O blind to each indulgent aims

Of pow'r supremely wise ; Who fancy Happiness in aught

The hand of Heav'n denies!

Vain is alike the joy we feek,

And vain what we poflefs Unless harmonious Reason tunes

The paßions into peace.

To temper'd wishes, juft defires,

Is Happiness confin'd;
And, deaf to folly's call, attends

The music of the mind.

WRITTEN AT MIDNIGHT

IN A THUNDER STORM.

BY THE SAME.

LET
ET coward Guilt, with pallid Feary

To shelt'ring caverns fly,
And juftly dread the vengetul fate,

That thunder's through the sky,
Protested by that Hand, whose law

The threat’ning forms obey, Intrepid Virgue smiles secure,

As in the blaze of day.

In the thick cloud's tremendous gloomy

The lightning's Jurid glare,
It views the same all-gracious Power,

That breathes the vernal air.

Through Nature's ever-varying scene,

By different ways puulu’d,
The one eternal end of Heav'n

Is universal good:

With like beneficent effect,

O'er flaming æther glows,
As when it tunes the linnet's voice,

Or blushes in the role.

By reason taught to scorn those fears,

That vulgar minds molest;
Let no fantastic terrors break

My dear Narcilla's reit.

Thy life may all the tend'rest care

Of Providence defend;
And delegated angels round,

Their guardian wings extend !
When through creation's vast expanse,

The last dread thunders roll;
Untune the concord of the spheres,

And shake the rising foul:
Unmov'l, may'st thou the final form

Of jarring worlds survey,
That ushers in the glad ferene

Of everlastir.g day!

THE EVENING WALK.

BY THE SAME.

How sweet the calm

of this fequefter'd shore,
Where ebbing water's musically roll;
And solitude, and filent eve restore

The philosophic temper of the soul!
The fighing gale, whose murmurs lull to rest

The busy tumult of declining day,
To sympathetic quiet fooths the breast,

And ev'ry wild emotion dies away.

Farewel the objects of diurnal care,

Your task be ended with the setting sun: Let all be undisturb'd vacation here,

While o'er yon wave ascends the peaceful moon.

What beauteous visions o'er the soften'd heart,

In this still moment all their cliarms diffuse, Serener joys, and brighter hopes impart,

And cheer the soul with more than mortal views.

Her faithful mem'ry wakens all her pow'rs,

She bids her fair ideal forins ascend,
And quick to ev'ry gladden'd thought restores

The social virtue, and the absent friend.

Come, *******

come, and with me share The fober pleafures of this folemn scene : While no rude tempest clouds the ruffled air,

But all, like thee, is smiling and lerene.

Come, while the cool, the solitary hours

Each foolish care and giddy wish controul, With all thy soft persuasion's wonted pow'rs

Beyond the stars transport my liftning loul. Oft, when the earth detain'd by empty show,

Thy voice has taught the trifler how to rile; Taught her to look with fcorn on things below,

And seek her better portion in the skies. Come, and the facred eloquence repeat:

The world fhall vanish at its gentle found, Angelic forms shall visit this retreat,

And op’ning Heav'n diffuse its glories round.

CONTEMPLATION.

BY THE SAME.

WHILE soft through water, earth, and air,

The vernal spirits rove,
From noisy joys, and giddy crowds,

To rural scenes remove.

The mountain snows are all dissolv'd,

And hush'd the blust'ring gale : While fragrant Zephyrs gently breathe

Along the flow'ry vale.

The circling planets' constant rounds

The wint’ry wastes repair ; And fill, from temporary death,

Renew the verdant year.

But ah! when once our transient bloom,

The spring of life, is o'er, That roly season takes its flight,

And must return no more.

Yet judge by reason's sober rules,

From falfé opinion free,
And mark how little pilf 'ring years

Can steal from you or me.

G