Hence juices mount, and buds, embolden'd, try
More kindly breezes, and a fofter sky :
Kind Venus revels. Hark! on every bough,
In lulling strains the feather'd warblers woo.
Fell tigers foften in th' infectious flames,

And lions, fawning, court their brinded dames :
Great Love pervades the deep; to please his mate,
The whale, in gambols, moves his monftrous weight,
Heav'd by his wayward mirth old Ocean roars,
And scatter'd navies bulge on distant shores.

All Nature fmiles; come now, nor fear, my love,
To taste the odours of the woodbine grove,
To pafs the evening glooms in harmless play,
And, fweetly fwearing, languifh life away.
An altar, bound with recent flowers, I rear
To thee, beft feafon of the various year;
All hail! fuch days in beauteous order ran,
So fwift, so sweet, when first the world began,
In Eden's bowers, when man's great fire affign'd
The names and natures of the brutal kind.
Then lamb and lion friendly walk'd their round,
And hares, undaunted, lick'd the fondling hound;
Wondrous to tell! but when, with lucklefs hand,
Our daring mother broke the sole command,
Then want and envy brought their meagre train,
Then wrath came down, and death had leave to reign:
Hence foxes earth'd, and wolves abhor'd the day,
And hungry churls enfnar'd the nightly prey;
Rude arts at firft; but witty want refin'd

The huntfinan's wiles, and famine form'd the mind.

Bold

Bold Nimrod first the lion's trophies wore,

The panther bound, and lanc'd the bristling boar;

He taught to turn the hare, to bay the deer,
And wheel the courfer in his mid career :

Ah! had he there restrain'd his tyrant hand!
Let me, ye powers, an humbler wreath demand.
No pomps I ask, which crowns and fceptres yield,
Nor dangerous laurels in the dufty field;
Faft by the foreft, and the limpid fpring,
Give me the warfare of the woods to fing,
To breed my whelps, and healthful prefs the game,
A mean, inglorious, but a guiltless name.

And now thy female bears in ample womb
The bane of hares, and triumphs yet to come.
No sport, I ween, nor blast of sprightly horn,
Should tempt me then to hurt the whelps unborn.
Unlock'd, in covers let her freely run,

To range thy courts, and bask before the fun;
Near thy full table let the favourite stand,
Strok'd by thy fon's, or blooming daughter's hand.
Carefs, indulge, by arts the matron bribe,

T improve her breed, and teem a vigorous tribe.
So, if fmall things may be compar'd with great,
And Nature's works the Mufe's imitate,

So, ftretch'd in fhades, and lull'd by murmuring ftreams,

Great Maro's breast receiv'd the heavenly dreams.
Reclufe, ferene, the mufing prophet lay,

Till thoughts in embryo, ripening, burst their way.

Hence bees in ftate, and foaming courfers come,
Heroes, and gods, and walls of lofty Rome.

*

TO APOLLO MAKING LOVE.

FROM MONSIEUR FONTENELLE.

I.

AM, cry'd Apollo, when Daphne he woo'd, And panting for breath, the coy virgin pursued, When his wifdom, in manner most ample, expreft The long lift of the graces his godfhip poffeft:

II.

I'm the god of sweet song, and infpirer of lays;
Nor for lays, nor sweet song, the fair fugitive stays;
I'm the god of the harp-stop my fairest-in vain;
Nor the harp, nor the harper, could fetch her again.

III.

Every plant, every flower, and their virtues I know,
God of light I'm above, and of phyfic below:
At the dreadful word phyfic, the nymph fled more fast;
At the fatal word phyfic fhe doubled her hafte.

IV.

Thou fond god of wisdom, then, alter thy phrase,
Bid her view the young bloom, and thy ravishing rays,
Tell her lefs of thy knowledge, and more of thy charms,
And, my life for 't, the damfel will fly to thy arms.

THE

THE FATAL CURIOSITY.

MUCH

UCH had I heard of fair Francelia's name,
The lavish praises of the babler, Fame:
I thought them fuch, and went prepar'd to pry,

And trace the charmer, with a critic's eye,
Refolv'd to find fome fault, before unspy'd,
And difappointed, if but fatisfy'd.

Love pierc'd the vaffal heart, that durft rebel,
And, where a judge was meant, a victim fell:
On those dear eyes, with fweet perdition gay,
I gaz'd, at once, my pride and foul away;
All o'er I felt the luscious poifon run,
And, in a look, the hafty conqueft won.

Thus the fond moth around the taper plays,
And sports and flutters near the treacherous blaze;
Ravifh'd with joy, he wings his eager flight,
Nor dreams of ruin in fo clear a light;

He tempts his fate, and courts a glorious doom,
A bright deftruction, and a shining tomb.

TO A LADY;

WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOENIX.

LAVISH of wit, and bold, appear the lines,

Where Claudian's genius in the Phoenix fhines; A thousand ways each brilliant point is turn'd, And the gay poem, like its theme, adorn'd: A tale more strange ne'er grac'd the poet's art, Nor e'er did fiction play fo wild a part.

Each fabled charm in matchlefs Cælia meets,
The heavenly colours, and ambrofial sweets;
Her virgin bofom chafter fires fupplies,

And beams more piercing guard her kindred eyes.
O'erflowing wit th' imagin'd wonder drew,

But fertile fancy ne'er can reach the true.

Now buds your youth, your cheeks their bloom difclofe, Th' untainted lily, and unfolding rofe;

Eafe in your mien, and sweetness in your face,
You speak a Syren, and you move a Grace;
Nor time fhall urge thefe beauties to decay,
While virtue gives, what years shall steal away:
The fair, whofe youth can boast the worth of
In age fhall with the charms of youth engage;
In every change ftill lovely, ftill the fame,
A fairer Phoenix in a purer fame.

age,

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PHOENIX:

FROM CLAUDIAN.

'N utmoft ocean lies a lovely ifle,

Where spring ftill blooms, and greens for ever smile Which fees the fun put on his first array,

And hears his panting fteeds bring on the day;
When, from the deep, they rush with rapid force,
And whirl aloft, to run their glorious courfe;
When first appear the ruddy streaks of light,
And glimmering beams difpel the parting night.

In these soft shades, unpreft by human feet,
The happy Phoenix keeps his balmy feat,

Far