Calendar: 1863-1864 Page 511

GENERAL LITERATURE AND SCIENCE 511 reflections occurred often to men who had no other object or occupation than to reason and discourse concerning the intention and circumstances of their expedition They made impression at first upon the ignorant and timid and extending by degrees to such as were better informed or more resolute the contagion spread at length from ship to ship From secret whispers or murmurings they proceeded to open cabals and public com- plaints They taxed their sovereign with inconsiderate credulity in paying such regard to the vain promises and rash conjectures of an indigent foreigner as to hazard the lives of so many of her own subjects in prosecuting chimerical scheme They affirmed that they had fully performed their duty by venturing so far in an unknown and hopeless course and could incur no blame for refusing to follow any longer desperate adventurer to certain destruction II -Cranilatt into Hattn Elegiacs or Satin 'ftgrtci Our days are covered o'er with grief And sorrows neither few nor brief Veil all in gloom Left desolate of real good Within this cheerless solitude No pleasures bloom Thy pilgrimage begins in tears And ends in bitter doubts and fears Or dark despair Midway so many toils appear That he who lingers longest here Knows most of care Thy goods are bought with many groan By the hot sweat of toil alone And weary hearts Fleet-footed is the approach of wee But with lingering step and slow Its form departs