PROSPECT OF THE FUTURE GLORY OF AMERICA.-BY J.
TRUMBULL. PRONOUNCED AT COMMENCEMENT,
IN YALE COLLEGE, SEPTEMBER, 1770.

-And see the expected hour is on the wing,
With every joy the flight of years can bring;
The splendid scenes the muse shall dare display,
And unborn ages view the ripen'd day.

Beneath a sacred grove's inspiring shade,
When night the world in pleasing glooms array'd,
While the fair moon, that leads the heavenly train,
With varying brightness dyed the dusky plain.
Entranced I sat; to solemn thought resign'd,
Long visions rising in the raptured mind;
Celestial music charm'd the listening dale,
While these blest sounds my ravished ears assail.
"To views far distant, and to scenes more bright,

Along the vale of time extend thy sight,

Where hours, and days, and years, from yon dim pole,
Wave following wave, in long succession roll;

There see, in pomp, for ages without end,

The glories of the western world ascend.

See, this blest land in orient morn appears,
Waked from the slumber of six thousand years;
While clouds of darkness veil'd each cheering ray,
To savage beasts and savage men a prey.
Fair freedom now her ensigns bright displays,
And peace and plenty bless the golden days.
In radiant state the imperial realm shall rise,
Her splendor circling to the boundless skies;
Of every fair she boasts the assembled charms,
The queen of empires, and the nurse of arms.

See her bold heroes mark their glorious way,
Arm'd for the fight, and blazing on the day!
Blood stains their steps, and o'er the ensanguin'd plain,
Mid thousands warring, and mid thousands slain,
Their eager swords unsated carnage blend,
And ghastly deaths their raging course attend.
Her dreaded power the subject world shall see,
And laurel'd conquest wait her high decree.
And see her navies, rushing to the main,
Catch the swift gales, and sweep the watery plain ;
Or led by commerce, at the merchant's door,
Unlade the treasures of the Asian shore;
Or arm'd with thunder, on the guilty foe
Rush big with death, and aim the unerring blow;

Bid every realm, that hears the trump of fame,
Quake at the distant terror of her name.

For pleasing arts behold her matchless charms,
The first in letters, as the first in arms.
See bolder genius quit the narrow shore,
And realms of science, yet untraced, explore,
Hiding in brightness of superior day,

The fainting gleam of Europe's setting ray.
This land her Swift and Addison shall view,
The former honors equal'd by the new;
A second Watts shall string the heavenly lyre,
And other muses other bards inspire.

Her daughters, too, the happy land shall grace
With powers of genius, as of charms of face;
Blest with the softness of the female mind,
With fancy blooming, and with taste refined,
Some Rowe shall rise, and wrest, with daring pen,
The pride of science from assuming men;
While each bright line a polished beauty wears,
For every muse, and every grace is theirs.

Nor shall these bounds her rising fame confine.
With equal praise the sister arts shall shine.
Behold some new Apelles, skill'd to trace
The varied features of the virgin's face;
Bid the gay landscape rise in rural charms,
Or wake from dust the slumbering chief in arms,
Bid art with nature hold a pleasing strife,

And warm the pictured canvas into life.

See heaven-born music strike the trembling string, Devotion rising on the raptur'd wing.

See the proud dome with lofty walls ascend,
Wide gates unfold, stupendous arches bend;
The spiry turrets, piercing to the skies,
And all the grandeur of the palace rise.
The patriot's voice shall eloquence inspire,
With Roman splendor, and Athenian fire,
At freedom's call, teach manly breasts to glow,
And prompt the tender tear o'er guiltless woe."
O, born to glory when these times prevail,
Great nurse of learning, fair Yalensia, hail!
Within thy walls, beneath thy pleasing shade,
We woo'd each art, and won the muse to aid.
These scenes of bliss now closing on our view,
Borne from thy seats, we breathe a last adieu.
Long may'st thou reign, of every joy possess'd,
Blest in thy teachers, in thy pupils blest;
To distant years thy fame immortal grow,

Thy spreading light to rising ages flow;
Till nature hear the great Archangel's call,
Till the last flames involve the sinking ball;
Then may thy sons ascend the etherial plains,
And join seraphic songs, where bliss eternal reigns.

HYMN TO PEACE.

Hail, sacred peace, who claim'st thy bright abode,
Mid circling saints that grace the throne of God.
Before his arm, around this shapeless earth,
Stretch'd the wide heavens, and gave to nature birth;
Ere morning stars his glowing chambers hung,
Or songs of gladness woke an angel's tongue;
Veil'd in the brightness of th' Almighty's mind,
In blest repose thy placid form reclined;
Borne through the heaven with his creating voice,
Thy presence bade the unfolding worlds rejoice,
Gave to seraphic harps their sounding lays,
Their joy to angels, and to men their praise.

