With hairy fpringes we the birds betray;
Slight lines of hair furprize the finny prey;
Fair treffes man's imperial race infnare,
And beauty draws us with a fingle hair.

Th'advent'rous Baron the bright locks admir'd;
He faw, he wish'd, and to the prize afpir'd.
Refolved to win, he meditates the way,

By force to ravish, or by fraud betray;
For when fuccefs a Lover's toil attends,
Few ask, if fraud or force attain'd his ends.

For this, ere Phoebus rofe, he had implor'd
Propitious Heav'n, and ev'ry pow'r ador'd;
But chiefly Love to Love an altar built
Of twelve vaft French Romances, neatly gilt.
There lay three garters, half a pair of gloves;
And all the trophies of his former loves:
With tender billet-doux he lights the pyre,

And breathes three am'rous fighs to raise the fire.
Then proftrate falls, and begs with ardent eyes
Soon to obtain, and long poffefs the prize.
The pow'rs gave ear, and granted half his pray'r;
The reft, the winds difpers'd in empty air.

But now fecure the painted veffel glides,
The fun-beams trembling on the floating tides,
While melting music steals upon the sky,
And foften'd founds along the waters die;

Smooth

Smooth flow the waves, the Zephyrs gently play,
Belinda fmil'd and all the world was gay.

All but the Sylph-with careful thoughts oppreft ;
Th' impending woe fat heavy on his breaft.
He fummons ftrait his Denizens of air;
The lucid fquadrons round the fails repair:
Soft o'er the shrouds aerial whifpers breathe,
That feem'd but Zephyrs to the train beneath.
Some to the fun their infant wings unfold,
Waft on the breeze, or sink in clouds of gold;
Transparent forms, too fine for mortal fight,
Their fluid bodies half diffolv'd in light.
Loose to the wind their airy garments flew,
Thin glitt'ring textures of the filmy dew,
Dipp'd in the richest tincture of the skies,

Where light difports in ever-mingling dyes;
While ev'ry beam new transient colours flings,

Colours that change whene'er they wave their wings. Amid the circle on the gilded mast,

Superior by the head, was Ariel plac'd;

His purple pinions op'ning to the fun,

He rais'd his azure wand, and thus begun :

Ye Sylphs and Sylphids, to your chief give ear: Fays, fairies, genii, elves, and dæmons hear! Ye know the spheres, and various tasks affign'd By laws eternal to th' aerial kind.

R

Some in the fields of pureft æther play,

And bask and whiten in the blaze of day,
Some guide the courfe of wand'ring orbs on high,
Or roll the planets thro' the boundless sky.
Some, lefs refin'd, beneath the moon's pale light,
Pursue the stars that shoot athwart the night,

Or fuck the mists in groffer air below,
Or dip their pinions in the painted bow,
Or brew fierce tempefts on the wintry main,
Or o'er the glebe diftil the kindly rain.
Others, on earth o'er human race prefide,
Watch all their ways, and all their actions guide:
Of these the chief the care of nations own,
And guard with arms divine the British throne.
Our humbler province is to tend the fair,

Not a lefs pleafing, tho' lefs glorious care;
To fave the powder from too rude a gale,
Nor let th' imprifon'd effences exhale;

To draw fresh colours from the vernal flow'rs;
To fteal from rainbows ere they drop in show'rs
A brighter wash, to curl their waving hairs,
Affift their blushes, and infpire their airs;
Nay oft, in dreams, invention we bestow,
To change a flounce, or add a furbelow.

This day black omens threat the brightest fair
That ere deferv'd a watchful spirit's care;

Some dire disaster, or by force or flight;

But what, or where, the fates have wrapt in night.
Whether the nymph shall break Diana's law,

Or fome frail China-jar receive a flaw;
Or ftain her honour, or her new brocade;
Forget her pray'rs, or miss a masquerade;

Or lofe her heart, or necklace, at a ball,

Or whether Heav'n has doom'd that Shock muft fall.
Haste then ye fpirits! to your charge repair:
The fluttring fan be Zephyretta's care;
The drops to thee, Brillante, we confign;
And Momentilla, let the watch be thine;
Do thou, Chrifpiffa, tend her fav'rite Lock;
Ariel himfelf shall be the guard of Shock.

To fifty chofen Sylphs, of fpecial note,
We trust th' important charge, the Peticoat:
Oft have we known that seven-fold fence to fail,
Tho' stiff with hoops, and arm'd with ribs of whale;
Form a ftrong line about the filver bound,
And guard the wide circumference around.
Whatever spirit, careless of his charge,
His poft neglects, or leaves the fair at large,
Shall feel sharp vengeance foon o'ertake his fins,
Be ftopp'd in vials, or transfix'd with pins;

Or plung'd in lakes of bitter washes lie,

Or wedg'd whole ages in a bodkin's eye,

Gums and pomatums shall his flight reftrain,
While clog'd he beats his filken wings in vain;
Or allum ftyptics with contracting pow'r
Shrink his thin effence like a shrivel'd flow'r:
Or, as Ixion fix'd, the wretch shall feel
The giddy motion of the whirling wheel,
In fumes of burning chocolate shall glow,
And tremble at the fea that froths below!

He fpoke; the fpirits from the fails defcend;
Some, orb in orb, around the nymph extend;
Some thread the mazy ringlets of her hair;
Some hang upon the pendants of her ear;
With beating hearts the dire event they wait,
Anxious, and trembling for the birth of fate.

CLOSE by thofe meads, forever crown'd with flow'rs, Where Thames with pride furveys his rising tow'rs, There ftands a ftructure of majestic frame,

Which from the neighb'ring Hampton takes its name.
Here Britain's flatesmen oft the fall foredoom

Of foreign tyrants, and of nymphs at home;
Here thou great Anna! whom three realms obey,
Doft fometimes counsel take and fometimes tea.
Hither the heroes and the nymphs refort,
To taste a while the pleasures of a court;

In