HAPPINESS.

FROM POPE'S ESSAY ON MAN.

OH Happiness! our being's end and aim!
Good, pleafure, ease, content! whate'er thy name:
That fomething ftill which prompts th' eternal figh,
For which we hear to live, or dare to die;
Which still so near us, yet beyond us lies,
O'erlook'd, feen double, by the fool and wife;
Plant of celestial feed! if dropt below,
Say in what mortal foil thou deign'ft to grow?
Fair op'ning to some court's propitious shine,
Or deep with diamonds in the flaming mine?
Twin'd' with the wreaths Parnaffian laurels yield,
Or reap'd in iron harvefts of the field?

Where grows?-where grows it not? If vain our toil,
We ought to blame the culture, not the foil.
Fixt to no fpot, in Happiness fincere,

'Tis no where to be found, or ev'ry where ;
'Tis never to be bought, but always free,

And, fled from monarchs, St. John, dwells with thee.

Afk of the learn'd the way: the learn'd are blind; This bids to ferve, and that to fhun, mankind. Some place the blifs in action, fome in ease; Thofe call it pleasure, and contentment these : P

Some, funk to beafts, find pleasure end in pain;
Some, fwell'd to gods, confefs e'en virtue vain;
Or, indolent, to each extreme they fall,
To truft in every thing, or doubt of all.

Who thus define it, fay they more or less Than this, that happiness is happiness ?

Take Nature's path, and mad opinion's leave;
All states can reach it, and all heads conceive;
Obvious her goods, in no extreme they dwell;
There needs but thinking right, and meaning well;
And mourn our various portions as we pleate,
Equal is common fenfe, and common cafe.
Remember, man, "the Univerfal Caufe
"Acts not by partial, but by gen'ral laws;"
And makes what happine's we juftly call,.
Subfift not in the good of one, but all.
There's not a bhffing individuals find
But fome way leans and hearkens to the kind.
No bandit fierce, no tyrant mad with pride,
No cavern'd hermit refts felf- fatisfy'd.
Who most to fhun or hate mankind pretend,
Scek an admirer, or would fix a friend;
Abstract what others feel, what others think,
All pleatures ficken, and all glories fink:
Each has his fhare; and who would more obtain,
Shall find the pleasure pays not half the pain.

Order is Heav'n's first law; and this confeft,
Some are, and must be, greater than the reft;
More rich, more wife; but who infers from hence
That fuch are happier, fhocks all common sense.

Heav'n to mankind impartial we confess,
If all are equal in their happiness;
But mutual wants this happiness increafe,
All Nature's diff'rence keeps all Nature's peace.
Condition, circumftance, is not the thing,
Blifs is the fame in fubject or in king:
In who obtain defence, or who defend,
In him who is, or him who finds a friend;
Heav'n breathes through every member of the whole
One common blefling as one common foul.
But fortune's gifts if each alike poffeft,
And each were equal, must not all conteft?
If then to all men happiness was meant,
God in externals could not place content.

Fortune her gifts may variously difpofe,
And thefe be happy call'd, unhappy thofe ;
But Heav'n's juft balance equal will appear,
While thofe are plac'd in hope, and thefe in fear:
Not prefent good or ill, the joy or curfe,
But future views of better, or of worfe.
Oh, fons of earth! attempt ye fill to rise,
By mountains pil'd on mountains to the skies?
Heav'n ftill with laughter the vain teil furveys,
And buries madmen in the heaps they raife.
Know, all the good that individuals find,
Or God and nature meant to mere mankind,
Reafon's whole pleasure, all the joys of sente,
Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence.

SWEETNESS.

AN ODE.

BY MR. ROBERTSON.

OF damafk cheeks, and radiant eyes,
Let other poets tell;

Within the bofom of the fair
Superior beauties dwell.

There all the fprightly pow'rs of wit
In blythe affemblage play;
There ev'ry focial virtue fheds
Its intellectual ray.

But as the fun's refulgent light

Heav'n's wide expanfe refines; With fov'reign luftre through the foul Celestial sweetness fhines.

This mental beam dilates the heart,
And sparkles in the face;

It harmonizes every thought,

And heightens every grace.

One glimpfe can foothe the troubled breast,

The heaving figh restrain ?

Can make the bed of ficknef's please,

And ftop the fense of pain.

Its power can charm the favage heart,
The tyrant's pity move:

To fmiles convert the wildeft rage,
And melt the foul to love.

When sweetness beams upon the throne
In majefty benign,

The awful fplendours of a crown
With milder luftre fhine..

In fcenes of poverty and woe,
Where melancholy dwells,
The influence of this living ray
The dreary gloom difpels ::

Thus when the blooming fpring returns
To cheer the mournful plains,
Through earth and air, with genial warmth,
Ethereal mildness reigns.

Beneath its bright, aufpicious beams
No boisterous paffions rife;
Morofenefs quits the peaceful fcene,
And baleful Difcord flies.

A thonfand nameless beauties fpring,
A thousand virtues glow;
A fmiling train of joys appear,
And endless bleffings flow.

Unbounded Charity difplays
Her fympathizing charms;
And friendship's pure feraphic flame
The gen'rous bofon warms.