While to the Helm unfaithful still she lies,

One desperate remedy at last he tries

"Haste! with your weapons cut the Shrouds and Stay,
" And hew at once the Mizen-mast away!"
He said: to cut the girding Stay they run,
Soon on each side the severed Shrouds are gone:
Fast by the fated Pine bold RODMOND stands,
Th' impatient axe hung gleaming in his hands;
Brandished on high, it fell with dreadful sound,
The tall Mast groaning felt the deadly wound ;
Deep gashed beneath, the tottering structure rings,
And crashing, thundering, o'er the Quarter swings:
Thus, when some limb convulsed with pangs of death
Imbibes the gangrene's pestilential breath,
Th' experienced Artist from the blood betrays
The latent venom, or its course delays:
But, if th' infection triumphs o'er his art
Tainting the vital stream that warms the heart,
To stop the course of Death's inflaming tides
Th' infected member from the trunk divides.

END OF THE SECOND CANTO.

THIRD CANTO:

The Scene is extended from that part of the Archipelago which lies ten miles to the northward of Falconera, to Cape Colona in At

ARGUMENT.

I. Reflections on the beneficial influence of Poetry.. Diffidence of the Author.. II. Wreck of the Mizen-Mast cleared away... Ship veers before the wind. .labours hard..Different stations of the Officers.. Appearance of the Island of FALCONERA.. III. Excursion to the adjacent Nations of GREECE renowned in antiquity.. ATHENS.. Socrates, Plato, Aristides.. Solon.. CORINTH..its Architecture.. SPARTA.. Leonidas.. Invasion by Xerxes.. Lycurgus.. Epaminondas.. Present state of the Spartans..ARCADIA.. Former happiness, and fertility.. Its present distress the effect of Slavery.. ITHACA.. Ulysses and Penelope.. ARGOS and MYCENE..Agamemnon.. MACRONISI..LEMNOS.. Vulcan.. DELOS.. Apollo and Diana.. TROY.. SESTOs.. Leander and Hero.. DELPHOS.. Temple of Apollo.. PARNASSUS.. The Muses.. IV. Subject resumed.. Address to the Spirits of the Storm.. ATempest accompanied with Rain, Hail, and Meteors.. Darkness of the Night, Lightning and Thunder.. Day-break.. St. George's cliffs open upon them.. The Ship in great danger passes the Island of St. George.. V. Land of Athens appears.. Helmsman struck blind by Lightning.. Ship laid broadside to the shore.. Bowsprit, Foremast, and Main Topmast carried away..ALBERT, RODMOND, ARION and PALEMON strive to save themselves on the wreck of the Foremast.. The Ship parts asunder.. Death of ALBERT and RODMOND.. ARION reaches the Shore.. Finds PALEMON expiring on the Beach..his dying Address to ARION, who is led away by the humane Natives.

I. WHEN in a barbarous age, with blood defil'd,
The human Savage roamed the gloomy wild;
When sullen Ignorance her flag displayed,
And Rapine, and Revenge her voice obeyed;
Sent from the shores of light the MUSES came
The dark and solitary race to tame,

H