lay,

There let the shepherd's flute, the virgin's
The prompting seraph, and the poet's lyre,
Still sing the God of Seasons, as they roll.
For me, when I forget the darling theme,
Whether the blossom blows, the Summer-ray
Russets the plain, inspiring Autumn gleams,
Or Winter rises in the blackening east ;
Be my tongue mute, my fancy paint no more,
And, dead to joy, forget my heart to beat!

Should fate command me to the farthest verge Of the green earth, to distant barbarous climes, Rivers unknown to song; where first the sun Gilds Indian mountains, or his setting beam Flames on th' Atlántic isles; 'tis nought to me:

Since God is ever present, ever felt,
In the void waste as in the city full;
And where He vital breathes there must be joy.
When even at last the solemn hour shall come,
And wing my mystic flight to future worlds,
I cheerful will obey; there, with new powers,
Will rising wonders sing. I cannot go
Where Universal Love not smiles around,
Sustaining all yon orbs, and all their suns;
From seeming evil still educing good,
And better thence again, and better still,
In infinite progression.
But I lose

Myself in Him, in Light ineffable!

Come then, expressive Silence, muse His praise.

former situation, was appointed Purser of the Royal George man of war.

carious emoluments of a Barber's business. It may, therefore, be readily understood, that his education could not be such as to confer upon him the advantages to be derived from an early acquaintance with Greek and Latin authors. A moderate knowledge of his native language, with writing and arithmetic, which every poor man's son, born in Scotland, enjoys, formed the sum total of his early education. He afterwards acquired some knowledge of the French, Spanish, and Italian, and, it is supposed, of the German also. These acquirements show how strongly he was bent on the cultivation of his mind.

When very young, he entered on board a merchant vessel at Leith, in which he served an apprenticeship. He was afterwards servant to Campbell, the author of Lexiphanes, when purser of a ship, who is stated to have taken considerable pains in improving the mind of the young seaman, and to have subsequently felt a pride in boasting of his scholar. At what time the calamitous event occurred, which furnished the subject of the ShipTureck, has not been ascertained: he was then, it appears, employed in the Levant trade. He cmtinued in the merchant service till 1762. In taat year, the Shipwreck made its first appearance, in quarto, dedicated to his Royal Highness Edward, Duke of York, who had hoisted is flag as rear admiral of the blue, on board the Princess Amelia, of eighty guns, attached to the fleet under Sir Edward Hawke.

There is no reason to call in question his having been exposed to all the complicated horrors he so forcibly and pathetically describes: this seems evident from several parts of his poem, especially the motto,

...... quæque ipse miserrima vidi, Et quorum pars magna fui...

The poem met with a reception highly flattering to our Author's reputation. He was patronized by the Duke of York, to whom he addressed-An Ode on his Second Departure from England as Rear Admiral; and, emerging from the obscurity of his

In 1765, he published The Demagogue, a political satire on Lord Chatham, Wilkes, and Churchill, of which it is enough to say, that had Falconer never

since have been forgotten.

In 1769, his Marine Dictionary made its appearance; a work replete with information for such as wish to acquire a proficiency in naval architecture or nautical knowledge.

At this period he resided in the metropolis, supporting himself chiefly by his literary exertions. Among other resources, he is said to have received a pittance from writing in the Critical Review, under his countryman Mallet. He had received, the preceding year, proposals from his friend Mr. Murray, to enter into company with him as a bookseller, on his taking Mr. Sanby's business in Fleet Street; it does not appear from what cause he was led to decline the offer. While he was preparing to publish a third edition of the Shipwreck, he obtained the highly advantageous appointment of purser to the Aurora frigate, Captain Lee, which was ordered to carry out Mr. Vansittart and the other Commissioners to India, with the promise of being made their private secretary. The catastrophe is well known. The Aurora frigate sailed on the 30th of September, 1769, left the Cape on the 27th of December, and was heard of no more. It is the most probable opinion, that she foundered in the Mozambique Channel, the dangers of which the captain, in spite, as it is said of remonstrances was rash enough, although a stranger to its navigation, to encounter.

In 1773, a black was examined before the East India Directors, who affirmed that he was one of five persons who had been saved from the wreck of the Aurora, and that she had been cast away on a reef of rocks off Mocoa.

To these particulars, for which the public are chiefly indebted to the assiduous researches of the Rev. James Stanier Clarke, it may be added, on the same authority, that Falconer was, in his person, about five feet seven inches in height, of a thin, light make, hard featured, and weather-beaten, of blunt and awkward manners, but cheerful, kind, and generous. He was, however, inclined to be satirical, and delighted in controversy: strange characteristics of a man who was a thorough seaman and a poet,