Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1822-05-11
POETRY.
From The Fredericks5urgh Herald.

REPLY TO THE ADDRESS TO THE MUI
Ny AT BELHoNPS EXHIBITION.
BE dumb thou Questioner! dost quake 70 heal
Call up a tone beneath the ribs of death
Compose thy startled sense-thou needst no
fear me,
sTis but fleetng unsubstsntial breath.
am not angry, thou should'st titus be peering
Fort brings back my voice, and sight and hear
ing,
And since this withered tongue can move once
more,
And unto earth am revision,
Now that many years have roll'd it DER,
I'll talk with thee, thou strange inquisitor
Come then, respond TO me, thou thing half
frantic,
Say art thou man, once Boosting strength 81
gantic'
Thou hast his lineamentsl yet dwarf abortive
Thy frame bellies thy title TO his name
Art thou some prodigy of nature sportive'
What art thou fit for? let thy tongue proclaim
Tell me perhaps l've heard an infants prat.
tie,
Thou hast no strength to guide myself battle.
La those heroic times thou'st touch'd upon,
What would'st have done in combat with the
foe 7
Could'st lift the shield of LAX lebanon
Or bear the weight of mighty Memnon's blow :
Could'st thou the king of Bashan's brand have
welded
Or had to thee, the sons of Anak welded
What is thine age some Fifty years or under
Just stepping on the thresholds of wor,dl
And yet such knowledge doth excite my won
der,
In one whose beard upon his chn's uncurl'd !
Ofold tradition, SO complete master,
Thou art some Magus, Priest, or Zoroaster.
Hast Travelled unto Thebes tina! thou would st
know
If Hecatompylos be misnomer'
Hast seen her hundred sepulchres that show
What meant the words of blind old Homer,
When acted on sublunary stages,
All knowledge waslock'd up in breast Of sages.
But Why dost ask of me, TIL imposture palm'd
In Pompey's pillar, on the world, pray you,
If were dead and buried and embalm'd,
Fer Romulus and Remus lived, rs say YOU
Iffouuded they, that empire, vast YOU mention,
Of which thou'st lived to see the great declen-
sion
Pompey' unknown that name to memory!
Times early records gave it unto no man
Doubtless, some hero, of more modern story
The same thou hast denominated Roman
Was he ilusrious then for Wet 'ries won,
Shrncd they his bones in Temple of the Sun
Who did unmask for thee, the priests of Isis ,
And told thee ofthe trick of Memnon's statue
Thou seem'st to know they chuckled at their
guises,
While peeping from behind some loophole a,
you,
They laugh'd to see credulity's confusion,
And hugg'd themselves in mans absurd de-
fusion
Ehnt apt hath hoo ,p,to toI tn
What once was known but to the wise of old,
That thus with so much ease, thou can'st re.
hearse
What then was precious as the fleece of gold
Queen Dido Solomon and his great deeds
CephrGnas, Cheops, and their pyramids
But list thou chronicle of ancient days
Thou compend ofa worlds transactions
There is veil through which thou cans nc.
gaze,
One, where no human effort makes infractions
The shroud that's placed before the graves
dominions
The bound'ry Of nan-thc field Of dark OPT
mons!
Thou hast not guest, and can never tell thee,
What was my age, my race, or name, or station,
For Ishmaelitish merchants did not sell me,
Nor was ruler of the Egyptian nation--
1never hob-a-nob'd with Pharaoh, in my life,
Nor fed from Potiphar's incanstant wife.
Why gazest so with eye indicative,
OF wondering horror at a mummy's features
Hast lost the art with drugs desiccative,
To stay putridity in human creatures
How now are paid the last SID acts of duty
Are the worms left to preyon cheek beauty
Candidate for death to mangle and deform
Prey to corruption, sin and sorrow
Offspring of dust, and banquet of the worm!
Let me in turn thy solemn warning borrow
Thou wilt know nothing till the resurrection,
When thou shalt put away sins curst infection.
Why dost thou waste on vanities thy skill
Why dig amid the rubbish ofpast agesl
Unfold the volume of Jehoyah's will,
Devote myself to his prophetic pages,
Which guide the way to those eternal plea.
sures,
Franscending human thought, by boundlcss
measures.