From scenes of blood these beauteous shores that stain,
From gasping friends that press the sanguin'd plain,
From fields long taught in vain thy flight to mourn,
I rise, delightful power, and greet thy glad return.
Too long the groans of death, and battle's bray,
Have rung, discordant thro' th' unpleasing lay;
Let pity's tear its balmy fragrance shed,
O'er heroes' wounds, and patriot warriors dead.
Accept, departed shades, these grateful sighs,
Your fond attendants to th' approving skies.
But now the untuneful trump shall grate no more,
Ye silver streams, no longer swell with gore;
Bear from your beauteous banks the crimson stain,
With yon retiring navies to the main :
While other views unfolding on my eyes,
And happier themes bid bolder numbers rise.
Bring, bounteous peace, in thy celestial throng,
Life to my soul, and rapture to my song;
Give me to trace, with pure, unclouded ray,
The arts and virtues that attend thy sway;
To see thy blissful charms that here descend,
Through distant realms and endless years extend.

DIALOGUES.

Scene between GENERAL SAVAGE and MISS WALSINGHAM; in which the courtship is carried on in such an ambiguous manner, that the General mistakes her consent to marry his son, CAPTAIN SAVAGE, for consent to marry himself.

Miss Wal. General Savage, your most humble servant. Gen. Sav. My dear Miss Walsingham, it is rather cruel that you should be left at home by yourself, and yet I am greatly rejoiced to find you at present without company.

Miss Wal. I can't but think myself in the best company, when I have the honor of your conversation, General.

Gen. You flatter me too much, madam; yet I am come to talk to you on a serious affair; an affair of importance to me and yourself. Have you leisure to favor me with a short audience, if I beat a parley?

Miss. Wal. Any thing of importance to you, sir, is always sufficient to command my leisure.

'Tis as the captain suspected. [aside.]

Gen. You tremble, my lovely girl, but don't be alarmed; for though my business is of an important nature, I hope it will not be of a disagreeable one.

Miss Wal. And yet I am greatly agitated. [aside.]

Gen. Soldiers, Miss Walsingham, are said to be generally favored by the kind protection of the ladies.

Miss Wal. The ladies are not without gratitude, sir, to those who devote their lives peculiarly to the service of their country.

Gen. Generously said, Madam. Then give me leave, without any masked battery, to ask if the heart of an honest soldier is a prize worthy your acceptance?

Miss Wal. Upon my word, sir, there is no masked battery in this question.

Gen. I am as fond of a coup-de-main, madam, in love as in war, and hate the tedious method of sapping a town, when there is a possibility of entering it sword in hand.

Miss Wal. Why really, sir, a woman may as well know her own mind when she is first summoned by the trumpet of a lover, as when she undergoes all the tiresome formality of a siege. You see I have caught your own mode of conversing, General.

Gen. And a very great compliment I consider it, madam. But now that you have candidly confessed an acquaintance with your own mind, answer me with that firmness for which every body admires you so much. Have you any objection to change the name of Walsingham?

Miss Wal. Why then, frankly, General, I say, no.
Gen. Ten thousand thanks to you for this kind declaration.
Miss Wal. I hope you won't think it a forward one.

Gen. I'd sooner see my son run away in the day of battle; I'd sooner think Lord Russel was bribed by Lewis XIV; and sooner vilify the memory of Algernon Sidney.

Miss Wal. How unjust it was ever to suppose the General a tyrannical father! [aside.]

Gen. You have told me condescendingly, Miss Walsingham, that you have no objection to change your name. I have but one question more to ask.

Miss Wal. Pray propose it, sir.

Gen. Would the name of Savage be disagreeable to you? Speak frankly again, my dear girl.

Miss Wal. Why, then, again, I frankly say, no.

Gen. You are too good to me.

meet with a repulse. [aside.]

Torrington thought I should

Miss Wal. Have you communicated this business to the captain, sir?

Gen. No, my dear madam, I did not think that at all necessary. I propose that he shall be married in a few days. Miss Wal. What, whether I will or not?

Gen. O, you can have no objection!

Miss Wal. I must be consulted, however, about the day, general; but nothing in my power shall be wanting to make him happy.

Gen. Obliging loveliness!

Miss Wal. You may imagine, that if I had not been previously impressed in favor of your proposal, it would not have met my concurrence so readily.

Gen. Then you own I had a previous friend in the garrison. Miss Wal. I don't blush to acknowledge it, sir, when I consider the accomplishments of the object.

Gen. O, this is too much, madam; the principal merit of the object is his passion for Miss Walsingham.

Miss. Wal. Don't say that, General, I beg of you; for I don't think there are many women in the kingdom who could behold him with indifference.

Gen. Ah, you flattering angel! and yet, by the memory of Marlborough, my lovely girl, it was the idea of a prepossession on your part, which encouraged me to hope for a favorable reception.

Miss. Wal. Then I must have been very indiscreet, for I labored to conceal that prepossession as much as possible.

Gen. You could not conceal it from me; the female heart is a field I am thoroughly acquainted with. ·

Miss Wal. I doubt not your knowledge of the female heart,