pavement of the streets, in which every stone was an almost insuperable obstacle to our progress. One "morning very early, as we were toiling up Snow-hill "with repeated efforts of strength, that was stimulat❝ed even to agony, by the incessant strokes of a whip, "which had already laid our loins bare even to the "bone; it happened, that being placed in the shafts, " and the weight pressing hard upon me, I fell down. "Our driver regarded my misfortune, not with pity, "but rage: and the moment he turned about, he threw "a stick with such violence at my head, that it forced "out my eye, and passing through the socket into "the brain, I was instantly dismissed from that mi"sery, the comparison of which, with my present "state constitutes great part of its felicity. But you, "surely, if I may judge by your stature, and the ele66 gance of your make, was among the favourites of "mankind; you was placed in a higher and happier "station; you was not the slave of indigence, but the "pride of greatness; your labour was sport, and your "reward was triumph, ease, plenty and attendance."

"It is true," replied the steed, "I was a favourite; "but what avails it to be the favourite of caprice, ava"rice and barbarity? My tyrant was a wretch who "had gained a considerable fortune by play, particu"larly by racing. I had won him many large sums; "but being at length excepted out every match, as "having no equal, he regarded even my excellence "with malignity, when it was no longer subservient "to his interest. Yet I still lived in ease and plenty ; “and as he was able to sell even my pleasures, though 66 my labour was become useless, I had a seraglio in "which there was a perpetual succession of new beau"ties. At last, however, another competitor appear"ed: I enjoyed a new triumph by anticipation; I "rushed into the field, panting for the conquest; and "the first heat I put my master in possession of the "stakes, which amounted to ten thousand pounds.

"The proprietor of the mare that I had distanced, "notwithstanding this disgrace, declared with great "zeal. that she should run the next day against any 66 gelding in the world for double the sum: my mas"ter immediately accepted the challenge, and told "him, that he would the next day produce a gelding "that should beat her: but what was my astonish"ment when I discovered that he most cruelly and "fraudulently intended to qualify me for this match 66 upon the spot; and to sacrifice my life at the very "moment in which every nerve should be strained in "his service!

"As I knew it would be in vain to resist, I suffered "myself to be bound: the operation was performed, " and I was instantly mounted and spurred on to the

goal. Injured as I was, the love of glory was still 66 superior to the desire of revenge: I determined to "die as I had lived, without an equal; and having "again won the race, I sunk down at the post in an ·66 agony, which soon after put an end to my life."

When I had heard this horrid narrative, which indeed I remembered to be true, I turned about in honest confusion, and blushed that I was a man. But my reflections were interrupted by the notes of a blackbird, who was singing the story of his own fate, with a melody that irresisubly compelled my attention. By this gentle and harmonious being, I was not treated with equal contempt; he perceived that I listened with curiosity, and, interrupting his song, "Stranger," says he," though I am, as thou seest, in the fields of "elysium, yet my happiness is not complete; my "mate is still exposed to the miseries of mortality, " and I am still vulnerable in her. O! stranger, to "bribe thy friendship, if peradventure it may reach "my love, I will gratify the curiosity with which thy "looks enquire after me. I fell by the unprovoked " enmity of man, in that season when the dictates of "nature are love. But let not my censure be univer

"sal; for as the elegy which I sing, was written "by a human being, every human being is not des❝titute of compassion, nor deaf to the language in "which our joys and fears are expressed." He then, after a sweet, though short prelude, made the grove again echo with his song.

The sun had chac'd the winter's snow,
And kindly loos'd the frost-bound soil;
The melting streams began to flow,
Aud plowmen urg'd their annuad toil.

'Twas then amid the vernal throng,
Whom nature wakes to mirth and love,
A Blackbird rais'd his am'rous song,
And thus it echo'd through the grove.

"O! fairest of the feather'd train,
"For whom I sing, for whom I burn;
"Attend with pity to my strain,

"And grant my love a kind return.

"See, see, the winter's storms are flown,
"And zephyrs gently fan the air!

"Let us the genial influence own,

"Let us the vernal pastime share.

"The raven plumes his jetty wing,

"To please his croaking paramour;
"The larks responsive love-tales sing,
"And tell their passions as they soar.

"But trust me, love, the raven's wing
"Is not to be compar'd with mine;
"Nor can the lark so sweetly sing

"As I, who strength with sweetness join.

"With thee I'll prove the sweets of love,
"With thee divide the cares of life;

"No fonder husband in the grove,
"Nor none than thee a happier wife.

"I'll lead thee to the clearest rill,
"Whose streams among the pebbles stray;
"There will we sit and sip our fill,
"Or on the flow'ry border play.

"I'll guide thee to the thickest brake, "Impervious to the school-boy's eye: "For thee the plaster'd nest I'll make, "And on thy downy pinions lie.

"To get thee food I'll range the fields,
"And cull the best of ev'ry kind;
"Whatever nature's bounty yields,
"Or love's assiduous care can find.

"And when my lovely mate would stray,
"To taste the summer sweets at large,
"At home I'll wait the live-long day,
"And tend at home our infant charge.

"When prompted by a mother's care

"Thy warmth shall form th' imprison'd young "With thee the task I'll fondly share, “Or cheer thy labours with my song.”

Together through the fields they stray'd,
And to the verdant riv'let's side,

Renew'd their vows, and hopp'd and play'd,

With honest joy and decent pride.

But O! my muse with pain relates
The mournful sequel of iny tale :
Sent by an order of the Fates,

A gunner met them in the vale.

Alarm'd, the lover cry'd, "My dear,
"Haste, haste away; from danger fly!
"Here, gunner, turn thy vengeance, here!
"O! spare my love, and let me die."

At him the gunner took his aim ;
The aim he took was much too true;
O! had he chose some other game,
Or shot as he had us'd to do!*

Divided pair! forgive the wrong,
"While I with tears your fate rehearse:
I'll join the widow's plaintive song,
"And save the lover in my verse.

The emotions which this song produced in my bosom, awaked me: and I immediately recollected, that, while I slept, my imagination had repeated "an elegy occasioned by shooting a blackbird on "Valentine's-day," which had a few days before been communicated to me by a gentleman, who is not only eminent for taste, literature, and virtue, but for his zeal in defence of that religion, which most strongly inculcates compassion to inferior natures by the example of its Divine Author, who gave the man stupendous proof of his compassion for ours.

* Never having killed any thing before or since.

VOL. II.