The Wheeling repository — Wheeling, Va. [W. Va.], 1808-01-21 00:00:00, page 1

WHEELING REPOSITORY.
“— --— ■ ---
(VOL. I.)
Thursday, aift January, 1808.
(No. 37.)
MIS C E L LA NT.
For the Wheeling Repository.
A DIALOGUE.
,r\
Critic.
I hate the verse, how much soe’er’tls fraught,
With wit, with vigour, or with strength of thought*
Where much solicitude appears to shine,
And tinsel trappings shroud the glowing line.
1 houghts should, in verse, wear an engaging dress,
But never tiptoe finery express ;
Nor boots it aught, it through high scenes they rove,
Or waken Dido lrom a dream of love ;
0 Cleopatra, tune the tragic lyre ;
Or say what charms in Phillis to admire i
From blooming Roses* flowery fancy steal
Their blushing loves, and amorous rites reveal—
On themes like these, could Darwin play the fool,
And rhyme too sweet, too dulcet, and too dull ?
Nor should we bani.h ornament from song;
Nor crop the Hero’s locks, with gewgaws hung :
But trifles should as trifles, only, press,
Nor Majesty assume a fopling’s dres.-., r •
Crito. ' .
1 grant, that Majesty should might assume,
Anu count no honour blended in a plume ;
But may not Beauty privileges claim,
And seek in ornaments an humble fame ;
Or Poetry, that trips along the plain,
f ave gold and gilding glittering in her train f
Must Darwin’s Flora throw each grace aside,
More* disgust us with botanic pride?
Curtail the gauzy veil, with hands so rude ?
And give the world a bare, unblushing prude ?
Critic.
I urge not this, nor would I argue here,
That aught’s too gay lor Poetry to wear.
But let no conscious thought steal from each line,
Xo tell the pains it cost to be so fine.
VV°uld « prize Deli a, though with beauty Mess'd,
With well-wrought robes and tasteful tinsel dress’d,
II, from each sidelong glares, we must infer,
/Sought was so pleasing as herself to her ;
And plum’d her most on what we least approve —
Whose eyes might lighten formidable love,—I
VN hose every grace, it dress’d in negligence,
Would warm ettch heart, and captivate eacl/aense f
Thus song, when no vain taste pervades the lav
W arms and enlivens, innocently gay,
Restrain’d by no prim prud’ry’s purring rule,
A fair deserter from the Darwin school.
Crito.
I , Hush \ Critic* hush, for whither dost thou stray?
Idust Decius throw aside the ding-dong lav?
(jf^Iust he love rhymes that oiriy glow with wit,
Such as rough Butler or smooth SHenstqne writ£
Sooner would he his politics abjure,
And turn his darling Duane from the door.
Critic.
Then let me publish strictures still more free i
For I hate Darwin and Democracy.
, g | ■
If the Editor of the Repository thinks that the within.
Word of advice will have a good effect, he will much
oblige a Subscriber by inserting it.
A \word of Advice to young Men—and married ones too.
Be careful of health, and for the preservation of it
avoid every species of intemperance.
Avoid gaming of every sort. Many a promising
young man has destroyed his morals, his Constitution
and lair prospects in life, by being addicted to this
source of infamy and distress.
From the United States Gazette.
The following interesting account of a phenomenon
new in this country, though several times observed in
different parts of Europe, is communicated in a letter
to the Editor of this Gazette from a friend residing in
l\airfield |punty, Connecticut. It will not fail to at
tract the attention of natural philosophers and men of
science.
Greenfield, December 22.
Dear Sir—On Monday morning the 14th inst. just
after day-light, a large ball of fire, with a luminous
trail, was seen in this and the neighbouring towns to
shoot from the north with great velocity through the
heavens, in a southerly direction, and immediately after
it disappeared, a dreadful explosion was heard, like a
discharge of cannon in quick succession, ending in a
cracking, rumbling noise, which was succeeded in two
or three minutes by a frightful whizzing through the
air, making a noise like a hurricane. After day-light,
in three different places, bodies of stnne were discover
ed, which had descended from the regions above ; one
ot which must have weighed more than one hundred
pounds, but was very much broken, it having struck a
rock and glanced : the breach made in the ground wan
about four feet in diameter, and nearly the same depth
in a slanting direction, and the dirt and sods strewed