"Pythag'ras' choice scheme my belief now controuls, I sign to his creed--transmigration of souls; Euphorbas's shield he no doubt did employ, And bravely let blood on the plains of old Troy: The souls of great Marlbro' and warlike Eugene Conspicuous in Washington's glory are seen: Sage Pluto beams wisdom from Franklin's rich brain, And sky-taught sir Isaac[B] is seen here again. But Hugh when he migrates may daily be found Cracking bones in a kitchen in form of a hound; When his compeer shall die--while no Christian shall weep him, Old Pluto, below, for a devil will keep him; Unless he's sent up on some hasty dispatch, The whigs to abuse, and more falsehoods to hatch. Thou red-jerkin'd fops, whom your muse I've heard sing From Hounslow's bold heroes successively spring; From Tyburn they tumble as supple as panders, Then migrate straightway into knights and commanders. But you, worthy poet, whose soul-cutting pen In gall paints the crimes of all time-serving men, The fiend of corruption, the wretch of an hour, The star-garter'd villain, the scoundrel in pow'r, From souls far unlike may announce your ascension, The patriot all-worthy, above bribe or pension, The martyr who suffered for liberty's sake Grim dungeons, more horrid than hell's bitter lake: Your name to bright honor, the spirits shall lift, That glow'd in the bosoms of Churchill and Swift. "And when you are number'd, alas! with the dead, Your works by true wits will forever be read, Who, pointing the finger, shall pensively shew The lines that were written, alas! by Freneau." _Philadelphia, June 8, 1786._ [A] He commanded the _Rose_ sloop. [B] David Rittenhouse, Esq., the Ingenious inventor of the celebrated perpendicular Orrery. The second volume of poems did not appear promptly. One year after the first proposals, Bailey advertised that the book was at last in press. "An unusual hurry of other business (of a nature not to be postponed), has unavoidably delayed the printer in its publication to so late a period." It is notable that of the four hundred and sixty-three subscribers, two hundred and fifty, or over half, were in Charleston, S. C., and one hundred and twenty-six in New York. Philadelphia subscribed for very few of the volumes. The printer's advertisement was as follows: