Stood high upon the list of each society,
Whose zeal and watchfulness the sacred fire
Of science, agriculture, art, and learning,
Keep on our country's altars bright and burning.
cxliv.
With men of taste and judgment like his own,
And played "first fiddle" in that orchestra
Of literary worthies—and the tone
Of his mind's music by the listeners caught,
Is traced among them still in language and in thought.
cxlv.
Of muscle-shells picked up at Rockaway;
And Mitchill gave a classical and pleasant
Discourse about them in the streets that day,
Naming the shells, and hard to put in verse 'twas
"Testaceous coverings of bivalve moluscas."
cxlvi.
And lectured soundly every evil-doer,
Gave dinners daily to wealth, power, and rank,
And sixpence every Sunday to the poor;
He was a wit, in the pun-making line—
Past fifty years of age, and five feet nine.
