Reason's whole pleasures all the joys of fenfe,
Lie in three words, health, peace, and competence;
But health confifts with temperance alone;
And peace, O virtue! peace is all thy own."
Who can forbear to fmile with nature? Can
The ftormy paffions in the bosom roll,
While ev'ry gale is peace, and ev'ry grove
Is melody?
O facred folitude! divine retreat!
Choice of the prudent! envy of the great!
By thy pure ftream, or in thy waving ihade,
We court fair wisdom, that celestial maid :
The genuine offspring of her lov'd embrace,
(Strangers on earth,) are innocence and peace.
There, from the ways of men laid safe afhore,
We finile to hear the diftant tempest roar;
There, blefs'd with health, with bus'nefs unperplex'd,.
This life we relish, and enfure the next.
Presume not on tomorrow.
In human hearts what bolder thought can rife,
Than man's prefumption on tomorrow's dawn?
Where is tomorrow? In another world.
For numbers this is certain; the reverfe.
Is fure to none.
Dum vivimus vivamus.
Whilst we live, let us live.
"Live, while you live," the epicure would fay,
"And feize the pleafures of the present day."
"Live while you live," the facred preacher cries;
"And give to God each moment as it flies."
Lord in my views, let both united be;
I live in pleasure, when I live to thee!
By solitude here is meant, a temporary seclusion from the world.
VERSES IN VARIOUS FORMS.
The Security of Virtue.
LET coward guilt, with pallid fear,
To fhelt'ring caverns fly,
And justly dread the vengeful fate,
That thunders through the sky.
Protected by that hand, whofe law,
The threat'ning ftorms obey,
Intrepid virtue fmiles fecure,
As in the blaze of day.
And O! by error's force fubdued,
Since oft my ftubborn will
Prepoft'rous fhuns the latent good,
And grafps the fpecious ill.
Not to my wish, but to my want,
Do thou thy gifts apply;
Unafk'd what good thou knoweft grant,
What ill, though afk'd, deny."
I have found out a gift for my fair ;
I have found where the wood-pigeons breed: But let me that plunder forbear !
She will fay, 'tis a barbarous deed.
For he ne'er can be true, fhe averr'd,
Who can rob a poor bird of its young:
And I lov'd her the more, when I heard
Such tenderness fall from her tongue.
Epitaph.
Here refts his head upon the lap of earth,
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown;
Fair Science frown'd not on his humble birth,
And Melancholy mark'd him for her own.
Large was his bounty, and his foul fincere ;
Heav'n did a recompenfe as largely fend :
He gave to mis'ry all he had-
-a tear;
He gain'd from Heav'n ('twas all he wish'd) a friend.
No farther feek his merits to difclofe,
Or draw his frailties from their dread abode, (There they alike in trembling hope repofe,) The bofom of his Father and his God.
Joy and Sorrow Connected.
Still, where rofy pleasure leads,
See a kindred grief pursue;
Behind the steps that mis'ry treads,
Approaching comforts view.
The hues of blifs more brightly glow,
Chaftis'd by fable tints of wo:
And blended form, with artful ftrife,
The strength and harmony of life.
The Golden Mean.
He that holds faft the golden mean,
And lives contentedly between
The little and the great,
Feels not the wants that pinch the poor,
Nor plagues that haunt the rich man's door,
Imbitt'ring all his ftate..
The tallest pines feel moft the pow'r
Of wintry blaft; the loftieft tow'r
Comes heaviest to the ground.
The bolts that fpare the mountain's fide,
His cloud-capt eminence divide;
And fpread the ruin round.
Moderate Views and Aims Recommended. With paffions unruffled, untainted with pride, By reafon my life let me fquare;
The wants of my nature are cheaply supplied;
And the rest are but folly and care,
How vainly, through infinite trouble and ftrife,
The many their labours employ !
Since all that is truly delightful in life,
Is what all, if they pleafe, may enjoy.
Attachment to Life.
The tree of deepest root is found
Leaft willing ftill to quit the ground :
'Twas therefore faid, by ancient fages,
That love of life increas'd with years,
So much that in our later ftages, When pains grow fharp, and ficknefs rages, The greatest love of life appears.
Virtue's Addrefs to Pleafure.
Vaft happiness enjoy thy gay allies!
A youth of follies, an old age of cares; Young yet enervate, old yet never wife,
Vice wastes their vigour, and their mind impairs. Vain, idle, delicate, in thoughtless ease,
Referving woes for age, their prime they spend; All wretched, hopeless, in the evil days.
With forrow to the verge of life they tend.
Griev'd with the prefent, of the past asham'd,
They live and are defpis'd; they die, nor more are nam'd.
VERSES IN WHICH SOUND CORRESPONDS TO SIGNIFICATION.
Smooth and Rough Verfe.
Soft is the ftrain when zephyr gently blows,
And the fmooth ftream in fmoother numbers flows,
But when loud furges lafh the founding shore,
The hoarfe rough verfe should like the torrent roar.
Slow Motion Imitated.
When Ajax frives fome rock's vaft weight to throw,
The line too labours, and the words move flow.
Swift and easy Motion.
Not fo when fwift Camilla fcours the plain,
Elies o'er th' unbending corn, and fkims along the main.
Felling Trees in a Wood.
Loud founds the axe, redoubling ftrokes on ftrokes ;
On all fides round the foreft hurls her oaks
Headlong. Deep echoing groan the thickets brown;
Then rustling, crackling, crafhing thunder down.
Sound of a Bow String.
-The ftring let fly
Twang'd fhort and fharp, like the fhrill fwallow's cry.
See; from the brake the whirring pheafant fprings,
And mounts exulting on triumphant wings.
Dire Scylla there a fcene of horror forms,
And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms.
When the tide rufhes from her rumbling caves,
The rough rock roars; tumultuous boil the waves.
Boisterous and Gentle Sounds.
Two craggy rocks projecting to the main,
The roaring winds tempestuous rage restrain:
Within, the waves in fofter murmur's glide;
And fhips fecure without their hawfers ride.
Laborious and Impetuous Motion.
With many a weary step and many a groan,
Up the high hill he heaves a huge round stone;
The huge round stone refulting, with a bound,
Thunders impetuous down, and smokes along the ground.
Regular and Slow Movement.
First march the heavy mules fecurely flow;
O'er hills, o'er dales, o'er crags, o'er rocks they go.
Motions Slow and Difficult.
A needlefs Alexandrine ends the fong,
That, like a wounded fnake, drags its flow length along.
A rock torn from the brow of a Mountain.
Still gath'ring force, it fmokes, and urg'd amain,
Whirls, leaps, and thunders down, impetuous to the plain.
Extent and Violence of the Waves.
The waves behind impel the waves before,
Wide rolling, foaming high, and tumbling to the fhore.
Pensive Numbers.
In thofe deep folitudes, and awiul cells,
Where heav'nly penfive contemplation dwells,
And ever mufing melancholy reigns.
-Arms on armour clashing bray'd
Horrible difcord; and the madding wheels
Of brazen fury rag'd.
|