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Female Employments.

Save weeping lovers, see; a nobler game,

Through Love's enchanting wiles pursued, yet fled,
In chase ambiguous. May their tender limbs
Float in the loose simplicity of dress;

And, fashion'd all to harmony, alone

Know they to seize the captivated soul,

In rapture warbled from love-breathing lips;

To teach the lute to languish; with smooth step,
Disclosing motion in its every charm,

To swim along, and swell the mazy dance;

To train the foliage o'er the snowy lawn;

To guide the pencil, turn the tuneful page;
To lend new flavour to the fruitful year,

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And heighten Nature's dainties; in their race

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To rear their graces into second life;

To give Society its highest taste;

Well-order'd Home Man's best delight to make;
And by submissive wisdom, modest skill,

With every gentle care-eluding art,

To raise the virtues, animate the bliss,

And sweeten all the toils of human life:

This be the female dignity, and praise.

Ye swains, now hasten to the hazel-bank;

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Nutting described.-Various Fruits.

Where, down yon dale, the wildly-winding brook 610
Falls hoarse from steep to steep. In close array,
Fit for the thickets and the tangling shrub,

Ye virgins, come. For their latest song

you

The woodlands raise; the clustering nuts for you
The lover finds amid the secret shade;

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And, where they burnish on the topmost bough,

With active vigour crushes down the tree;
Or shakes them ripe from the resigning husk,

A glossy shower, and of an ardent brown,
As are the ringlets of MELINDA's hair:
MELINDA! form'd with every grace complete;.
Yet these neglecting, above beauty wise,
And far transcending such a vulgar praise.
Hence from the busy joy-resounding fields,
In cheerful error, let us tread the maze
Of Autumn, unconfin'd; and taste, reviv'd,
The breath of orchard big with bending fruit.
Obedient to the breeze and beating ray,

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From the deep-loaded bough a mellow shower
Incessant melts away. The juicy pear
Lies, in a soft profusion, scatter'd round.

A various sweetness swells the gentle race;

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Various Fruits.-Mr. Dodington's seat

By Nature's all-refining hand prepar'd;

Of temper'd sun, and water, earth, and air,
In ever-changing composition mixt.'

Such, falling frequent through the chiller night,
The fragrant stores, the wide-projected heaps
Of apples, which the lusty-handed year,

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Innumerous, o'er the blushing orchard shakes.

A various spirit, fresh, delicious, keen,

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Dwells in their gelid pores! and, active, points

The piercing cider for the thirsty tongue:

Thy native theme, and boon inspirer too,
PHILIPS, Pomona's bard, the second thou
Who nobly durst, in rhyme-unfetter'd verse,

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With BRITISH freedom sing the BRITISH Song:
How, from Silurian vats, high-sparkling wines
Foam in transparent floods; some strong, to cheer
The wintry revels of the labouring hind;
And tasteful some, to cool the summer hours.

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In this glad season, while his sweetest beams
The sun sheds equal o'er the meeken'd day;
Oh lose me in the green delightful walks
Of, DODINGTON, thy seat, serene, and plain;
Where simple Nature reigns: and every view,

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The Seat of Mr. Dodington described.

Diffusive, spreads the pure Dorsetian downs,

In boundless prospect: yonder shagg'd with wood,
Here rich with harvest, and there white with flocks!
Meantime the grandeur of thy lofty dome
Far-splendid, seizes on the ravish'd eye.

New beauties rise with each revolving day;

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New columns swell; and still the fresh Spring finds New plants to quicken, and new groves to green. Full of thy genius all! the Muses' seat:

Where in the secret bower, and winding walk,

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For virtuous YOUNG and thee they twine the bay.

Here wandering oft, fir'd with the restless thirst
Of thy applause, I solitary court

Th' inspiring breeze: and meditate the book
Of Nature ever open; aiming thence,

Warm from the heart, to learn the moral song.
Here, as I steal along the sunny wall,

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Where Autumn basks, with fruit empurpled deep,
My pleasing theme continual prompts my thought:
Presents the downy peach; the shining plum;
The ruddy fragrant nectarine; and dark,
Beneath his ample leaf, the luscious fig.

The vine too here her curling tendrils shoots;

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A Vineyard described.

Hangs out her clusters, glowing to the south;
And scarcely wishes for a warmer sky.

Turn we a moment Fancy's rapid flight

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To vigorous soils, and climes of fair extent;

Where, by the potent sun elated high,

The vineyard swells refulgent on the day;

Spreads o'er the vale; or up the mountain climbs, 685
Profuse; and drinks amid the sunny rocks,
From cliff to cliff increas'd, the heighten'd blaze.
Low bend the weighty boughs. The clusters clear,
Half through the foliage seen, or ardent flame,
Or shine transparent; while perfection breathes 690
White o'er the turgent film the living dew.
As thus they brighten with exalted juice,
Touch'd into flavour by the mingling ray;
The rural youth and virgins o'er the field,
Each fond for each to cull th' autumnal prime,

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Exulting rove, and speak the vintage nigh.
Then comes the crushing swain; the country floats,
And foams unbounded with the mashy flood;

That by degrees fermented, and refin'd,
Round the rais'd nation pours the cup of joy:
The claret smooth, red as the lip we press

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