Anarchiad, a New England Poem: Part 5

[From “The New Haven Gazette and Connecticut Magazine” of September 13th, 1787.]

THE flattering attention of the public has engaged the society of critics and antiquarians to give some further extracts from the same Book which concludes with the description of “The Land of Annihilation.” In his progress through the shades, the Bard is attended by an ancient seer, the MERLIN of the West, who explains to him the nature of the country, and the character of its inhabitants. The history of their travels is very entertaining. The account of the various regions and circles into which the Subterranean World is divided, has in many parts been copied by the famous ltalian poet, Dante, in his “Inferno.” The American bard seems to have been the first who entered the REGION OF PREEXISTENT SPIRITS, which has since been explored by the celebrated voyager, Ænas, whose observations may be found in the Sixth Book of Virgil; and notwithstanding our author made his visit at a much earlier period, his relation appears to be equally curious and authentic. That part of the Book which we shall now transcribe, contains the description of many illustrious personages who were to make their appearance on earth, both in Europe and America, in the eighteenth century from the Christian era. From the same amor patriæ which has animated poets in all ages, the seer and the bard have dwelt with peculiar pleasure on those great writers who were destined to spend their lives and lucubrations, and to invent so many curious theories, both in philosophy and history, for demonstrating the debility and diminution of nature in the western hemisphere, and for belittling the great objects on which they were to treat, to the level of European comprehension. He beholds, with admiration, the souls of those learned sages to whom we are since indebted for the discovery that in this part of the globe the animal and vegetable creation are far inferior to the productions of the eastern continent; that man has wonderfully degenerated in courage, activity, and other marks of virility; and that “America has never produced one good Poet, one able Mathematician, or one man of Genius in one single Art, or one single Science,” as the sagacious Abbe Raynal has wisely observed. These he finds grouped in the same circle with those inventive historians and essayists who have lately indulged that ungovernable propensity to the marvelous, with which they seem to have been inspired from all eternity. He describes his entrance into the circle, in the following sublime and awful manner:

In passing farther, the seer points out the father of this system, in the soul of the famous Abbe du Pau, who was then busied in prying into futurity, by the aid of a philosophic telescope, calculated to diminish all objects, according to the squares of the distances, as has been hinted. And thus continues the prediction:

He then points out the Compte de Buffon, the Abbe Raynal, Dr. Robertson, and the whole train of imitators, attendant on their master, imbibing learning and wisdom from his lips, and preparing, in the future world, even, to excel their instructor. He appears to have exactly foreseen Dr. Robertson’s “History of America,” and his observation that the soil of America is prolific in nothing but reptiles and insects. The allusion to Moses, in the following lines, seems to confirm the opinion of some learned writers, that the natives of this country were descended from the Jews, or the Jews from them:

Here the seer took occasion to inform the bard how remarkable some of his own countrymen would become, for being the humble copyists and echoes of these transatlantic imitators; and particularly, that n great [MORRIS] should arise in process of time, who, never having enjoyed, the superior advantage of perusing that astonishing work of genius, THE ANARCHIAD, or any other American poem, should dogmatically decide, in his capacity of Senator, that America never had produced a good poet. He designates him by the subsequent characteristics:

From these worthies he makes an easy transition to the shade of the redoubtable Comte Mirabeau, who, having lately emerged from the Bastile, has employed his tremendous pen on “the Cincinnati,” “the Navigation of the Scheldt,” “the Waterworks of Paris,” “the projected Bank of St. Charles, in Spain” and innumerable other knotty points; in some of which he has been seconded, and in others, opposed, by his brother in scribbling and the Bastile, the perjured Linguet. It appears that the family of the Mirabeaus were predestined to be infamous for unnatural vices. The father of the present comte was distinguished, in Paris, by the title of ami des hommes, (the lover of mankind.) The seer points out these characters, and relates the result of a council concerning their future destiny, in the following manner:

The next group of souls who pass in review, consists of those wise civilians who have generously wasted such fountains of ink in endeavoring to instruct poor America in her own history and politics. The Abby Mably is mentioned with particular respect. Nor is a just tribute of praise denied to the modest Target, who, supposing that no laws existed in the United States, and that the people were incapable of devising any system, humanely proposed to Congress to supply that deficiency, and furnish a code for the use of the empire. The seer, on beholding his shade, thus apostrophizes:

In the next department appear the souls of those European historians and biographers who have amused their readers with many fairy tales, the scenes of which they have had the complaisance to lay in America. We are sorry the length of this number prevents our enlarging upon this part of the Book. The seer enters into a detail of their falsehoods, with great accuracy and minuteness; and even condescends to notice the history of Connecticut, invented by Parson Peters, the fag-​end man of M’Fingal. But he pays particular attention to the great genius of D’Auberteul, who has so ably displayed his creative talents in embellishing the late American revolution; describing the manner of cutting up the crown into thirteen pieces, and sending it to the several States; and giving the interesting novel of the amours of General WASHINGTON; with a great variety of particulars, equally true and instructive. He concludes with the following sublime address to his shade, which has been closely copied by Pope, in one of his smaller poems: