, the protected citizen, whose peaceful rights have been fecured by the vigilance of his wisdom; yea, every fibre, that can vibrate in the heart of an American, will atteft with agonized fenfibility.

Born to direct the destiny of empires, his character was as majestic, as the events, to which it was attached, were illuftrious. In the delineation of its features, the vivid pencil of genius cannot brighten a trait, nor the blighting breath of calumny obfcure. His principles were the refult of organic philofophy; his fuccefs, of moral juftice. His integrity affumed the port of command; his intelligence, the afpect of infpiration. Glory, to many impregnable, he obtained without ambition; popularity, to all inconftant, he enjoyed without jealoufy. The one was his from admiration, the other from gratitude. The former embellished, but could not reward; the latter followed, but never could lead him. The robuft vigour of his virtue, like the undazzled eye of the eagle, was inacceffible to human weaknefs; and the unafpiring temperament of his paffions, like the regenerating afhes of the phenix, gave new life to the greatnefs it could not extinguish. In the imperial dignity of his perfon, was exhibited the auguft ftature of his mind:

"See what a grace was feated on his brow,
An eye like Mars, the front of Jove himself,
A combination, and a form indeed,
Where every god did seem to fet his seal,

To give the world affurance of a man !” *

Oppreffed by the difconfolate fenfibilities, which this melancholy occafion has excited, yet infpired by a ven

* Shakespear.

eration which no fenfe of calamity can fufpend, how fhall the feeble eulogift of the moment retrace the path of the hero through the rugged acclivities of his fame; how fhadow the outlines of a life, whofe influence on fociety has baffled the imitation of the wife; how define the great proportions of a character, which, like the electric principle, can only be defcribed by its effects? What wing of human defcription fhall foar to the unclouded height of his talents; what chemiftry of human judgment shall separate the elements of his virtues? The magnificence of his deeds has outvied the heraldry of fancy; and the purity of his motives has bewildered the deductions of reafon.

From his first appearance on the theatre of public life, ere the modeft fimplicity of enterprise had invited the decorations of artificial honour, ere the "hairbreadth escapes" of the Monongahela had elicited the native energies of heroifm, to the matureft era of his excellence, when victory had nothing left to beftow, and Fame herfelf had defpaired of rendering to his merits their equivalent reward; we behold the fame undeviating courfe of magnanimous action, rifing, like the fun, in gradual and majestic progreffion. In no fituation, to which the emergencies of his country have called him, however infulated with peril, or fortified by profperity, do we at any time detect his invincible equanimity, modified by incident. In no climax of fortune, do we behold him, dejected by obftacle, or elevated by fuccefs; desperate in danger, or fanguine in triumph. Deliberate to concert, he was vigorous to execute; intrepid to conquer, he was humane to forgive. In council, he united the calculations of the veteran, to the ruling impulfe of the patriot: in battle, he never shed the blood of an enemy but for victory, nor gained a victory but for his country.

As the director of that important and dubious contest, which issued in the establishment of our liberty and independence, he difplayed an impreffive grandeur of exertion, which marshalled into hoftility the fluctu

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