In this period he has thrown off scores of epigrams, &c., anonymously, besides the more ambitious performances acknowledged in the collection of his Poems, of which we have before us a third edition--showing that their quality is well appreciated--from the press of Ticknor & Co. The longest of these is Progress, first published in 1846. In skilful felicities of language and rhythm, general clear and sharp expression, and alternating touches of playful wit and vigorous sense, there is nothing so long that is so well sustained in the hundred and one books of American satire. In the beginning of it he says finely of our "glorious tongue:" Let thoughts, too idle to be fitly dressed In sturdy Saxon, be in French expressed; Let lovers breathe Italian,--like, in sooth, Its singers soft, emasculate, and smooth; But for a tongue, whose ample powers embrace Beauty and force, sublimity and grace, Ornate or plain, harmonious, yet strong, And formed alike for eloquence and song, Give me the English,--aptest tongue to paint A sage or dunce, a villain or a saint, To spur the slothful, counsel the distressed, To lash the oppressor, and to soothe the oppressed, To lend fantastic Humor freest scope, To marshal all his laughter-moving troop, Give Pathos power, and Fancy lightest wings, And Wit his merriest whims and keenest stings! And then proceeds with a display of popular follies, and especially of those most grotesque and offensive, the sham philosophies by which it is attempted to regenerate society: Hail, Social Progress! each new moon is rife With some new theory of social life, Some matchless scheme ingeniously designed From half their miseries to free mankind; On human wrongs triumphant war to wage, And bring anew the glorious golden age. "Association" is the magic word From many a social "priest and prophet" heard; "Attractive Labor" is the angel given, To render earth a sublunary Heaven! "Attractive Labor!" ring the changes round, And labor grows attractive in the sound; And many a youthful mind, where haply lurk Unwelcome fancies at the name of "work," See pleasant pastime in its longing view Of "toil made easy" and "attractive" too, And, fancy-rapt, with joyful ardor, turns Delightful grindstones, and seductive churns! In the same vein we are treated with "novelties which disturb our peace," in literature, fashion, politics, religion, and morals; and every line is faultless in finish and in wit. The Proud Miss McBride, and The New Rape of the Lock, are in different veins, but abound in the same exquisite turns, agreeable images, and comic displays of wisdom. In the New Rape of the Lock: