Dramatic Amusements.

The city swarms intense. The public haunt,

630

Full of each theme, and warm with mix'd discourse, Hums indistinct. The sons of riot flow

Down the loose stream of false inchanted joy,

To swift destruction. On the rankled soul

635

The gaming fury falls; and in one gulph
Of total ruin, honour, virtue, peace,
Friends, families, and fortune, headlong sink.
Up-springs the dance along the lighted dome,
Mix'd, and evolv'd, a thousand sprightly ways.
The glittering court effuses every pomp;
The circle deepens: beam'd from gaudy robes,
Tapers, and sparkling gems, and radiant eyes,
A soft effulgence o'er the palace waves:

While, a gay insect in his summer-shine,

640

The fop, light-fluttering, spreads his mealy wings. 645 Dread o'er the scene, the ghost of HAMLET stalks; OTHELLO rages; poor MONIMIA mourns;

And BELVIDERA pours her soul in love.

Terror alarms the breast; the comely tear

Steals o'er the cheek: or else the COMIC MUSE 650

Holds to the world a picture of itself,

And raises sly the fair impartial laugh.

Character of Lord Chesterfield.

655

Sometimes she lifts her strain, and paints the scenes
Of beauteous life; whate'er can deck mankind,
Or charm the heart, in generous BEVIL show'd.
O thou, whose wisdom, solid yet refin'd,
Whose patriot virtues, and consummate skill
To touch the finer springs that move the world,
Join'd to whate'er the Graces can bestow,
And all Apollo's animating fire,.

660

Give thee, with pleasing dignity, to shine

At once the guardian, ornament, and joy,
Of polish'd life; permit the Rural Muse,
O CHESTERFIELD! to grace with thee her song.
Ere to the shades again she humbly flies,
Indulge her fond ambition, in thy train,
(For every Muse has in thy train a place).

665

To mark thy various full-accomplish'd mind :`

To mark that spirit, which, with British scorn,

Rejects th' allurements of corrupted power;
That elegant politeness, which excels,

670

Ev'n in the judgment of presumptuous France,

The boasted manners of her shining court;

That wit, the vivid energy of sense,

The truth of Nature, which with Attic point,

675

Character of Lord Chesterfield.

And kind well-temper'd satire, smoothly keen,
Steals through the soul, and without pain corrects.

Or, rising thence with yet a brighter flame,
O let me hail thee on some glorious day,"
When to the listening senate, ardent, crowd
BRITANNIA'S Sons to hear her pleaded cause.
Then drest by thee, more amiably fair,
Truth the soft robe of mild persuasion wears:
Thou to assenting reason giv'st again

680

Her own enlightened thoughts; call'd from the heart, Th' obedient passions on thy voice attend;

And ev❜n reluctant party feels awhile

Thy gracious power: as through the varied maze

Of eloquence, now smooth, now quick, now strong,

Profound and clear, you roll the copious flood.

690

To thy lov'd haunt return, my happy Muse:

For now, behold, the joyous winter-days,
Frosty, succeed; and through the blue serene,
For sight too fine, th' ethereal nitre flies,
Killing infectious damps, and the spent air
Storing afresh with elemental life.

Close crowds the shining atmosphere; and binds
Our strengthened bodies in its cold embrace,

695

Frost beneficial.

Constringent; feeds, and animates our blood;
Refines our spirits, through the new-strung nerves,
In swifter sallies darting to the brain;

Where sits the soul, intense, collected, cool,
Bright as the skies, and as the season keen.

All Nature feels the renovating force
Of Winter, only to the thoughtless eye
In ruin seen. The frost-concocted glebe
Draws in abundant vegetable soul,
And gathers vigour for the coming year.
A stronger glow sits on the lively cheek
Of ruddy fire and luculent along
The purer rivers flow; their sullen deeps,
Transparent, open to the shepherd's gaze,
And murmur hoarser at the fixing frost.

705

710

What art thou, frost? and whence are thy keen stores

Deriv'd, thou secret all-invading power!

Whom ev'n th' illusive fluid cannot fly?

Is not thy potent energy, unseen,

Myriads of little salts, or hook'd, or shap'd

Like double wedges, and diffus'd immense

715

Through water, earth, and ether? Hence at eve, 720 Steam'd eager from the red horizon round,

Description of Frost.

With the fierce rage of Winter deep suffus'd,
An icy gale, oft shifting, o'er the pool

Breathes a blue film, and in its mid career

Arrests the bickering stream. The loosened ice, 725
Let down the flood, and half dissolv'd by day,
Rustles no more; but to the sedgy bank
Fast grows; or gathers round the pointed stone,
A crystal pavement, by the breath of heaven
Cemented firm; till, seiz'd from shore to shore,
The whole imprison'd river growls below.
Loud rings the frozen earth, and hard reflects
A double noise; while, at his evening watch,

730

The village dog deters the nightly thief;

The heifer lows; the distant waterfall

735

Swells in the breeze; and, with the hasty tread

Of traveller, the hollow-sounding plain
Shakes from afar. The full ethereal round,
Infinite worlds disclosing to the view,

Shines out intensely keen; and, all one cope

740

Of starry glitter, glows from pole to pole.

From pole to pole the rigid influence falls, Through the still night, incessant, heavy, strong, And seizes Nature fast. It freezes on;

7