Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1826-03-02
Fythe Phenir Gazette.

FoYthe Phenir Gazette.
Messrs Editors: have often admired, ana
most men must have felt, such as dos feel, the
truth so pa,heticaily expressed, in the two fol-
lowing stanzas of BURNS:
eco Life how charming is thy morning,
Young Fancy rays the hills adorningl
Cold, pausing Cautions lessons scorning,
We frisk away,
Like school-boys, at the expected warning,
Tojoy and play.
sWe wander there, we wander here,
We eye the rose upon the brier,
unmndful that the thornis near,
Among the leaves;
And tho the puny wound appear,
Short while greves"
A respected acquaintance has favored me
with the perusal OF late publication, London
edition, with plates-"The English Spy" a
rare book, in which Burns's beautiful Apostro-
phe TO Youth, is paraphrased or developed IN
the prose Of poetry, as fellows t
"Youth is the period of frankness and oil
zeal, when the young heart, buoyant with hope
in cheering prospects, fills with JOY, and ex-
hands in all the brightness Of Eancy's variety
The ambition, lures, and conflicting interests
of the world, have as yet made no inroad upon
the mind: the bosom is stranger to misery,
the tongue TO deceit; the eye glows with all the
luxuriance of pleasure, and the whole counte-
nance presents an animated picture OF health,
and intelligence illumined with delight. The
playfulness or incaution Of youth may demand
correction, or produce momentary pain; but
the tears Of infancy fall like the summer dew
L. clN xvhir fret trle M,
Of the returning Sun kisses away, and leaves
the face of nature tinged with blush of exqu-
site briliancy, but with no trace Of the sparkling
moisture which lately yelled its beauty. This
is the glittering period OF life, when the gay
perspective Of the future seems clothed in eve
ry attractive hue, and the objects Of this world
assume grace divine; then it is that happi-
ness, borne on the wings of innocence, and
light-hearted mirth, attends our every step,
and seems to wait obedient to our will.
You will feel with me, Messrs Editors, that
the foregoing is struck off from the mind of
penius-what Burns himself would have adopt
ed. The contrast in advanced years he did nor
exemplify, at least in that poem-bur the au-
thor of the "English Spy" gives it in the fol-
lowing vivid language, where, calling in the
aid of painting to poetry, in the admirable con
trast between the pencils Of Claude and Salvador
Rosa, he thus depicts manhood, .,. ..,.,-
"What painful reverse may not the retro.
spec,ive view afford! how unlike is the finished
picture TO the inspiring sketch! The one
breathing the soft air of nature, and sparkling
in brilliant tints of variegated hues, serene,
clear, and transparent like the magic pencil
ling Of the heavenly Claude, shedding ambro
sial sweets around. The reverse indistinct, and
overpowered with gloomy shadows, mixture
of The terrific and the marvellous, like the stor.
nv and convulsive scenes ofthe mighty genius
of Salvador Rosa, with here and there flash OF
widest eccentricity, that only serves to render
more visible the murky deformity OF the whole .
The foregoing is-Aorid, but it is free from pc
dantry, or should not have taken the pains to
transcribe it, or to request you to place it in
nook Of the Phenix Gazette,-from publica-
ton, l imagine, not as yet in public Libraries.
II.