been the cause of promoting the everlasting welfare of some of my fellow creatures in this neighborhood, where I came an outcast, and in which I have lived a stranger. The new newspaper which I so much dreaded has hurt me very little as yet; and I am certainly much less frightened at it since. it appeared than I was before it came out, when I expected Goliath. but have hitherto only seen his armour-bearer. "Yours, &c., "Rev. Ignatius Montgomery, Ayr, Scotland." "J. MONTGOMERY. The eternal issues which hang upon the present, feelingly touched upon in this letter, infinitely enhances its "Value of a Moment," written perhaps at this time. "Twixt that, long fled, which gave us light, And that which soon shall end in night, In a little note, a few months later, to one of his Quaker friends, once a fellow captive at York, we begin to trace a growing consciousness of the endearing relation between. Christ and his followers in works of love-the first fruits of a life, in due time, refined and beautified by the spirit of his Heavenly Master, NOTE TO A QUAKER FRIEND. 111 "I am sorry to learn that you have suffered so much by lameness; but you trust in God,-continue to trust in him, for he will never leave or forsake you. "As a token of his remembrance, I have enclosed a five pound Bank of England note, which I hope will be serviceable to you in your present low estate. Accept it, Henry, not from me but from Him, who though he was rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, and by suffering all the ills of poverty, sanctified them to his people. For His sake and in His name receive it; for His sake and in His name I send it. I assure you, my dear friend, that I feel far more pleasure in being, on this occasion, the minister of His bounty to you, than I could possibly derive from any other disposal of this small sum, which I considered to be as sacredly your property, from the moment when He put it in my heart to send it, as it had been mine before. God, who gives it, bless it to you!" EDITORIAL NOTICES FUGITIVE POEMS-DR. AIKIN-HOME AFFECTIONS 'THE WANDERER OF SWITZERLAND" — ITS RECEPTION EDINBURGH REVIEW - NEW FRIENDS-DANIEL PARKEN-LITTLE POEMS — LYRICAL BALLADS- SOUTHEY'S ADVICE TO ELLIOTT. NAPOLEON is now on his march through Europe, and the Iris weekly chronicles his ravages: "In his letter to the Swiss deputies, Bonaparte demands an entire sacrifice of all their factious and selfish passions, and in the same breath he sets them a noble example of disinterested moderation, by peremptorily declaring that he will not permit the establishment of any government in the cantons, which may be hostile to his own, for Switzerland must in future be the open frontier of France!' He had previously converted the Pays de Vaud into a highway' between his dominions; and we may already anticipate his seizure of the dykes of Holland to supply his table with frogs." January 13, 1803. "Bonaparte has pronounced his fiat concerning Switzerland: a constitution has been recommended to the Helvetic Consulta, and embraced by them with becoming humility. It was received, discussed, and adopted in a day. Since that time a deputation has been dispatched to Paris, from the cantons, to beseech the First Consul to inclose the open frontier of France,' and annex it to the integrity of the Great Nation.' Why EDITORIAL NOTICES. 113 does not Bonaparte at once pass a general inclosure bill, and take in all the waste lands in Europe - has he not a common right to them all?" - January 20, 1803. "The heart of Switzerland is broken! and liberty has been driven from the only sanctuary which she found on the continent. But the unconquered and unconquerable offspring of Tell, disdaining to die slaves in the land where. they were born free, are emigrating to America. There, in some region remote and romantic, where Solitude has never seen the face of man, nor Silence been startled by his voice since the hour of creation, may the illustrious exiles find another Switzerland, another country rendered dear by the presence of Liberty! But even there, amid mountains more awful, and forests more sombre than his own, when the echoes of the wilderness shall be awakened by the enchantment of that song, which no Swiss in a foreign clime ever heard, without fondly recalling the land of his nativity, and weeping with affection, how will the heart of the exile be wrung with home-sickness! and O! what a sickness of heart must that be which arises not from 'hope delayed,' but from hope extinguished — yet remembered!"- February 17, 1803. - The heart of the editor is glowing with sympathy for Switzerland, in whose rocky defiles and icy fastnesses Liberty has waged, through the ages, its stern and unequal conflict with despotism. From an interest thus kindled, sprung the first poem which placed Montgomery's name before the British public among the list of acknowledged poets. Conceived as a simple ballad, it grew to a dramatic poem in six parts. Stirred as was the author by his theme, so distrustful was he of his merits as an artist, that it was three years lagging through his press. Meanwhile he was paving his way for welcome recògni tion, by sending abroad, through the columns of the Iris, many a little fugitive of the muse, bearing the signature of Alcæus, and gradually winning upon the public attention. Dr. Aikin, at that time influential in certain literary cir cles, transferred them to the pages of his Annual Review, with flattering notices, most grateful to their modest and then unknown author. Among them are some of the finest fruits of his pen. The Common Lot, was a birth-day meditation during a solitary walk, on a clear, cold, winter's morning. In this little poem the fellowships of man with man are grouped with a simplicity and pathos which have stamped it with a world-wide fame. The Joy of Grief utters what the bruised spirit hath often felt : "While the wounds of woe are healing, While the heart is all resigned, "Tis the solemn feast of feeling, 'Tis the Sabbath of the mind." The Grave discloses a calm for those who weep, A rest for weary pilgrims found: They softly lie, and sweetly sleep, Low in the ground." But from these "smouldering ashes" the poet leaps with "The soul, of origin divine, God's glorious image, freed from clay, A star of day." |