But if, alas! a second kiss

It would be death to try,

Grant me, once more, the heaven❜ly bliss,

Oh! let me kiss and die.

THE KISS.

Published Aug, 1801, in " The Ploughman," a Bennington paper. WHEN from my Fanny's trembling lips

I taste ambrosial sweets,
Lost in such exquisite delight,

How swift each moment fleets!

My fainting soul forgets her clay,
Enraptured with the bliss,

And longs to breathe short life away,
In one ecstatic kiss!

My trembling pulse forgets to move,
The crimson tide to flow;

And every thought is given to love,
As pure as angels know.

When nature's feeble round is run,
And I must bid adieu

To every joy beneath the sun,
And join, ye gods, with you;

Then let me but indulge, my fair,

In one blest farewell kiss:

Raptures shall end life's short career,
And smooth my way to bliss.

THE REPULSE-ON DRAWING A CHARMING LANCASHIRE WITCH.

From the Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 1801, published in London.

I DREW thee for my Valentine,

And claim a magic kiss;

Thou wert, thou art, thou shalt be mine,

And thus I live in bliss.

Why but one kiss? it is my right,
Ten thousand, ay and more;
Thy melting lips give such delight,
I never would give o'er.

By gentle force, 1 dallying tried

To have again my one;

Bade her, let Love himself decide,
Still was her answer" none."

Why gav'st thou, then, so sweet a kiss?
Ah! prithee, Celia, why?

Would'st thou, fair witch, renew the bliss,
Oh! Celia, I should die!

All I could say, it would not do,
She answered, with a frown,
"Rash youth, it is enough for you;
So live, and keep the one."

TO FANNY; ON THE SUDDEN DEATH OF HER BIRD.

WHAT raptures swell the warbler's throat!
How blithe he pours the tuneful note!
He feels nor want nor pain;

Exulting, now he shakes his wings,
And then another song he sings,
In ever-varying strain.

But ere the sun has reached the west,
And 'neath old ocean sunk to rest,

Thy little bird expires.

No more he skims the azure way,

No more we hear his thrilling lay,
Extinguished are his fires.

Thus, quick, dear Fanny, youth is past,
Life's dearest pleasures seldom last,
They fade before our eyes;

Then think no more of earthly joy,
Let other thoughts thy hours employ

Look upward to the skies.

SEDLEY.

QUEVEDO TO HIS MUSE.

Thou dear, coquetting, teazing jade,
So wild, capricious art thou, maid,
I ne'er can know thy mind;
When I would woo thee, thou art coy,
Neglected, thou would'st with me toy,
And often then most kind.

Though ill-starr'd lovers oft are teazed
By mistress seldom to be pleased,

To give thee all thy dues,

Sure none e'er doled, in prose or verse,

A fair tormentor so perverse,

As thou, my mistress Muse.

Among thy varied, wanton pranks,

Thou'st filled my brain with quips and cranks,

When I should have been weeping;

And though you let my readers doze,
Full well my tortured pillow knows

You've oft kept me from sleeping.
And oft when I would laugh and joke,
You bid me, in strange freak, invoke,
A whining, doleful ditty:

And then, though dull as that " fat weed,"
That vegetates in Lethe's bed,

You tempt me to be witty.

Then leave me to the critics' lash,
Who, Jeffrey-like, all cut and slash,
Full well you know, you elf;

Yet still, deceiver, fill my head
With dreams of poesy, instead
Of calculating pelf.

Thou, like a wily ignis fatuus,

Hast lured me long to mount Parnassus,
With false poetic fire;

Thy rush-light quenched, you've let me jog,
Or stuck me fast in Bathos' bog,

Chin-deep, wretch, in its mire.

'EHE PORTFOLIO,

FOURTH SERIES,

CONDUCTED BY OLIVER ODLSCHOOL, ESQ.

Various; that the mind

Of desultory man, studious of change,

And pleased with novelty, may be indulged.-Cowper.

SOME read that they may embellish their conversation, or shine in dispute; some that they may not be detected in ignorance, or want the reputation of literary accomplishments: but the most general and prevalent reason of study is the impossibility of finding another amusement equally cheap or constant, equally independent of the hour or the weather. Johnson.

VOL. I.

JUNE, 1816.

FOR THE PORT FOLIO.

NO. VI.

OF THE ABORIGINES OF THE WESTERN COUNTRY.

THE publisher of the Port Folio, some time since, announced his intention of printing a curious and learned work on the antiquities of the western part of our country, by Henry Frost, A. M. The proposals had no sooner been submitted to the public, than a powerful appeal to his kindness and his sense of justice, was made by the friends of the reverend Dr. John P. Campbell. They stated that the materials for this work had been collected by this gentleman, and that they had been obtained, under false pretences, from his widow, by Mr. Frost. The MSS. were therefore immediately placed in the hands of one of her friends, who promises to prepare them for the press, and publish them for her benefit. In the mean while we are permitted to make a few extracts. The subject is ex. tremely interesting, as it treats of the ancient inhabitants of a great continent. Dr. Campbell appears, from the manuscript, so far as we have perused it, to have been admirably fitted, both by taste and education, for the task which he commenced; and to which we understand that he devoted several years of toilsome and expensive research. We shall only add, that any subscriptions (1 vol. 8vo. price $2.) which may be transmitted to the publisher of the Port Folio, shall be faithfully applied to the benevolent purposes of this publication.

UPON the fairest computation, adınitting that the Aborigines came to the western country a thousand or twelve hundred years

ago, we have then before us a period of sufficient extent to embrace all that is requisite to support the supposition that the Aborigines were the descendants of a civilized people in Asia; a people who had made great advancements in civilization and the arts, but who were probably devastated, and forced to fly, by the sudden encroachment of a foe. We shall readily perceive, that in this case, such a people would perform a rapid migration, and fly from their enemies as far as their desire of safety should dictate. It is not in any degree surprising, that they should, in like manner, escape to this continent, bringing with them that civilization and that knowledge to which they had arrived. The great antiquity which is manifested by the most striking proofs of art and knowledge, seems to warrant this conclusion, and give it weight.

The successive generations of men who have inhabited the eastern parts of Asia, were distinguished, for centuries, by rapid advancements in civilization and the arts, and on a sudden subjected to a great reverse. By the encroachment of some barbarous foe, or some neighbouring robber, they have been forced to renounce the possession of their privileges, or escape for their lives. "Some of the most desert provinces in Asia," says the historian of Catharine the second, "have been repeatedly the seats of arts, arms, commerce, and literature. These potent and civilized nations have repeatedly perished, for want of a union or system of policy. Some Scythian, or other barbarian, has been suffered unnoticed to subdue his neighbouring tribes; each new conquest was made an instrument to the succeeding one; till, at length, become irresistible, he swept whole empires, with their arts and sciences, off the face of the earth." This important truth we consider particularly applicable to the original peopling of the western country. The Aborigines probably constituted a part of some such nation existing in castern Asia, and were forced to escape to this continent by the encroachment of some such powerful, invading foe. I have said that this was probably a fact. I venture to add, that it was most certainly the fact in regard to the Aborigines.

It is a very general opinion, prevailing in the western country, that there is ample proof that the country in general was once inhabited by a civilized and agricultural people. This very gene