He with a seaman's eye the scene surveyed,

Glanced at the spars, and the ship's motion scanned;
Then felt her helm, and finding that she made
Fair weather, and was trim, and ably manned,

Did nothing doubt that she might make the land :-
She rode the billows like a wild sea-gull,

Or tossed them from her bows on either hand;
And well secured in rigging, spars, and hull,
Drove on before the gale, careless when it might lull.

Assured the ship would weather out the storm,
He sought the object of his cares below,
Freighted with tender words for her alarm,
As he had left her a brief space ago,
Weeping, like Niobe, away her woe;—

But she did meet him with a brow serene,

And bright'ning eyes whose founts had barred their flow, While a sweet smile, which stole her lips between, Illumed an angel's face where Beauty sat sole queen.

Surprised, yet pleased at such an unexpected
And happy change, where all so late was grief,
He wondered much how it had been effected,
When love's warm rhetoric, though somewhat brief,
Had failed to yield the weeping girl relief;

And though perplexed, declared himself most blest,
And very happy,-adding his belief,

That she was destined for a sailor's breast,

Who could be calm where all around her were distrest.

She bent on him her eyes of fascination,
That mocked the azure of the clear blue sea;
Those eyes of beauty, formed for admiration,
Against which youth had poor security
When shot their glances barbed for victory:-
The smile of May her ruby lips did part,
Sweet as the embryo blossom on the tree;
While Love his rosy hue sent from her heart,
Suffused her lily cheek, and shamed the glow of art.

How beautiful is Virtue !-fairer far

Than all the pomp and glitter of the earth,
Than princely coronet, or glory's star,

The boast of learning, or the pride of birth.
She charms in sorrow, purifies in mirth,
In danger calms, and triumphs in dismay;-
Here Virtue's votary shall prove her worth,
Above the wealth the miser's hoards display,
When life's dissolving bands cast loose the bark of clay.

And now Hyperia would go on deck,

To view th' embattled terrors of the deep ;-
No longer trembling with the fear of wreck,
She felt that curiosity to peep,

Which in her sex is seldom laid asleep;
And proff'ring to Orlando her fair hand-
Which he at first interpreted to keep-

She signified her wish; at which command

He bowed his readiness, and led her up the stand.

His left arm did encircle her light waist,

Her right upon his shoulder, grasping, laid,—
The winds her wand'ring tresses had displaced,
That round her snowy neck in ringlets played:—
He, like a hero stood, in danger stayed,
Sustaining Beauty, as when regal Mars
On Cyprus' top for Venus stands arrayed,
While round the coral base stern Neptune wars,
Jealous, but impotent to force the guarding bars.

And here I leave the Lovers for a time,
Well braced to windward of the mizzen-mast;
Hyperia gazing on the scene sublime,

Where rode olus on the rushing blast,-
The white-capp'd billows toppling o'er the vast,
The lightning's flash, the thunder's brazen roar,
And the bowed heav'n with darkness overcast !—
Orlando, bending his fair mistress o'er,

And, in a trance of love, dreaming they were on shore.

The winds were hushed, the ocean owned the charm,
The clouds rolled backward and unveiled the sky;
Shone out refulgent Sol, spent was the storm,
And all the elements at peace did lie.

A grateful rapture beamed from ev'ry eye,
As passed the danger with the gale away;
Called back the late-fled smile, dispelled the sigh,
Lit up the brow, around the lip did play,

And cheeks did bloom again, and gentle hearts were gay.

Once more the ship, in flowing canvas dressed,
Courts the soft pinion of the southern wind,
And like a Nautilus by zephyr pressed-
Freighted with sweets to the Nereids consigned-
Light skims the wave and leaves the foam behind.
They raise the steam the windward to regain,
And with free bowline leave her unconfined;
While down the west bright Phoebus rolls his train,
And dips his golden wheels beneath the azure main.

A universe is spread above the sea,

As if of diadem on diadem,

Glowing from out the blue immensity,
Myriads of sparkling orbs; each orb a gem,
Adorned by Him whose fiat marshalled them
To pave with jewelry the fields of light,
Where "GOD hath set His throne !"-The apothegm
Is His, sustaining, ever warm and bright,

The gorgeous hierarchs and wonders of His might.

"Splice the main-brace !" (") The word is passed along, And welcomed fore-and-aft,-the hardy crew,

Weary and wet, around the capstan throng,
And tip the flowing can of "mountain dew."
Th' enliv'ning beverage is handed through
The laughing knots around,-nor backward they
To yield the nectar all the honors due;—

Not such as roisterers to Bacchus pay,

But quite domestic, like a closing harvest-day.

Let no reproach attach to this exploit
Of female condescension I relate;

For the rude liquid they cared not a doit,
And merely sipped a little, quite au fait,
Mixed nautical by the ship's second mate:-
It was in compliment to those brave men,
Breasting the storm so gallantly of late,

The ladies pledged a health, at which I ken,
The tars refilled the can where Beauty's lip had been.

And did Hyperia raise the flowing can
To these swarth navigators of the deep?
She did, while o'er her charming features ran
That courteous sweetness which should never sleep:-
Graceful she bent, and half inclined to weep,
Smiled on the weather-beaten gallant crew,
The swelling gratitude she scarce could keep
Within the fountains of her orbs of blue,-

Two pearly drops that fell did consecrate the "dew."

"Ladies take liquor !"—There's an exclamation
From some pale Deborah, with upturned eyes,
Who, while she "wonders" at the profanation,
Complains of heartburn, and thence straight applies
Her ready medicine-which I advise

Her to take less of-gin and wormwood bitters.
Alas! th' hypocrisy which sanctifies

The rare fastidious beauties, Nature's debtors,

Who live but to impale and scandalize their betters.