POETICAL.

The following verses are from the gifted pen of the Rev. Dr. Flint of Salem, Massachusetts. They were composed, and sung at the two hundredth anniversary of the landing of the pilgrims at Plymouth rock. They appeared in the newspapers at the time, but their beauty entitles them to preservation in a more permanent form. They will, probably, be new in our section of the country.

"T'would drown the heart with sorrow,

To tell of all their woes;

Nor respite could they borrow,
But from the grave's repose.

Yet nought could daunt the pilgrim-band,
Or sink their courage low,

Who came to plant the gospel here

Two hundred years ago.

With humble prayer and fasting,

In every strait and grief, They sought the Everlasting, And found a sure relief.

Their covenant God o'ershadowed them,

Their shield from every foe,

And gave them here a dwelling place,
Two hundred years ago.

Or fair New England's glory
They laid the corner stone.
This praise, in deathless story,

Their grateful sons shall own.
Prophetic they foresaw, in time
A mighty state should grow,
From them, a few faint pilgrims here,
Two hundred years ago.

If greatness be in daring,

Our pilgrim sires were great,
Whose sojourn here, unsparing
Disease and famine wait.

And oft their treacherous foes combined
To lay the strangers low,

While founding here their commonwealth
Two hundred years ago.

Tho' seeming overzealous

In things, by us deemed light,

They were but duly jealous

Of power usurping right:
They nobly chose to part with all,
To men most dear below,

To worship here their God in peace

Two hundred years ago.

Have the thoughts of the past thrown a blight o'er your heart,

That ye stand from the joyous alone, and apart?

Can ye not find joy in the wine-cup bright?

In those forms of love-in those eyes of light?

Ye hear the sweet and the thrilling song-
The notes of joy and gladness;

And coldly ye gaze among the throng,

In sadness.

I've seen you in other days quaff the red wine-
I've seen you kneel fondly at fair woman's shrine-
Did the splendor, that shone round the wine-cup, decay?
Did the bright star, ye worshipp'd, in gloom fade away?

I know, there are pangs, which rend the breast,

When youth and love have vanished, When, from its glorious place of rest,

Hope's banished

But ye should not be sad, where the young and the gay With the dance and the song chase dull sorrow away; Where the cheeks of the old, as they gaze on the scene, Are lighted with smiles, where grief's furrows bave been.

Ye should chant the song in the festive hall,

Where the tide of joy is flowing;
Where the young and fair at pleasure's call,
Come glowing.

If ye would not live on thro' sunless years,
The unlov'd, lone wreck of time and tears-
Ye should join the mirth of the fair and free,
In the bowers of love-in the halls of glee.

J. B. D

REVIEW.

The History of Louisiana, from its earliest period. BY FRANCOISXAVIER MARTIN. Volume I. pp. 364. New Orleans: Lyman and Beardslee. 1827.

The author of this history is associate judge of the supreme court of Louisiana, a Frenchman by birth, who was educated, as we have understood, in the academic halls of Paris, the metropolis of taste and letters, as well as arts and fashions. He is supposed to be a thorough and ripe scholar in French literature, as might be expected from his training. To a citizen of Louisiana there is not the slightest need of reference to his ability, to accomplish his assumed task with credit to himself, and honor and utility to his state. His responsible official duties, exercised in rotation in the chief divisions of the state, have necessarily placed the witole state in minute and frequent surveys under his eye. He has, in the same way, been furnished with innumerable opportunities for collecting facts, narratives and incidents, touching the first settlement, and the progressive history of the country. He appears, moreover, to possess a constitutional aptitude for the study of colonial history, and the collection and preservation of the documents, that relate to it.

He informs us in the preface, that he has been engaged for twenty years, in making collections, the fruits of which are here given to the public. He assigns, as palliations for any defects, that may be found in this work, the laborious duties of his office; and that he felt age creeping on him, and the decay of an impaired constitution, admonishing him, that unless he speedily gave the work to the public, it would be a posthumous one. We are pleased that he has heeded the admonition. By birth, character and training, and by the recorded stores of the annals of his native country in the archives of a memory, extending over half a century, he is peculiarly fitted for the task.

It is obvious, that this history is rather prepared with a view to the closet of the scholar, the instruction of the statesman and politician, and that class of readers, who require exact and detailed information, than by fine periods and eloquent writing, to furnish interest and pleasure to the general reader. He very modestly accounts for its peculiarities of style, by informing us, that it is not written in his vernacular tongue, though it is well known, he speaks English with sufficient fluency. It requires, indeed, but a moderate acquaintance with the philosophy of language, to discover,