While fad'ning damps, and low-born vapours drown
The revels, pomp and traffic of the town.
Above dependence rais'd by gentle fate,
Pity the flaves, condemn'd to court the great,
They blush to own. The genuine great revere,
Whole high ferts adorn their, ftated sphere.
Be thine deferts as high, the gen'rous aim
From man to merit, not folicit fame,
Be thine the triumph's of a foul ferene,
The fmile of Reafon, and a golden mean.
Be thine the praife of God: nor stoop to rail,
If humbler projects of ambition fail.
"Friend, keep your Roman courtier still in fight;
"Be civil, as your text, to ears polite.
"Religion! Wildom! pfhaw,-your fermon cloys,
"A golden mean what modern wight enjoys?
"For homefpun virtues ranfack hift'ry now:
"Back to young Rome's Dictator, at the plough.".
From Fafbion's taint, and diffipation free,
With fuch plain puts retir'd, as ****, and me,
Shun random commerce, to refpect mankind.
Keep found and strong thy native health of mind;
The found fhall feek thee; few, indeed, but fuch,
As need no caution to frequent too much;
While fots and foplings fly thy facred fhade,
Nor Fortune's fools it's halcyon ease invade.
PROSPECT of the AUTHOR, in the Expectation of his Son's Return from School, at the Summer Vacation.
[OW flexible to good, thy tender breast
Receives her ftamp of precepts pure impress'd.
From good to better, to the best at length
I fee thy mind advance with growing strength.
Fond Hope anticipates the recent bloom,
The bud, the fruit, of genial months to come.
Not thine more withful than thy parent's eye,
O'erleaps the fpring, forefees the folftice nigh;
When Wykeham's wholefome rule permits my boy
From labour, fweeten'd with expected joy,
To join the dear domeftic circle, gay
As fmiles the feafon then, in bright array.
When dart thy glowing look, from face to face,
And quick returns of heart-felt rapture trace,
In each lov'd Sifter note the grace refin'd,
That beams from an improv'd, yet modett mind.
These fhall a matchless Mother's temper'd praise,
And cenfure, to her own refemblance raise :
With eyes to thine uplifted, ftraining still,
Thy Brother treads the bramble-fkirted hill;
In hopes ere long to climb, with hardier ftride,
The laureate God's beft delegate his guide.
The SEASONS: From the FRENCH.
[An Original Communication.]
TAY! SUMMER cried, as blooming SPRING withdrew "(Willing his royal title to difown)
"Stay! for mankind have ne'er spoke well of you,
"And how fhould I fare better on the throne?
"Too hot, or cold, they always find the air,
"And endless murmurs our miscondu&t breeds;
"No fuch impertinence no more I'll bear,
"Unrivall'd reign the queen of flow'ry meads."
"Nay faid the other, I'm exempted now;
"Brother, I wish you all the fweets of fway;
"When your fucceffion is fo clear, I vow
"I would not wrong you of a fingle day."
SPRING faid, and vanish'd on the fleetest breeze,
Poor SUMMER fretted, by compulfion king,
"Since it is fo, he cried, I'll try to please,
"Sure gratitude muft from profufion spring."
Sudden the harvefts wave in living gold,
The grateful rafb'rry wide the wood perfumes,
Lefs fair the pearl and ruby to behold,
Than the bright forms the gooseberry affumes.
The lufcious peach in rich carnation's pride,
And finely rounded by PoмON A's hand,
Caught the fresh orient of a blufhing bride,
Led to Love's altar in a flowery band.
"Twas ripeness all, and bloom of lovelier glow
Than Fancy mellows in the poet's lays,
The park, the meadow, and the forest show
The boundlefs bleffings of man's halcyon days.
Yet man, ungrateful, dares e'en now complain,
He fays the Zephyrs fcorch him as they fly,
He fays, the niggard dews fcarce kifs the plain,
And leave the fruits and languid flowerets dry.
Alas! ERIGONE delays too long,
To fmile benignant in the pitying fkies;
When will the vintage glad the rural throng?
Hope in the panting bofom, wearied, dies.
Such the mad clamours of the mortal race,
When AUTUMN in his turn affum'd the fway,
New gifts, new murmurs, milder laws have place;
As benefits increafe, the bafe inveigh.
