Pleasure's varying steps pursue :
Jocund they frisk on fairy ground,
In many and many a mazy round;
Now retreating, now advancing,
Joy and Laughter round them dancing,
Spurning Care and mocking Sorrow,
Bidding Reason frown to-morrow:
Till as the flow'ry wilds they tread,
Sudden the bloom of Youth is fled,
And Age has silver'd ev'ry head.
Age has revers'd the spell-the shadowy train
Of roseate smiles is melted into air:
Leafless the trees, and desert is the plain,
Scorch'd are the meads, the mountain summit
bare.-
No treasur'd blessings crown the mental store,
To cheer the languid moments as they roll:
Reason too late recall'd, avails no more,
And fruitless, keen remorse corrodes the soul.
But who are they, with eyes of fire,
That seize the rattling car of wild Desire;
And following fast as Frenzy leads
Urge into rage the madding steeds—
And chace o'er Danger's sultry heath,
Guilt and her first-born-Death?
Hostile to ev'ry friendly care,
The warning voice-the parents' prayer,
They hurry to the brink of black Despair:
Then down the dreadful steep,
They plunge, ten thousand times ten thousand fathom
To find their woe and wail their folly,
In realms of endless Melancholy-
'Mid pangs that only sin can know
Vengeance above, and penal fires below!
From such delusions safe immur'd,
In salutary grief I dwell;
From danger by disease secur'd;
And screen'd from furies in my lonely cell.
Far hence Temptation roves,
While Wisdom gilds these gloomy groves;
And Piety, with charms of holy power,
Purges from vain Desire each suff'ring hour-
Presenting nigh, and yet more nigh,
The glories of eternity!
*Why then disquieted, my soul— Why art thou vexed sore?
Hope thou in God, thine help of old,
Thine help for evermore.
EPIGRAM FROM LESSING.
A long way off-Lucinda strikes the men.
As she draws near,
And one sees clear,
A long way off-one wishes her again.
YES, let the miser count his gold,
And toil and scrape to swell the heap; Say, can the heart that's winter-cold, Of wealth the fruitful pleasures reap?
Say, can the soul in self that's wrapt,
The bliss of pure enjoyment taste?
Ah, no! when Feeling's chain is snapt,
How void the heart, how drear the waste!
Was it for this, poor creeping thing!
To pine within a gilded cage,
That Nature gave thee power to wing
The piercing thought, and read her page ?
Does she ne'er whisper, in thy dream, "The wretch who loves himself alone, "Can never drink of Rapture's stream,
"Or conscious warm existence own!"
The sweetest joys which wealth can give,
To light pale Want's lack-lustre eye,
And aid the toil-worn Mind to live,
Are joys which thou canst never buy!
Then count thy hoards of fhining gold,
And toil and scrape to swell the heap;
The heart like thine that's winter-cold,
No fruits of wealth can ever reap!
Oh! give to me sweet Nature's right,
The balm of life, blest Liberty;
And the warm throb of soft delight
That thrills the soul of Sympathy!
Give me, oh Heav'n, the pow'r to heal
The wounded soul of sinking Woe;
Give me the bosom quick to feel
Affection's purest, warmest glow!
Give me to share in Julia's sigh,
And rest my head on Julia's breast;
To chase the tear from Julia's eye:
Then let the miser take the rest!
THE HINDOO LOVER's ADDRESS,
Go, wanton breeze, to Cashmere's wavy groves,
Whose wild and tangled haunts my fair-one loves;
There gaily kiss each soft voluptuous flow'r,
Then hasten to my Abra's secret bow'r.
But oh! forget not as thou fly'st along
To steal the music of each warbler's song;
Then seek the shades where creeping violets spring,
And bear their treasures on thy downy wing;
Nor yet forget the bright, and musky rose,
Whose modest face with vermeil tincture glows,
Flutt'ring around it tell thy tend'rest tale,
And win it from its mate the nightingale.*
And now thy silken pinions wide expand,
For Abra's mantling bow'r is near at hand.
Oh! when thou seest the maid my wishes seek,
With spicy whispers fan her damask cheek;
Pant in the ringlets of her ebon hair,
And court the laughing Loves that frolic there;
Breathe on those crimson lips whose honey'd store
The wretched Amurath must taste no more;
* See Dr. Darwin's Botanic Garden.
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