Today's perambulations through some more Bermuda Gazette issues resulted in an interesting find that I thought I'd share: a poem from the 28 January 1792 issue. It's not attributed in the paper, but was written by Constantia Grierson (~1705-1732/3), quite an interesting character.
The Art of Printing
HAIL mistic art! which men like angels taught,
To speak to eyes, and paint unbody'd thought!
Though deaf and dumb; blest skill, reliev'd by thee,
We make one sense perform the task of three.
We see, hear, we touch the head and heart,
And take, or give what each but yields in part.
With the hard laws of distance we dispense,
And without sound, apart commune in sense:
View, though confin'd, may rule this earthly ball,
And travel o'er the wide expanded All.
Dead letters thus with living notions fraught,
Prove to the soul the telescopes of thought;
To mortal life a deathless witness give,
And bid all deeds and titles last, and live.
In scanty life enternity we taste;
View the first ages, and inform the last.
Arts, hist'ry, laws, we purchase with a look,
And keep, like fate, all nature in a book.