Till Heav'n, fo long infulted, rous'd to ire,
Call'd forth the hosts of elemental strife;
Bade WINTER ravage with his offspring dire,
And bind in fetters what escap'd with life.
No fruits, no flowers, no filver-fparkling rills
No foft receffes for the warbling train;
Scours the bleak tempeft round the leaflefs hills,
No fhades for fighing lovers now remain.
Fierce from confinement rufh the boift'rous crew,
By EOLUS detain'd in gloomy caves;
Heedlefs of nefts, or young, the branches ftrew,
In icy chains fufpend the harden'd waves.
The flocks, defponding, o'er the meadows hie,
And WINTER's havock humble human pride,
While prayers of penitence would bribe the fky,
But to th' ungrateful favour is denied.
Infcrib'd appear'd on an emerging pile,
Though fince effac'd by Time's all conqu❜ring fteel: "Subjects who dare mild government revile,
"Deferve a tyrant's iron fcourge to feel."
[An Original Communication.]
M and bring the hour my penfive spirit loves;
EEK Twilight! hafte to fhroud the folar ray,
EEK
When o'er the hill is fhed a paler day,
That gives to ftillnefs, and to night, the groves.
Ah! let the gay, the rofeate morning hail,
When in the various blooms of light array'd,
She bids fresh beauty live along the vale,
And rapture tremble in the vocal fhade;
Sweet is the lucid morning's op'ning flower,
Her choral melodies benignly rife,
Yet dearer to my foul the fhadowy hour,
At which her bloffoms close, her mufic dies:
For then mild Nature while fhe droops her head,
Wakes the foft tear 'tis luxury to shed.
By the fame Lady.
[An Original Communication.]
XPRESSION, child of foul! I love to trace
Thy ftrong enchantments, when the poet's lyre,
The painter's pencil, catch the vivid fire,
And beauty wakes for thee each touching grace!
But from my frighted gaze thy form avert,
When horror chills thy tear, thy ardent figh,
When frenzy rolls in thy impaffion'd eye,
Or guilt lives fearful at thy troubled heart :
Nor ever let my fhudd'ring fancy hear
The wafting groan, or view the pallid look
Of him the Mufes lov'd *, when hope forfook
His fpirit, vainly to the Mufes dear-
For charm'd with heav'nly fong, this bleeding breast
Mourns it could fharpen ill, and give despair no rest!
[N recording the divinity of the year, as we shall begin with what has a reference to the evidence of Revelation, and thence rife to the particular doctrines of Chriftianity, the first object that prefents itself, and which on its own account is peculiarly deferving of regard, is, Mr. Farmer's "General Pre. valence of the Worfhip of Human Spirits, in the Ancient Heathen Nations, afferted and proved." The reputation of this gentleman, who in thofe departments of literature to which he hath applied himfelf, is undoubtedly the most learned of the prefent race of the diffenting clergy, is not new to the public. He has heretofore been diftinguished by works of uncommon ingenuity, and which, at the fame time, manifeft his profound knowledge of the writers of antiquity. The treatifes we refer to, are on our Lord's Tempta tion, on Miracles, and on the Demoniacs. The book which Mr. Farmer hath written concerning Miracles, is, in our opinion, the most judicious and masterly production that hath ever appeared on that important fubject. The prefent perform ance is only the beginning of a great defign which the author has in view, and which we fincerely with that he may live to fee completed. What
he propofes is, 1. To fhew the ge neral prevalence of the worship. of human fpirits in the ancient. heathen world. 2. To enquire into the grounds of this and every, other fpecies of idolatry, or into the principles upon which the whole. fyftem of polytheifm was built. 3. To confider the high antiquity of idolatry, and more efpecially of that fpecies of it, the worship of human gods. And, 4. To examine how. far the reprefentation of the pagan gods, in Scripture, agrees with that made of them in the writings of the heathens; or, how far the two accounts mutually illuftrate, and confirm each other. It is the first of thefe articles alone which is the fubject of the publication before, us; and it is established upon evidence independent of the reft; fo that it may fitly be regarded as af diftin&t treatife, fuch as might have been publifhed by itself, though no other were to follow. The others, however, are in a state of great, preparation for the prefs. In the management of the question here, undertaken, Mr. Farmer proves, first, from the teftimonies of the. heathens, that human fpirits, were worshipped in the nations ufually accounted barbarous; and fecondly,, that they were worshipped in the
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