deserve the animadversion of those who are qualified successors of Longinus. "But do I then, (abjuring every aim) All censure slight, and all applause disclaim? I have divided the poetry, although of the Hudibrastic kind, into four line stanzas. For this singularity I am not positive I can justify myself. The division appeared to me to give the work an apophthegmatical appearance, and to facilitate the reading, and by (if I may be allowed an Americanism) locating each line with more precision than would otherwise be done, to assist the memory of the reader. I am likewise aware, that I shall be accused of puns, alliterations, iterations, and other deviations from the precise path in which their rev erences, the critics, would fain have me walk. "With these grave fops, who, (bless their brains) For wretchedness, and would be thought Much wiser than a wise man ought For his own happiness to be, Who what they hear, and what they see, *GIFFORD. And what they smell, and taste, and feel, Not one idea is allow'd To pass unquestion'd in the crowd, Of holding in the brain a place, Must stand a strict examination," I shall not attempt to reason, but quietly await their sentence. *CHURCHILL. THE above prefatory remarks were written for the first Edition of the following Poem. When they were written, I proposed to enlarge on several of the topics, which form the basis of this work, and execute my threat respecting certain candidates for the Gibbet of Satire. But a second edition being called for, almost as soon as the first was before the public, I have not yet had leisure to attend to the claims of a number of culprits, whom I hope in due season, to promote in the Fifth Canto. + Vide a promise in pages 8 and 9, to put in my "next edition," those who were omitted in the first. THE TOCSIN. ARGUMENT. THE wight, who led the Royal College All battles else beneath the sun, He means to wage with such vile cattle: DEVOID of influence or fear, I trace Democracy's carcer, While bad men tremble at my rhymes; 1 A figure in rhetoric, called an Hyperbole, but i this case, I fear not very hyperbolical. B And I'll unmask the Democrat, Your sometimes this thing, sometimes that," 2 Your sometimes this thing, sometimes that. I here have reference to the different appearances, which our Antifederalists, alias Democrats, alias Republicans, alias "genuine" ditto [for the man who manages the Aurora makes two divisions of these self denominated friends to the people] have assumed in the evanescent stages of their political existence. more of this hereafter. 3 Lest he perchance the mob should ruffle. But I would make a distinction, which I think of the highest importance, between the people, and the mob, or populace. By the latter, I would designate certain of the lowest class in the community, who are alike destitute of property and of principle, and may be emphatically stiled the rabble. These, in America, consist principally of imported desperadoes, who have made this country an "asylum," and having nothing to lose, are wifhing "To turn the whole world up Side down to put themselves a top." These are the kind of beings to whom the Mantuan And who by public good, intends Bard alluded in the following most exquisite simile. Ac, veluti magno in populo cum sæpe coorta est, Famque faces et saxa volant ; furer arma minifixas, As when in tumults rise th' ignoble crowd, And all the ruftic arme which fury can fupply. By the people, I mean the great body of American farmers, merchants, mechanics, &c. who, possessing habits of industry, and our primitive New England manners, may be considered as the stamina of republicanism. 4 The better to conceal the tyrant. In characterizing the now prevailing party, I would not affirm that they are at heart all tyrants, but that their leaders are, generally speaking, haughty and imperious demagogues. Like the genuine-republican-slavedriving-nabobs of Virginia, who would fain conceal their designs of domination beneath the mask of liberty, and a pretended zeal for the rights of the people. |